Newborn exam and early postpartum

After cutting the cord I stood up to deliver my placenta. Since I know that is not everyone's cup of tea, I will put all the placenta pictures in the next post :)

I got out of the tub and was asked if I wanted to take a shower before getting in bed. I was feeling really good and since there was not blood in the water, I decided to skip the shower for now and just get some rest instead. 

Karen just catching up on some of her charting. It is always fascinating to look back over the charting and notes after a birth. I have asked for both Kylie and Coopers chart and I plan to ask for a copy of Wesley's too, the nurse in me likes to see the birth from the care providers side :)

My mom got a little snuggle time in while I was getting settled in bed. the midwifes took a couple minutes to assess me and how I was doing. They checked my uterus, bleeding, vaginal area looking for tears and gave me herbs and meds for the postpartum cramping. all of this was done in my time, I let them know when I was ready to be assessed, ready to have meds and ready for the newborn exam to start.

 I think they are looking at how big his feet were.

I got snuggled in bed and started my second tandem nursing adventure while Kylie had her breakfast too. Often people tell me "I would have a home birth, but I just dont want to worry about the mess." I wish I had a photo of the bed before I got in, this is what we did to make sure I didn't make a big "mess" all over the place. First we washed our favorite sheets and put them on the bed, next we covered them with a waterproof mattress pad and put old sheets on top of that, just in case I ended up delivering on the bed. Then (in my part of the bed) there was a disposable paper-like "sheet", with 2 more pads (similar to the ones that puppies are trained to pee on) then 1 large postpartum pad under me. We had it covered, especially since I was not bleeding hardly at all :) By that afternoon, my bleeding had slowed even more, we removed all the extra pads and paper sheets, we even took off the old sheet and waterproof pad and jumped right into our favorite clean sheets :) Easy Breezy.

 Facetime with family.

 "Look at his feet!"

 Post birth exhausted/oxytocin high. 

 In a home birth the midwifes do all the newborn cares and exam. They sat in my living room and visited until I said I was ready for the newborn exam to happen. Many parts of the exam were done while Wes was nursing and skin to skin with me.

 checking reflexes

 listening to heart and lungs

 when he wasn't skin to skin with me, he was simply next to me in bed.

 he was not happy during some parts of the exam, so my mom and Kylie held his hands and talked to him. It is considered a top priority to be very gentle and respectful to the newborn during the exam. He was talked to in a soft sweet voice, they told him everything they were going to do and went very slow and stopped when he was upset.

 instead of using a plastic clamp for the umbilical cord, there is a little rubber band that is placed, it allows for the cord to be cut nice and short and is much more comfortable for mom and baby during skin to skin.

 Kylie jumped in and cut the cord again.

As part of the newborn exam you have the option for vitamin K injection or oral treatment and eye ointment (just like in the hospital). We decided not to do either one, I knew I did not have the STD's that cause the eye infections that require the ointment and since we were not circumcising Wes, and his birth was not traumatic, we decided not to do the Vit K. 

 stepping reflex

 and this is how we weigh a baby at a home birth.

 just a baby in a basket :)

 Cooper started bringing in his favorite Paw Patrol characters to give to Wes.

 the midwife assistant, Karen, showed Kylie all the parts of the placenta (there are more placenta pictures in the next post if you are interested)

 Kylie had been waiting and waiting for her turn to hold the baby.

 Once everything was complete, the midwifes tucked us all in bed and we took a nice long family nap. The rest of the day was wonderful and restful. I was brought food in bed while I cuddled with Wes and enjoyed lots of skin to skin. I took a shower at some point later in the day. I felt SO good after his birth. My swelling went down right away and since I didnt tear, and pushing was so short, my body truly felt great! 

The first hour after birth...

For this blog post you will have a window into the first hour postpartum, while we bonded with our sweet baby  in the birth pool.

Moments after I delivered, my sweet son, Cooper woke up. He crawled from the doorway (where he had been sleeping) into the kitchen. Craig was there to hold him while he processed what had just happened. 

 We all looked together as I pulled the baby away from my body and we saw that it was a BOY!

 He was not a very loud baby, little cries here and there but for the most part he was just relaxed and resting. His cord was still pulsing and his color was beautiful, my midwife reassured me that he was doing just fine.

 It is during this time that the birth team is very hands-off. I was not bleeding, baby was transitioning well and the biggest priority was time for our family to bond.

 I like this shot because you can see Karen and her student Katie as they simply observe us, ready to help if we need anything, but allowing us time and space to welcome our new addition.

 I am showing the kids his umbilical cord.

I was amazed at how big his feet were. I felt that little heel stretching out on my right side for the past month, it was so fun to feel it on the outside.

In no time at all he was interested in nursing, so we had our first nursing session still in the tub.

 Cooper decided to jump in and join the fun. The tub was kept at about body temp so it was nice and warm.

 My mom called my mother-in-law, Diana, on facetime. Diana had been there for both Kylie and Coopers birth, we were sad she could not be there for this baby, but facetime worked well :)

 The kids got out of the tub, took a quick shower, put on pj's and came back to cut the cord. Kylie started, Cooper helped out and Kylie finished it off :) We had not talked about who would cut the cord, we had watched many birth videos and often the dad would cut the cord. But when the time I asked the kids and they were both very interested in participating. It was so cool to have them do it.

 Next up it was Craigs turn for some skin to skin while I delivered my placenta and got out of the tub.

 Before getting up to deliver the placenta I showed the kids the amniotic sac, a large part of it was hanging out, as I got up they were able to see it better and touch it.

 The next post will be graphic photos of the delivery of the placenta and photos of the placenta when it was being examined. I know that placenta photos are not for everyone, that is why they will have their own post :)