Griffin's birth story

Griff just fell asleep so hopefully I can get this finished before he wakes up and needs to nurse.

The week leading up to labor had been filled with irregular contractions, so I figured that I would go into labor at any time. I should have know better! Griffin, like his sister, was right on time. My midwives had 4/16 as my due date in my chart and I had 4/15 (using an online calculator). He was born 4/16 at 2:14am - right on schedule.

The day of 4/15, Bryan, his mom, and I took Penelope to the zoo to see if walking around could get labor started. It worked! At about 7pm contractions picked up and we called our midwives to come over. They got in at around 8:30 and set things up. I labored for another 2 hours or so before getting into the water. I spent some time on my yoga ball, took a shower, and walked around the house a bit to get the baby to drop - for while my contractions were strong and regular, he was still pretty high.

I got into the tub and labored for awhile before asking Marleene to check me. She said I was nearly finished and we could either wait it out or she could break my bag of waters. I opted for her to break my bag... I was ready for things to get going and I hoped that the breaking of the bags would bring the baby down further and I could get to the heart of labor.

It helped! He moved further down... but I was still having trouble pushing. Marleene checked me again and found I still had a little cervix left (like with Penelope). She pushed it back and helped bring him further into the birth canal. It was, without a doubt, the most painful part of labor. But afterward I was finally able to start pushing productively (and I finally threw up, I'm one of those that throws up once I'm ready to push - lovely, huh?). It wasn't long after that he was born! I think I had 10 or 12 pushes before he was out - they were much more intense than they were when with Penelope. MUCH more. I felt like a woman possessed, once he crowned it was 3 pushes and then he was out!

Turns out the reason that labor was more difficult (i.e. it took him longer to get into the birth canal) was because the cord was wrapped around his neck twice. 30% of babies have the cord around their necks, so it wasn't a huge deal - but it did mean that labor needed to progress a little more slowly. Although from start to finish it was a hour shorter than my labor with Penelope. On average a woman's second labor is about half of her first - I didn't quite get that, but if I had the cord/neck issue would have been much more dangerous. Marleene and Kaleem monitored him throughout the labor and his heart rate was always good, so he tolerated the whole experience very well.

I'm so glad we were able to have another successful homebirth. It really is the only way I would want to birth - we haven't left our house yet!

Official stats, 9.1 lbs, 22.5 inches, 38.5 cm head circumference! We decided on the name Griffin Walter Rodgers after about a day.

Penelope seems to be adjusting well, she wasn't happy when my mom was holding Griffin though :)

Ok, he's waking up - more later (pictures too!)