And then a Quinn was born
We'd spent the day of Sunday the 7th November 2010, celebrating Mom's birthday at Driftwood Cafe in Tableview, and there was no sign that on this day Karen would give birth. One of the docters had put the due date at the 6th November (Mom's actual birthday), but the last opinion was the 10th November, so I was expecting Quinn to be born anywhere up to Wednesday (or perhaps even later).
Later in the afternoon I looked after Bella, while Karen went to a parenting class with Marianne & Mandy. At about 6pm Karen phoned me and told me that she was starting to feel cramps...this got my attention! Karen went to contemplate her navel in our bedroom. I was quite relaxed at this stage...I didn't think the baby would arrive that evening!
We read the instructions on how to fill up the birthing pool, I connected the hose to the hot water tap and by 1910 the taps were running. Bella was quite excited at all this activity, and here's a photo of her helping with the black bags, which I'd put around the birthing pool so the carpet wouldn't get wet.
Positive vibes on Facebook before the birth
I left a message on Facebook about filling up the birthing pool, and there were a lot of positive responses.
busy filling up the birthing pool...
After the hot water from the geyser ran out I filled up the urn. At 20h40 Karen said that there was about 1 contraction every 10 minutes.
Just after 9pm Bella fell sleep in our room, and then I took her to her room. At about 10pm Karen chatted to Mandy on the phone, and said that she was feeling that she wished she had chosen to have an epidural at a hospital. At about 10:30pm Mandy, the midwife, arrived. Within a few minutes of Mandy being here, Karen said she felt something coming out - the water had broken. Then Karen said she felt the baby coming out. Mandy said Karen should get more vertical, and I helped Karen up. At 10:55pm Quinn popped out. I got a shock as I suddenly saw Mandy jump into the birthing pool with long trousers and socks on (and she had spat out her chewing gum at the same time). Mandy was concerned that she didn't have good footing (she was standing on the black bags I had laid down to prevent the carpet from getting wet) and wanted to quickly unwrap the umbilical cord, which was wrapped around Quinn's neck and his stomach. Then she sucked the mucous out of his mouth and nose, and stroked him to help him breathe. She also kept him at as low a height as possible, so that he could continue to get nutrition from the placenta. I was really worried at seeing him look so limp, and at the point my mind was going through a few worst case scenarios and I was regretting not doing this at a hospital - you can imagine how relieved I felt when Quinn finally changed from purple to pink, as he started to breathe, and let out a few cries. Mandy then handed Quinn to Karen.
I then took a few photos of our new Quinn lying on his Mommy's chest.
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The next few photos, I airbrushed the nipples out, so as not to cause offense to anybody...(feels like I'm working for Scope magazine...lol).
And just in case you were wondering about me, here's one with me in it (thanks for the clickie, Mandy):
The water in the birthing pool was filled with the blood from the placenta, but at this stage I didn't really care, I was just filled with feelings of joy.
Mandy borrowed some shorts and a jersey of mine to change into (she wasn't expecting to have to jump into the birthing pool), and she looked quite comical with these massive shorts being held up by a belt. I went and showered, and then lay on the bed and the midwives gave Quinn to me, and I held him under my pyjama top (all he really wanted to be doing at that stage, though, was to suckle). As Karen climbed out of the bath she fainted, falling into Mandy. I later found out her blood pressure was 60/55.
Quinn weighed in at 3.35kg. Marianne arrived shortly thereafter, and Mandy and Marianne stayed until 0225am sorting out paperwork, weighing Quinn and stitching Karen up.
I'm pretty chuffed Quinn was born on the 7th, as it'll make it easy for me to remember - 7/11.