Welcome to the world Liam Christopher Garguile!

Liam was born on March 23rd, 2010 at 1:42pm at home on our bed. He weighed in at a whopping 8 pounds 7 ounces and was 20 ½ inches long.

The down and dirty story:
Labor started at around 11:30pm the night before and within 2 hours I was waking up Dominic and calling Andrea, the midwife to come. By around 9am I was complete but just didn’t feel like pushing at all. After several failed techniques I ended up getting out of the tub around 11:30am and actually had Liam about 2 hours later. The entire labor and delivery was both the hardest and most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. There is absolutely NO WAY I could have accomplished this birth without several things:

#1 DOMINIC! He pushed on my back for at least 6hrs straight and at one point I nearly dislocated his knee, he never said a word or complained one time the entire time I was laboring. I have the best, most caring husband in the WORLD. Sorry ladies, he ALL MINE.

#2 the tub- If I could have stayed in there for the delivery you better believe I would have, unfortunately I don’t think Liam would have been born for several more hours and the thought of being in labor any longer than I needed to be was just not appealing at that point. I would HIGHLY recommend laboring and delivering, if possible, in a tub.

#3 Andrea and her assistant Alecia- They were both so patient with me and let me whine/deny I needed to do something different for HOURS before gently pushing me to try something new.

Now, if you want the FULL story, i.e. graphic and filled with medical jargon you should continue below. If you are not into gory details, STOP NOW. Again, the following is filled with LOTS of TMI and particulars only a midwife/birth junkie would appreciate.

Full Disclosure, I was overdue 2 full days and was willing to start trying things to get labor going. I stripped membranes that morning in the shower (much easier said than done) and didn’t notice much going on during the day. After Dominic got home we went for a brisk 1.5 mile walk and engaged in ‘adult activity’ before going to bed around 9:30.

I woke back up with cramping/diarrhea around 11:30 and decided to sleep out on the couch so Dominic could get a little rest. About 1am I decided that some help would be nice and came in to get Dominic up. Contractions were about 4 minutes apart and I let him know, and then quickly announced I was going to get sick. For the next 30 min I threw up everything I had for dinner and called Andrea to come and my parents to let them know to head down from Washington. After getting off the phone I labored on the ball and leaning onto the bed for about an hour. Dominic was putting pressure on my back and holding my tummy at the same time (thank goodness he’s got a large arm span). At that point I was ready to try out the tub and climbed in with my throw up bag.

This is exactly where I was when Andrea arrived. Dominic and I continued to labor in the tub with him putting pressure on my back for a few hours. At one point I got checked in the tub and was around 7cm. Andrea suggested I get out to pee and then try laboring on the toilet, a suggestion I didn’t take and promptly got back into the tub.

Eventually around 9am Andrea said “maybe you’re one of those women who is complete and just doesn’t feel the urge, do you want me to check you?” and I decided after a little more prompting that it was probably a good idea. In order to get a good exam we went to the bed, of course I was complete and probably had been for awhile. Hoping to minimize pain I got back in the tub and tried pushing on my own…2 hours later and literally no progress was made. I could feel with my hand just how low his head was and that there was plenty of room but he just wouldn’t budge with the pushes I was doing. MUCH prompting later, I moved to the toilet to empty my bladder and try some more. Finally, I agreed to use the bed and try some manual pressure which is ultimately what worked.

The pushing I was doing in the tub was NOTHING compared to the pushing that was elicited with her hand. I HATED it. Unlike what I tell patients all the time, pushing did NOT feel better. I pushed on my left side, in a semi-sitting position and squatting. The squatting position really worked the best with Dominic holding me up and me using his legs to keep myself off the ground, leaning forward onto Alecia when pushing. Two hours later and Liam was finally giving me that tell tale burning, which is WORSE than the bearing down urge. At some point I decided I didn’t care about stretching and he was just going to get out NOW. This finally did it and his head was born.

He was crying almost immediately and the shoulders weren’t even out yet. He had his right hand, which was the posterior one, up by his head/neck just like he had throughout the pregnancy. I tried just pushing to get the shoulder to give and when that didn’t work I gave a little downward pressure on his head. That didn’t work either, at which point I asked Andrea to help and she agreed. The posterior arm was delivered with a bit of work and the shoulders came easily afterward. I pulled him up and we got our first look at our new baby, Dominic was behind me supporting me and holding me up this whole time. I realized we didn’t know if baby was a boy or a girl yet and asked Dominic to check it out, pulling back the blanket we saw we had a little boy and Dominic announced him name, Liam Christopher.

This should be the end of the eventful part but it’s really only the beginning. We enjoyed our pink and screaming baby while waiting for the cord to stop pulsing, I was rather anxious to get the placenta out because I always hear how much better everyone feels afterward. After the cord stopped I felt a little gush and gave a push. Andrea said it appeared to be right there and applied a little traction. The cord started shredding a little and she stopped. I tried pushing while she gave some traction and that didn’t help either…leaving only one option, manual removal. Ouchy is all I have to say. It came out in two pieces and after a shot of pitocin and some methergin we all examined it to decide if it was complete or not, ultimately deciding it was. I had a first degree perineal laceration with a tiny second degree extension which was easily stitched up while Dominic held his newborn son. After a quick shower I climbed back into bed to nurse and enjoy being a new mom.  Can't say enough how thrilled we were to have him at HOME and have everyone come to us.