Ruby Jane King is here!

Ruby Jane arrived on Monday, July 5th, 2010 at 6:46pm. Here is her birth story:

I woke up at 8:00am with my son, as usual, and contractions were there, a little more uncomfortable than normal, but nothing too out of the ordinary. I had a feeling it was the day, though. I felt a strong contraction later that morning and my first thought was, “I’m in labor.” They started to get more uncomfortable, but not regular at all (they never did get regular, even at the end), so I called the midwife around noon and told her what was going on. I said I would eat some lunch and call her back to let her know if there was any progress. I called back at 2:15pm and told her to come over, since they were really starting to hurt.

She arrived at 3:00pm and checked me. I was dilated to 5-6cm outside and about 4cm inside, but stretched to 6cm during contractions. They helped Brandon set up the pool and everything. Around 4:30pm I told Brandon to fill up the pool, because it wouldn’t be long – the contractions were killing me. I got in the water around 5:30pm and she checked me. I was dilated to 6-7cm. The water was such a relief, though! I asked her to check me again around 6:30pm or so because I was feeling a lot of pressure and slight pushing. I was 7-8cm, but she said my cervix was so soft it would probably open with some pressure from the baby, so if I felt the urge to push to just go with it. About 5 minutes later I had a really bad contraction that pushed at the end, and I said, “Oh, she’s coming right now.” Then the pushing started and my body began to push her out – about 5-6 in a row with no time to breathe in between, but I really didn’t have much control over that – she was pushing herself out. Another few of those and her head was out. I felt it hurting in the front, so I pushed her toward the perineum a little to avoid the bad labial tear I had last time. No contractions for a few minutes, then another few pushes and she wiggled her body out at 6:46pm. I reached down to catch her and Brandon and I brought her up out of the water together. The cord was around her leg and pretty short, so I unwrapped that and laid her on my chest.

The placenta was born about 20 minutes later. We didn’t cut the cord for about 1 ½ - 2 hours. I stayed in the water for a few minutes after the placenta was born, then decided to get out and lie down in my bed, so off we went. We popped some pink champagne and made a toast. The midwife took a look at me to see if I had torn. I had one very tiny labial tear, but no stitches required and it’s not even in a place where I can feel it, so no pain at all. She nursed like a champ within about 10 minutes of being born, and nursed about three times in the first hour or so. We finally decided to cut the cord, but not to clamp it. Then she pooped and we did the newborn exam while I ate some dinner. She weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 19 ½ inches long.

She went out to the living room with daddy to see all our visitors while I nursed Leonidas to sleep. Then she and daddy came back and we all went to bed. I didn’t sleep much – just watched her a lot. Leonidas did great with her – a little jealousy once when nursing, but other than that, he was amazing with her.

As of today, she is 5 days old and doing great. She has a clogged tear duct, but nothing too serious. Leonidas has some jealousy, of course, especially when she is nursing, but today he's been really great with her and just loves her. The tandem nursing thing is going well so far - I've got the nursing-both-at-the-same-time thing down pretty well. The family bed is working well, too. We've all been getting plenty of sleep, and as of right now, are sleeping at the same time. I'll keep updating this of course...