Birth Announcement

Welcome little Eliza Lily Jones

Born July 22, 2009
at 9:55 am weighing 9 lbs 2 oz
a little more than 22 inches long

Lovingly submitted by Heather Jones, Eliza Lily's Mommy

Eliza Lily Jones is our fifth baby, fourth carried to term, third planned homebirth, second planned unassisted, and first successful water birth. This special day was also my wedding anniversary of seven years to my best friend, Jason.

On Thursday, July 16th, I started having early labor contractions. They consisted of five hours of regular contractions each day, and they would intensify each day. I was starting to wonder if I would even take labor seriously by the time I needed to. Before that, I had prodromal labor for weeks. It was frustrating and emotional for me.

On Tuesday night, Jason went to sleep right around our older kids' bedtime. It ended up serving him well to do so! Gideon, my two year old, and I stayed up a little later. By the time we laid down for sleeping at 10pm, I was feeling the familiar tugging of contractions. I opened my eyes just to read the time each time I would get a tug. I noticed that they were ten minutes apart. After an hour of just observing and feeling them to see if they were intensifying or not, I went to sleep.

On Wednesday morning, I was startled awake at 2 am with more intense tugging which I wrote off as being mostly related to the potty break I needed. I couldn't sleep after I returned from the bathroom, so I just laid there next to Gideon for the next 2 hours halfway sleeping. Each contraction was deep enough for me to breathe and rock a little, but I was still able to rest. At this point, I knew I was close to the edge of full-out laboring, but I was also in this grey area of thinking it could stop at any time.

By 4 am, I was tired of the ten-minute contraction range, and I was wide awake. Not in pain, just alert and wondering what I could do with myself at this point of the morning without waking the household. I decided to wake Jason up to 'celebrate our anniversary' and maybe keep the tugs going or even speed them up. Then I went downstairs to do some computer work. I had a bowl of cereal. I listened to some music, did my busy work, noticed the times from the computer, and rocked and breathed through the contractions. Closer to 6 am, I noticed bloody show, and I figured that I'd go ahead and assume I'm in labor. I still felt, in the back of my mind, that it could stop. I was just so accustomed to being disappointed that I didn't want to get my hopes up.

I woke Jason, told him to let his teacher know he wouldn't be coming into his college class that morning , and took a very warm shower. The shower was a nice change of scenery and helped. We decided there were some things we wanted to do before things got rolling, so we started getting to work. I showed Jason what I had in the birth boxes, we set them up in a convenient place. Jason moved the furniture around to get things ready for the birth pool. The kids started waking up for breakfast slowly.

By 7 am, Gideon was up and starting to bother me during contractions. At this point the tugs had become intense enough that I needed to lean over something, focus, vocalize, and rock. Kyler, six years old, and Suzanne, five years old, were doing great, but  two year old Gideon couldn't understand that the small noises and movements from him jumping up on the couch with me, or leaning on me, were hurtful and distracting.  I called my friend, Rachel, and asked her to come pick him up. I still had no idea how quickly things were going, and I packed a bag for Gideon including things he might need for a sleepover. She picked him up sometime before 8:30 am.

I was really having hard contractions, but because everything felt relaxed in between the contractions, I didn't seriously believe I could be as far along as I was. By the time Rachel arrived for Gideon, the birth pool was all blown up and being filled with water. I was getting through the contractions by kneeling over my birth ball in the TV room while listening to Pink Floyd's "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" album coming from my husband's laptop in the other room. The best songs for me were "Learning to Fly" and "On The Turning Away".




I think it was about 8:30 am when the tub was filled. I sunk in, dranking pregnancy tea, and hung out with my kids in between contractions. They did fairly well while I moved and groaned through the tugs. I loved laboring in the tub. It was so peaceful. The living room was as perfect a place as I had imagined it to be when I picked that birth spot. On one wall, I had my kids' first-year baby pictures. On another wall, I had the view out of my full windows into our gardens and trees in the back yard. Also, it was a gloomy day which really gave such a nice dim light through the window and made me feel like having tea and cuddling up.

At some point within the next hour, the contractions became more difficult to work through. I was getting much louder as they hit. The kids asked to watch a movie in the other room, so Jason put on "Ariel's Beginning". When I had a contraction at this point, I felt like my noises were pushing at the same time. I felt like the noise I was making was pushing my baby down, and I wondered if this was true or not. I felt inside just out of curiosity. The baby's head was not even an inch inside. I could feel the dilated edge of my cervix outlining the edge of the baby's head. I could feel the water bag if I pushed at all on the middle of the baby's head. I thought about how amazing this is, that I am this close to giving birth to my baby, and I could be so clear-headed between contractions. I felt like it was just a normal observation that I was making as an outsider; not a woman in labor-land. I said to Jason, "Wow, I could push this baby out, like, right now, but I don't think I want to. I'm just going to let it come down on it's own." So, I did. He thought I was nuts! "She thinks she could push the baby out but she doesn't want to??? what is she crazy??"

Well, during those contractions, I steadied myself, focused on keeping my breathing even, and occasionally would slightly and very gently push just a little. The amniotic sac burst during one of those. I felt the baby's head move further down, and I remember a point where I had a bit of de'javu. I yelled out, "Ohhh, I was wrong about the size of this baby!!" I felt the familiarity of the difficulty I had in pushing out my 10 lb baby, Gideon. At that point, it was too late to turn back, but it was the only time in the labor where I thought I had changed my mind. In that moment, I didn't want to go through with it anymore. Jason brought the kids in and sat them on the couch, but I had to have them leave. I had to get loud with my pushing to get the energy to push and keep my focus, but I was roaring so loud that my kids had their hands on their ears. I couldn't handle opening my eyes to see that, so I told them to leave. Oh well, I felt more demanding pushing urges after that, and I roared and pushed through three contractions just to get her head out. I felt intense burning. I kept my hand down the entire time as her head lowered and came out. I was sitting Indian style for some of this and moving to my hands and a really low squat. My hips were moving in a circular motion on their own. As soon as her head was out, I was recovering my breathing between contractions, and I felt very distinctly the shift of her body and shoulders inside me. It was so cool! I love that I had her head in my hand and could feel her body (on the inside of my body) preparing itself for birth. With the next contraction, she was out, and I was pulling her up to the surface of the water.

I kept her body in the water for a small amount of time. I wanted this to be a sort of 'Leboyer bath' experience. I wanted her to have that gentle transition onto land instead of the violent force of adjustment most babies get. Once I pulled her up onto my chest, I saw that she was a girl and announced it, "I was right! I knew it!" Jason grabbed a towel and helped me wrap her up. Soon after that, Jason asked me what her name was, and I said "Eliza Lily". 'Eliza' is a diminutive of 'Elizabeth', which means "pledged to God", and the water lily is the birth flower for the month of July.

 

She wasn't breathing for a small period of time. She was clearing mucous  out a little, and then she still wasn't breathing. I turned her sidways on my chest and rubbed her body. She cried a little. She gurgled some more stuff out. She took some breaths. She still seemed clogged up a little. I just kept rubbing her and talking to her. Jason got me the bulb syringe, and I suctioned her mouth.  During her first nursing session a little later, she turned blue again with mucous coming out her nose and mouth, but we got through that too. She cleared it all out with sneezes and coughs, and she started pinking up nicely after that. It was a little nerve wracking for me, but even while it was happening, God was giving me peace that she really was okay and her body was taking care of it.

After a short time hanging out in the pool after the birth, I felt pressure and assumed that my placenta was detaching or had detached. I left the tub and moved onto a mattress we had prepared near the pool. I kneeled over a chux pad and got the baby diapered, dressed, and blanketed. Unlike with my last baby, Gideon, this little girl had a really long cord, so it was easy to do all of that without having to cut it yet. I had wanted to do this with Gideon, but since his cord was so short, I was unable to manage it. The baby all wrapped up and warm now, I checked to see if I could push a little, but the placenta wasn't ready. I called my mom instead. I was so excited to tell her that the baby had come.

While I was on the phone with my mom,  I felt a strong urge to get that placenta out, and I set the phone down near me so I could concentrate. I used a little traction on the cord and 'coughed' the placenta out. I was surprised by the size of the placenta. This one was really small and oblong-shaped compared to my last two babies. I wrapped it up  and moved onto a fresh chux pad so that I could sit with the baby and nurse. When I picked the phone back up, I explained to my Mom why I took so long to get back to her, and I think she was tickled that I took a break to deliver the placenta and got back on. It was kind of funny, like how normal birth can just break itself into our day.

I didn't cut her cord until I was ready for us to get cleaned up and moved into another room. It was about an hour and a half. By that time, the cord was limp, cold, and had no blood moving through it. Jason held her, and I just cut it down by her feet so we wouldn't have to disturb her blanket.

My older children came in while I was still in the birth pool and shared in the wonder and miracle of birth immediately after she was born. My youngest son was brought back to our home a couple hours later. I love that my older children were able to take part in the birth of their sister.

I didn't tear. I didn't really think I would tear, though, since I never had before. It's so nice to have the opportunity to move the way your body demands in birth and to have more awareness and control over the speed of delivery.   The bleeding was minimal and has been since the birth.

While I was pregnant, I had a fear of the labor possibly being so quick that I wouldn't be able to keep up and manage the level of intensity. It wasn't like that at all. It was quick, but I enjoyed the ride. It was by far the most peaceful yet exciting birth I have experienced. I feel so content and satisfied, proud to be a woman and of how God created my body.

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By the second day postpartum, my afterbirth pains were less. My bleeding was less than my other births.  I have had a very difficult time recovering after childbirth with my other children, hormonally. Emotionally, I returned to my pre-pregnancy self by four days postpartum besides the firm round uterus in my pelvis, some soreness, and mild bleeding. I remained calm, capable of handling my older kids while working out nursing issues with this one.  I attribute this to the stress and adrenal supplements I took with chiropractic care. I also drank my pregnancy tea religiously from the second trimester to the end. It was the first time I was pro-active for my health in this way during pregnancy, and I believe those things paid off enormously.

It's funny how after overcoming nursing challenges with my other babies, I'm able to just be so laid-back about the small nursing challenges we've had. Eliza only really nursed once or twice in the first day. I know I would have been discouraged and second-guessing my nursing relationship with her if I hadn't had the educational information about breastfeeding with Charis and La Leche League.

At this time, I'm not pursuing education as a birth professional, and I haven't for the past year. I believe I rushed in when it wasn't quite my season to serve in this way, but the information and support I found through my relationship with Charis as a student has helped develop me as a mother and a birthing woman in a way that I cannot describe fully. Someday, I will be back when God wants to use me for birth services.

Jason and Heather Jones with their little ones:
Kyler - 6 years old,  Suzanne  - 5 years old,  Gideon  - 2 1/2 years old
and newborn baby Eliza

Here's our tribute to Eliza's birth (enjoy!):

Eliza Lily Youtube Tribute

 'Behold, I will bring them from the north country, And gather them from the ends of the earth,
 Among  them the blind and the lame, The woman with child and The one who labors with child,  together,
 A great throng shall return there...And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the LORD.'
 Jeremiah 31:8, 14~~~
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October 2009