Birth Story

On Friday morning I woke up at 3:20am to go to the bathroom. When I stood up I needed to go again so I sat back down and started to have déjà vu regarding DD’s birth with my water breaking in Quizno’s. I stood up and started to walk out of the bathroom and realized I was leaking a little more so I got a pad out and put that on. Then I realized I should get some towels to lay on the bed in case my water really broke so we wouldn’t have a wet bed. I laid the towels out and laid down. I was trying to decided if I should wake DH up or not. My water hadn’t really broken like it had with DD yet so I didn’t want to wake him unless I really needed too. I wasn’t having any contractions either so I decided to wait. Then there was another gush. I thought I should at least wake him since I was starting to feel just a little nervous that we should call to find out if we needed to come it.

I patted DH’s head and he asked, “what?” I told him I thought my water was breaking and he then was wide awake. I told him I didn’t know if we should call or not but he said we were suppose to call right away if my water broke. He went downstairs to get a phone to call them. After telling the nurse what was going on she told me they would like be to come it. I could take a shower and get something light to eat and then head in. I asked her if I really needed to come in right away or if I could wait. She said they would like me in within the next hour to hour and a half, though if I still hadn’t felt the baby move within the next half hour then I would need to hurry in.

I took a shower and gathered up some last things for my hospital bag. DH got dressed and we called his parents once I was out of the shower to come stay with the older kids. I got a nectarine to eat while DH ate two slices of leftover pizza. I had DH take a last PG pic since we were suppose to take my 38-week pic the night before but I figured we would just take it the next day. I posted on facebook and my board that we were heading to the hospital so all would know what was happening since the hospital doesn’t have internet connection. I still hadn’t felt the baby move and DH was anxious for us to leave.

We arrived at the hospital at around 4:30am. They took us to Triage and started checking us in. The midwife was in the middle of a delivery so she wasn’t able to come and check me until she was finished there. We ended up waiting 3 hours in triage before I got checked. The nurse checking us in to Triage was interesting. She talked way too much…going as far to tell us a story after finding out I was StrepB negative about another nurse that worked there. She said that the nurse was positive meaning she needed to have an antibiotic while delivering the baby. I guess the nurse delivered so fast they weren’t able to give her the antibiotic and she said the baby ended up dying the next day. Just what we wanted to hear about a baby dying as we are about to have a baby. Don’t worry…we did tell the staff when they came around to see how thing had been going for us.

Another nurse came in to do a test to see if my water really had broken. The test was negative and that made me start to wonder if I was really feeling my water break. I was pretty sure. She told me it’s not a 100% test and the midwife would do a different test that would say for sure. DH laid down on the floor to sleep and I slept a little and read my book waiting for the midwife. She finally came in and said she was going to do the test to see if my water broke which she said would be a lot like getting a pap smear. Lovely…just what one wants while having contractions and being in early stages of labor. Thankfully the contractions weren’t painful yet. Thankfully the midwife decided to do one last thing to see if my water broke and asked me to cough which then some water poured out and she declared it was certainly ruptured. She checked me (shortly before 8am) and found me to be at 4cm, 80% effaced, and neg2 station. I was really excited to find I was so far along already and no back labor!!!

We were taken by our nurse, Tina, to our room. She checked the position of the baby and she was still head down…always nice to hear after having DD breech. We called our parents and responded to all the texts we had received earlier since the Triage Room didn’t have cell service. We told them where I was at and we told my parents to come whenever they wanted to. DH’s Dad would come soon with a little list of things we realized we forgot. His mom was going to try to come a little later to be there for the birth. After a couple hours of reading, going through contractions, and checking the screen out for the intensity (seeing if it matched how I was feeling with them) we got up and walked the halls. We took a couple of rounds and then went back to the room to sit on the ball that Tina brought back for me. The midwife was there and showed me how I could use the bed to help me balance on the ball. I sat on it until about halfway through a contraction it made it so much worse! I had to stand up and decided that was it for the ball. I laid on the bed on my side which messed up the monitors on the baby and myself. I only stayed there for a little while but was able to rest some. We then took a walk outside to the little plaza outside of the labor delivery doors. It was so nice to get outside. It was a beautiful warm day. We headed back inside. I told DH to call my mom and ask her to come since the contractions I was having were progressing so much faster than they were with LM and I wanted to make sure she was there to help coach me like she did before.

Shortly after my mom arrived my midwife came in and checked me (11am). She said I was at a 4. I was VERY disappointed that all these contractions I had been through were doing NOTHING! She could tell I was frustrated and asked what my other stats were and she said they were the same still. She did say that everyone is a little different with sizing so now she new where I was at and could know more next time she checked me. She said I may have been a 3 earlier for her. That was a little positive but I was still sad. My mom could tell too. She told my dad we were in for long haul.

DH was thinking of going to go and get some lunch but Tina had said she was filling the tub for me. I loved the tub with LM! I got in it 3-4 times with him. I was hoping the tub with help the contractions. I sat up to go to the tub and was on the edge of the bed and the contraction I had was the worst yet. Tina sat by my on the bed and squeezed my hips. It helped reduce the contraction in half! It was wonderful. She said it was counter pressure and told DH he could do that for me. As we were walking down the hall I had another one. DH was standing back so Tina stepped in again and squeezed my hips. It helped again. Tina told DH that that was the time he could help. Lol (she was always joking around with him…which was fun for me). Then I got in the tub. Tina asked DH if he had swim shorts so he could get in with me and help me out. He didn’t so she got him a pair of scrub pants to put on. It was such a relief to have him help me through the contractions though some of them I need him to squeeze harder and I knew that was rough for him. It was a major workout for him.

I thought I had only 5 contractions in there but DH said there were 6-7 contractions and then I said I needed to push. He said, “WHAT!” and jumped out of the tub to push the nurse button that was on the bed. He pushed it a good 8-10 times. Finally (after what seemed like forever and me thinking I was going to deliver this kid on my own) they answered. I told them we needed help. Tina was in our room just down the hall and came in. I told her I need to push so she had me sit back and checked me. She said I was ready to go. She asked if I wanted to go back to my room or stay there. I said stay…didn’t think I could make it down the hallway. I told DH we needed out camera. Another nurse that had come in too went to our room and grabbed it for us. I also told DH I needed my mom. Tina said she wasn’t in our room and I knew we didn’t have time to find her…I really had to push. That kind of freaked me out since my mom was my couch and kept me focused last time. DH came to me and was able to get me to calm down saying everything would be okay and to remember to breathe. As soon as he said that I took a breath and was able to calm down. Yeah for DH!!!

The midwife came in at that time and Tina told her I was ready. She was in shock too since she checked me just an hour before while I was at a 4. She checked and found the head too. She asked if I wanted to get of the tub on the bed or stay in the tub. I told her I didn’t think I could get out. She told me to push whenever I was ready then. I took a breath and pushed and the head came out. Thanks to the water I didn’t feel the ring of fire this time either! It was wonderful. I took a few seconds and pushed again with the midwife pulling the baby on to my chest. It was crazy and so FAST! They kept asking if it was a girl and I kept saying I didn’t know. I was in such shock that it happened so fast that I couldn’t think to look. Finally we checked and we had a little girl! It was crazy to have a water birth without even planning on it. It seems each of our kids like to come in there own way.

DH was able to cut the cord and then they drained the tub enough to take the door off so I could get out. I got on the bed and the midwife helped me with the placenta. DH got dressed and went to call my mom. My poor mom came in and felt terrible for missing it. Really how would she have known though! I handed her granddaughter to her to hold and started to get stitched up. My mom came over to hold me hand after a little while, while I was getting stitched up and that was exactly what I needed. The stitches hurt more than the birth and lasted MUCH longer too. Our little girl had her hand up by her face when she came out so my previous episiotomy line tore again to a 2 this time (better than the 3 it was with LM). I had a bunch of other tears too and many of them were in places the numbing meds couldn’t get. They hurt A LOT! It was such a shock to actually have our little girl less than 9 hours after my water broke. Sure beats the long labor I had with LM.

When we called to tell everyone that she was born and here they were in shock too since we all thought it was going to be a long process. I was sad that no one made it to watch the birth but grateful for such a fast delivery. I’m not scared any more to deliver another baby like I was after having LM. It was so much work with him and this time I didn’t feel like I worked at all. I prefer it that way too!

Labor

Our Room with a view after waiting in Triage for 3 hours waiting for the midwife to deliver another baby. My nurse, Tina, says she always gets the best rooms for her patients. It was wonderful being able to look out the window at the evergreens and blue sky. Surprisingly I got a lot read in my book too which my midwife thought was crazy that I thought I would get something read...I already had read a ton while in triage.

After many rounds in the halls we headed outside to the courtyard for a change of scenery. It was a beautiful day for our little girl to be born on! I loved getting to see the sky, greenery, and feel the warm air.

As DH put it..."We are on a date without kids except this date ends with a kid."

Lovely Contractions...I didn't even realize DH was taking pics of me going through them. I did make him take a picture of the contractions though. Check out the top right picture...those are top contractions lasting for 1.5 minutes to 2 minutes...they were killers!