We had planned on leaving Eliza’s umbilical cord attached, and as there were no complications during delivery, we were able to carry out this plan.

Eliza was born at 5:45pm, a Monday night.
By Tuesday afternoon, the cord had already turned hard, dry and brittle.

We cut the cord on Tuesday evening, around 5 inches from her navel.
The placenta had not had a chance to become smelly, and I did not soak it in salt water or prepare it with herbs.
We put the placenta in the freezer, pending finding a suitable tree to plant over it in our garden.

On Thursday morning (3.5 days later) the cord fell off.

We noticed a few spots of blood on her clothes for maybe a week (I do mean spots, and I do mean few – there was no steady bleeding whatsoever) and the area never became infected (I did not swab the area with anything.

And that was it.

A perfectly gentle, natural experience!

The first of the contractions ‘with a difference’ took place at 2:57pm on Sunday February 14th.
Don’t ask what they felt like, because I’ve taken so long to write this that I can’t remember.
I know they were more intense; they felt like they were gripping me more than the Braxton Hicks contractions had.

Earlier in the afternoon, I had started playing around with the labour-inducing pressure points that I’d written about months ago, in addition to focusing really intently on getting the labour going.
If it didn’t kick in, I knew that I’d have to go to work on the next day, and everything in me was telling me that I’d not be going back to work for a while.

Frank had spent the day working in the upstairs bathroom, and when he finished around 5:30, I finally told him that I was pretty sure labour had begun.

My contractions were rather erratic – running from 20 minutes down to 5 or 6 … and not always in the same direction!

At 5:55pm my mucous membrane separated and I had my ‘bloody show’.

My contractions continued, gaining intensity, but seemed to still be very erratic – they’d drop down to 5 or 6 minutes for a while, and then jump up to 20!

I stopped logging the contractions at 3am on the 15th, as the contractions finally started showing a less eratic downwards trend.

It’s all a bit of a blur thereafter, and shame on me for not recording the events earlier than I am now.

At some point early in the morning on the 15th (maybe 2 or 3am), I was around 4-5 cm dilated. My cervix seemed rather high, but I could feel the hardness of Eliza’s skull through my skin, so knew that she was in position.

By 9am that morning, there had been no real progress with dilation.
My contractions, though becoming very intense, were erratic again (jumping up to 17 minutes), and worst of all, it felt like Eliza had totally disengaged from the birth canal, as I could feel her in a very high position. It was all very discouraging.

Thinking back, it felt like her head wasn’t pushing down on my cervix, rather to the side. So because her head wasn’t pushing down on the cervix, I perhaps wasn’t dilating as I should have. Looking at the anatomical area, it’s hard to explain what I felt … the canal is pretty tubular, so I don’t see how she could have pressed to the side … maybe her neck was flexed so that her head was coming in with the widest possible girth … but whatever was going on, she disengaged and tried again.

I hadn’t had anything to eat (I didn’t want to find myself pushing out a baby with a full intestine, if you get my drift!!) but hadn’t felt thirsty either.
I was tired from being awake for well over 24 hours, so by 10 am Maria (who had come to the house some 12 hours earlier) suggested that we all try to get some rest.

Frank and I went up to our bedroom, Frank’s mother went to hers, and Maria lay down on the futon matress that we had up in the Mezzanine.

It was a very disturbed 2 hour nap.
By this time, my contractions had become extremely intense, and my lower back (the pressure points of which provided the best relief from the discomfort) was feeling a bit bruised from being pressed.

We went back up to the mezzanine shortly after midday. I was feeling discouraged.
Maria told me that it seemed like my body was fighting the delivery, and that I needed to decide from my core whether I was going to have Eliza that day, or wait for another day.

She had to be born that day – I knew it.
I drank some Raspberry Leaf tea, and continued to labour.

One contraction just melded into another.
Then on top of the contractions, I started to get a searing cramp across my lower abdomen (it felt like I had a red-hot iron across me.)
That’s when I started groaning with each contraction!!

I was in something of a stupor from lack of fluids and food (I had no apetite or thirst), the exhaustion from being awake for so long, and the birthing hormones that were pumping around my body.

I remember feeling concerned that if Eliza wasn’t born soon, I might have to go to the hospital. It just wasn’t fair on her to be going through this for so long. But then again, I thought, would it be fair for her to go through a hospital birth?

I remember Eliza moving between contractions like she had done in the past, so I instinctively knew that she was fine – that there were no complications such as a cord around her neck. Unfortunately, being drugged up on my own hormones, I didn’t think to tell Frank, Ferne or Maria that Eliza was still moving ok – so they were doing a lot of worrying that something was very wrong, and that Eliza and/or my body didn’t have the strength to go through with this.
Once I eventually told them that she was moving fine, their stress was relieved.

As the contractions continued over the next few hours, I started throwing up. Maria welcomed this, as throwing up was helping me dilate.

Maria wanted me to eat, but I wasn’t hungry and didn’t fancy throwing up food- liquids were bad enough!!
We had a chocolate drink mix full of vitamins/minerals that I drank.

And the labour continued…

At 5:15pm, I needed to go to the toilet.
I felt very weak.
During the two previous trips to the toilet, I’d had to have Frank steady me walking down and back up the stairs. This trip was no different.

At 5:20pm, while I was still on the toilet, the phone rang – it was Stefanie; a colleague from the office. She was concerned, as were many others, that I still hadn’t had the baby.

I took the opportunity while Frank was on the phone to do a self exam, and found to my utter delight that I could feel the embryonic sac!

No sooner had Frank hung up the phone, than I stood up and “POP!!”, my waters broke, followed by oh so much pressure from Eliza’s head!!
Maria came downstairs and asked me if I wanted to have my baby in the downstairs WC, or if I wanted to have the waterbirth I’d been hoping for all these months.
The answer was obvious!!

That single event provided such a rush of excitement, relief and energy!!

After the pressure/urge to push had subsided, Frank half-carried, half-pushed me up the stairs, and I took my position in the tub.

I don’t remember feeling any contractions after my waters broke, but the urge to push was overwhelming.

I was able to control the second urge to push.
I could feel Eliza’s head; I could feel her scalp scrunched up as her skull was being compressed, and I could very obviously feel hair.

The third and forth urges were a lot harder to control. Her head slipped lower, but not too far.

It was around this point that I told Frank for the first and only time “this hurts so bad”.

By the fifth urge, her head was crowning and I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to hold off much longer.
I was trying to use my fingers to stretch my skin as much as possible, but I could feel that there was no way that I’d stretch enough, and that a tear was inevitable.

At 5:45pm, to the sound of the howling of our dogs and the cries of Maria’s son, I felt a sudden ‘burn’ and Eliza burst forth, spread-eagle across the water.

She had blood on the back of her head from where my skin had torn, but apart from that, she was clean as clean could be.

Maria pushed Eliza back towards me, and said “Pick up your baby” … and I did.

Eliza took her first breath and experienced making a sound for the first time. I cried, Frank cried … and I heard Ferne in the background say “well done, Bekki … you did it, you did it”.

… and we just sat there and lost track of time.

After a while (not too long, I’m sure), Maria recommended getting out of the pool.
When I stood up, there was a  gush of blood.

I felt light-headed, and I know Maria was concerned that I might be losing too much blood.

I was given honey water to drink in case I might faint, but I was sure that everything would be fine – I just felt dizzy like you do when you’ve stood up too fast after a bath.

I lay down on the futon matress while we waited for the placenta to be delivered.
I remembered Frank speaking of pulling the placenta out, which I protested at because my mother had retained placenta due to it being prematurely pulled out.

I felt the placenta separate, and Frank helped it out.
Maria checked it to make sure that it was entire, and then she left.

Eliza was 10lbs and 20 inches long.
She had superb strength in her neck and started trying to hold her head up almost immediately.

Surrounded by Love

How would my delivery have gone under conventional care?

(This is all assumption)

According to the development shown in her ultrasound at 19 weeks, she was recorded as being 1 week older than she really was.
So for starters, they (hospital) would have probably induced me a week early as they saw her as being due a week earlier than I’d calculated according to the true conception date.

Had I gone to 40 weeks under traditional care, they would have probably classed me as high-risk, because she would have been over 9lbs with a large head.
So they would have wanted to then possibly schedule a c-section due to her size.

As it happens, I went into labour at one day under 41 weeks.

After 16 hours, if you haven’t had the baby, a hospital will deem it cause for an emergency c-section for failure to progress – I find it HIGHLY unlikely that they would have permitted a vaginal birth after 26.5 hours of labour, as they would probably assume that I was too weak to push her out!!

But again, these are all just my own musings.

At 2pm today, I noticed that I was suddenly feeling energetic.
I’m not sure if it was the Twix bar that I had … or maybe a chemical in the chewing gum … but either way …

Well, the winter days are getting longer … and so are my work days.
Not literally, mind you – they just seem to be dragging on like nothing else.

Come 2-3pm, I’m so ready for home-time!
I sit at my desk, rubbing my eyes.

My sore pelvis mentioned on the 29th January seemed to go away around the 3rd.
I had a relatively pain-free weekend, which was great, as I was treated to a Blessingway ceremony on Sunday afternoon (8th).

Frank’s mother flew in on the 7th, and she’ll be with us until the 20th.

Today, I’ve been VERY sore, VERY tired, and VERY unmotivated.
My pelvis hurts, and my lower back feels a bit tender.

Yesterday, we went shopping, and I noticed that the Braxton Hicks contractions while walking around were far more noticible than before.

It’s 11:25, I’m at work, and I’m really wishing that I was home.
I feel like sleeping … but also feel antsy.

I bought some Raspberry Leaf Tea on Monday- I had read that it was a great labour ‘tonic’, aiding in a faster progression.
I had also read that you didn’t want to take it before going into labour, as it could act as an inducer.

On further research, I read that the tea/capsules were commonly recommended to mothers throughout their pregnancies, as it aids with the health of the uterus.

I’ve been drinking a cup a day since Tuesday.

I was wondering if last night might have been then night, but no. It wasn’t to be.

A series of contractions started at 8:50pm.
The first two were at 15 minute intervals, dropping thereafter to 6 at 10-minute intervals, dropping to 10 at 6-minute intervals (give or take a few minutes).

The contractions were accompanied by menstrual-like cramps.

I woke up at 2:30-ish to another contraction … but must have slept through any others.

Was I disappointed? Of course!! Haha.

I can’t wait to meet my little (or not so, as the case might be) baby.

In other news, I am sore!!
VERY VERY SORE!

I told Frank that it felt like someone had taken a hammer to my pelvic bone structure – everything feels bruised.
I feel it more on the left side than the right; but that’s not too surprising, seeing as she spends most of her time on my left side.
At times, the sore feelings are so intense that any movement of my legs is painful.

The really bad heartburn that I had over the last few weeks is subsiding (I was probably taking a good 6-10 antacids each day there for a while).

The heartburn has seemed to be worse with potato, followed by pasta, followed by rice – so it would seem that it’s brought on by a starch or carbohydrate sensitivity.

Click on the image link below to view the chart I created on the 19th January when I first started getting regular contractions.

They started at 12:15pm, and finished just before 4pm.

As you’ll see in the chart, there were some sporradic jumps, but overall there was a clear reduction in time between contractions.

The contractions were painless.

From what I can tell, these contractions did not result in any effacement much less dilation … but I could be wrong.

Another series of contractions were felt in the evening on the 20th. 10-15 minute intervals for 2 hours.

What do the contractions feel like?
I’ve done a lot of contraction analysing.
About 5-10 seconds before I can physically feel the contraction (either as a tightening of the abdomen, or by poking my stomach to find that it’s rock hard), my breathing changes.
The best way I can describe the change in my breathing is that it’s like taking a breath of COLD air in the morning, but without the cough that would normally follow, and without the cold.
It’s a light, airy breath: I feel like I need more oxygen, and feel compelled to breath more deeply – like the air I’m getting isn’t enough.

I have created an excel file for free download that will log contraction start and stop times, and automatically calculate the duration of the contraction.

The log entries will be put into the next cell below the last entry (so you can log contractions indefinitely).
If you log contractions on a new date, the sheet should automatically insert a horizontal line and extra rows to separate it from the previous lines.

right-click to save as

For me, using my BBT (Basal Body Temperature) to predict fertility proved hugely successful.
I reasoned that BBT charting might be a solution to allow for prediction of the onset of labour.

A quick Google search only turned up information about dogs! (Their BBT will drop by 2degsF in the 24 hours before labour).

A more intense search came up with a University of Utah thesis from August 1983 by Diana P. Selvey titled, ‘Changes in Basal Body Temperature and the onset of labor’.

This study concluded that there was no significant drop in the baseline BBT during the final 21 days before labour, and that BBT was not a viable solution in predicting the onset of labour in humans.

 After three days of my own BBT charting (results were 98.6F, 97F, 97.2F) I can see that this could be tricky!

You really need 3 hours of consecutive solid sleep before taking your temperature, and need to take the reading before talking, drinking , getting up etc.
The readings can be affected by fever, restless sleep, consumption of alcohol the night before, and so on.

I’ve been sleeping very lightly, and wake up pretty much every other hour – not because of any calls of nature … just because I’m not sleeping well.

I think it’s safe to say that reliable readings will be hard to come by at best, and despite really hoping that this could be a useful method of predicting Eliza’s arrival, I feel that perhaps is isn’t such a viable solution.

We’ll see…

We were at the outdoor market this weekend and a random lady who I’ve seen working there many times in the past commented, “Oh! You must be due soon! You’re very low!!

I guess if random people are noticing that she’s dropping, she really must be dropping!!

They say that lightening (when the baby drops) occurs for first-timers on average between 2 and 4 weeks prior to labour starting. Babies might not drop until labour has started with subsequent pregnancies.

The ladies at work noticed her starting to drop around the 4th of January (2 weeks ago, at the start of my 36th week).
The guys at work have started noticing her lower position today (in my 38th week).

So are we looking at 2-4 weeks from when she has finished dropping? Or 2-4 weeks from when she starts to drop?

Maybe it’s 4 weeks from when she started to drop, and 2 weeks from when she finished dropping … assuming that the dropping process takes 2 weeks.

In this case we’d be looking at the first week of February.

According to the calendar, my 40th week will be the first week of February, considered completed on Monday 8th.

I’ve mused many times over the last several months that I’ve paid Eliza far less attention than I had intented to.

The push to get the house in a habitable state was just immense, and this meant that I was on my feet running around just about all the time I was home … and I was so exhausted by the time bedtime came around that I just about collapsed into slumberland.

I do worry to some extent that I’ll be equally busy after she’s born, and therefore will not be able to dedicate the time to her development that I hope to.
I have a huge collection of flashcards intended for baby-teaching, along with stimulating music to listen to with her … but what if I find myself busy on other things?

Sitting down to teach takes dedication and determination.
I’m just going to have to make it happen.
Eliza must be my number one priority.

The last few days, I’ve not got home until well after 6, and by the time dinner is made and eaten … I’m pooped.
Of course, my body hormones are changing once again to prepare for birthing, so I’m sure that’s added to the fatigue… not to mention that while I was off over Christmas/New Year, I left all of my supplements in my desk at work, and so my own body stores were probably very severely depleted (especially as the little miss is building up her own stores right now).

People at work (mostly the guys) are hearing me talk about the birthing pool etc., and have started asking about my birthing process.
The focus of the conversation moved onto labour pain, and while one guy said that he’d heard it was like trying to blow a bowling ball through your nose, another said that he’d heard it was like trying to pull your lower lip over your head!

All I could do was to reference the practice shown in the photo below …
It’s amazing what you can do if you don’t rush the process.