We went to bed like normal on Friday night, glad that another weekend had finally rolled around. At 1:29 a.m. I woke up to a VERY strong contraction (much stronger than I remember having with the previous two babies). So I decided to wait for one more contraction to see how far they were apart and then possibly wake up David. The next one came at 1:36 a.m. and was just as strong... to the point that I wasn't sure I could do many more of those on my own. I woke up David and told him I thought this might be the real thing, that we should call the midwife (even though I felt kind of silly calling her after two contractions because she had told us to call after I was having contractions 5 minutes apart for an hour). So David called her around 1:42 a.m. to tell her that we thought I was in labor and that we would be coming to the birth center (30 minutes away). In the meantime, I decided I had to go to the bathroom one more time and while sitting there, I got uncontrollable shakes. I had one more (lighter) contraction, and suddenly realized that baby was pretty much crowning! So right after David hung up with the midwife, I told him: "Actually, I don't think we're going anywhere." He looked at me like: "What are you TALKING about?!" He verified for himself that baby was at the door, and then called the midwife back, communicating the change of plans. I started making my way over to the big tub and tried to sweep away the dust bunnies with my feet to get them to go down the drain -- I didn't want all that floating in the tub with my brand new little. :-/ In the meantime, David called the midwife again from the home phone to put her on speaker phone so we could be in constant contact with her while she and her fiance sped their way over to our house. By way of how the events transpired, we ended up saving $300 on the midwifery fee because she didn't call an assistant (whom we would've had to pay), but she ended up having her fiance, who happened to be visiting that weekend, drive her so she could be on the phone with us and leave the navigating to him. On their way over to our house, they got pulled over by the police for speeding, but after explaining the situation he waved them on immediately and didn't write them a ticket, so that was a blessing. :)
So... I had managed to get in the tub, "clean" it roughly with my feet and David turned on the water to rinse down some dust. He put in the plug and turned around to put down the phone, when I could feel another contraction coming on. I decided to let the events take their course -- there was no way the midwife would make it to the house in time anyway, so why fight nature? My water broke and out came baby! I caught her head with my right hand and her little body after that with my left -- a very surreal and amazing experience! :) So by the time David had turned back around, he exclaimed, "Baby is out!" So then the midwife gave us basic instructions on keeping baby warm with blankets and towels, finding a hat, asking about her skin tone, the color of the amniotic fluid, whether or not she was breathing or making any sounds, etc. I sat back in the tub with baby on my belly, piled high with towels and blankets, and David and I just looked at each other like... "what on EARTH just happened?!?!" We couldn't believe it! At some point, David thought to check and see whether we had a boy or girl -- everything had happened so fast that that was a complete afterthought. Another girl! Just what Lucia had been hoping for. :) Poor David is hopelessly outnumbered! But he's in love with his litte Alexa Belle, and a great Papa to his girls.
After about another 15 minutes or so, the midwife finally arrived with her fiance, and started whirling around, bringing me water, honey for blood sugar, the fiance heated up some chicken enchiladas for protein and nourishment, and we then we started thinking about getting me out of the tub and into bed. Unfortunately, at that point I started getting really weak (between the birth itself and delivering the placenta, I lost quite a bit of blood -- more than I remember losing at the previous two births). Thankfully, it quit after the placenta came, but all in all it must have been enough to put my system into shock. When I sat up to get out of the tub, I could tell the blood was leaving my head and I was close to passing out... which I ended up doing. Next thing I know, I'm being slapped, I distantly hear my name called out several times, and it was like I was waking up from a deep, dreamy sleep, far far away. All the sounds were really muffled and distant, and I smell... nailpolish remover. :-/ Later they told me I was out long enough for them to start getting worried and call 911, who came to the door within 4 minutes, but since I had come around by then, they sent them away again. Ok... sit back again in the tub, fiance is told to go find some broth to heat up for me to drink, more honey, some NASTY herbal drops (to help circulatory system?! or something), sniff some more nailpolish remover, and this delightful sensory combination, along with general weakness, just made me lose my ... recent intake of honey, water, broth, herbal drops and whatever else I was given. :) We waited a good half hour or more (my rear was getting rather sore sitting in the tub like that for several hours... no water, mind you), until we tried again. Same result -- I passed out again. So, at this point, the midwife decided that I had to wait another good hour or so for my system to stabilize, and then it was going to be up to David and her fiance to lift me out and carry me to bed. This is what they ended up doing, and I was very thankful at that point that she didn't have a midwife assistant there (who would've cost $300), but that we had a free :), strong male who was able to work with David and finally get me in my bed (by about 4:30 or 5 a.m.).
The midwife stayed around until about 8 a.m. making sure we were all doing ok, recovering well, and that little Alexa was starting to nurse (which was somewhat of a struggle, but by now we're getting the hang of it).
Oma had heard some of the commotion during the night and came down to a new grandbaby and me still in the tub, and couldn't believe her eyes! She heard David walking around the house with a flashlight and going to the front door, and heard little Alexa's squeaks, and she thought to herself: "What is he doing? Is there a cat outside, or coyotes, or what's going on?" Haha.
By the time the girls woke up in the morning, most of the drama was over and they were excited to meet their new baby sister! The midwife weighed Alexa right before she left, and she was 9 lbs 7 ounces (our initial announcement said 4 ounces, but was revised because the scale was showing 9.43 lbs, which we interpreted as ounces, but are in fact decimal points). Big baby! No wonder, since she took her sweet time in my belly. :) She's a healthy little chunk, much more communicative than Rhea was as a newborn, and sleeps well. The past several nights I've only had to get up once to feed her around 2, and then she sleeps until 6:30 or 7:00.
I'll add a few pictures and post this -- it's getting late (9 p.m. is LATE when you have a newborn ;-) ) and I need to get to bed here pretty soon.
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