Our Birth Story-part6
With his little body out they begin working on him, rubbing his back and suctioning his airway. They lay this sweet pale blue baby on my chest. They provide him with oxygen by holding the tube near his sweet little face while he fights like hell to breathe. I hear our midwife say to James “what do you have?, hey honey you have to call it out, what do you have?” And James state with a nervous laugh “I have a boy!” I love that even amongst the quick paced rush she remembered to have James announce the sex of our baby. Our assisting midwife tells me “talk to him mama, tell him it’s okay”.
The first words I spoke to my son were “Hi bubby, it’s going to be okay”.
Using a percussion tool, the oxygen and more suction he finally starts crying after what seems like forever in silence and the mood of the room lightens.
His color starts to change and he lets us hear how well those lungs can work as he clears the mucous from his airway.
Now it’s been a bit since he arrived and my placenta hadn’t come out on it’s own yet. The midwives suggest transferring me to the bathroom in hopes that gravity and movement will help it move along as well as creating a steam room to help baby breathe better.
Once in the bathroom while holding my baby I spent a few minutes on the toilet before moving to a made up pad bed on the floor. We continued giving baby oxygen and our midwife pushed on my stomach to try and help detach my stubborn placenta. Again to my surprise this didn’t hurt either like others have described in their birth stories. After a few more minutes the placenta is out with our midwife checking it over to make sure it’s in one piece she states “I don’t know how you’re both alive”. After looking it over myself the next day I see that my placenta wasn’t a very strong one with small vessels and his umbilical cord was insanely narrow. Multiple things could have gone wrong during the pregnancy or birth causing the outcome to end very differently but nothing was going to stop us from having this miracle baby.
James cut the umbilical cord and we were left to rest a little while in the bathroom.
They helped me clean myself up and after a bit I moved back to my now freshly cleaned couch nest. James brought the baby to me after a few more minutes in the steamy bathroom and they suggested I try to nurse him.
I looked down at his little face and said “well buddy this is one thing I don’t have experience with yet”. As our midwife comes over starting to explain how to set him up to nurse, he immediately latches as if we had practiced for days. She laughs and says “Nevermind, he knows what he’s doing” and everyone in the room giggled. For once something came easily after so many struggles in the last year and a half.
Part7- last but not least🤍
