Nathan's Birth Story

Monday the 11^th, his due date, I started to lose my mucus plug around lunch time. By dinner time, I had lost more. After coming home from book club, I started to have bloody show. Got a little excited but after 2 weeks of timable BH, I thought it was just another tease. Went to bed around 11 and woke up about 1:30 with 8 min. ctx. Same old, same old. I couldn’t go back to sleep so I got up at 2:15 and started writing the last of my thank you notes. I hopped online and started chatting with our doula, Heather, on gmail. Told her what was happening and she told me to go to bed. I did around 3. At 4, the ctx moved from 8 minutes to 5 minutes and were much more intense. Started hurting in my back too. I kept getting up to go to the bathroom since I felt like I had to go so badly.

At 6:30am, we called Heather to let her know we thought this was real. There was no reason for her to come at that point so we agreed to call the BC at 8 and page the on-call MW to give her a heads up. I labored in bed on my side in between feeling the need to sit on the toilet. Jeremy made me breakfast but I couldn’t sit down to eat it. So, I ate while on the toilet. It was the only comfortable seat. Heather kept calling to check in but we told her there was no need to come just yet.

Jeremy was a rock-star coach. He was right there with me and offered water every 3 ctx. He got out the child birth class book and read about different labor positions helping different feelings and had me moving around to try them. I wasn’t sure I could walk but he was right there to encourage me and help me. Walking circles in the living room and using him to lean on and hang off turned out to be great.

At 11:30, we called Heather to ask about the tub at home or other positions and to see if she would start making her way here. I told her the pain left my back but was super intense in my butt. She said she was just chatting about us with the MW and that why don’t we call here and meet them at the BC. WHAT?????? I didn’t think I was that far along. So, we called the MW and told her. She listened to a couple ctx and had us come in. We scrambled to pack the cooler and load the car. Its hard to do 2-3 minutes at a time. We made the first round of calls to family too.

I rode in the car kneeling in the back seat hugging the front passenger seat. We got to the BC around 12:30. I was checked and was 8-9 with a bulging bag. SO glad to hear that. I was afraid she was going to say 4 or something. I don’t even remember stripping my clothes and getting into the tub. It felt amazing. They poured water over my belly the whole time and it helped relax me so much. Around 1:30, MW checked me again and she felt like I was fully dilated. She broke my water and discovered I had a small lip left. After another little while, I could not get comfortable. That is a relative term in labor but I was flinging myself about in the tub just to try some other position. It was like I lost my mind or something. (the next day, my head hurt. Apparently I smacked it on the wall during a flinging fit) They had me get out of the tub and sit on the toilet backwards hugging a couple pillows. Felt good. I had them squeeze my hips and that was wonderful. Jeremy and Heather actually had to team up b/c I wanted so much pressure. I ended up starting to push on the toilet. After a few minutes, Heather asked what I was feeling and I told her it was burning (ring of fire in hind sight for me). She told the MW and into the bed I went. I was hoping for a water birth but I was not pushing well in the tub when we tried before.

I pushed for 48 minutes. I know I kept asking how much longer she thought it would be. I was so afraid it would be a couple hours. Pushing is hard work. Jeremy was right there in the bed with me and encouraging me with every push. There was no counting and I was able to hold my own legs. I don’t think I would have liked someone else to be pushing my legs back. At the very end, I actually didn’t even hold them but used Jeremy as leverage on one side and gripped the bed with the other. His head took a while to come out. Then Sharon had a hard time with his shoulders and thought they might be stuck. She had me push w/o ctx and that sucked. It was so hard to do. I remember asking her to just pull him out and DH said that is pretty much what it looked like she was doing. She ended up being able to get him out and I pulled him to my belly. There was a ridiculous gush of water with him. Soaked the bed. And when I say soaked, I mean soaked. I had so much water weight, it wasn’t even funny.

He was 8 pounds, 8 oz; 22 ¼” long; 13 ¾” head and 14 ¼” chest. I needed no stitches although I did tear in a couple places. I thought my urethra would be split in two, I will be honest.

Delivering the placenta was not so fun. I wasn’t feeling the heavy ctx anymore and all I wanted to do was look at my baby. Got it out though and then started bleeding. They had to give a shot of pitocin and “massage” my uterus. Um, that sucks. I was crying. It was worse than labor and pushing. I was screaming. I care not to think about it. I ended up trying to pass out a couple times so I had to chug Gatorade as to avoid a transfer for an IV.

We left at 10pm, 6 hours after he was born. It was a truly amazing experience and Im glad I got the birth I planned for. I do remember thinking though that now I get the appeal of epidurals. I have never judged someone that chooses one but have not really understood it either. Now I get it. Having the majority of the pain taken away and being able to hold a conversation during labor could certainly have its high points. As would sleeping! But, I never once thought I cant do this or I want the drugs. I am proud of myself but more for being a mother than how it happened. It was a personal choice and not a cause for medal as some would claim.

Funny stuff: Jeremy says labor noises from me sounded like I was talking to the whales in Nemo. It was so primal. I wasn’t even thinking. It just felt right. During pushing, I went high and once told to keep it low, I did and it made a difference.

While I was pushing, Heather had the flashlight on my thigh instead of on my vagina. Sharon thought it was funny to make shadow puppets on my thigh. I heard them laughing and Sharon say that I would think it was funny once I wasn’t pushing. Once they told me later, I was cracking up. You don’t get that in a hospital!

I will post more later. He is well. Nursing is challenging but we are keeping at it. I cant believe Jeremy and I created this perfect little person. He is just amazing.