Introducing

Maylee Joann Drorbaugh
Dec 2, 2009 3:18 am
7lbs 20 inches

My contractions started yesterday afternoon but stayed about 10 minutes apart all last night but didn't seem particularly strong so finally at 11 we told the midwife to go to bed because we wanted to try and get some sleep. We got into bed around midnight and I fell asleep pretty quickly.

I woke up at 245 with contractions I couldn't sleep through, mostly in my back. Not super painful but very uncomfortable. I woke David up and told him to call everybody to come over as soon as possible, then I got into the bathtub. David ran around our room setting everything up for the birth. I had 2 contractions in the tub and then my water broke, then the very next contraction I started to feel kind of pushy. I told David to call the midwife and tell her to hurry. In one more contraction she moved down and crowned and then her head was out. I had my eyes squeezed tightly shut trying to concentrate on not pushing her out too fast but I remember David saying, "She's beautiful, a full head of dark hair."

With the next contraction I pushed her body out and pulled her up out of the water and put her on my chest. Then David covered us with a towel to keep us warm. We called the midwife back to let her know the baby had been born and she gave David some instructions in case the placenta came out before she got there. Me and the baby just snuggled in the bathtub and stared at each other until the midwife got there. She was so awake and super calm, just looking around at everything.

When the midwife got there she helped me get out of the tub and over to the bed.
The time of birth was 3:18 am and I woke up at 2:45 so the total time was 33 minutes between getting up and Maylee being born. Best of all I didn't tear at all like I did with both of my other kids! The midwife showed up about 25 minutes after Maylee was born. She did the newborn screen and everything was perfect. She weighed 7 lbs even and 20 inches long. She is the calmest baby I have ever seen and she squeaks and grunts while she sleeps which is adorable.

We woke Emma up right after she was born and she was excited and stayed up with us for almost three hours before crashing again. When we woke Eli up he came and looked at Maylee, smiled, and then asked, "Can I go back to sleep now?" He was much more excited when he woke up at 8 am. :-)

I can't believe it's all over and I'm so happy with my homebirth. It was intense but here I am 9 hours later in my PJ's typing at my computer while my kids watch Christmas movies and my husband snuggles our little girl. :-)