Birth Story--Part 2: Labor and Birth at Home

If you haven't yet, go read Part 1: No Labor Yet. Thanks.
(Thursday, March 14th)
I was resting in my bed. I dozed off and on until about 4:25pm and then just lay there thinking.

4:35pm
I felt a contraction. While lying in bed. It was noticeable. Then I got up to go to the bathroom. And I felt another one. Strong. Looking back, I can count this as the beginning of my labor. Truly, at that moment, I knew something was starting. Over the next ten minutes, I had 5 contractions, all just as strong as the first.

4:45pm
I told Jeremy what was happening and I paged the midwives. Then I asked him to email Alyce with the directions as she asked me to. He did, ending the message by saying that it appeared my labor had started so Alyce and my mom might want to head straight to their hotel.

4:48pm
The midwife's assistant called me back because the midwife on call (Pam--who I'd seen earlier that day) was in a prenatal visit. I told the assistant (Allison) that I'd had about 5 strong contractions in the last 10 minutes. "I know that doesn't make a very long pattern, but I think things will move quickly so I figured I'd better let you know."

She told me that Pam would be available in about 10 or 15 minutes and if I wanted, she could have Pam call me back then. I said, "Please do."

This assistant didn't know me or my history of fast labors or that I was already at a 4 to begin with or any of that. So, we hung up.

4:53pm
I called my friend Teresa. She knew she was my first call if I was in labor and needed someone to come get my boys.  She said she'd be over to get them shortly.

4:56pm
It hadn't been 10 minutes yet, but from the intensity of the contractions and how close together they were, I knew I needed to get the midwives on their way over. So I called the office and asked Allison if she would please interrupt Pam and let me speak to her.

When Pam came on the phone, I said, "The contractions are one minute apart, maybe two." She said, "Sounds like we need to get over there." I think the whole conversation lasted about 10 seconds.

Now it was a waiting game. Waiting for the kids to get picked up and waiting for the midwives to arrive. Jeremy had plenty to do to get them ready to head out the door and get a few things gathered together for the labor and birth, but he calmly went about doing it.

5:15ish
Teresa arrived. Jeremy transferred seats into her car and sent her off with the boys.
They were off by 5:20ish.

After they left, I was able to pull into myself a bit more instead of watching out my bedroom window for her arrival and being distracted by the happy noise of my children. I changed my clothes. I began pacing less. I remembered how tired my legs were from standing through almost my whole labor the last time (with Edmund) and I decided I would try kneeling to give my legs a rest. Sitting or lying down during labor is always extremely uncomfortable for me, so I knew I didn't care to try that. I knelt near my bed.

It seemed a good time to offer a prayer, so I did. Please help the midwives get here really soon. But then I stayed there, mostly, with my elbows resting on the bed and my head resting on my hands.

Jeremy stayed beside me for the most part. At some point, he appeared with a cool washcloth for my forehead. Bless him.

5:27pm
The phone rang. We didn't recognize the number, but Jeremy answered anyway. It was the midwife's assistant. She said, "we're about ten minutes away."

That was good news because I was having very intense contractions about every other minute. I was leaning over my bed sweating like crazy. I was moaning and groaning with every contraction and sometimes swaying and stretching my lower back at the most intense points. I needed to go to the bathroom, but I was worried that if I went to the bathroom my water would break while I was on the toilet. And if I could avoid it, I didn't want my water to break until the midwives were there. So I didn't go to the bathroom.

5:40pm

Jeremy looked out the window and saw that the midwives' car was pulling up. He went down to meet them and invite them in.

I was alone and I instantly felt it. I was forlorn and forsaken! As the next contraction came over me, I called out, "Don't leave me!"

5:42pm
Jeremy came running back up to be with me while the midwives unloaded their stuff. I said to him, "Don't leave me like that."

He immediately left again to see that the midwives knew to come upstairs. He said to me later that they seemed to be taking forever to unload their stuff.

5:45pm
This is when the midwives count that they arrived because the first thing Pam did after greeting me and putting down her stuff was put the doppler on my belly to listen to the baby. I was in the middle of a contraction at first, but when it ended she continued listening and therefore heard my baby's heart during and after a contraction. Heart sounded great.

I then felt at liberty to go to the bathroom. Jeremy went with me. This was not real successful because sitting down on the toilet was so uncomfortable.

Back in the bedroom and back into my kneeling position, Pam came and put her hand on my back. "Wow, you are sweating, girlie." My robe was soaking.

Around then, I began to feel some stronger downward pressure during contractions. I thought that maybe pushing into this feeling would feel better and told Pam as much. She said I could go ahead and push with it if I wanted. I told her I didn't want to push in that position. (I was afraid that the upright position would make it more likely that I would tear while pushing.) She seemed surprised but asked how I wanted to push. I told her I'd like to be on the bed on my side.

Another contraction came on right then and by the time it was over, I looked up and saw that the bed was ready for me. They helped me up onto my side and Pam told me to push when I felt like it. I asked if she wanted to check my cervix to make sure I was ready to push. She was confident that I was, but checked me anyway.

"No cervix there," she announced.

5:54pm
I pushed. My water broke immediately. This startled Allison who was sort of in front of me. She was trying to hold my top leg up and listen to the baby's heart again. It wasn't working.

Jeremy got up on the bed behind me and held my leg up from there.

I pushed again, and according to Jeremy, the baby crowned almost immediately. After maybe two strong pushes, Pam told me slow down and give gentle slow pushes.

So I did.

5:58pm
She was out. The feeling of relief when the baby is finally out is always an amazing feeling. Almost as good as the baby being handed up to you to lie on your chest.

This baby was so so purple. The midwife and I rubbed her hoping she would begin to pink. No one was too worried, though, because she was hollering. Hollering, I tell you. She got a little pinker, but slowly. We rubbed and grinned and laughed at her hollering. I told her it was ok between marvelling at what I had just done and exclaiming at how beautiful she was.

At 6:00pm, I asked what time it was and what time she'd been born. I checked to see for myself that she was, in fact, a girl. I saw that baby girl was pink now and Pam wasn't worried about her color. And then I surrendered myself to the joy that my daughter was finally here.

(Part 3 is coming!)