Jenson Baird

January 8th, 2016

5:30am– Contractions start. 2.5 minutes apart. (As usual!) I leave a message on the midwives pager system. She returns my call within’ minutes. She’s at the hospital with a woman who’s water broke the night before but hadn’t progressed. She’s on her way but she’s also dispatching a back-up.

The kids are awake now. B takes them downstairs to watch cartoons and eat cereal. I quickly re-iterate to O that if he hears me scream or anything it just means I’m trying to get his baby brother out, and that I would be fine. I know he’d take it the hardest if he heard too much. (He heard nothing! I didn’t really make any loud sounds until the last 2 minutes and even then it wasn’t yelling or screaming. That’s not really how I roll, but I just wanted to prepare him in case.)

6:30am– My midwife, Lez, arrives (before the back-up). She sets up (in minutes) what can only be described as “an emergency room in a bag”. She’s so prepared for anything. She uses our bedside table to make an emergency resuscitation station!

I walk around, picking up Lego’s from around my bedroom as I go. Cloud Cuckoo Land is scattered everywhere.

The back-up, Stacey, arrives. I’m ready to get this thing done. She can’t believe it!

7am– Jenson Baird Lazecky

He’s on my chest. Skin to skin. He looks like a tiny cranky old man, just like his brother did. He’s perfect.

*Lez managed to make it back to the hospital in time to deliver that first babe, and then another after that! She’s amazing, and Stacey stayed with us for 2 hours from the birth to make sure we settled well. She also returned in the afternoon to check on us again.

Midwifery Care

I’m not going to bash on hospital care, because my experiences weren’t bad. They were alright. This though, this experience was pretty great. Lez and Jeanette (my Midwife team) are amazing people. Honest, upfront, knowledgeable, and caring. They give you all of the information and options and then allow you (with guidance) to make your own care decisions. They care about your health, your baby, and your birth experience. My OB (in our hometown) barely even saw me. He was super nice, but in the end, his nurse ran everything and someone else from his care circle was in hospital for all 3 of my deliveries. These ladies want to help you and they will do what it takes. Hospital, home, even joint care with another care provider if there are complications or multiples.

Two things I truly loved about the ‘wives is their openness with the children. They were wonderful about answering questions and not shying away from technical terms for body parts. Lez has a giant board book that shows the baby growing that she showed them on our first visit, and Jeanette has a doll and hip bone replica that she showed the kids how to pull the baby through. So funny, but also so sweet and educational. The second thing is the aftercare home visits. They don’t expect you to haul yourself and your infant out in the freezing winter the next day to go to 5 minute appointments. They are happy to come to your home. (Mainly because they want to spy on you and ensure that you’re actually relaxing, healing, nursing, and not running yourself ragged trying to be a supermom!) They came back multiple times because his weight was slipping a bit (he’s already a beast now at 1 month so don’t worry!) It really cuts down on that post-delivery exhaustion.

Home Birth

THE BEST! I’m a healthy person. I had a healthy pregnancy, plus 3 healthy pregnancies before that, so home birth was definitely an option. Since I nearly had Grey in the hospital parking lot (luckily making it into the ER!) home birth seemed like a no brainer. I did not want to risk having this baby in a snowbank. Everything about it was easier than I even expected. Really. Minimal mess, minimal clean-up, my own bed, my own towels, my own bathroom, temperature control, real/warm blankets, my own family. I got to sleep when he slept and not listen to hospital noise (which is never ending!). I felt so good. Right away. It was amazing.

Overall (minus travelling to the next town over because there is NOTHING in our town) this whole experience has been a great one. A fitting end to the Pregnancy chapter of my life.

xxo