Regina's Belly!

During my first pregnancy, I thought homebirth was for crazy people. Or for people who didn't make it in time!
I then started going to La Leche League for breastfeeding support when my son was 6 days old. There were other moms there who had had a homebirth. At first, of course, I thought they were nuts. Then I started asking questions. I started researching.
Up until that point, I was very satisfied with my hospital birth...until I discovered what I had missed out on! I had many interventions and craved a peaceful birth like I had heard other moms describe. I worked on my husband (who started to think I was nuts) for a long time, overwhelming him with books, stories, statistics, and specific information.

Once I was officially pregnant with baby number 2, there was no question in our minds where we would have our baby...at home!
So I started asking around about a midwife, and I got wonderful recommendations for Adrienne T. As soon as my husband and I met her, we clicked. I didn't even want to interview other midwives as I had planned. She was "the one"!
My pregnancy progressed peacefully (except for the whole morning sickness part, that was terrible) and on Saturday, February 10, 2007, I started feeling regular contractions at 1:30 am, so I called my mom saying "Today's the day!". I wanted to give her ample time to make the 3 1/2 hour drive from Massachusetts. My mom arrived, and I was still contracting every 10 minutes, regularly...and continued until Valentine's Day, February 14th! Valentine's day just happened to be the day Rutland County was being hit very hard by a winter storm.
Pictures of the Storm:
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b323/melsabovt/ReginaHelen14-18Fev20070014.jpg
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b323/melsabovt/ReginaHelen14-18Fev200700131.jpg
My water broke at 5:20pm, and for about 1 hour nothing much happened. I called Adrienne in the meantime to let her know, and she asked me to call back when things started getting going. it didn't take long! at about 6:30 things got very intense. I called her back, and she sensed that things were moving quickly. Travel was difficult due to the snow so we couldn't leave things for the last minute.
My husband and I put our son, Sam, to sleep (he was 2 yrs 3 months old then) and we "got down to business" with dealing with the contractions.
When Adrienne and Heather (her assistant) arrived, it was about 9pm and I was at 8 cms! I was very much in transition. Nothing was comfortable anymore. I liked leaning on all fours over my exercise ball. She had me change positions a few times. I started pushing at about 10:20pm. after checking Regina's heartbeat, it was clear she was going into distress. Adrienne encouraged me to push with everything I had and supported me in every way she could.
Regina was born at 11:15 pm with her cord wrapped around her neck, and VERY blue! She gave us quite a scare! After massaging her, talking to her, and a last-minute mouth-to-mouth by Adrienne, Regina was crying and pink, and mad! She was perfect in every way. I tried nursing her very soon after the birth, but she wasn't interested. Her cord was cut after it stopped pulsing. After about 20 minutes, shortly after the placenta came out, she decided to nurse. She latched on like a pro! I didn't have any tears in my labia (I had an episiotomy with Sam's birth...nobody deserves a huge cut accompanied by stitches there!) and I was very happy with the way things played out. Adrienne was very calm, professional, quick-thinking in a near-emergency, but very caring, too!

Pictures of the placenta:
Baby's side
Maternal side
first time nursing

We even made it in the newspaper (Rutland Herald) because of the storm!
Snow Babies February 14, 2007
It was very exciting!

Coincidentally, there was another mom in labor at the same time...our labor and birth stories take place in almost parallel time...I would love to hear her birth story one day!
This was nothing short of the most incredible experience in our lives. I have no doubt where my future babies will be born (circumstances and financially permitting)...at HOME!