A Birthing Story

Men and those who have never given birth might not want to keep reading - just sayin'!

My due date was somewhere around the week of March 28th to April 3rd. You know, 'cuz babies have calendars in there...

On Monday March 15th I had a midwife appointment and she had to do an internal exam (for the record only the 2nd one of the entire pregnancy - yay for midwives!). She said I was about 1 cm dilated and 65% effaced. Farther along than I had been when I actually went to the hospital with Cory in labor. So that was encouraging!

After I got home I started having some cramps and the next day I was walking around like a cripple because I was having one sided cramps. It felt mostly like the ligament stretching that had happened early on in my pregnancy, but I told a friend, "either this has got to stop or I'm not going to make it 2 more weeks!"

Tuesday night I decide it might be a good idea to have Brian find the boxes in the garage that have all the baby stuff in them. I spend the whole evening sorting.

Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, I got up at 3am to pee (like clockwork) and felt pretty crampy.

4:15am I wake up to a contraction. Feel a slight bit of wetness down there. Roll off the bed and practically gush water all over the floor. Start to freak out a bit!
I tell Brian that I think my water has just broken and page the midwife. While waiting for her to call me back I decide that it might be a good idea to start some laundry - all those baby clothes and blankets that I had sorted the night before!

When the midwife calls back and I tell her that my water broke she says, okay, since I'm strep B positive this means we WILL have to have this baby in the next 24 hours, but not to worry and I don't need to come in until my contractions are a minute long, less than 5 minutes apart, and going on for an hour. At this point I'm hardly having any and they just feel more like cramps so I go back to bed.

The first midwife was leaving for vacation that day so the other midwife - who is also 8 months pregnant calls me in the morning. We schedule a time for me to come in if nothing has progressed so they can be sure it was actually my water breaking. Noon rolls around and my dad meets us at the midwife center to take Cory home with him. While sitting there chatting nicely with the midwife a huge gush of water comes out. Thankfully this precludes another exam since it's pretty obvious what this is!

However, with the risk of the strep B the labor needs to get going so we buy castor oil on the way home. I really really try hard not to take it by taking a nap and letting my body relax, but by 4pm with not a whole lot going on I have to drink it... Let me just say, don't ever mix it with anything! The midwife suggested mixing it with juice, but that just made the little oil globules roll around in my mouth, I think I'd have preferred just one texture! Ew!

At this point I'm still not sure if it was the castor oil or my body just getting with it, but I finally started to have more regular contractions. Still not too painful, thankfully. But after laying down for awhile at 7pm I was starting to have to breath through them and although they didn't feel that long I think they were actually longer than a minute.

We called the midwife, who had a half hour drive, and arranged to meet her there at 8. While trying to get ready and having to stop every couple minutes to breath we didn't actually get there until 8:15. She was there waiting with two birthing assistants (who I totally ignored until he was born, but were fabulousness).

They started the IV for the antibiotics (darn that strep B) and checked me at a 4 already. They had the giant tub all ready and as soon as I got in I could feel my body relax. I knew that I really had to focus on relaxing, but having Brian behind me and no one pressuring me made it so much easier. No lights, just a few candles and a big warm tub.

For the next hour I had super crazy contractions. Things I vaguely remember saying:
"what was I thinking? drugs are my friend!" (the midwives cannot give any pain medication)
"I'm not having any more kids"
"Shut up. I'm sorry" - when Brian was talking and I couldn't think how to ask him politely to be quiet!

Having to get out of the tub to use the toilet was pure torture (stupid castor oil), but getting back in I could immediately feel the muscles around my sides relax. The tub helped allow a break between contractions.

Soon I started to feel more pressure and suddenly I thought I needed to push so I called for the midwife. She had to check me again and was totally shocked to find I was at a 10 already with just a lip of skin holding him up. Then, she made me get out of the tub.
She wouldn't tell me why, only that I had to, but afterwards she said it was for 2 reasons. One, at 8 months pregnant she couldn't help me in the tub and two, after progressing that fast through labor it was a danger to have me in the tub due to possible bleeding afterwards. But she didn't want to have to tell me that in the middle of labor!

So, out we went and made a huge wet puddle on the bed, but after only about 3 pushes at 10:10pm he was out! Everyone was pretty surprised/impressed that I had gone from a 4 to a 10 in roughly an hour. I guess the norm is one hour per cm... which would explain the crazy intense contractions I was having!

Noah checked out perfectly and at 1:30am we came home!

In contrast to Cory's birth... I felt like I had a say in what happened and although it was intense for an hour it didn't drain me like the 36 hours with Cory! Total night and day difference!