I woke up Monday morning, my due date, at 8am. It seemed much like any other morning. I got the kids up, and made them breakfast, I drank some coffee and began to plan the day. I had a chiropractic appointment that morning and wanted to have a play date right after that. The appointment was at 9:30, so I while everyone ate, I ran around and picked up the house a bit to prepare for company. I was feeling a a lot of pressure and cramps, and even the occasional contraction, but that had not been unusual that week, so I didn't think too much of it. By 9am, I began having some more regular, light contractions, but again, that was nothing unusual and I didn't pay too much attention to it. We had to leave for the chiropractor at 9:15 and by then the contractions had strengthened to the point that I thought twice about leaving the house. I had the kids take their shoes off, I put on a movie for them and I sat on our play room couch and waited to see if the contractions would die off or intensify.
While sitting on the couch, I also called to cancel the chiropractic appointment, I coordinated with my friend (who I was going to have the play date with) to see if she could take the kids in the event that this was real labor, I called the midwife and told her that maybe she should come over just to check things out and determine if I really was in labor, and then I called Michael and told him that I might be in labor and that he should try to get home and take the kids to my friend's house. By this time it was 10am and I had downloaded a contraction app on my phone. They were consistently 2-3 minutes apart and lasting about a minute each. And in a departure from recent episodes, the intensity was actually increasing. The pains began to wrap around from my back to my front, and I definitely had to sit and stop what I was doing, during them.
Michael got home at 10:30 and immediately took the kids to my friend's house, and right after he left, the midwife arrived. I was still feeling pretty good between contractions. I was able to talk and laugh, and I walked around the house collecting birth supplies and made sure everything was in order. The midwife checked me just as Michael came home from dropping the kids off, it was 11am. I was expecting the midwife to tell me that I was at 5cms or something like that (when she checked me the week before I had been at around 3cms and 60% effaced), and I was absolutely shocked when she told me I was at 8cms already! At that point I thought the baby would be born within the hour. I walked around our bedroom and labored, and the pains from that point on began to get very intense and I was definitely having less of a good time. After about an hour of very intense and painful contractions, I wanted her to check me again, hoping that I was nearly to the pushing stage. I was very demoralized to hear that I was still at an 8, but that my cervix was slightly thinner.
Things seemed to be taking longer than I expected them too, and I was frustrated that I could not find a comfortable position in which to labor. I tried getting into the tub, but that just made the contractions completely stop, so I got out. Standing seemed to do the trick, but it made my feet and legs ache terribly, and laying on the bed hurt my back and pelvis too much. No matter what I tried I could not get into a good zone. Finally by about 12:30 I could feel myself just starting to push a little with each contraction. The midwife checked me one last time and I was now at a stretchy 9cms with just a little lip of cervix left. I didn't want my water to break outside the tub, so I decided to finally get into the water at that point. Like before, I could not find a comfortable position in the water. The position I preferred was discouraged by my midwife as she could not see what was going on down there good enough. So I experimented with a few different positions, finally landing on hands and knees in the water. I didn't love it, but decided to stick with it through a few contractions. I was pushing through each contraction at this point, and was in quite a lot of pain. I could feel his head descend slightly with each push, and then retract back up after each contraction was over. That was terribly frustrating. With Nora her head went down quickly and kept descending.
All of a sudden, my water broke with a obvious POP, and almost immediately the baby flew down the birth canal and his head began to crown (I could also feel his hand fly up by his face, and he came out with his hand against his cheek). It all happened so fast that I didn't even have time to get into my preferred pushing position. The midwife and her assistant were telling me to sit back so they could see, and also to slow my pushing and try to breathe through the contractions to slow things down. I was out of my mind with the pain and could barely hear their instructions, let alone follow them. I did manage to slow my pushing and breathe through them and do small, controlled pushes, but I was not able to get into a good pushing position. I ended up in this weird, terribly awkward half-lunge position. The bad part about that is that it didn't allow for my pelvis to be as open as it needed to be, so as I pushed the baby out, his head, shoulders and body, put tremendous pressure on the front joint of my pelvis. I could literally feel the bones pushing apart as he made his way through. That alone was more painful than the crowning, which was happening simultaneously. Finally, in about 3 strong contractions, I pushed the whole baby out. The midwife said that from the time the water broke, to when the baby came out, about 2 minutes had elapsed. He was born at 1:14pm, about 3.5 hours from the time I thought real labor had begun.
One of the crazy things that happened, was as I was pushing, I had the entire tub at my back, and as far as I knew, the water was crystal clear. After the baby came out and I began to look around, the tub water was atrocious. It had all manner of stuff in it and had this weird reddish green color to it. Thats when the midwife told me that he had pooped in utero and there was a ton of meconium that came into the tub just after my water broke. After we got the baby onto my chest, the midwife decided pretty quickly to drain the tub - a decision I had zero qualms with! Shortly after the cord stopped pulsing, I began to feel some uterine cramps and so they had me step out of the tub and onto the birthing stool. The placenta came out pretty much immediately upon sitting. I had warned them that it would come out fast, but I think that surprised them nonetheless. I got back into bed and they checked both of us out. I didn't have any tears (thank goodness), but I did have a few minor skid marks. They had to massage my uterus quite a bit to get all of the clots out, and boy was that unpleasant! The baby was weighed and measured too. He weighed 8lbs, 12oz and was 21 inches long, with a head circumference of 13.5 inches. They spent a lot of extra time monitoring his heart rate and breathing and lungs, because of the meconium in the water, but he sounded perfect each time. He was definitely fairly blue when he came out, but within the hour he had pinked up tremendously. While the midwives cleaned and packed everything up, we had a good nursing session, and then Michael went to pick up the kids while the two of us got a little rest.
This was definitely a tougher delivery than Nora's was, about on par with Will's I suppose (though shorter than his). The worst part is the pelvic pain that I am currently experiencing. Even from the outside, it just feels bruised and its very difficult and painful to walk. The midwife told me that I need to stay in bed for the next several days and was absolutely not allowed to even attempt the stairs for 2-3 days. Given how painful it is to just get up and go to the bathroom, I am not going to fight that suggestion one bit! I am SO relieved to have a healthy baby and to no longer be pregnant. Our family is now complete and I get to enjoy the fleeting joy of having a new baby in the house. At this point I am well aware of just how fast this all goes! Welcome to our family Daniel Thomas!
While sitting on the couch, I also called to cancel the chiropractic appointment, I coordinated with my friend (who I was going to have the play date with) to see if she could take the kids in the event that this was real labor, I called the midwife and told her that maybe she should come over just to check things out and determine if I really was in labor, and then I called Michael and told him that I might be in labor and that he should try to get home and take the kids to my friend's house. By this time it was 10am and I had downloaded a contraction app on my phone. They were consistently 2-3 minutes apart and lasting about a minute each. And in a departure from recent episodes, the intensity was actually increasing. The pains began to wrap around from my back to my front, and I definitely had to sit and stop what I was doing, during them.
Things seemed to be taking longer than I expected them too, and I was frustrated that I could not find a comfortable position in which to labor. I tried getting into the tub, but that just made the contractions completely stop, so I got out. Standing seemed to do the trick, but it made my feet and legs ache terribly, and laying on the bed hurt my back and pelvis too much. No matter what I tried I could not get into a good zone. Finally by about 12:30 I could feel myself just starting to push a little with each contraction. The midwife checked me one last time and I was now at a stretchy 9cms with just a little lip of cervix left. I didn't want my water to break outside the tub, so I decided to finally get into the water at that point. Like before, I could not find a comfortable position in the water. The position I preferred was discouraged by my midwife as she could not see what was going on down there good enough. So I experimented with a few different positions, finally landing on hands and knees in the water. I didn't love it, but decided to stick with it through a few contractions. I was pushing through each contraction at this point, and was in quite a lot of pain. I could feel his head descend slightly with each push, and then retract back up after each contraction was over. That was terribly frustrating. With Nora her head went down quickly and kept descending.
All of a sudden, my water broke with a obvious POP, and almost immediately the baby flew down the birth canal and his head began to crown (I could also feel his hand fly up by his face, and he came out with his hand against his cheek). It all happened so fast that I didn't even have time to get into my preferred pushing position. The midwife and her assistant were telling me to sit back so they could see, and also to slow my pushing and try to breathe through the contractions to slow things down. I was out of my mind with the pain and could barely hear their instructions, let alone follow them. I did manage to slow my pushing and breathe through them and do small, controlled pushes, but I was not able to get into a good pushing position. I ended up in this weird, terribly awkward half-lunge position. The bad part about that is that it didn't allow for my pelvis to be as open as it needed to be, so as I pushed the baby out, his head, shoulders and body, put tremendous pressure on the front joint of my pelvis. I could literally feel the bones pushing apart as he made his way through. That alone was more painful than the crowning, which was happening simultaneously. Finally, in about 3 strong contractions, I pushed the whole baby out. The midwife said that from the time the water broke, to when the baby came out, about 2 minutes had elapsed. He was born at 1:14pm, about 3.5 hours from the time I thought real labor had begun.
One of the crazy things that happened, was as I was pushing, I had the entire tub at my back, and as far as I knew, the water was crystal clear. After the baby came out and I began to look around, the tub water was atrocious. It had all manner of stuff in it and had this weird reddish green color to it. Thats when the midwife told me that he had pooped in utero and there was a ton of meconium that came into the tub just after my water broke. After we got the baby onto my chest, the midwife decided pretty quickly to drain the tub - a decision I had zero qualms with! Shortly after the cord stopped pulsing, I began to feel some uterine cramps and so they had me step out of the tub and onto the birthing stool. The placenta came out pretty much immediately upon sitting. I had warned them that it would come out fast, but I think that surprised them nonetheless. I got back into bed and they checked both of us out. I didn't have any tears (thank goodness), but I did have a few minor skid marks. They had to massage my uterus quite a bit to get all of the clots out, and boy was that unpleasant! The baby was weighed and measured too. He weighed 8lbs, 12oz and was 21 inches long, with a head circumference of 13.5 inches. They spent a lot of extra time monitoring his heart rate and breathing and lungs, because of the meconium in the water, but he sounded perfect each time. He was definitely fairly blue when he came out, but within the hour he had pinked up tremendously. While the midwives cleaned and packed everything up, we had a good nursing session, and then Michael went to pick up the kids while the two of us got a little rest.
This was definitely a tougher delivery than Nora's was, about on par with Will's I suppose (though shorter than his). The worst part is the pelvic pain that I am currently experiencing. Even from the outside, it just feels bruised and its very difficult and painful to walk. The midwife told me that I need to stay in bed for the next several days and was absolutely not allowed to even attempt the stairs for 2-3 days. Given how painful it is to just get up and go to the bathroom, I am not going to fight that suggestion one bit! I am SO relieved to have a healthy baby and to no longer be pregnant. Our family is now complete and I get to enjoy the fleeting joy of having a new baby in the house. At this point I am well aware of just how fast this all goes! Welcome to our family Daniel Thomas!
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