It
was Thursday, August 22, 2013 and I was at work playing with Miss B.
It was my last planned day with her so I was really trying to enjoy
it. I had some cramping the night before, but hadn't thought much of
it because I didn't want to be disappointed again if it wasn't actual
labor. At 2:15pm I had my first “contraction”. I would call the “contraction”
a cramp, nothing more than menstrual cramps that didn't stop when I changed positions. They lasted a minute on average. For some reason I started
keeping track of them but they weren't regular. I ended up having
eight in the last two hours I was at work. Lindsay came home and I
left, called John on my way home just to let him know what was going
on. I didn't want to tell anyone else because I really wasn't sure I
was in true labor. I got gas in the CRV on the way home, just in case :)
Between the time I left work and the time John got home I only have a
few “contractions”, but nothing regular or painful.
When
John got home I told him everything that had been happening. We
decided to treat the day like any other. I knew I didn't want to be
sitting at home wondering if this was actually happening. I wanted
to relax as much as possible and enjoy the evening with John and Comet (possibly our last). We decided to go
for a walk at Normandale, our two mile path. It was maybe too much,
but my body was used to doing it during pregnancy, so I thought it
would be fine. When we got there and I got out of the car I had my
first real surge, more than a simple cramp. I leaned on the seat in our car and swayed. After it was finished I remember just
getting going on our walk. John was so calm through the whole
process as it happened. We talked while we walked and I had six more
contractions before we were done. With each one I leaned over and swayed. I'm sure John will say this, but I
was still not ready to acknowledge that I was in true labor. I
remember telling John that it was so neat how my body was working.
The “contraction” started, built, lasted for a little while and went away and I felt back to my normal self. It was so awesome to
me. God made my body to go through labor. I loved it. On our way
home we picked up some supper, I got Chipotle and John got Noodles.
I had another one while we were on our way home, but they slowed when
we got home and ate.
After
we ate they returned very regularly, about every 10 minutes, lasting
a minute each. We watched tv for an hour or two and I tried to relax. Around 9:30pm
I took a bath and decided to get in bed to try and sleep. My
contractions started to come every 6.5 minutes and still were lasting one minute. John called the hospital to say that we would
be coming at some point. He also called both of our mommas to
let them know what was up. I think John and I both anticipated being
at home for a while. I knew that I wanted to labor at home as long
as possible. John was so wonderful at this point and after he made
his phone calls he packed up the can in preparation. I was snuggled
up in my pregnancy pillow and poof my water broke at 10:40pm. I
wasn't anticipating it happening at home because my mom's didn't
with any of us. I heard a “pop” and it was a huge gush of water. I won't ever forget it, so weird.
Right after my water broke my contractions went from 6.5 minutes
apart to averaging 4 minutes apart. Some were even closer and
happening back to back. The intensity was crazy! They went from
tolerable to incredibly intense. At this point John
took over as I couldn't really focus on anything but what was
happening within me. He told me to get ready and get into the car.
I got dressed and said goodbye to Comet. I was sad to leave Comet
because he looked scared. He didn't know what was going on.
Poor little guy! With that
we were on our way to the hospital!
John's
driving amazed me at this point. He was so focused on getting us to
the hospital. As we were driving he called the hospital to tell them
we were coming and they tried to tell us they were on divert and we'd
have to go to another hospital. He was very adamant, even a bit
aggressive with whoever he was talking to. I was touched by how
protective he was of me. He was getting me into
Methodist. Turns out they had saved us a spot because we'd called
earlier, but we were the last couple to be admitted that night. We
walked in and made our way to the elevator. I had a few contractions
on the way which caused me to pause and bend over. We ended up in a
crowded elevator which was so uncomfortable. I couldn't wait to get
to the 3rd floor. They checked
us into a triage room at about 11:45pm. I felt like we waited
forever in that room. My contractions were so intense.
I believe this was when I started to utilize my voice. I always
thought it was a little funny when we made noise during yoga but I
was a noisy lady during labor! After Kai was born a visitor told me
that laboring women have a “song” they sing and that was exactly
how John described it.
In
the triage room we first saw a nurse. She took my vitals and hooked me up to a baby monitor because
we intended on having a water birth. They needed a continuous read
of the baby for twenty minutes in order for us to deliver in the
water. We then saw the midwife. I was excited to see a midwife I'd had for appointments. She checked my progress and boy did that hurt! I was entirely unaware how painful it would be. I remember that I
started sobbing at that point. I was already 5cm and 100% effaced.
I didn't know whether to feel good about that or scared that it might
take me a lot longer to get to 10cm. I certainly didn't feel bad
about it because I knew my body was doing something. After that we
finally got moved to our room. I had two contractions on the way and
I remember not even trying to be quiet in the hallway. Amy (our
midwife) did such a great job putting pressure on my low back and
hips and John whispered to me to tell me I could do it.
Once
we made it to our room I got into the tub. It was too hot and it
made me sweat. I couldn't find a way to hold myself in place when I
had contractions. I felt like the tub was too big for me. I knew I
couldn't utilize the tub, so I got out and moved to the bed. I
labored on my side for a lot of this time period because it was
easiest for me to relax in that position during breaks. I remember
wanting to tell John and the midwife to be quiet because they were
making small talk. The nurse continually moved the monitor that was
placed on the baby and it was so uncomfortable. I wanted to tell her
to quit because she always moved it during my break between
contractions, so she was causing more pain than necessary I thought.
As my contractions continued to increase in intensity I continued to
“sing”. I remember being incredibly loud and John said he'll
vouch for that :) There was a turning point that scared me sometime
around 3am. (During labor I had no concept of time, but I'm pretty
sure this is a close estimate after talking to John) The midwife had
checked me a half hour earlier and I was already 9cm dilated. I
remember that being encouraging! Not long after that check my
“singing” turned into low moaning. The first time it happened I was
shocked because my body did it instinctively. I honestly don't
recall having any control over my tonal change. After Kai came John
said at this point the nurse paged our midwife urgently telling her
to come back asap.
Amy
came back and checked me again and I was 9.5cm, so she pushed back my
cervix so I could start pushing. This was at 3:30am, which I also
found out later on. At this point I started to push. They were
great about helping me switch positions to push, but moving for me
was very difficult. My body was trying to conserve every bit of
energy I had and I did my best to rest between contractions. The
surges were coming very close together and sometimes they came right
after each other. I pushed on my sides, my back, hands and knees and
squatting. John said that almost right after I started pushing he
could see Kai's head and all his dark hair :) I pushed and pushed
and pushed and pushed and pushed. During this time I was completely within myself. I rarely answered anyone's questions
and the only word I uttered regularly was, “Water,” so John would
give me a drink. I was nauseous a lot of the time and thought I'd
throw up, kept tasting my Chipotle (won't eat that next time!). At 6:30am (still pushing) I
rolled over and looked out the window and it was light out. I said,
“Holy shit, it's light outside!” Everyone laughed.
As I pushed I remember the nurse and Amy continually telling me that
I was so close. I don't remember when but there seemed to be events
happening that made me feel close, but Kai still didn't come. Amy
put her delivery scrubs on, a cart with extra medical supplies was
rolled in, a different nurse said she was going to sit at the end of
the bed while Amy rushed out for sometime in case the baby came. I
remember being so frustrated because I was pushing with all I had and
didn't know how much I had left. At 7am the shift change happened
and we got two new nurses and a whole load of new energy. They were
so energetic and I really feel it was a great change for me! Each
nurse took one leg to help me push, while John continued to be a rock
for me up by my head telling me it was going to be okay. It only
took forty more minutes to push him out after that. I got to pull
him up onto my chest. Turns out he was sunny side up, the
wrong way, which is why it took me so long to push him out. Poor
little man came out with a bit of a conehead and a huge bruise from
continually hitting my pelvic bone. John said the first thing I
uttered was, “Little peanut, my sweet little man."
He is my sweet, perfect, handsome, wonderful little man.
He is my sweet, perfect, handsome, wonderful little man.
