NOTE: I am open about what happened and there are some TMI parts. And be aware that not all deliveries are the same as I don’t want to scare any pregnant women (Joni).
I had been having lots of small contractions throughout the day for the past few weeks but they weren’t strong enough to time or anything. It was hard for me to sleep, so the midwives had recommended that I take calcium/magnesium to help calm down the contractions before bed so I can get some sleep and have enough energy when baby finally decided to arrive. This was on Wednesday, May 29, 2013.
My last belly photo taken on June 1:
On Saturday June, 1, 2013, I was on my way to bed around 11:30 and I had been having small contractions for the past half hour, but it wasn’t anything different than before, so I took my calcium/magnesium and headed off to bed. The contractions felt like they were subsiding like they always do when I lay down. I pulled out my phone and was playing around for about half an hour while I try to fall asleep.
About 12:30 am, I realized the contractions had come back. Unlike the other ones, these were timeable though. They were about 10 minutes apart and only lasting for about 30 seconds. Once again, I thought it was probably still false labor so I tried to go to sleep. Around 1:30, I had to go to the bathroom, so I got up to go still feeling the contractions every 10 minutes and I had massive diarrhea. The contractions also got worse while I was sitting on the toilet, so I sat there for a bit. I could feel the contractions coming and waning and finally decided that I should go downstairs and let Darrell know that it was most likely “go” time. When I wiped before I stood up, I found that I had my bloody show (mucus plug and a little bit of blood). That was my big indicator I was most likely going to have this baby in the next 24 hours.
By the time I got downstairs to Darrell, my contractions were about 45 seconds long and 5 minutes apart but I was still able to concentrate and talk through them. Darrell called our Doula, Alina, to let her know that things were really starting to progress and we would let her know what the midwives say. Then he called the midwife on call, Loren, to see what we should do. Loren said it was most likely early labor and that it sounded like we should get some sleep since we would be having a baby that day.
Darrell had woken Lorna up, so we all just went back upstairs and laid down to try to get some sleep. I tried my hardest to sleep, but the contractions were not getting any easier or longer in between. I was up and down to the toilet for awhile. When I was lying in bed, I realized that they were about 3 minutes apart and about a minute long (I was using a digital clock and just kind of estimating instead of really timing them). I told Darrell to go ahead and tune me out and get some sleep so at least one of us was rested. I was really uncomfortable, but tried to relax and just let the contractions roll over me. I came back from a toilet run just before 4am and got comfortable in bed when I felt a pop and a gush between my legs. As soon as I felt the pop, I knew immediately what it was. I said “Shit, my water just broke.”
Darrell was awake in an instant and up. Luckily, I had put a towel down under my side of the bed, so the water didn’t actually get on the mattress, but it wouldn’t stop coming. I got up and trailed water to the bathroom (not even 5 feet) and sat on the toilet for another contraction leaking water through my underwear. After the contraction, I finally got my underwear off and wow! there was a lot of mucus in the underwear. I tried to clean up and got another pair of underwear on with a pad to help catch some fluid since I knew it would constantly leak at this point. I went downstairs and got on my exercise ball to try to sway through the contractions.
Lorna cleaned up some of the water breakage stuff and Darrell was frantically getting dressed, calling Loren, Alina, and getting the last few items together to take. Loren’s assistant said that I should try to labor at home for another hour and then call back to check in and see how we were doing. We were originally just going to have Alina meet us at the birth center, but we decided to go ahead and have her meet us at our house as the contractions were getting stronger and I was starting to not be able to talk through them. Alina got to our house around 4:15 and just sat there talking to us and then really started to time the contractions. Darrell sat next to me and just talked to me throughout the whole contraction and attempted to help me relax. After about 7 or 8 contractions, Alina said we should call and go in as the first contraction was 3 minutes apart and 45 seconds long and the last one was just over 2 minutes apart and 60 seconds long. So off we went.
The birth center was a 30 minute drive from our house and everyone talks about how uncomfortable it is to labor in the car.. they were right. I was close to miserable. I couldn’t rock as I was stuck in one position, every turn made my body tighten up even more than the contraction, Darrell was driving and couldn’t really help support me through the contractions, and there were very bumpy freeways and roads. Luckily though, it was just after 5am on a Sunday, so there were very few cars on the road and we hit almost all green lights. We got to the birth center around 5:30am.
Since Loren was at another birth, we were going to be met by her assistant. We were a little confused as the door was closed and we didn’t see any other cars in the parking lot. I couldn’t sit in the car, so I got out and sat on my exercise ball on a towel in the parking lot. Mind you, I was only in a robe with underwear and a bra on since I didn’t want to actually get out clothes and put them on. It was only for a little bit as the midwife’s assistant came out of a side door we had forgotten about and got us straight into the birth room.
It was fabulous for me. She had already started the tub and I was able to just shed my robe and underwear and climb in to labor there. The water was warm, my contractions eased up a little bit and I was able to fully relax in between them. I labored in the tub for awhile and in between each contraction I was able to rest. I found that I labored easier with my eyes closed. It helped me focus during a contraction and quickly relax afterwards. I was so relaxed I didn’t realize what else was going on in the room. I know the midwife’s assistant came to take mine and baby’s vitals. I only know that because when she put the doppler for baby’s heartbeat, she wasn’t finding it, but I knew instinctually to move one of my legs and point to a spot for her and she found it immediately. This happened each and every time they checked his heartbeat. I completely lost track of time while laboring in the tub, so I don’t know any times for the rest up until after delivery.
Darrell spent most of the time next to me in the tub holding my hand and talking me through the contractions. At some point, Alina took over for Darrell while he went and had a sandwich so he could get some energy. When he came back, his breath stunk to me (even though I absolutely love the sandwich he had), so he had to go get a breath mint.
I don’t know when Loren finally arrived, but after awhile, she asked if I wanted to be checked to see where I was at since the contractions were getting harder for me. I said ok (since I had yet to be checked so had no idea how far I had come). I joked around with Darrell and said that I better damn well be higher than a 5. I was hoping for more like a 7, which is transition and when a lot of the contractions come back to back. Loren checked and I was at an 8. Much better than I thought and I was glad that I was still doing ok. This was the part I was more concerned about with going natural.
What seemed like 10 minutes later, I got the feeling to push a little and I let Loren know. She came back and checked again and said that I was a soft 10 but still had a little lip. She said it was ok to push when I felt the need and she would help stretch that last little bit out. I spent some time pushing in the tub and didn’t seem to get anywhere. Loren finally let me know that baby’s head was stuck in the pelvis so I needed to change positions and wondered if I would move to a birth “stool” and try to push him through the pelvis there. I said sure.
Now, if you have been in water for awhile, things seem much, much heavier when you finally stand up out of the water. So.. when I stood up, not only did I have a hard time with the full on weight of the belly coming back, I felt baby in the pelvis and the contractions got harder faster.
There were many times from 8cm onwards that the contractions would get hard and my only thought was I wanted to trade places with Darrell. He thought I meant I wanted him in the tub and me to be outside when I actually meant I wanted him to take over the labor and delivery. I think people snickered at that. Loren said that I had done hard work for the last 9 months, I should be able to experience the rush of finishing what I started.
After they got me on the “stool” (I use quotes because it really was more like a stainless steel frame you kind of crouched over and was fairly uncomfortable for me), things happened quickly. It only took about 5 contractions worth of pushing to finally get him out. Unfortunately, once his head came out, he was in the process of turning around like all baby’s do and his body came out really fast. He arrived at 8:27am.
I was immediately handed baby and he let out a huge wail. He was screaming so we all knew he had a nice set of lungs on him. Then Loren said to me, we need to get you to the bed because you aren’t stopping bleeding. So, Loren and a few of the other midwife assistants (there ended up being about 4 of them but I have no idea when they actually arrived) got some pads under me and walked me to the bed. I remember slipping and looking down to where I was walking (instead of just at the screaming baby in my arms) and just seeing a trail of blood. I was in a little bit of shock at how much blood there was but my emotions over having a healthy baby was overpowering at the moment. I just figured that it was because I hadn’t delivered the placenta yet and Loren hadn’t made it sound to serious. Lorna later told me that Loren told her to stop taking pictures at this point because of the amount of blood so it was expressed as serious but I didn’t pick up on it.
Once we got me to bed, we got the placenta delivered and Darrell cut the cord. Then I realized the midwife was still focusing on blood and asking for a lot more gauze than what she had (which was a decent pile to begin with). I started getting shaky (which is normal after a delivery as the hormones are out of balance) and I realized whatever Loren was doing was painful. Edward was still screaming and I kept tensing up because of the exam Loren was doing. I passed Edward off to Darrell as I was afraid I would drop him (even though I was lying on the bed). Darrell sat next to me with Edward while Loren did her exam and then she said I would need a couple of stitches. To me, a couple means two, but as there was so much blood, she couldn’t see how bad I was torn so she had to do a couple, clean up the blood, see if the bleeding had stopped and do a couple more if there was still bleeding. It was the most excruciating thing! She did do a local numbing agent, but it didn’t work and I still felt everything. She did the injections first and when I still felt it, she just used the needle to spray the agent on top instead of injecting it inside. She offered me a transfer to the hospital for epidural relief, but that if we transferred, my adrenaline would wear off and we would probably end up having to spend time there. I figured if I had gone this far without drugs, I could finish it up.
I was so sore and it hurt so much that I had to have people on both sides of me hold my legs open so Loren could get in there for the stitches without me jumping out of the bed. I wanted to scream at every stitch, but I didn’t and just tried to focus on other things. For the first half hour, I was just humming whatever I could really loud. It was a lot like a contraction as she would get a stitch in and then I would have a small break before the next one. I was focused more on not screaming because Edward had calmed down and every time I cried out, he would answer with a scream. After a half hour though, I couldn’t take it. I broke down and was just crying and screaming through every stitch. Everyone told me afterwards that they all had to take a moment to walk out of the room to catch their breath.
It took an hour before Loren had finished stitching me up. She got down enough that she said she could either put one more stitch in or if I was willing to be in bed for a week and not do anything, she would let it go. I jumped at the not needing another stitch. I just wanted to snuggle my little one and relax. There was still blood all over the bed and the student midwives had already cleaned up a lot of the blood from the floor.
I finally got Edward back and we did a nursing session on one side and he latched on fabulously! We did the nursing session to help stop some blood flow (since nursing contracts the uterus) and also to give the midwives some time to clean up the surgical stuff from the bed. After the session, they pulled out the weighing table and all of the stuff they needed to make sure that baby was healthy. A few of us guessed Edward’s weight. Alina thought 8, Lorna thought 8.5, I thought 9. I was closest as he came in at 8 pounds 14 ounces. He was 21.5 inches long. Loren measured his head and showed me the circumference for reference. I told her I didn’t need a reference, I felt it. 🙂 He handled all of the check up really well.
After the check-up, we got him into clothes and then Loren read us some of the “Baby Instructions” handbook saying what we needed to watch for and call them. Then Darrell and Lorna packed up the car while I snuggled Edward and then we were ready to go. The midwives helped me out to the car and all of us were on our way home to relax at 1:30pm, 8 hours after I arrived in labor.
<–Laboring in the tub. Daddy with his boy –>
<– Finally got Edward back after stitches. Grandma Lorna & Edward –>
<–First family photo. Cleaned up family photo –>
<– Not enjoying the check-up process. Alina, the doula, & Edward –>
<– Sleeping after delivery.
