My baby is here!
Nicholas Allen was born on 3/20 at 9:48 p.m. weighing 8 pounds 12 ounces, 20¾ inches long. He was due on 3/25. Early labor was about 26 hours, but active labor was only 4½ hours with about 30 minutes of pushing! Totally natural birth, in a hospital, just what I wanted :) They didn't even put in an iv access. In fact, no needles until the next day when they drew my blood to test my hemoglobin.
Key players:
Dave = my husband
Scott = my almost-four-year-old son
Kelly = my doula
Nick’s birth story begins, I think, on Sunday morning, March 18th. I woke up with the intense need, and matching energy, to have a clean house. I thought this might be a sign of “nesting” and was hopeful that maybe labor would start soon. However, I really overdid it and ended up with a very sore back. I didn’t sleep well that night, and in the morning decided to call my chiropractor because my back was still very sore with soreness radiating down my right leg.
Normally on Mondays I take my almost-four-year-old son to story time at the library in the morning. But I felt the need to stay home and be quiet in my clean nest. I called my chiropractor and got an appointment for 2 p.m. Then I dug out the paperback that I had set aside as what I wanted to read during early labor. I didn’t let myself think about it too much. I just wanted to sit and read. I had been having some bloody show since first thing that morning, but no contractions or anything else to indicate that labor was imminent.
On the way home from the chiropractor I had my first contraction, at 3 p.m. Nothing major, just a crampy feeling low in my abdomen, different than the BH I’d been feeling (which felt like my belly getting tight all over). And so it started and so it continued with contractions just about exactly 15 minutes apart, lasting 20-30 seconds all that afternoon and evening. I mostly sat in my rocking chair and read and would glance at the clock to see if they were getting any closer together. They never did, nor did they get more intense, but they didn’t peter out either, which is what I was afraid of. I didn’t know if “this was it” or not, but around 8 p.m. I called Dave to tell him what had been happening. I got Scott settled in to bed, and Dave called again to ask if anything else had happened. I said it hadn’t, but we made the decision to call his partner to cover his shift at work the next day anyway. (His leave was to start on Wednesday, but he was supposed to work on Tuesday.) After I talked to him I did call Kelly, my doula, just to give her a heads-up that something might be starting, but that it was starting very slowly.
I had a little trouble falling asleep that night, excited that something was happening at last, and a little apprehensive that it would either stop overnight or that it might get more intense overnight. I finally got up and took half a benedryl to help me sleep. I slept quite hard until about 5 a.m., when the contractions got more intense and I couldn’t lay down through them but had to get up and lean on the bed and rock my hips. I looked at the clock and they were still about 15-20 minutes apart and still only lasting 20-30 seconds, just a little more intense feeling. I dozed between contractions until Scott and Dave woke up a little after 7. We made the decision then to call my parents and bring Scott over to their house so that I could labor in quiet at home. I could tell Dave was apprehensive about leaving me, but I didn’t feel like riding in the car to drop Scott off, so I assured him I would be fine while he took Scott over to my parents’ house.
Things continued in the same vein pretty much all day. Contractions continued about 15-20 minutes apart and not usually lasting longer than 30-40 seconds. I was uncomfortable to sit through them though and needed to be on my feet to deal with each one, leaning on something and rocking my hips. We watched some tv and I would get out of the rocking chair and lean on the back of it for each contraction. I paced the house some, leaning on the kitchen or bathroom counter for each contraction. I sat on the birth ball at the computer, but had to get up and lean on the desk for each one. Dave sometimes rubbed my lower back very gently and for some reason that really helped. I wasn’t having back labor and didn’t need anything as strong as counter pressure, just that gentle touch was enough to distract me from the discomfort of each contraction. I felt all the contractions low in my belly, like cramps and pressure. I continued with bloody show all day, although I never saw a distinct mucus plug. I ate and drank normally, and my body decided to “empty” itself. To me, that was the first true sign this was labor. But as the day wore on I found myself wondering when active labor would begin. I was really hoping maybe by that afternoon, nearing the 24 hour mark since early labor had begun. But they didn’t get any closer together.
We had our 39 week prenatal appointment scheduled for that afternoon. Dave wondered if we shouldn’t cancel, thinking we would be at the hospital by then. I said let’s wait and see. Still in early labor by then, we headed for the clinic for our 4:20 appointment. Dave asked on the way out the door if we shouldn’t grab our hospital bags “just in case.” But I said no, thinking that all this labor might have gotten me to 2 or 3 centimeters and she’d surely send us home until contractions were 4-5 minutes apart. Contractions were definitely harder to handle in the truck since I had to sit through them, but I only had two and then we were there and I was able to lean on the truck for one more in the parking lot.
Got in and let the nurse know I was in labor. “Really?!?” Got weighed, blood pressure, peed in a cup, the usual. Was in the middle of leaning on the exam table and rocking through a contraction when the doctor came in. I told her when they had started and how far apart they were and that I’d been having consistent bloody show since the day before. Up on the table to check my cervix. She said I was dilated to a 6! I didn’t believe her. Surely she must be joking! Yup, a 6. “You’re not going home. You’re going right over to the hospital,” she said. The joke was on me, I had to send Dave home for our bags. She said she would like the contractions to be closer together, but since there was obvious cervical change, she was calling it active labor and wanted me in the hospital.
Hospital and clinic are connected, so we elected to walk over after the mandatory offer of a wheelchair. First thing we saw when we arrived was the wonderful nurse who helped deliver Scott. We both took that as a good sign. Got settled into a room, sent Dave home for the bags, called the in-laws to tell them to come take care of the dogs, called Kelly to let her know to head to the hospital, and called my parents to let them know that something was finally happening! Got hooked up for 20 minutes of monitoring. I sat in the rocking chair for that and the contractions were manageable even sitting down. Baby’s heartrate was nicely variable and he was fairly active between contractions.
Kelly arrived just as the twenty minutes were up. We chatted for a while, then I got up and unhooked the monitors, used the bathroom and we headed into the halls to walk. If you labor during the day, rules state that you can only walk in the Women’s Health and Birth Center, not in the halls of the hospital at large. So we walked the same semi-circle over and over again. Some contractions were mild enough to walk and talk through, and some had me leaning into the handrails that lined each hall and rocking through them. Kelly tried some gentle counter pressure on my hips and that helped if she didn’t press too hard. Contractions were getting a bit closer together and lasting longer at this point, although neither of us was really timing them. She did tell me at one point when one lasted longer than a minute though. But some were so mild that I just walked right through them and they didn’t last very long.
Finally Dave arrived with the bags and we went back in the room. I think Kelly could tell that the sensations were getting a bit more intense. She suggested the tub. I was a bit hesitant because I still felt like this couldn’t be active labor and maybe I should wait, that the tub could slow things down. But she said that after 6 cm we were safe to get in the tub and that nothing was going to stop labor at this point. So she filled the tub while Dave and I talked, and then I got into the tub. At first it seemed like a long time passed with no contractions, and I was worried that I had gotten into the tub too early. But then they came back and started to come much more frequently and I was glad I had gotten in the tub when I did. I tried a variety of positions, and finally settled into laying on my side and kind of sliding my body back and forth in the water when I would have a contraction. I wouldn’t say that the water made the sensations of the contractions any less intense, they were plenty intense, but being in the water really helped me relax the rest of my body and stay relaxed through each contraction. The other thing that would help whenever I felt the sensations were overwhelming was to visualize my baby that I would soon be holding in my arms. That visualization calmed and grounded me and helped me stay relaxed.
The doctor came and checked on me at one point, and I remember her remarking that these were much closer than 15 minutes apart! Her comment was “good.” And I remember thinking that we had indeed gone over to the hospital just in time. Contractions never settled into a steady pattern. I’d have two or three right in a row, then a little break between, and it kind of continued like that. I sipped water and got out once to pee, which was hard because the contractions had gotten so intense that I didn’t want to get out of the water, but I really had to pee.
I think I was in the tub for about two hours when I started feeling like I really needed to know how far I was dilated. Something was changing and I thought perhaps it was transition. I started having to sound through the contractions, a low O sound that made my mouth nice and round and helped with the intense pressure I was feeling with each contraction. Getting out of the tub was a chore as the contractions were coming one on top of another, and I felt like I had to pee again. I stood up and leaned against the wall for one contraction, and felt something running down my leg. Managed to get out of the tub and had another contraction while Kelly and Dave were drying me off, and felt more running down my leg. I commented that I thought my water had broken. No big pop or gush, so I wasn’t really sure. I used the toilet and made it back into the room. I changed into a dry bra (since I’d left my bra on when I got into the tub) and got my robe back on. I asked the nurse if she would check me and if she could do it on my hands and knees. She said yes, so I climbed up on the bed with the back of the bed raised and kind of draped myself over the back of the bed and she said I was at an eight.
I labored for a while leaning against the bed on my hands, but Dave commented that my feet were turning blue and he wanted me to move around a little more. Kelly had the nurse get me a birth ball and I draped the upper half of my body over it on the bed. After a while of that, we changed to me draping my body over the ball on my hands and knees on the floor. I remember the nurse checking on the baby with the Doppler a few times while I labored, and she would always comment that he was doing just fine. She was very minimally invasive and just worked with whatever position I was in (shift had changed by then and it was a different nurse from the one that had helped deliver Scott). I got checked again at about a nine and just a little bit of lip left, so Kelly asked me to change position again to try to put some pressure on that lip and get it out of the way so I could push. We changed to me sitting on the birth ball, leaning into Dave with my hands on his thighs and he would run his hands up and down my arms with each contraction. At one point he had to get up (to use the bathroom, I think) and Kelly took his place on the stool in front of me. I spread my knees on the outside of her knees and leaned my weight into her and asked her to keep doing what Dave had been doing, rubbing her hands up and down my arms for each contraction. They spaced out a little and weren’t coming right on top of each other, but there were usually two peaks to each and the intense pressure I felt with each one made me feel like I was going to fly apart at any second. Dave came back and ran his hands up and down my back during each contraction, and the two of them massaging me like that helped keep me from feeling like I was literally going to fly apart. I remember Kelly commenting that most women don’t like to be touched during transition, but it was my lifeline that kept me grounded. I just kept making those low sounds through each contraction, and she kept telling me that I was doing so good and staying nice and relaxed. Sometime she would run her hands over my face if I scrunched it up. I felt a little pushy, and would make little grunty pushes at the peak of each contraction, and she said that was good. I got really shaky and started getting really cold between each contraction, then warm again when another one would hit. I have no idea how long I was like that, but Dave thought about an hour or a little more. I felt a little nauseated a couple of times, but never threw up. I hadn’t eaten since about 4 that afternoon, which was probably good. I just sipped water throughout because the noises I was making were drying my mouth out. Toward the end I remember feeling really sleepy between each contraction and actually dozing off a bit.
Finally I felt really pushy, so I got on the bed to be checked. They wanted me on my side on the bed and as soon as I laid down I felt like I couldn’t handle it. I needed to be upright and I started to cry that I couldn’t do it that way. She checked and said I was complete except for that lip. I got up on my hands and knees and draped myself over the back of the bed and tried a few pushes. I had gotten so into the groove of making noise with each contraction that I had a hard time switching into pushing mode. It never felt really natural or really good to push, the way some women describe it. The doctor came in and “massaged” the cervical lip to try to get it to move out of the way. That just made me feel like I really had to pee, so finally I said I wanted to try using the toilet. Once I sat on the toilet I realized I also had to poop, so I started pushing (not with the contractions) to try to empty my bowels. I did, but I also felt the baby moving down each time I pushed. I panicked a little and checked myself, and felt the baby’s head was not quite two knuckles in and I thought just a few more pushes and he would be born on the toilet! I yelled for Dave and he helped me back onto the bed.
Nick was born in about three productive pushes after that. At first when he crowned the sensation was so intense that I thought the doctor had her hands in me for some reason and it really really hurt. So I screamed at her to get her hands out, and she said she was just supporting my perineum. Kelly told me it was the baby’s head, and then I was able to relax and visualize my baby being born and push through the pain. His head came out and the doctor told me to stop pushing. Dave got to suction baby’s mouth and nose because the doctor was using both hands to support the baby. Then with the next contraction she kind of twisted him a bit while I pushed and he slid out behind me. I turned around and looked at him laying there all floppy. I wanted to turn around all the way, but the bed under me was a real mess and I didn’t want to lay down in that. Turns out Nick had pooped on the way out (not earlier because the amniotic fluid was clear when my water broke) and there was a lot of meconium. The nurse cleaned the bed up while Dave cut the cord, then I got to turn around and lay down so he could be put on my chest to help warm him up.
He was a little blue and wasn’t really crying, although he was breathing, so he got rubbed while skin to skin with me to try and warm him up. He kept pooping, and we kept having to change the towels and warm blankets we were draped in. Finally he pinked up and started crying a little. I never did feel an urge to push the placenta out, but I was starting to feel really icky with it in. I tried a few experimental pushes that got nowhere. Finally the doctor gently pressed on my uterus and said blood was pooling behind the placenta but that it felt completely detached. She pulled very gently on the cord while I pushed, and it popped out along with a lot of blood, and I immediately felt much better.
I tried to get Nick interested in the breast, Kelly shot a few pictures, and Dave and the doctor examined the placenta, cord and amniotic sack. The doctor held it up for Dave to take a few pictures, which he thought was really cool. Nick was mostly interested in licking my nipple rather than actually sucking much. He was just kind of quietly alert and not crying at all, and I just lay there soaking him in. The doctor examined me and said I had a minor internal abrasion that didn’t need stitches. Nick’s head wasn’t molded much at all from the little bit of time he spent in the birth canal, so we were all really surprised. And no reinjury to my tailbone, which everyone was thankful for!
Kelly left shortly after that, and the doctor and nurse left us alone for some bonding time. They didn’t take Nick to weigh him and do the other stuff until over an hour after he was born. Then we found out he was 8 pounds 12 ounces! I think he wasn’t even measured until the next morning, when we found out he was 20-3/4 inches long. He had long fingernails and very little vernix (just some in the skin folds) and was born five days before his due date. He has light fuzzy blond hair on top of his head and a little longer hair in a fringe around the back of his head.
I asked for some dinner, and then we were left alone. Nick had been born at 9:48 p.m. and we were alone in the room by 11. But both of us ended up being too keyed up to sleep much that whole night. I think we were both mentally prepared to labor all night like I had with Scott. I know I only dozed off twice, and kept waking up hungry. Plus the nurse came in once to check my vitals (my blood pressure was a little high right after the delivery) and the phlebotomist came in at 4:45 a.m. to draw my blood! Nick slept like a trooper through all of it though, only waking up a couple of times to nurse and twice because he was having trouble breathing through his nose. So when my doctor came in the next day to check on me, I asked if we could go home a day early so I could sleep in my own bed that night. We were in the hospital for just over 24 hours, and Nick was less than 24 hours old when we took him home. I bled a lot that first day, but it had tapered off pretty dramatically by the time we went home, and I was pretty confident about going home.
And some mandatory pictures:
Laboring in the tub. The tubs in the labor rooms were gigantic and I'd so love to have one of these in our house!
Only got a few pictures of actually laboring. Mostly Dave was too busy to take pictures.
Probably about 10 minutes after he was born, maybe less.
Proud daddy.
He kept trying to suck his hands rather than my nipple.
And Dave took some pictures of the placenta.
And the amniotic sack.
Key players:
Dave = my husband
Scott = my almost-four-year-old son
Kelly = my doula
Nick’s birth story begins, I think, on Sunday morning, March 18th. I woke up with the intense need, and matching energy, to have a clean house. I thought this might be a sign of “nesting” and was hopeful that maybe labor would start soon. However, I really overdid it and ended up with a very sore back. I didn’t sleep well that night, and in the morning decided to call my chiropractor because my back was still very sore with soreness radiating down my right leg.
Normally on Mondays I take my almost-four-year-old son to story time at the library in the morning. But I felt the need to stay home and be quiet in my clean nest. I called my chiropractor and got an appointment for 2 p.m. Then I dug out the paperback that I had set aside as what I wanted to read during early labor. I didn’t let myself think about it too much. I just wanted to sit and read. I had been having some bloody show since first thing that morning, but no contractions or anything else to indicate that labor was imminent.
On the way home from the chiropractor I had my first contraction, at 3 p.m. Nothing major, just a crampy feeling low in my abdomen, different than the BH I’d been feeling (which felt like my belly getting tight all over). And so it started and so it continued with contractions just about exactly 15 minutes apart, lasting 20-30 seconds all that afternoon and evening. I mostly sat in my rocking chair and read and would glance at the clock to see if they were getting any closer together. They never did, nor did they get more intense, but they didn’t peter out either, which is what I was afraid of. I didn’t know if “this was it” or not, but around 8 p.m. I called Dave to tell him what had been happening. I got Scott settled in to bed, and Dave called again to ask if anything else had happened. I said it hadn’t, but we made the decision to call his partner to cover his shift at work the next day anyway. (His leave was to start on Wednesday, but he was supposed to work on Tuesday.) After I talked to him I did call Kelly, my doula, just to give her a heads-up that something might be starting, but that it was starting very slowly.
I had a little trouble falling asleep that night, excited that something was happening at last, and a little apprehensive that it would either stop overnight or that it might get more intense overnight. I finally got up and took half a benedryl to help me sleep. I slept quite hard until about 5 a.m., when the contractions got more intense and I couldn’t lay down through them but had to get up and lean on the bed and rock my hips. I looked at the clock and they were still about 15-20 minutes apart and still only lasting 20-30 seconds, just a little more intense feeling. I dozed between contractions until Scott and Dave woke up a little after 7. We made the decision then to call my parents and bring Scott over to their house so that I could labor in quiet at home. I could tell Dave was apprehensive about leaving me, but I didn’t feel like riding in the car to drop Scott off, so I assured him I would be fine while he took Scott over to my parents’ house.
Things continued in the same vein pretty much all day. Contractions continued about 15-20 minutes apart and not usually lasting longer than 30-40 seconds. I was uncomfortable to sit through them though and needed to be on my feet to deal with each one, leaning on something and rocking my hips. We watched some tv and I would get out of the rocking chair and lean on the back of it for each contraction. I paced the house some, leaning on the kitchen or bathroom counter for each contraction. I sat on the birth ball at the computer, but had to get up and lean on the desk for each one. Dave sometimes rubbed my lower back very gently and for some reason that really helped. I wasn’t having back labor and didn’t need anything as strong as counter pressure, just that gentle touch was enough to distract me from the discomfort of each contraction. I felt all the contractions low in my belly, like cramps and pressure. I continued with bloody show all day, although I never saw a distinct mucus plug. I ate and drank normally, and my body decided to “empty” itself. To me, that was the first true sign this was labor. But as the day wore on I found myself wondering when active labor would begin. I was really hoping maybe by that afternoon, nearing the 24 hour mark since early labor had begun. But they didn’t get any closer together.
We had our 39 week prenatal appointment scheduled for that afternoon. Dave wondered if we shouldn’t cancel, thinking we would be at the hospital by then. I said let’s wait and see. Still in early labor by then, we headed for the clinic for our 4:20 appointment. Dave asked on the way out the door if we shouldn’t grab our hospital bags “just in case.” But I said no, thinking that all this labor might have gotten me to 2 or 3 centimeters and she’d surely send us home until contractions were 4-5 minutes apart. Contractions were definitely harder to handle in the truck since I had to sit through them, but I only had two and then we were there and I was able to lean on the truck for one more in the parking lot.
Got in and let the nurse know I was in labor. “Really?!?” Got weighed, blood pressure, peed in a cup, the usual. Was in the middle of leaning on the exam table and rocking through a contraction when the doctor came in. I told her when they had started and how far apart they were and that I’d been having consistent bloody show since the day before. Up on the table to check my cervix. She said I was dilated to a 6! I didn’t believe her. Surely she must be joking! Yup, a 6. “You’re not going home. You’re going right over to the hospital,” she said. The joke was on me, I had to send Dave home for our bags. She said she would like the contractions to be closer together, but since there was obvious cervical change, she was calling it active labor and wanted me in the hospital.
Hospital and clinic are connected, so we elected to walk over after the mandatory offer of a wheelchair. First thing we saw when we arrived was the wonderful nurse who helped deliver Scott. We both took that as a good sign. Got settled into a room, sent Dave home for the bags, called the in-laws to tell them to come take care of the dogs, called Kelly to let her know to head to the hospital, and called my parents to let them know that something was finally happening! Got hooked up for 20 minutes of monitoring. I sat in the rocking chair for that and the contractions were manageable even sitting down. Baby’s heartrate was nicely variable and he was fairly active between contractions.
Kelly arrived just as the twenty minutes were up. We chatted for a while, then I got up and unhooked the monitors, used the bathroom and we headed into the halls to walk. If you labor during the day, rules state that you can only walk in the Women’s Health and Birth Center, not in the halls of the hospital at large. So we walked the same semi-circle over and over again. Some contractions were mild enough to walk and talk through, and some had me leaning into the handrails that lined each hall and rocking through them. Kelly tried some gentle counter pressure on my hips and that helped if she didn’t press too hard. Contractions were getting a bit closer together and lasting longer at this point, although neither of us was really timing them. She did tell me at one point when one lasted longer than a minute though. But some were so mild that I just walked right through them and they didn’t last very long.
Finally Dave arrived with the bags and we went back in the room. I think Kelly could tell that the sensations were getting a bit more intense. She suggested the tub. I was a bit hesitant because I still felt like this couldn’t be active labor and maybe I should wait, that the tub could slow things down. But she said that after 6 cm we were safe to get in the tub and that nothing was going to stop labor at this point. So she filled the tub while Dave and I talked, and then I got into the tub. At first it seemed like a long time passed with no contractions, and I was worried that I had gotten into the tub too early. But then they came back and started to come much more frequently and I was glad I had gotten in the tub when I did. I tried a variety of positions, and finally settled into laying on my side and kind of sliding my body back and forth in the water when I would have a contraction. I wouldn’t say that the water made the sensations of the contractions any less intense, they were plenty intense, but being in the water really helped me relax the rest of my body and stay relaxed through each contraction. The other thing that would help whenever I felt the sensations were overwhelming was to visualize my baby that I would soon be holding in my arms. That visualization calmed and grounded me and helped me stay relaxed.
The doctor came and checked on me at one point, and I remember her remarking that these were much closer than 15 minutes apart! Her comment was “good.” And I remember thinking that we had indeed gone over to the hospital just in time. Contractions never settled into a steady pattern. I’d have two or three right in a row, then a little break between, and it kind of continued like that. I sipped water and got out once to pee, which was hard because the contractions had gotten so intense that I didn’t want to get out of the water, but I really had to pee.
I think I was in the tub for about two hours when I started feeling like I really needed to know how far I was dilated. Something was changing and I thought perhaps it was transition. I started having to sound through the contractions, a low O sound that made my mouth nice and round and helped with the intense pressure I was feeling with each contraction. Getting out of the tub was a chore as the contractions were coming one on top of another, and I felt like I had to pee again. I stood up and leaned against the wall for one contraction, and felt something running down my leg. Managed to get out of the tub and had another contraction while Kelly and Dave were drying me off, and felt more running down my leg. I commented that I thought my water had broken. No big pop or gush, so I wasn’t really sure. I used the toilet and made it back into the room. I changed into a dry bra (since I’d left my bra on when I got into the tub) and got my robe back on. I asked the nurse if she would check me and if she could do it on my hands and knees. She said yes, so I climbed up on the bed with the back of the bed raised and kind of draped myself over the back of the bed and she said I was at an eight.
I labored for a while leaning against the bed on my hands, but Dave commented that my feet were turning blue and he wanted me to move around a little more. Kelly had the nurse get me a birth ball and I draped the upper half of my body over it on the bed. After a while of that, we changed to me draping my body over the ball on my hands and knees on the floor. I remember the nurse checking on the baby with the Doppler a few times while I labored, and she would always comment that he was doing just fine. She was very minimally invasive and just worked with whatever position I was in (shift had changed by then and it was a different nurse from the one that had helped deliver Scott). I got checked again at about a nine and just a little bit of lip left, so Kelly asked me to change position again to try to put some pressure on that lip and get it out of the way so I could push. We changed to me sitting on the birth ball, leaning into Dave with my hands on his thighs and he would run his hands up and down my arms with each contraction. At one point he had to get up (to use the bathroom, I think) and Kelly took his place on the stool in front of me. I spread my knees on the outside of her knees and leaned my weight into her and asked her to keep doing what Dave had been doing, rubbing her hands up and down my arms for each contraction. They spaced out a little and weren’t coming right on top of each other, but there were usually two peaks to each and the intense pressure I felt with each one made me feel like I was going to fly apart at any second. Dave came back and ran his hands up and down my back during each contraction, and the two of them massaging me like that helped keep me from feeling like I was literally going to fly apart. I remember Kelly commenting that most women don’t like to be touched during transition, but it was my lifeline that kept me grounded. I just kept making those low sounds through each contraction, and she kept telling me that I was doing so good and staying nice and relaxed. Sometime she would run her hands over my face if I scrunched it up. I felt a little pushy, and would make little grunty pushes at the peak of each contraction, and she said that was good. I got really shaky and started getting really cold between each contraction, then warm again when another one would hit. I have no idea how long I was like that, but Dave thought about an hour or a little more. I felt a little nauseated a couple of times, but never threw up. I hadn’t eaten since about 4 that afternoon, which was probably good. I just sipped water throughout because the noises I was making were drying my mouth out. Toward the end I remember feeling really sleepy between each contraction and actually dozing off a bit.
Finally I felt really pushy, so I got on the bed to be checked. They wanted me on my side on the bed and as soon as I laid down I felt like I couldn’t handle it. I needed to be upright and I started to cry that I couldn’t do it that way. She checked and said I was complete except for that lip. I got up on my hands and knees and draped myself over the back of the bed and tried a few pushes. I had gotten so into the groove of making noise with each contraction that I had a hard time switching into pushing mode. It never felt really natural or really good to push, the way some women describe it. The doctor came in and “massaged” the cervical lip to try to get it to move out of the way. That just made me feel like I really had to pee, so finally I said I wanted to try using the toilet. Once I sat on the toilet I realized I also had to poop, so I started pushing (not with the contractions) to try to empty my bowels. I did, but I also felt the baby moving down each time I pushed. I panicked a little and checked myself, and felt the baby’s head was not quite two knuckles in and I thought just a few more pushes and he would be born on the toilet! I yelled for Dave and he helped me back onto the bed.
Nick was born in about three productive pushes after that. At first when he crowned the sensation was so intense that I thought the doctor had her hands in me for some reason and it really really hurt. So I screamed at her to get her hands out, and she said she was just supporting my perineum. Kelly told me it was the baby’s head, and then I was able to relax and visualize my baby being born and push through the pain. His head came out and the doctor told me to stop pushing. Dave got to suction baby’s mouth and nose because the doctor was using both hands to support the baby. Then with the next contraction she kind of twisted him a bit while I pushed and he slid out behind me. I turned around and looked at him laying there all floppy. I wanted to turn around all the way, but the bed under me was a real mess and I didn’t want to lay down in that. Turns out Nick had pooped on the way out (not earlier because the amniotic fluid was clear when my water broke) and there was a lot of meconium. The nurse cleaned the bed up while Dave cut the cord, then I got to turn around and lay down so he could be put on my chest to help warm him up.
He was a little blue and wasn’t really crying, although he was breathing, so he got rubbed while skin to skin with me to try and warm him up. He kept pooping, and we kept having to change the towels and warm blankets we were draped in. Finally he pinked up and started crying a little. I never did feel an urge to push the placenta out, but I was starting to feel really icky with it in. I tried a few experimental pushes that got nowhere. Finally the doctor gently pressed on my uterus and said blood was pooling behind the placenta but that it felt completely detached. She pulled very gently on the cord while I pushed, and it popped out along with a lot of blood, and I immediately felt much better.
I tried to get Nick interested in the breast, Kelly shot a few pictures, and Dave and the doctor examined the placenta, cord and amniotic sack. The doctor held it up for Dave to take a few pictures, which he thought was really cool. Nick was mostly interested in licking my nipple rather than actually sucking much. He was just kind of quietly alert and not crying at all, and I just lay there soaking him in. The doctor examined me and said I had a minor internal abrasion that didn’t need stitches. Nick’s head wasn’t molded much at all from the little bit of time he spent in the birth canal, so we were all really surprised. And no reinjury to my tailbone, which everyone was thankful for!
Kelly left shortly after that, and the doctor and nurse left us alone for some bonding time. They didn’t take Nick to weigh him and do the other stuff until over an hour after he was born. Then we found out he was 8 pounds 12 ounces! I think he wasn’t even measured until the next morning, when we found out he was 20-3/4 inches long. He had long fingernails and very little vernix (just some in the skin folds) and was born five days before his due date. He has light fuzzy blond hair on top of his head and a little longer hair in a fringe around the back of his head.
I asked for some dinner, and then we were left alone. Nick had been born at 9:48 p.m. and we were alone in the room by 11. But both of us ended up being too keyed up to sleep much that whole night. I think we were both mentally prepared to labor all night like I had with Scott. I know I only dozed off twice, and kept waking up hungry. Plus the nurse came in once to check my vitals (my blood pressure was a little high right after the delivery) and the phlebotomist came in at 4:45 a.m. to draw my blood! Nick slept like a trooper through all of it though, only waking up a couple of times to nurse and twice because he was having trouble breathing through his nose. So when my doctor came in the next day to check on me, I asked if we could go home a day early so I could sleep in my own bed that night. We were in the hospital for just over 24 hours, and Nick was less than 24 hours old when we took him home. I bled a lot that first day, but it had tapered off pretty dramatically by the time we went home, and I was pretty confident about going home.
And some mandatory pictures:
Laboring in the tub. The tubs in the labor rooms were gigantic and I'd so love to have one of these in our house!
Only got a few pictures of actually laboring. Mostly Dave was too busy to take pictures.
Probably about 10 minutes after he was born, maybe less.
Proud daddy.
He kept trying to suck his hands rather than my nipple.
And Dave took some pictures of the placenta.
And the amniotic sack.