The Birth Of Alta June

I am finally getting around to writing about the birth of my beautiful new baby!

I went into labor at 3:30 in the morning. My contractions were 15 minutes apart for the first 2 to 3 hours. It took me awhile to know if I was in labor for sure because I was progressing so slowly. At about 6:00 I called my midwife and told her I was in labor. There was lots of snow from the huge snow storm we had the day before so I wanted to be sure she made it in plenty of time and I was thankful we had decided to have the baby at home so I didn't have to drive anywhere in such weather.

I labored in the tub most of the morning. My midwife arrived at about 7:30 and a neighbor came and picked up the kids at 8:30. It is funny, Troop woke up, saw me and wouldn't come give me a hug. He did not know I was in labor but he sensed something was different. It made me kind of sad to send my baby off with out some luvs.

This labor was so different than my last. I expected it to go super fast because Troop, start to finish was 4 hours. I progressed slowly and my contractions were not getting intense. I kept saying, I hate to complain, it is nice that things are not intense but come on lets get this show on the road!!

I get back labor and Jathan is usually pushing on my lower back super hard with each contraction. Well I was given a Navajo Sash from Jathan's Uncle Julius when we got married. It was used back in the day when Navajo women would labor. Jathan got an idea to tie it around the post of our bed so that I could use it for a back support and push against it to relieve some of my back pain. For my intense contractions Jathan still had to push on my back but it worked wonders for most of my contractions!!

I was in and out of the tub a few times, walked around the house, used my Navajo sash, went back in the tub, and so forth. Finally I was at a nine and thought things would surely start moving but still, I was not ready to push. I got back into the tub and I think the baby moved positions a little because finally my contractions started getting stronger.

The midwife broke my water and after about 7 minutes of pushing my little baby was born. Oh this time around pushing was crazy! Troop came flying out of me after one push so I was totally spoiled with that labor. She had a much larger head than he had and she must have been in a funny position as she mad her way out because the poor little honey had bruised blood shot eyes and her face was all purple. But man when she came out she was ticked at the world for taking her from her nice warm home! She was just a screaming!

Here is my wonderful sash I used for my back labor.

Here I am practically swinging on it. I just pushed against the post and laid all my weight into it. Jathan was thankful too because usually he is exhausted during my labor, pushing on my back as hard as he is physically able. He got a little break.

And there she is! Totally ticked!! Sweet thing!

How cute is this? This is how they weighed her, hanging in a blanket over my bed connected to a little scale. She was born at 11:57, weighed in at 8 lbs 2 oz. and was 20 inches long.

The kids were so funny when they came home. Troop wouldn't come into my room for a while. When he finally did he asked me "What is that thing?". Zanna was excited to meet her new sister but her hair still had vernix in it and Zanna was not pleased that she was "dirty". But after a little while they were both smitten!

Having the baby at home was so nice! I really loved it! It was so calm and peaceful and comfortable. I loved not having to go anywhere after the baby was born. Loved being in my own comfortable bed and especially loved not having to go out into the crazy snow with my new sweet baby. I think the biggest thing I missed about not being at the hospital is simply not having my kids crawl on me all day long ;)

Oh here is a fun little fact about Alaska. The national average for births out of a hospital is less than 1%. In Alaska over 30% of births are at home or in birthing centers. Interesting eh?