For 2 weeks leading up to the actual birth, I had major contractions for about 4-5 hours every night, but when I would lay down, they would go away. It was very frustrating and I was soooo ready for him to be out. We still didn’t have a specific name for him, but we had it narrowed down to 2 names: Morgan Elliot or Elliot Finn.
My last appointment before our official due date of October 14, I had a cervical check and even though I had basically had 2 weeks of on and off labor, I was only 1.5 cm dilated and 50% effaced. In other words, labor was still a little ways away. Once I went over my due date, I started freaking out because I know what the statistics are of baby’s being stillborn when they go to 42 weeks. I also knew that he was already big and wanted to be able to deliver naturally in the birth center rather than need to go to the hospital. I was still getting contractions nightly, but they didn’t seem to be doing much.
Four days overdue I had an NST/BPP. Basically an ultrasound to check to see how baby is forming and whether baby seems ok to come out and then a monitoring to make sure that baby is moving and reacting normally. They both came back as great news that baby was still thriving in the womb. However, the BPP estimated him to already be weighing about 10#13oz. The doctors stressed that we wanted to have the baby not much after 41 weeks otherwise he could get to big and then we would need to go in for a c-section. I had already had the c-section scare when he turned himself transverse at 36 weeks before he went back into the head down position. I was nervous, but was just ready to have him out so I could see him while I worried about him.
After the NST/BPP, I had an appointment every day with Chris, the midwife, to do what we could to get the baby out without needing medical intervention. On October 19, Chris did a cervical check and sweep. I was finally up to 2.5cm dilated, but still only 50% effaced. She recommended taking evening primrose oil (EPO) and mothers cordial. I had another bout of contractions, but they faded away. The next day, we did another cervical check and sweep and I was up to 3cm dilated, but still only 50% effaced. That night, we did the EPO and mothers cordial and we also did cotton root to see if that would start something. I had major contractions after the cotton root, but was really disappointed when, once again, I laid down and they went away. I went into the appointment the next day feeling discouraged since it was a Friday and I was 41 weeks. Chris, Darrell and I had a long conversation about if the baby wasn’t here by Monday, we would start the process to be transferred to the hospital for an induction. Chris only had a couple more things up her sleeve to try. So that night, we were to go ahead and do the same that we did the night before with the EPO, mother’s cordial and cotton root. Chris also talked about her hail mary and that if tonights stuff didn’t work, we could do castor oil, but that was her last trick. So our plan was to use the castor oil on Sunday if we hadn’t had a baby yet. When she did the cervical check at the end of the appointment, I was up to 4cm and finally moved to 75% effaced. I went home hopeful, but not really holding my breath since we had felt for sure that baby was going to be born in early October. Chris had also told us that her husband was taking the family out to Leavenworth that weekend so she would be gone from Saturday afternoon until Monday morning. We love Chris, so we were really desperate to get the baby out either Friday or wait until Monday.
<–my final pregnancy photo the morning I delivered him at 41 weeks exactly
On the way home around 1pm, I started having slight contractions, but chalked them up to the fact that Chris had done one last sweep and it was super uncomfortable. When we got home around 1:30, I relaxed on my exercise ball until 2pm when I was going to start the cotton root stuff. After the first dose of cotton root, I had realized that the contractions hadn’t really stopped from the appointment, but they weren’t super strong and I had been through hours of contractions that just stopped when I laid down. I was determined to not lay down this time. At 3pm, I turned on a show for Edward while my mom did a puzzle and I started to time the contractions. They were about 5 minutes apart and about 30 seconds long. After an hour of them not getting any closer or longer, but definitely starting to get stronger, I called Chris and we talked for a bit. She said it sounded like we would be having a baby, but take it easy and call her in an hour. At 4:30, Darrell came downstairs to check on things and get some coffee. I finally told him that I was pretty sure this was it. It was already getting hard to talk during the contractions and they were starting to get longer. He went back up to his office to wrap up what he was working on.
At 5:30, Darrell went to run out to put gas in the car (which was something I was going to do after lunch and then the contractions started). Unfortunately, it was now prime rush hour in our area, so it ended up taking him an hour plus to go get gas and get back. While he was gone, the contractions had gotten really strong so I was basically starting to focus on getting through the contractions rather than anything else. I figured it wouldn’t hurt to go lay down at this point, so I went to lay down in my bed. Mom worked on getting Edward ready to go and the stuff prepped to go into the car (snacks etc). When Darrell got home around 6:30ish, he had called the doula and she was going to be heading towards our house. The contractions had started to get closer together and longer. They were about 1 minute long and about 3 minutes apart. About 15 minutes after Darrell got home, I went downstairs to make sure everything was in the car so we could go. Mom was finishing getting Edward ready, everything but my ball (I was still using it through contractions) was in the car and Darrell was emptying and reloading the dishwasher. I kept saying that we needed to go and Darrell kept saying the doula was on her way to our place. I told him to call her and send her straight to the birth center because we were leaving.
We left our house around 7pm so we hit just the tail end of rush hour. We had to go down 405 which now has an express toll lane and when you are carpool it is free. We were able to use that and hit almost no traffic whatsoever so we arrived at the birth center at 7:26pm. I remembered once again that laboring in a moving vehicle SUCKS!!! I pretty much jumped out as soon as we were stopped. I had stopped timing them, but knew that they were definitely closer.
When we got inside the birth center, Chris was there along with a secondary midwife (Kat), a student midwife (Camila) and our Doula (Victoria). Darrell brought in the exercise ball first and I sat on that while Chris spent a few contractions listening to baby’s heartbeat to see how he was handling them. After we got the all clear, I was able to get into the birth tub. I got into the tub at 7:45 and was dealing with contractions and ignoring almost everyone else in the room. We had brought some new toys for Edward (Iron Man and Hulk figurines), so he was mostly on the other side of the room playing, but occasionally, he would come over and rub my hand while I was having a contraction. He kept saying “it’s okay mommy.” I love that he was able to be there and experience the birth of his brother.
About a half hour after I got into the tub, I started to feel like I needed to push but thought it was to soon so Chris asked if I wanted her to check my progress. After another contraction, she checked and I was already 100% effaced and 9cm dilated. She felt that it was more of a stretchy 9, so if I wanted to try to push, I would be able to in the next contraction and it would finish it up. I started pushing and reached 10cm by 8:25. I was trying to only push during a contraction and it was super hard and took a lot of focus since it felt as though my body wanted to push continuously so I was having a hard time telling when it was a contraction and when it wasn’t. I know that Victoria was changing the cloth on my head, Darrell was holding my hand while Edward was rubbing my hand and my mom was taking photos (all I saw was the occasional flash as I usually labor with my eyes closed so I can focus). During one of the pushes, my water broke and then just a few minutes later, Morgan was born at 8:32pm. They placed him immediately on my chest and we just sat there in awe. It took me a few seconds to a minute to actually open my eyes and look at him. He had a full head of crazy hair and was sooo big! Edward and Darrell touched him and we all doted on him. He made small squeaks, but never actually cried. Just looked around at us with an old grumpy man look.
We waited until the cord stopped pulsing before we had Darrell cut the cord. When we opened the towel they had wrapped him in, we noticed that he had pooped all over us. After cutting the cord, it was time to deliver the placenta, but I was super weak and starting to get shaky, so Darrell took Morgan and Edward off to the side to bond while I delivered the placenta. After placenta delivery, the midwives helped me get out of the tub and head over to the shower to clean up. (I didn’t even know there were showers there. Darrell said he used one when I delivered Edward, but I never did.) I was really shaky and unsteady, so I was holding onto walls and trying to drink some gatorade. But in all, the hot shower and soap definitely felt great after delivery. After I got moderately cleaned up (as much as I dared so I wouldn’t pass out or collapse in the shower), the midwives helped me over to the bed so we could do the fun after birth stuff (ie: palpate the uterus and check for damage in the nether regions and stitches if necessary).
I ended up with a 1st degree tear and a small skid mark. Better than with Edward, but once again, the lidocaine didn’t work and I felt everything. It was about an hour later (10pm) that Morgan was brought back to me to nurse before doing all the vitals on him. He peed on Camila while she was working on getting set up for his checkup so at that point we had no question about whether his outputs were working since he had already peed and pooped. 🙂
We decided on using both names we had for him and putting them together. So he became Morgan Elliot Finn Ross. Born October 21, 2016 at 8:32 pm weighing 10#3.5oz and 21.5” long.
We got everything all done and were prepped and sent on our way home at 11:45pm.
