Busy, busy month!

My business partners and I have been extremely busy keeping up with all the "Snowmageddon babies" that were conceived during our back-to-back-to-back blizzards of last February! On November 10th and 11th, we did four births in under 36 hours! That might be a new record for our partnership!!

So...... my personal belated congratulations to the couples I worked with:

Jia and Matt, who gave birth to a baby girl, Leila, on November 11 at their home; it was a lovely homebirth for their second baby, and a personal victory for Jia, as her first labor two years ago had been long and difficult. This one was sweet and rewarding!

Kristina and John, who birthed their baby, Katherine, at our birthing center on November 16. This was their first baby, and Kristina did an AMAZING job of staying relaxed and calm all the way through the birth process! Good job, mama!!

And just yesterday, Ksenia and Adam gave birth -- after an EXTREMELY long labor -- to their beautiful little girl, Anastasia at our birth center in Virginia. I'm so incredibly proud of her; she was in ACTIVE labor for nearly 44 hours (71 hours total if you include early labor!) -- and she never ONCE asked to be taken to the hospital. This was a difficult struggle of a birth, and she did it!! Congratulations to this lovely family!

On top of all of this have been my interviews with a new childbirth organization to potentially be hired as a regional representative/teacher trainer. I had a first interview on Tuesday and was called back on Friday for a second, follow-up interview. I don't know when I'll know for sure whether or not I got the position, but I'm hopeful! More information to follow on that soon, hopefully!!

I'm being very bad today -- skipping church!! -- but after being away from my house for about 40 hours and hardly sleeping in two nights, I needed a break today!!

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Birth Announcement!!

We interrupt this series of Honduran posts to announce the birth of beautiful little Chesed Joy -- I was told her name refers to God's covenant kindness!! She was born Monday evening around 8 pm after only a four hour labor, and weighed in at 7 pounds, 1 ounce. Congratulations to the parents, Laura and Joel, and big sister, Grace. Welcome to the world, little girl!!

Busy, busy days

I keep thinking I need to post, but the days just keep getting away from me...... So much going on and so little time!!

On the wedding front:  the gown fitting scheduled for last week had to be postponed due to an "emergency" at the bridal store!  So we're re-scheduled for next Thursday; hopefully, this will work out.  The invitations are being printed by my brother-in-law (a professional printer -- nice to have talent in the family!) and should be done any day now.  The invitations Morgan chose are a bit of an "assembly project" and are going to take some time to put together and mail, so I hope we can get started on them ASAP.  I'll post pictures of them after we get them back..... Other preparations are going slowly, but surely.  I'm feeling strangely calm about all of this -- so why do I get the feeling that I'm either forgetting something very important or it's all going to hit the fan at the last minute???

In addition, our 2nd daughter has decided to get married to her boyfriend.  He's in the Air Force and will be transferred to Texas sometime in mid-to-late July, so it looks like there's going to be a small, rushed wedding in the next few weeks as well...... Just when I thought life couldn't get any crazier....

I needed to have some bloodwork done (complete with fasting..... sigh.....), so I got up early on Wednesday to get to the lab.  It was a quick in-and-out, as I went first thing in the morning.  By the time I came home, it was only about 8 AM, and I was WIDE awake and motivated to get things done.  So I started tackling my office/junk room.  Of course, when you start to de-clutter, you make more of a mess by opening boxes, moving stuff around, trying to re-organize...... you know how that works.  I was right in the midst of this chaos when I got a call from another gal who works at our birth center.  She'd already been at one long birth this week, and was now in the midst of another very long birth, with no end in sight -- and she was beyond exhausted.  She was looking for someone to come in and take over for her.  Even with my disastrous mess, I couldn't say no -- I know that feeling of being drop-dead tired all too well!!  When I arrived at the birth center in Virginia, I found that since we had spoken on the phone, the midwife and pregnant couple had made the decision to transfer to the hospital, so I ended up just staying for a bit more than an hour, cleaned the birth center, and drove back home to Maryland.

Fortunately, I left before rush hour, so the drive home was uneventful.  I was still full of energy and went back to tackling the room and making dinner......... UNTIL........  I got a call that one of MY couples might be in labor!!  Off to bed I ran, hoping to get a short nap -- but the phone rang and rang, and next thing I knew, my couple was calling back, saying I needed to come NOW!!  Yikes -- another drive back to Virginia -- why didn't they do this a few hours earlier while I was still in Virginia???  Fortunately, it was an extremely short birth for a first-time mom; baby was born by 9:45 pm.  We did have a lot of issues with bleeding after the birth, but nothing we couldn't handle; just ended up having to stay for a few extra hours to make sure all was well.  I got back home about 3:30 AM, now VERY tired (sure used up all that energy!!) and collapsed on the sofa, falling asleep immediately.  Only to be wakened........

....... at 7:00 AM by the phone ringing again!!!  This time, another local midwife, one I don't normally work with, was at a nearby Army base doing a homebirth and her birth assistant was tied up at another home with another client -- and she needed someone NOW!!  Fortunately for her (unfortunately for ME!!), I was so tired, I agreed to come, and it probably wasn't until I was several miles up the road that I found myself questioning what on EARTH I was doing, heading out yet again!!!  It was fine in the end; a lovely birth for a 3rd time mom; third son, family very nice and VERY happy.

So in less than 12 hours, I did two births of two nice large baby boys -- both of them were 9 lbs., 8 oz!!

Mackenzie leaves for camp in only a week and a half, so I need to make sure she's got enough summer clothes left that still fit (kid's been growing like a weed) and I need to get busy with packing her stuff.  Additionally, my parents just made arrangements for her to fly back to Florida with them after Morgan's wedding and spend about 1 1/2 weeks at their place, and then fly back solo -- she's going to have a BLAST!!  What a good, busy summer for her!!

Speaking of growing -- just a few weeks back, I took Kenzie out to get some new sneakers; we ended up buying a pair that was a bit large (size 6), but I figured that would be good to cover her for the summer.  Then this week, we went out to find some flip-flops and start looking at shoes for the wedding....... and now she's wearing an 8 or 8 1/2!!!  YIKES!!!  This child may end up with bigger feet than me!!

We have bought wood laminate flooring to replace the ancient carpeting in our house, and had planned to rip up the carpeting and have the flooring installed soon -- probably the weekend of July 9.  But now, daughter #2 wants us to have a family barbeque soon at our place with all her future inlaws -- why do I have the sinking feeling our "destruction period" will be right in the middle of that?  Yup, I just LOVE bringing guests into a torn-apart house -- is THAT really my idea of fun???

I'm still hoping to go to Honduras this fall for my nephew Russell's wedding...... guess I need to start working on those plans as well........

And life doesn't slow down.........  busy, busy, busy......

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Two babies and a nasty saleswoman!

My day in a nutshell.....

I got called to CH's birth shortly after midnight; this was a fast birth of a baby girl born at 1:45 am, weighing 8 lbs., 11 oz.  The whole thing would've been great if it hadn't been for normal hospital stupid policies......

While in postpartum with her, my cell phone went off again. This time, it was ES in labor. She was absolutely WAILING in the background. Said goodbye to C, turned on the GPS and headed over to the birth center. Arrived around 5 AM (???), baby girl born at 8:31 AM, 7 lbs., 11 oz.

E left the center at 11:40, we finished cleaning by 12:30!!! We were MOVING!!!

I got home around 1:15, picked up Mackenzie and headed to Columbia to go to a bridal shop. Morgan was SUPPOSED to call and make arrangements for us to go; unfortunately, she didn't do it. So I showed up there and was met by a VERY snooty, nasty saleswoman who wanted absolutely nothing to do with us because we didn't have an appointment. Now keep in mind this store has only been open three weeks and there was NOBODY in the store..... This gal couldn't be bothered at all to help us. In fact, she kept giving us the evil eye, as if we were there to steal all her dresses. Right -- like who can march out of a store with a bridal gown or bridesmaid dress hidden under their clothes????

Finally we left there and went to Morgan's friend's house to use the computer and see if there was another bridal store in the area we could check out.  Unfortunately, almost everything was closed on a Monday..... sigh again.....

I finally gave up, bought food at Boston Market, came home and ate dinner, and have done almost nothing since then. I'm basically killing time until it's late enough to go to bed.

Finishing up some paperwork and then time for some zzzzzzzzz's........ G'nite everyone!

A bouncing baby boy!

I really don't have the time (or energy!) to blog much right now. I had NO -- ZERO -- ZIP -- NADA -- ZILCH -- sleep last night due to a marathon birth. But I'm happy to report that at 9:41 AM, my client gave birth to a gorgeous 10 lbs., 8 oz. baby boy!! Wow!!! What a gal!!

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ANOTHER birth this week????

I was called to another birth last night, and unfortunately, this one didn't end up going as smoothly as the others from this week. The mom got to 9 cms. rapidly, then just couldn't seem to get to 10. After the midwife helped her eliminate ("reduce") the last bit of cervix, she started pushing -- and she was a pushing CHAMP!! But this baby would NOT descend, and after she started passing a lot of meconium and the baby's heart tones started dropping rather low -- AND the baby was still not descending -- the decision was made to transfer to the hospital. So -- outcome is a healthy baby girl, 8 lbs., 4 oz., delivered by c-section this AM, presenting in a posterior position with the cord around her neck twice! I'm very grateful that God made is quite obvious that this baby NEEDED to be born via c-section; there's no second-guessing on this birth. The right decision was made at the right time, and everyone is healthy and happy. (Well, maybe not the midwife and I, who are exhausted and punchy!!!)

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Babies, babies, and more babies!!

My partner Lori left for vacation this week. I was more than a bit concerned, because we had FIVE clients due in a 9-day span -- due dates were the 11th, 12th, 15th, 19th and 20th, I believe. However, all but one were first time moms, and they usually tend to go overdue, so Lori thought that it wouldn't be TOO bad while she was gone..... HAH!!

She left Friday afternoon. By Saturday mid-morning, I'd received calls that TWO of our clients might be in labor -- uh-oh, not a good thing. By nighttime, they were both contracting about every 3-4 minutes, and it looked like I needed to make a decision. I could be at one birth or the other, but not both. I called my friend and former partner, Audrey, to see if she'd like to attend one of the births. No good -- the hospital she's working out was SWAMPED with people in labor, and they'd asked her to come in and help on her day off!! (Babies popping out there too!!) I called another birth assistant, but she didn't return my calls. Finally, one of the midwives started helping me make calls, and we managed to find someone who could go to the other birth at the birth center.

Around 11:45, the midwife called me back, and said that she hoped she hadn't made a bad call, as the 2nd client had phoned and said it seemed like her labor was slowing down. At that point, I really didn't care. I figured I'd go to sleep and they'd call me when they needed me. So I was absolutely shocked to be awakened by a call at 12:25: "Hey, Pam, this is J....... the baby is OUT and we can't reach the midwife.... what do we do?" Holy cow -- is this a JOKE?? Not funny!!!

But it was true! The client had tried to lay down for a while, but couldn't get comfortable; got up and walked around a bit, then decided she needed to use the bathroom -- and 10 minutes later gave birth to a cute little baby girl!!! Unbelievable birth for a first-time mom!!

The midwife and I arrived within the 1/2 hour, checked on everyone, cleaned things up, made sure all was well, and helped with breastfeeding before leaving around 4:30 AM.

While there, the midwife told me that my first client had gone to the birth center, been checked and was only 2 cms., so they sent her back home. I called the client's husband on my way home to check in and told him I'd be available for them now. So I was surprised (and not very pleased) to hear later that the clients returned to the center around 6:30 AM, and the midwife had the back-up attend instead of calling me in. I hope the client was OK with working with a birth assistant she'd never met before......

It turned out to be an extremely long, drawn-out birth, and it was probably a good thing I didn't go. The baby was not born until 5 AM Monday, meaning she'd been in labor over 30 hours. The baby's head was positioned very crookedly (called "asynclitic") and it took a lot of position changes and a lot of labor to get her head to move. However, ultimately, it did, and the client gave birth at the center to an 8 lb., 9 oz. baby girl!! Good for her!! I hear she's quite proud of herself, as she should be -- what a good job!

So on Tuesday at 3 AM, my phone rang again -- this time from the clients having baby #2. They wanted to give me a heads-up that she might be in labor. Good -- I'm going right back to sleep until you call again, thank you!! Around 5 AM,, they called again, said labor had continued, and the midwife wanted to get there before the AM rush hour traffic. So a quick shower, change my clothes, grab my bags, and I'm on my way!! I arrived around 6:30 AM, and we had a cute little baby boy at 10:30 AM! Nice, easy, straight-forward birth with clients who were very self-sufficient!! What a nice way to begin a day!!

So the total is 3 babies in 58 hours -- not bad!! Now, if at least one or both of the remaining October clients will wait until Lori returns.....

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Pray for Baby Oliver

My job, while usually fun, exciting and rewarding (though often exhausting!) does have its share of nail-biting moments, moments of despair (such as the loss of baby Logan this past summer), and times of worry. Right now is one of those "times of worry".

We had a client give birth on Monday night -- a very straightforward birth for the most part, especially for a first-time mother. Mother and baby left the birth center and went home about 5 hours later. Therefore, I was quite surprised when the midwife called me the next afternoon to tell me that the baby was in the NICU. He was EXTREMELY jaundiced, especially for being less than 18 hours old. Most pediatricians don't start to really worry about the bilirubin count until it's hitting 16 - 18; Oliver's was 26. That's terribly high by any standard.

Oliver was immediately sent to the hospital, and last night underwent a complete transfusion of all his blood. It turns out he and the mother had a blood incompatibility issue which set all this off; hopefully with the very quick treatment he received, he will have no long-term damage from this. But what a way to start off life with a new baby....... Please be praying for parents P & M and their new baby Oliver.

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Babies, babies, babies!!!

It's funny how often my partners and I seem to have "clumps" of births. You'd think the births should spread out randomly over the calendar, but it rarely seems to happen that way. This week has probably been the busiest week we have ever experienced in our partnership.

Baby #1 -- (and the longest of the births) -- Monday at midnight until baby boy was born at 4:17 AM on WEDNESDAY!!! (and I was the birth assistant who got to attend this marathon!!)

Baby #2 -- client came into the birth center around 4 AM Tuesday, and baby was born around 4:45 AM!!! WOW!!! My partner, Lori, got to attend a birth that was speedy!

Baby #3 -- client called for midwife and Lori to come on Tuesday evening. Lori and midwife were there about 40 minutes before baby was born -- another quick one!!

Baby #4 -- client called for midwife and my partner Audrey to come on Tuesday evening. I don't have exact times, but I know the client called around 6 pm and the baby was born by 9 PM -- so yet another speedster!

Baby #5 -- While I was sleeping off my exhaustion on Wednesday afternoon, another client called!! Audrey went to the birth center and baby was born about 1 1/2 hours after arrival.

So.......... FIVE babies in less than 40 hours -- I think that ought to be some kind of record! And I just got off the phone with Lori, who is on her way to yet ANOTHER home birth right now. If this baby is born before midnight, it will be six babies born in less than 3 days.

Did somebody forget to pass out the memo that the full moon was two weeks ago??
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NEED..........MORE............SLEEP...........zzzzzzzzzzzzz.....

My two partners, Audrey and Lori, both ended up going out of town for a week at the same time, leaving me home with a full load of clients and praying like crazy that it would work out. And I guess it HAS worked out -- somewhat -- in the sense that at least I haven't had two in labor at the same time yet!!! My schedule over the last few days:

Friday night into Saturday AM -- up until 4 AM waiting for a thoughtless teenager (who shall remain nameless) to decide to come home after going out with friends for the evening...... that in itself is a whole 'nother story!!

Saturday AM -- woken up at 6:45 AM by the puppy, who desperately needed a potty break! Then up for several hours working on finishing up the packing for my youngest daughter, as she was leaving for camp (River Valley Ranch) on Sunday after church. I was moving at a leisurely pace -- partially because I was pretty on top of getting things ready early and partially because I was tired from lack of sleep!! In the early afternoon, I got a call that a client might be in labor -- uh, oh -- time to go get a nap -- QUICK!!! Off to bed for several hours, then up to work on the packing again. At which point I got a call from the midwife: "Need you here -- NOW!!! So I dropped everything, threw the not-yet-complete packing list at my husband, and ran out the door!!

Got the birth center; the mom was completely dialated and beginning to push -- YIPPEE!!! Baby was born shortly after 9 PM, no problems at all. Client went home shortly after midnight and I was home and in bed by around 2:30 AM. Now I was pretty tired........

But....... I had to get up first thing in the AM for church. On any other Sunday, I might've considered staying home and sleeping off the birth; but on this day, the plan was to leave directly from church to take our daughter to camp. So -- off we went to church, then directly to camp, which is about a 1 hour, 20 minute drive north of us, right on the MD/PA state line. We arrived around 2 pm, got her checked in, bed made up, and all that kind of stuff, and then drove back home. I actually nodded off in the car several times on the way home -- I was pretty tired.

Arrived home around 6 pm, and at 6:30 pm (I'm NOT kidding!!), I got a call that ANOTHER client might be in labor........oh, my....... off to the sofa to lay down and rest. Please, God -- could this MAYBE be a false alarm??!! Nope -- at 10:30 I got the call to come to the birth center -- and to PLEASE hurry...... I arrived at the birth center at 11:10 PM. The client's car was parked all cross-ways across the driveway; the backdoor to the center was unlocked and ajar; the entrance foyer at the bottom of the steps was strewn with clothing and messy chux pads -- OH, NO!!! I went running up the stairs, only to hear the midwife calling out, "Hey, Pam!! She had the baby a few minutes ago!!" Again, thankfully, all was well, though it was an incredibly fast turn of events!! Mom, dad, and baby went home around 2AM. But the midwife and I were VERY tired and feeling a bit punchy, and it took us quite a while to get things cleaned up and organized. After that, we sat around and talked for about 45 minutes. Why??? I don't know...... I think we were both too tired to be thinking straight!!

I reached home around 5:30 AM and since I knew my husband would be getting up shortly, I decided to rest on the sofa and not wake him up. When he left for work, I got up and went to bed. Unfortunately, I was woken by a phone call at 9:45 AM from my oldest daughter, who needed a ride home from class..... blah......... I told her I'd get there whenever I could and she'd just better sit tight!! I ended up not picking her up until almost noon -- I just could NOT get myself moving.

After coming home and eating and trying to wake myself out of the stupor I was in, I got a phone call at 2:30 that -- can you believe it?? -- ANOTHER client might be in labor???? HELP -- I'm drowning..... Off to bed for another nap. I think I slept about 4 hours before getting up, eating dinner, and just trying to take it easy.

The call from the midwife to come to this birth (at the client's home in Alexandria, Virginia) came around 9 PM. Off to Virginia again -- 3rd trip to Alexandria in three days. My car ought to be able to make that trip on autopilot, don't you think?? Beautiful baby girl was born at 4:30 AM today; mom and baby are doing well.

And me??? I am BEYOND tired...... is there a stronger word than "exhausted"??!! I got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep this AM into the mid-afternoon. Hopefully, I can to bed early tonight and try to get my body back into the correct time zone!!!

Unfortunately, I still have a client who is now 4 days overdue! PLEASE, God -- no more births, at least not tonight!!!

And more babies......!

The client I mentioned yesterday called back in the afternoon around 4 pm. We met at the birth center around 5:30. What a phenomenal couple! She was such a calm, relaxed laborer, and her husband was an incredible coach. They spent most of the labor in the jacuzzi, needing almost nothing from us. A beautiful baby boy named Elias was born at 8:29 pm. Mom, dad, and baby are doing MORE than well! At less than one hour after birth, she was talking about going home -- we had to slow HER down a bit!!

I almost had a repeat of the situation from the other day. Shortly after my client birthed, we got a call that another couple was coming in to the center in labor. She arrived in rip-roaring labor, and the birth assistant was quite a distance away. It looked like I might be helping with that labor as well! We got things set up and ready to go, and thankfully, the other birth assistant arrived about 7 or 8 minutes before the birth. And the whole evening, the phone rang and rang and rang...... it seems like EVERYBODY wanted to go into labor last night! I'll have to call the center and check in later. I wonder how many babies WERE born overnight?

Now I've got THREE postpartum visits to do -- guess I need to get caught up!

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....and the not-so-nice birth.......

After the wonderful, gorgeous birth on Saturday, I was called to another birth on Sunday. I was looking forward to this one. The couple is young, very athletic, very motivated to have a natural birth, and I just thought they would have an amazing birth. I should know better than to make assumptions, shouldn't I?

When I arrived at the birth center, the mom was in very active labor and already 6-7 cms. dilated. Many hours later, she was still 7 cm. and the water that was leaking had some meconium in it. By late in the evening, labor was starting to slow waaaaaayyyy down. We tried to get her to eat, but everything that went down would come back up. Finally, we gave her an IV and decided to just put her to bed and let her rest for a while.

When she got up, she started walking the stairs and hallway, trying to get this labor going. After a while, the meconium got heavier and then the baby's heart rates started getting really bad -- and the mom was STILL only about 8 cms. We made a quick 911 call and had her taken to the hospital. The midwife went with the couple; I had to stay behind to get the birth center cleaned up. I was absolutely certain that my client would end up with an emergency cesarean, so imagine my shock when the midwife called and said they'd had a vaginal delivery!! Yahoo!!!!! Stinks that I missed the birth, after being with them for all those hours, but I'm so happy for them. Apparently, by the time they reached the hospital, she was fully dilated, and the back-up doctor decided to let her give the delivery a try. Surprisingly, the baby's heart rate stayed good enough that they were able to complete the birth without any interventions!! I still cannot believe that it turned out this well! Truly the grace of God!

So tomorrow, I get to make 2 visits to see new parents and cute little babies!! Fun, fun, fun!!! Tonight, hopefully, I get a full night's sleep........ :)

Such a nice birth.....

One of my clients gave birth yesterday at the birth center in Virginia -- www.birthcare.org . It was her second baby, and her first birth had been fairly easy. When I arrived at the center, mom and dad were sitting in the jacuzzi, relaxing through the contractions. A (the mom) seemed entirely too happy and relaxed to be too far along in labor, but who ever knows? I sat in the room with them for a while, chatted and got caught up to date on things (in between contractions!), and then left them alone for a little bit while I went to make sure the birthing room was set up and ready. It wasn't too long until A announced that she was feeling a lot of "pressure". She got out of the jacuzzi, went down the hall to the bedroom, and had a baby 18 minutes later!! Wow!! Talk about quick, smooth and efficient! And baby was direct posterior, too, which is usually a harder presentation to push out. Mom and dad were over-the-moon happy, and their beautiful baby boy is a handsome little fellow, weighing just a tad over 8 lbs.

And then I got a call this AM that ANOTHER client might be in early labor!! Is it too much to hope for yet another smooth, quick labor??? We'll see...... updates will follow later -- whenever this little one decides to make his/her entrance into the world.