Josh and I are proud to announce the arrival of Huxley "Huck" George Henderson on Oct. 2nd, 2009 at 9:23pm! He came at just the right time and even surprised me as I was sure I'd go beyond my due date, as that seems to be the trend. Here is his birth story...
*it's a bit long..so skip parts if you'd like. :)
As soon as I turned 38 weeks, I was ready to get things going. I started taking Evening Primrose Oil, and walking more than I normally would, and swimming when I could. I noticed, though, that getting out to do those things felt more and more like a hassle and I just couldn't get the led out. Around Tue. and Wed. I started feeling absolutely exhausted. The kind of tired I hadn't felt since the first weeks of my pregnancy. It was weird and I wondered..hmmm..are we gearing up for the big day??? I had my weekly appt. that Thur. and after a good check up we left thinking..ok..see you next week! My midwives told me later though, that after I left they both looked at each other and said, "Oh yeah, she's gonna go this weekend." Wish they would have told me!!
Thur. night Josh and did what a lot of couples do to get labor started...made woopy. Not in the beautiful love-making of a happy married couple kind of way...more in the "Oh my gosh, get this over with" kind of way. :) Well, despite the awkwardness of it all, it worked and around 3:30 Friday morning I was feeling some cramping. I went to the bathroom and thought..hmm...those are new? Then went back to sleep. Around 5:30 I woke up again and was still feeling the cramps. Despite their regularity I still didn't believe that this could be it. I told Josh to go to work, get things done, and come home when he could. But didn't want to get excited or anything because I swore I'd be doing this all weekend. Josh knew better though and told everyone at work he'd be out the following week as we'd be having Huck very soon.
While he was gone I took a shower, straightened up the house a bit, and then hunkered down in our garage/office and sewed a curtain. It was the only thing that was distracting enough. I tried at first to lay down and watch TV, but I just could not focus and even felt worse. Josh came home around noon and we went for a walk. The contractions were about 7-13 min. apart at this point, and while really uncomfortable, they weren't unbearable. We had a great time walking and talking about how crazy it was that it seemed to be actually happening. By the time we got back to the house I was ready to start focusing and needed to be quiet during the contractions. I had called my doula earlier that morning just to give her a heads up, and then around 3 o'clock we decided to call her and have her head over. The contractions were about 3 min. apart at this point...with a few even closer.
For this early part I loved sitting on the birthing ball, listening to music, and practicing relaxing all the parts of my body as each wave came over me. Although, waves is kind of a weird word to describe them...to me, waves are relaxing and calming...but maybe I'm thinking of a nice little lakeside shore. These are more like Pacific Coast tsunami waves. ;) I would lean on Josh and try to focus on breathing. It was around 2, I think, that the noises started. Moaning, groaning, grunting..whatever you want to call it...all I know is I was loud. And the deeper we got into labor, the louder those groans got. I was surprised with myself. And even more blown away by the women who can manage labor quietly. We all do it differently I guess. :)
My doula got there around 3:30 and as soon as she walked in said, "Kel, you're in active labor, honey." Not sure why, but I said, "Really!?! I am!?! Oh wow..I'm so glad!" I totally thought I was still in early labor and just getting started. Then she said, "Do you want to get in the tub?" Again..."Really?! Yes!!" So Josh started filling it up and before long I was stripping down and getting in that glorious water. It wasn't long, though, before transition was close and even being in the water wasn't that great. I ended up on my knees, holding my doulas hands, rocking back and forth, and moaning louder than ever. I could tell the contractions were getting closer together and kept asking if I was in transition. My doula and Josh just had to keep smiling and say they didn't know but I was doing great..keep going. Ugh. Not long after, though, I had a 15 min. stretch of contractions, back to back to back to back to back.....won't say much about that except..WOW. At some point in there, the moans turned into me saying "Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha..." Not like laughing, but just ha ha ha breathing. And somehow that made me smile. And that of course made Jane and Josh laugh. And in that moment of my and Huck's birth story, I felt what they had described to me. In the midst of the worst pain of my life, I felt so strong, powerful, and capable of anything. I felt like a Woman. So there I was wanting it to end, but feeling the beauty of birth.
Throughout active labor and transition I kept wanting to move on to pushing. I had heard so much about how the pain shifts and becomes more like pressure instead of searing pain. And that there is a break and breaks between pushes. Yeah...not so much for me. I did notice the shift from labor to pushing, and did feel about a 3 min. rest, but there continued to be that constant discomfort. A surprising, but understandable sensation as I was about to push out a 10lb baby! I turned over in the tub and my midwife said she'd like to check and just make sure I was fully dilated before I started to really push. *(no one had checked me til now..not sure I would have let them near me :)) She said I was 9cm, but it was very soft and if we took our time and did gentle pushes he would help with the last of it. Those words were not encouraging because I really felt like I had to push. I tried hard not to totally bear down and we ended up getting that last cm in about half an hour.
Next they asked me to move onto the toilet as I wasn't getting much progress in the tub. (I think it was because I just didn't feel grounded enough) BUT! Sitting on that toilet felt the worst of all! My doula said later that she knew that's where I'd make progress because of how bad it felt, but made Sue my midwife tell me to go there cause she knew I'd be pissed. We eventually got there and it's in the bathroom that I pushed Huck's head through that first part of my pelvis. I continued with the moaning, and even felt like crying but couldn't bring the tears. I found myself constantly pulling back from "the edge" of pain. That edge where I knew if I screamed high, cried, or just collapsed in a heap I'd lose it. I'd be heading out the door and someone else would be taking my baby out. I had to breathe, and pull back over and over and over. And every time I felt like just screaming, I pulled my chin down and grunted low and strong.
After about an hour they asked me to move to the bed and try pushing there. We slowly got there (walking felt like a 10 lb bowling ball was about to fall out of my crotch (literally ha!) and I started on my hand and knees, pushing back and down. They noticed, though, that not much was happening there and asked me to get on my back. Normally, that position is loaded with controversy and many midwives/doulas would say it's the worst place to be. But in our case, Huck was so big, that when I was squatting, or on hands and knees, he would hang over my pelvic girdle and couldn't travel through smoothly. Laying on my back created a little "shoot" for him to maneuver and do his thing while I helped him along. And, sure enough, that first push we saw so much progress. It was encouraging, but extremely hard. I have to say that pushing was the hardest part for me. Mostly because for every in. Huck came toward us, he'd go back two...and the first push of each contraction was getting him back to that place....wowzers...did that sh@# hurt. :) But the next two or three would get him that much closer so I tried to really power into those.
At some point I noticed Josh and my labor assistants all getting really interested in something. And then the camera came out and they were flashing pictures and oohing and ahhing all around my totally exposed va-jay-jay. Finally they told me to reach down and feel and there it was...my bag of waters. It was like a perfectly full and tied little water balloon. My waters never broke and before the labor was done, they wouldn't at all. After a few more pushes I had pushed out the bag completely and we could see Huck's head still surrounded by the rest of it. Imagine a sock or panty-hose full of water on one end and the rest stretched out of the baby's head. Only, it's a membrane. And then I heard Josh laughing and everyone talking about pasta...apparently, some of the membrane had come out loose and as they stretched it out it was "like a beautiful, thick piece of pasta". Gross. And a little annoying as I was in the most awful pain of my life!
Next up came Huxley and his darling little GIANT head. I was just beginning to get discouraged and wondering how much longer when I started to feel "the burn". The "ring of fire" as they call it. This gave me some hope as I knew if I was feeling that his head was staying out and it wouldn't be long now. So I started pushing the crap out of that kid. :) Almost too much as I was beginning to hyperventilate and my wonderful husband had to remind me to breathe..just breathe, between contractions and rest if I could. The more we paused, the less likely I was to tear. I managed to finally get his head out and felt the relief, but only for a brief second because all of the sudden my midwife was all business and telling me to wait a second. Apparently Huck was coming out with his elbow and hand up by his head. I was not going to feel that beautiful gush of the baby's body. Those final minutes were excruciating as I was trying to push, and I had three pairs of hands all sweeping and moving and handling my baby out of me. They finally managed to get his arm out of the way and his body came out. Perfectly big and beautiful. 10lbs, 22 1/2in. :)
He layed quietly for my midwife and then on my chest for a few moments and then decided it was time to announce his arrival with the most perfect little wail. WA WA WA WA WA. He was a metronome....could have kept time by it for about 10 min.
Overall the labor was 18 hours. I look back each day and remember different moments....both loving and cringing at the intensity of it all. I have many thoughts and much more processing to do about it. But the main thing I feel is a sense of peace in that I made my own personal choice and followed through with my plan. I never once wanted to leave for the hospital (probably because the thought of getting in the car was just ridiculous), and I found ways to cope. Another thought I had, though, was how I can't say I would have said no to an epidural if I were in the hospital. Which makes me believe that choosing a home birth wasn't about an epidural. It was more about the freedom to move and be as I wanted to. Never wondering who I was offending, who was watching, or who was going to tell me to do something different. For me, it was important to have people I felt comfortable with...Josh, Jane, Sue, and Megan. That was it. I'm really happy with how it turned out and hope after all this you haven't fallen asleep. hee hee. :)
thanks for wanting to hear our story...and an extra special thank you for all the encouragement and joy and celebration and love you have showered over our little big man. he is so loved.
Here are some pics from the labor....nothing rated R though. :)
*Huxley George Henderson*
Oct. 2nd 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009 at 7:16PM 
