Connor's birth story

 *warning - detailed birth story below*

So my Mom and sister had been visiting for a week and a half before Connor decided to make his appearance.  I was thinking the last weekend in October would be a nice weekend to have a baby but that rolled around and passed by with no baby.  October 31st arrived and when I started losing my mucus plug and having very sporadic contractions I knew I wouldn't be pregnant much longer.  The next few days passed and when no baby came I started getting a little depressed and I felt like my life was on hold until this baby decided to arrive!

November second I went to bed and got a pretty good night's sleep.  Around 4:30 AM I was awakened by strong contractions but I was able to fall asleep between each one.  (They were coming every 15 minutes.)  At 5:30, I couldn't stay comfortable between contractions anymore, so I got my birthing ball and transferred to the living room to try and watch TV.  (In between contractions I was also using the bathroom..a lot)  At 6:30, I decided to wake up Gabe and let him know that the baby was coming today!  I also guessed that he would arrive before 12pm/lunch time.  Gabe got up and we started preparing our room.  We had to move out our dresser and Gabe's night stand. We also moved the bed over to the wall and re-made the bed with two sets of sheets and shower curtain liners in between.  Gabe took a shower and shaved.  The boys heard us up at 6:30 and they were quickly ushered away by Nana and Elizabeth.  Every so often they would come in to check on me and Aidan wanted to stay with me and rub my back.  He was so sweet.  They were very excited that the baby was finally coming!   The contractions got stronger and longer but were still very manageable.  Around 8:30 AM, Gabe called the midwife to let her know what was going on, and to give her a head's up.  An hour later we asked her to come over to set up the tub and get things ready.  One of the assistants arrived first and checked my blood pressure and temperature and the other two midwives arrived around 10:30 AM.  Midwife Donna checked me and I was at 7cm with a bulging bag of water.  They set up all their equipment and the tub.  It felt so great to get in the hot water and my whole body just really relaxed.  I felt like everything started slowing down but I guess it was just the water that was relaxing my body.  My water still hadn't broken and during each contraction I was wondering when it was going to break.  Finally my body really started feeling the urge to push.  At 11:35, my water broke with one of my pushes.  After five more minutes of intense, constant pushing, the baby was out and it was 11:40 AM!  Gabe caught him and put him up on my chest and he said he felt that Connor was a boy right away.  I was so surprised it was a boy and it felt so great to finally be holding my baby.  One of the midwives later told me that she thought for a minute that Connor's shoulders weren't going to come out because he was so big!  Right as Gabe put Connor up on my chest the boys came in the room to meet their new baby brother.  Kieran said, "mommy, what are we going to do with it?"  After the placenta was delivered I got out of the tub and up on the bed and bonded with my little baby.  I also nursed him, and he latched right on and started sucking.  The midwives were bustling about cleaning up, periodically checking my blood pressure and our temperatures.  While one of the midwives weighed and measured the baby, the other midwife started stitching me up.  I had to have a few stitches but nothing was torn too badly.  The first time Midwife Donna weighed Connor he was 13lbs!  We all said, there is no way he is 13lbs!  After the second weigh in, he was 9lbs, 9oz which sounded much more accurate.  We did have them give him the vitamin k shot to help clot his blood since we are planning on circumcising him.  After I was done being stitched, I took a nice long hot shower and it felt great.  I got back on the bed and settled with little no name (because by then we still had no idea what we would name him) and the midwives checked us out one more time before leaving.  After the midwives left the boys came up on the bed to hold their new baby brother. 

Looking back on my second homebirth I still wouldn't have it any other way.  It is just so SO nice to be at home.  I felt so relaxed during the entire labor (up until I started pushing) and the contractions were very manageable.  And thanks be to God I had no back labor again this time around!  I would say the hardest part of a natural labor is the pushing.  It is so intense and painful and difficult but it really doesn't last that long and the end, it is so rewarding.  I remember thinking between contractions when I started feeling the urge to push "I really don't want to do this!"  But I did and I'm so thankful for a beautiful and smooth birth and a healthy baby boy.

We finally decided on a name the next afternoon.  We were trying to decide between Xavier, Raffi, Dominic, and Nils.  Then my sister Elizabeth suggested Connor and it was down to Dominic and Connor.  Gabe really wanted to name him Christopher but I don't like names that can be shortened to nick names or names that are too common.  We really liked the name Dominic but I didn't know if Dominic Donald Dilanji sounded too funny.  And, my sister Melissa said she already had dibs on the name Dominic for her next son.  So in the end we chose Connor Donald and now that we are used to it, I think it fits him perfectly.  :)  And since I like to make sure each of my children have a patron saint, I was thrilled to find out that there is a Blessed Connor whose story you can read about here

Since this blog post is getting quite long I will close with some pictures of the birth and do a second post about our first week with our newest little guy.