The Birth of Baby #10

Well, she's here! It's been quite an interesting few months. I've been in a lot of pain due to my gallbladder issues and a pulled groin muscle. I've spent the last few months sitting on the couch unable to do much. My due date was fast approaching and I was really getting the nesting feelings, but had a very hard time getting it all done. My kids were a great help and did a lot of work. We managed to get most everything done (gonna finish up the rest this week I think). I was due the 14th. On the Monday before that I started a very busy week. Had Dr's and chiro appts, lots of cleaning and organizing to do, a baby shower to get ready for, and had to go grocery shopping. Not easy when you can hardly stand, let alone walk :) I managed to get it all done though. My mom came down from Idaho. On Friday we had my baby shower and had a great time. My mom was staying up at my sisters, about an hour and a half away and they went home after it was over. I am always late so was expecting to spend the next day cleaning up and then the rest of the week finishing up all the cleaning I wanted to get done. Baby had different plans...

These pics are the last 4 weeks of pregnancy

At 4:30 am I woke up to go to the bathroom, as I sat up my water broke! I have never had that happen before. I was in "shock" and couldn't wrap my mind around it. I called the midwife to let her know just in case everything went fast. I called my mom and told her so she would be on alert also. Then I thought I would try to get some more sleep since I wasn't contracting hardly at all. I couldn't sleep so I got up and curled my hair, put on my make up, and then went to work cleaning. :) I got it all cleaned up and when the kids got up they helped me finish up and my boys blew up the pool. My older 2 boys had a hunters safety course they were attending so my husband took them and dropped them off. My mom and my sisters came down. I was only contracting every 30 mins or so. I tried again to nap, but couldn't sleep. We put the pool in my room and then decided that it was too big, so my husband went to the store to try to find a smaller one. He ended up going to 3-4 different stores and found one that was better, though not exactly what I wanted. My mom and my younger sisters went to a different store and couldn't find one either. Katerina stayed with me. Still nothing was really happening. So the midwife called and said that she was leaving work and wanted to know what I wanted her to do. She could either come down and help get things going, or go home and we could keep waiting. At this point I was very tired and was not sure how long I should keep waiting since my water had broken. I've never done this before. Usually my water breaks right before baby comes out. Katerina kept telling me I should just try castor oil to try to get it going. I was really not wanting to because I am VERY picky about tastes. My midwife suggested I try it also though, so I asked my mom (who was still at the store) to pick some up for me. She also told me to get on my hands and knees with an ice pack on my back to get baby to turn because she was posterior. When my mom got home Katerina made a "delicious" PB chocolate shake with castor oil. I managed to down most of it before I started gagging. The midwife got to my house, James got home with the boys and the pool, and I started running to the bathroom. Castor oil is NOT fun! The midwife did the cervical pressure points and applied some borage oil to get me going. I was dilated to a 2 still. That was at 6:00. The contractions started up. Baby was still turned slightly posterior which was why I wasn't getting really regular contractions. After the pressure points contractions started up. I laid on my side and my sisters took turns putting pressure on my lower back. Back labors miserable. In between contractions I continued to run to the bathroom. After awhile the midwife checked me again. I was only at a 4-5. But she said I could get in the pool whenever I wanted. She gave me a homeopathic to help my cervix along and I got in. It was definitely a relief. Around that time my SIL got there.

My sister left a note for me :)

The contractions continued to intensify and I was feeling a lot of pressure. The midwife checked me again and said I was still not ready to push. I was so exhausted I was falling asleep between contractions. Then the midwife gave me a homeopathic drink. I laid on my side and I think I went into transition fairly quickly after that. My sister, Katerina, was talking me through contractions, reminding me to breathe and kept me focused. I finally felt her head come down and I told the midwife her head was coming out. All the girls came in and I started pushing. It didn't take long and her head was out. There was a cord around her neck, but with some more pushing she came the rest of the way out. The midwife unwrapped the cord from her neck and I pulled her to me.

Lucille Joy was born at 10:06 pm, July 13th. She was 7 lbs 11 oz and 20 in long. She is absolutely beautiful and has a head full of hair! She not only is my first one to break her waters before I went into labor, she was my first born early (day before her due date), she is my first to have such dark hair!

After she was out I started bleeding pretty heavily. The midwife gave me a shot of pitocin and some herbs to stop the bleeding. She got me out of the pool and onto the bed pretty quickly so that she could handle anything that might come up. Thankfully nothing bad happened though. I delivered the placenta and Emily got to cut her cord. I was bleeding a little heavier than normal so the midwife gave me some meds to help slow it down and it did. Everyone got to see her and take pics and then started leaving. Kids went to bed and I got cleaned up and went to bed as well. Lucy is quite the screamer and wanted to eat all night long. My milk came in the next night and I've spent the week trying to get as much rest as possible. She has her days and nights mixed up so we're slowly working to fix that. My mom and my little sisters stayed for a week to help out.

The day after she was born our septic went out. We had 16 people in our house and only ONE bathroom! Talk about loads of fun. We managed though and it got fixed fairly quickly. Everything is good now. Our life is now getting back to normal. Everyone loves Lucy and everyone wants to hold her all the time. We're gonna spend this week getting the house finished and get back on a routine of some sort. We're all madly in love with our Lucy Joy and are so glad God blessed us with her! The funny thoughts during my labor (I always have them) I kept thinking of some pics I'd seen on Pinterest "1 minute isn't long unless you're on a treadmill" and "30 seconds isn't long unless you're waiting for the microwave" and I just kept think "No, 30-60 seconds isn't long unless you're having a contraction! Those people do not know what they're talking about!" LOL...

My other sister updated the board

Blessings, ♥T