Hi Christy! 

 

 I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to write our birth story! Brooklinn Sofiah Grayce Chasteney was born October 15, 2011 at 5:18pm. 8lbs half an ounce and 21inches long.

 

I woke up at 6am with some pretty uncomfortable cramps. I'd been having some off and on for a few weeks so I just went to the bathroom and came back to bed. At 6:30am, I was still super uncomfortable and my lower back was in a lot of pain (nothing new as I've been fighting back pain since I was about 12....) I woke kris up and told him what was going on. The surges weren't really regular at all but they were for over a minute and quite intense.

I tried to eat some food and at 8:30am we called the midwife who said to meet at the clinic at 9:30am. While kris was loading up the car, I threw up what I'd eaten and tried to walk or rock back and forth through the surges. I used my calm breathing.

 

 At 9:30am, I was 7cm dilated. I found it worse to sit or lay down so I used Kris to hold onto and rocked back and forth through each surge. I did have a very hot shower to help my back at one point. I didn't listen to the cds or anything but I used my calm breathing and visualising a favorite place in nature a lot. I had my eyes closed most of the day! Brooklinn was born while I was sitting on a birthing stool and Kris got to cut the cord. My mom and best friend Emily were there for the whole thing as well.

 

I had some quite severe tearing on the inside and a tiny bit on my perineum that required a lot of stitches and I lost quite a large amount of blood so I was given fluids and transferred to KGH at about 10pm that night just to help me recover and there was a risk of me having a hematoma. Kris and the baby were there the whole time which we insisted upon and we got to go home on Monday morning. The birth was exactly what we wanted - calm and no drugs....with all the important people around. The hospital part kinda sucked as we didn't expect it but it was for my well-being and we still got to bond as we were never separated. Brooklinn is wonderful and we love our new role as parents! She's a very calm baby and we think her calm birth has a big part in that!

 

Thanks for everything Christy