On Monday, August 6th, I went into a routine doctors appointment. The doctor checked my cervix and reported that I was about 4 cm dilated and that if I didn't go into labor naturally in the next week that we would need to start talking induction. I had been told since about the beginning of July that I had a high chance of delivering early and to be prepared. Needless to say I was skeptical at this point. Our doctor encouraged us to do whatever we wanted to prompt labor to get started. Keep in mind that my due date for Hannah was August 13 so I was not even considered late at this point. We listened like good patients and did all the things they tell you to do to help labor get started. It was also suggested that I try to take an anti anxiety herbal supplement because our doula felt like I was probably nervous and anxious about impending labor which was causing my body to hold back from beginning the process. Friday night I took two doses of the supplements, drank my red raspberry leaf tea, did the miles circuit and headed out to be social. We celebrated one of my best friends graduating from the fire academy and ended the night with a house warming party for another good friend. I also have a great story about a snake and Wal-Mart from that day. Ask me about it sometime but let's stay on topic.
Saturday early morning I woke up feeling like I had to go to the bathroom. Many ladies will tell you, the beginning of labor mimics the feeling of diarrhea. I didn't know that yet. That was 2:30am. I woke up again at 3:30am with the same feeling and went back to bed. From here on out things got real. This was labor. People tell you that you will know when you go into labor and at this point I finally realized they were telling the truth! I started waking up about every 10 minutes with contractions. I woke up will and told him I that I thought I was in labor and that I was going to hop in the tub and try to relax. I will never forget his drowsy excitement when I told him and he responded "that's so awesome", and then promptly fell back asleep as if on cue since we had been told to get as much rest as possible in the early stages of labor. At this point contractions were lasting 30-60 seconds and were about 8-10 minutes apart. Thank goodness for technology because all we had to do was push a start and stop button on my phone and it recorded everything for us. Around 5:30/6am I was having a hard time laying down so we migrated downstairs together to the living room where I sat on the birthing ball and Will took care of the animals and packed the car so we could load and go when we were ready to head out. I was starting to have to focus on my breathing through contractions. I had kept Julie, our doula updated since the first signs of labor and she arrive around 8:30am with breakfast for Will and energy to help me focus. She kept on me about drinking, eating and going to the bathroom. Anytime I walked at all contractions would get strong and sitting on the toilet to pee was ridiculously hard. Contractions just came back to back the minute I would sit down and I literally hated the toilet, hated it. We headed out for a walk around the block at 10am and ended up not making it very far because I had to stop every few steps and lean on Will as a contraction built and passed. We came back in the house and I layer on the couch to try and rest and labor through contractions as they got much stronger and closer together. At 10:30am we collectively decided it was time to head out since contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and lasting about a minute each. We had already called the doctor and they agreed we should head in to the hospital.
With at least a 30 minute ride ahead of us the car ride was terribly long and painful. I held a pillow while I saw in the back focusing on breathing with my eyes closed tight because I didn't want to see where we were in relation to the hospital. Will talked me through contractions and rubbed my foot, squeezing his hand between the seats so he could reach it. That was our connection through transition because that is the stage I hit the minute I got in the car. Julie had to pass us on the highway because Will couldn't remember how to get to the hospital. As we pulled in, Will dropped me off at the door and Julie was going to sit with me while Will parked. I panicked because no way did I want to sit there and wait for both of them to park so Julie pulled ahead and parked quickly so she could come and help me with the long journey up to labor and delivery while Will parked our car. We had actually joked about giving birth on 35 and I didn't know I could be so relieved to actually be at the hospital and not giving birth on the side of the road.
We got to the hospital at 11:00am. Once the nurse checked me in and I was dressed they checked me and I was already 7 cm dilated. With the chaos and high energy they were not able to get an iv in to administer antibiotics which made them grouchy because I was strep B positive. What my doctor did not tell me was that I needed to get to the hospital early so they could administer the antibiotic before I was at the point of pushing given that I am allergic to penicillin. Too late. While the nurse was getting paperwork together I had this urge to push that just completely took over my body. My water broke. It was just me, Will, Julie and the nurse in the room. They had a rush of moms come in to labor and delivery and our doctor wasn't there yet. The nurse told me not to push. Try going through active labor, with contractions ripping through your body, tell you to push your baby out of your body and fighting that urge. Thankfully, Will got up in my face and kept telling me to just breathe as hard as I could in his face. I never thought I would be super vocal during labor. I was wrong. I moaned and I breathed. I thought about yoga breathing and just focused on taking deep breaths and letting them out slowly. Will stayed calm and coached me until the doctor came in the room.
As soon as the doctor came in, she told me I could push before she was even dressed and ready. I was ready. Julie reminded me to push into my bottom and to not use my energy to vocalize loudly. Once baby started to crown the doctor told me to take a pause because she needed to help baby a little because her shoulders were stuck. Olive oil and steady sure hands helped stretch everything and allowed me to push my little 9lb 2oz baby out all naturally at 11:44am. She was 21 inches of pure perfection despite severe bruising and swelling. They waited as long as they could to clamp the cord and Will cut it. The put her immediately to my chest but then had to take her away pretty quickly because I was bleeding and they didn't know where it was coming from. Will stood in the corner holding this brand new baby all by himself. They were really low staffed so the doctor and the nurse in the room were both focused on me.
I remember this part probably better than labor because it was more painful than labor. There was prodding and pushing everywhere. Will wasn't in the room because we agreed he would go with the baby and the pediatric nurse had finally came in to take her and check her over. Julie held my hand while they tried over and over the find the source of the bleeding. They ruled out it being my uterus but continued to talk about getting an operating room ready and blood transfusions. They actually told Will that he should go back in and be with his wife and scared the ever living crap out of him. He said he broke down in the hallway because they had him thinking that he was loosing me and he didn't want to face that. Luckily, they were being a tad bit dramatic and found the tear soon after. My vaginal wall had torn during delivery. They gave me piton to help with the bleeding. Was it because I had a large baby that shot out like a canon? We won't ever know but thank goodness for persistent doctors who aren't immediately cut happy. Once they got me stitched up I'll never forget the doctor looking at me and saying "Well, we got it done but I hope you aren't planning on any career in the adult industry because it ain't pretty". In the moment, it was kind of the perfect ending to the craziness and I totally appreciate my doctors humor. Later she told me that I gave her a few more grey hairs so I know despite her calm demeanor, she was sweating it a little.
Once things calmed down and we were still in the delivery room I realized the baby wasn't there. We asked for her to be brought back from the nursery several times. When they brought her in we found out they had given her formula because her blood sugar was 23 when she was delivered and it was deemed medically necessary. She had nursed fine immediately following birth so I took this information in but wasn't super excited to hear it. They had me nurse her for 15 minutes and give her more formula. They rechecked her blood sugar while she was skin to skin and it was up to 50. She was in the safe zone and they moved us to the recovery room to start our parenting journey!
Saturday early morning I woke up feeling like I had to go to the bathroom. Many ladies will tell you, the beginning of labor mimics the feeling of diarrhea. I didn't know that yet. That was 2:30am. I woke up again at 3:30am with the same feeling and went back to bed. From here on out things got real. This was labor. People tell you that you will know when you go into labor and at this point I finally realized they were telling the truth! I started waking up about every 10 minutes with contractions. I woke up will and told him I that I thought I was in labor and that I was going to hop in the tub and try to relax. I will never forget his drowsy excitement when I told him and he responded "that's so awesome", and then promptly fell back asleep as if on cue since we had been told to get as much rest as possible in the early stages of labor. At this point contractions were lasting 30-60 seconds and were about 8-10 minutes apart. Thank goodness for technology because all we had to do was push a start and stop button on my phone and it recorded everything for us. Around 5:30/6am I was having a hard time laying down so we migrated downstairs together to the living room where I sat on the birthing ball and Will took care of the animals and packed the car so we could load and go when we were ready to head out. I was starting to have to focus on my breathing through contractions. I had kept Julie, our doula updated since the first signs of labor and she arrive around 8:30am with breakfast for Will and energy to help me focus. She kept on me about drinking, eating and going to the bathroom. Anytime I walked at all contractions would get strong and sitting on the toilet to pee was ridiculously hard. Contractions just came back to back the minute I would sit down and I literally hated the toilet, hated it. We headed out for a walk around the block at 10am and ended up not making it very far because I had to stop every few steps and lean on Will as a contraction built and passed. We came back in the house and I layer on the couch to try and rest and labor through contractions as they got much stronger and closer together. At 10:30am we collectively decided it was time to head out since contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and lasting about a minute each. We had already called the doctor and they agreed we should head in to the hospital.
With at least a 30 minute ride ahead of us the car ride was terribly long and painful. I held a pillow while I saw in the back focusing on breathing with my eyes closed tight because I didn't want to see where we were in relation to the hospital. Will talked me through contractions and rubbed my foot, squeezing his hand between the seats so he could reach it. That was our connection through transition because that is the stage I hit the minute I got in the car. Julie had to pass us on the highway because Will couldn't remember how to get to the hospital. As we pulled in, Will dropped me off at the door and Julie was going to sit with me while Will parked. I panicked because no way did I want to sit there and wait for both of them to park so Julie pulled ahead and parked quickly so she could come and help me with the long journey up to labor and delivery while Will parked our car. We had actually joked about giving birth on 35 and I didn't know I could be so relieved to actually be at the hospital and not giving birth on the side of the road.
We got to the hospital at 11:00am. Once the nurse checked me in and I was dressed they checked me and I was already 7 cm dilated. With the chaos and high energy they were not able to get an iv in to administer antibiotics which made them grouchy because I was strep B positive. What my doctor did not tell me was that I needed to get to the hospital early so they could administer the antibiotic before I was at the point of pushing given that I am allergic to penicillin. Too late. While the nurse was getting paperwork together I had this urge to push that just completely took over my body. My water broke. It was just me, Will, Julie and the nurse in the room. They had a rush of moms come in to labor and delivery and our doctor wasn't there yet. The nurse told me not to push. Try going through active labor, with contractions ripping through your body, tell you to push your baby out of your body and fighting that urge. Thankfully, Will got up in my face and kept telling me to just breathe as hard as I could in his face. I never thought I would be super vocal during labor. I was wrong. I moaned and I breathed. I thought about yoga breathing and just focused on taking deep breaths and letting them out slowly. Will stayed calm and coached me until the doctor came in the room.
As soon as the doctor came in, she told me I could push before she was even dressed and ready. I was ready. Julie reminded me to push into my bottom and to not use my energy to vocalize loudly. Once baby started to crown the doctor told me to take a pause because she needed to help baby a little because her shoulders were stuck. Olive oil and steady sure hands helped stretch everything and allowed me to push my little 9lb 2oz baby out all naturally at 11:44am. She was 21 inches of pure perfection despite severe bruising and swelling. They waited as long as they could to clamp the cord and Will cut it. The put her immediately to my chest but then had to take her away pretty quickly because I was bleeding and they didn't know where it was coming from. Will stood in the corner holding this brand new baby all by himself. They were really low staffed so the doctor and the nurse in the room were both focused on me.
I remember this part probably better than labor because it was more painful than labor. There was prodding and pushing everywhere. Will wasn't in the room because we agreed he would go with the baby and the pediatric nurse had finally came in to take her and check her over. Julie held my hand while they tried over and over the find the source of the bleeding. They ruled out it being my uterus but continued to talk about getting an operating room ready and blood transfusions. They actually told Will that he should go back in and be with his wife and scared the ever living crap out of him. He said he broke down in the hallway because they had him thinking that he was loosing me and he didn't want to face that. Luckily, they were being a tad bit dramatic and found the tear soon after. My vaginal wall had torn during delivery. They gave me piton to help with the bleeding. Was it because I had a large baby that shot out like a canon? We won't ever know but thank goodness for persistent doctors who aren't immediately cut happy. Once they got me stitched up I'll never forget the doctor looking at me and saying "Well, we got it done but I hope you aren't planning on any career in the adult industry because it ain't pretty". In the moment, it was kind of the perfect ending to the craziness and I totally appreciate my doctors humor. Later she told me that I gave her a few more grey hairs so I know despite her calm demeanor, she was sweating it a little.
Once things calmed down and we were still in the delivery room I realized the baby wasn't there. We asked for her to be brought back from the nursery several times. When they brought her in we found out they had given her formula because her blood sugar was 23 when she was delivered and it was deemed medically necessary. She had nursed fine immediately following birth so I took this information in but wasn't super excited to hear it. They had me nurse her for 15 minutes and give her more formula. They rechecked her blood sugar while she was skin to skin and it was up to 50. She was in the safe zone and they moved us to the recovery room to start our parenting journey!
Will remembered to hand over our birth plan and because of how quick it was we didn't even have a chance to deviate from a natural delivery. The complications all came after birth and the team did only what they needed to do and avoided doing anything more. hannahndid not get a bath while in the hospital and they were very supportive of her rooming in the whole time and breast feeding. We even asked for them to take her to the nursery so I could walk a little once my catheter was removed and they urged us to just take her with us instead and we could drop her off if we changed our minds. We didn't end up dropping her off :-) Before we were discharged we asked the lactation consultant to come watch us nurse before we left. We got lots of nursing guidance but did end up using a nipple shield the whole time and are working on transitioning away from the breast shield now that we are home.
Will was a really awesome coach through everything and although we both agree that we were so glad Julie was there and wouldn't have changed a thing, Will was present and informed the whole time and was able to guide me through labor and delivery without any issues between the two of us. After all the joking, I don't know that I ever hit the bitchy stage and I definitely didn't ask for any kind of pain meds at any time.
