At 28 weeks I was required to take a Glucose Tolerance Test. They called me and told me that my blood sugars were so high, I was automatically being diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes with no further testing. This diagnosis changed the way my pregnancy was treated from that point on. I didn’t have to change my diet much in order to control the blood sugar, and I stuck to my regular exercise every day.

After 32 weeks I had to go to the doctor’s office twice a week for ultrasounds and non-stress tests. Everything was perfect every time, and the baby consistently measured on the small side of normal throughout the pregnancy. I asked multiple times what happens if I go past my due date and I kept being told “We don’t like GD mom’s to go past their due date. We’ll see  how we’re progressing at the time.”  This was stressing me out because I felt pressured to go into natural labor before my due date in order to avoid unnecessary interventions.

I began my leave from work at 38 weeks in the hopes that I would go into labor naturally. My husband and I spent our days doing lots of walking, having lots of sex, eating spicy (but healthy!) foods. I kept up with my exercise and bounced on my birth ball.  But it was apparent that she was not coming any time soon.

When I was almost 39 weeks I had the doctor’s visit that changed our entire plan. They assumed I would want my cervix checked, which I did not because there was no point since I was not in labor, and then the doctor asks me when I was planning my induction.  Um, sorry but we are not planning an induction!  Then I heard the familiar threats that GD babies need to be born by 40 weeks or they will be “too big” and there is an increased risk of stillbirth.  These scare tactics just made me angry because I knew my baby was healthy and I was not going to force her to be born early!  I felt extremely stressed whenever I thought about going for a doctor visit or about our hospital birth.  So when our Bradley instructor (who was also our Doula) suggested contacting a local midwife about a home birth I felt that this would be a huge relief!  And so I made an appointment to speak with Alison, a midwife I had met before at a Birth Circle meeting just ten minutes from my house.

Alison agreed to take us on for the amount we would have paid for the hospital copay, which was amazing of her because it is the only way we could afford it since my insurance does not cover midwives. She sympathized with my story and agreed that since my blood sugars were well controlled there was no reason to treat my pregnancy as anything other than the normal healthy pregnancy it was.  And so we began planning our home birth.

It is a good thing that we did this, because it was 11 days past our due date when the labor started. Monday night I was having a terrible time sleeping, as had happened a lot that past week, so I was up until about 7 in the morning. I slept off and on for a few hours and woke up around 11 having cramps.  I told my husband I thought something was finally happening!  We got up and ate breakfast and the cramping continued to get more intense.  We decided to try timing them and they were about 10 minutes apart.  Then I went to the bathroom and found blood.  Bloody show! I told James I thought this was going to be the day so we should call Alison and Klarissa (our doula) and let them know!

James and I used our Bradley relaxation techniques to handle the contractions, and read each other trivia questions from a board game in between to keep our mind off things. Alison came by to check on me, and by this point my contractions were about 10 minutes apart. We let her know that I hadn’t slept well the night before so she suggested drinking half a glass of wine to slow the contractions so I could take a nap since I would need my energy. She left and told us to keep in touch. I drank the half a glass of wine but contractions did not slow down, they sped up!  They were starting to be 3 – 4 minutes apart when we called Klarissa and said we thought she should probably come over now.

Klarissa came over and got the birthing pool filled up for me and I climbed in.  It felt soooo nice!  James was still doing a great job reminding me to relax and take deep breaths.  I found that I had to make a low moaning sound to get through the contractions as they were getting stronger.  He ended up climbing into the pool with me so that he could press on my coccyx with a piece of pool noodle, which relieves a bit of the pressure of contractions.  Alison and her two students arrived, and we labored like this in the pool for several hours. Everyone was impressed at how great we were doing at focusing on relaxing and breathing and dealing with each contraction as it came.

At around 11 it started to get pretty intense and Alison had me get out of the pool so she could check my dilation. I was at 8 ½ centimeters with just a bit of cervix left.  We tried laboring in a few different positions and then Alison checked my cervix again and there was still a bit left that wouldn’t budge. She said it felt like scar tissue which was causing the problem, we discussed it and I agreed to let her break my bag of waters so that the baby’s head could press on the cervix to help open it. It was about 11:45 pm by this time and I was sure I’d have my baby soon.

Hours later I was still laboring HARD. Alison gave me an herb which was supposed to stop the contractions so that I could rest a bit because I was too worn out to push effectively. Once again my body reacted the opposite it was supposed to and the contractions only increased in intensity and the urge to push was too much to resist. And so we continued.

James and I got in the shower and labored in there.  By this time I was begging for the hospital because “they have drugs that work!” and starting to understand why so many women choose to have an epidural!  It was getting extremely hard to handle!

Back to the bedroom floor at the foot of my bed and I pushed on the squatting stool, on hands and knees, on my side, on my back, on the other side, back on hands and knees…  I kept hearing people say “You’re doing great!  She’s coming!”  but then I would cry out “Then why isn’t she here yet!!!” because it seemed like it wouldn’t end!  I was crying that I couldn’t go on, but everyone kept encouraging me.  “You can!  You’re doing it!  She’s almost here!”.  I remember seeing Kat, one of the student midwives getting some clean towels out and putting them next to me and I asked what it was for and she said it was for the baby.  All I thought was, but this baby is never coming out!

Finally I think I just decided this was it, I was going to push a couple of more times with all of my might and get that baby out!  I got back into the squatting position and when the next contraction came I did not let up!  Her head finally came out and then -whoosh- the rest of her slipped right out!  She was born at 6:20 am Wednesday morning. Alison caught her and put her on my stomach and I sat back on the stool and just looked at her in amazement!  I couldn’t believe she was actually here!

I had some help onto the bed and James climbed in next to me and the baby was wiped and covered with towels and a little hat put on to help keep her warm and I couldn’t believe how perfect she was!  And thanks to the loooong second stage labor and squatting position, I had absolutely no tearing.

James cut the cord, and I delivered the placenta with one little push. That was easy! Then I was escorted into the shower while the birth team stripped the bed and put on a nice clean set of sheets. I think we tried to nurse, it’s all a little fuzzy now… Then Alison took Zelda to the foot of the bed to take measurements, check the baby’s eyes and reflexes and all that good stuff. She was 7 lbs 2 ounces and a whopping 22 inches long.  That is a long and skinny baby!  She was perfectly alert and healthy.

Although it was the most difficult thing I have ever done, and the most pain I have ever experienced, I am very glad that we chose to have a home birth. First of all, if she had been born three weeks earlier she would have had no fat on her!  I know that my baby really needed the time that she took. Secondly I am convinced that they would not have let me labor for that long in so many positions in second stage. I would have ended up in surgery, which was not necessary at all because obviously by body and my baby were able to do it!  Alison says that Zelda was a big help pushing herself out, and her heart rate stayed strong through the entire ordeal. Klarissa commented that she really lives up to her name, which means woman warrior!

Nicole

When she found out we were expecting again she told us her desire to be a doula and asked if we would want her to try and finish the course by our due date so she could be a doula for us.  We decided that her aspiration was wonderful and she should definitely pursue it, but we were very eager to have my husband coach the birth.  She understood and went ahead with pursuing the doula training, but not with the urgency to have it completed by our due date.

Anyway, as she completed the required reading list for DONA (Doulas of North America) she read a book called Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth.  She highly recommended I read it as well.  I checked it out from our local library and read through it quickly.  I knew that this was the birth experience I wanted.  When I came to the end of the book, I read the about the author section on the inside of the back cover.  When I read that she was in Summertown, TN I immediately asked my husband to mapquest it.  It was only 2 hours away so we called and asked if we could have our baby there.

During this time my mother-in-law also recommended The Bradley Method® of husband coached natural childbirth since she knew we wanted a natural birth.  I looked into classes and the closest instructor I could find was in KY.  I keep checking and later found an instructor who had recently moved here to Clarksville!  I emailed her immediately and asked about prices, times, etc.  The price was very reasonable and it was the best money we spent on the birth.  I am so glad we took it, you will soon hear about how well this method really works.  If you are pregnant and want a natural childbirth – FIND A BRADLEY® INSTRUCTOR NEAR YOU!

Originally we had planned that my mother-in-law (Nana) would come to The Farm to watch our 2 year old son, Caleb, during the labor and ensure he was present at the birth so that my husband could focus on coaching me.  However, at the end of May Nana called to inform us that her husband had to go to the doctor for a possible staph infection.  A week later on 30MAY08 they would have to go to the hospital to have a MRSA infection cleaned out of his knee and they did not know how long they would be there.

We made arrangements for another friend from church to come and assist with Caleb if Nana couldn’t make it.  She was very distraught about it all as she desperately wanted to be there for Mike and also to be at the birth, but we all knew that God had a plan and purpose for all of this and His timing and will would be done.  My father-in-law ended up staying in the hospital until 10JUN08 and having 4 surgeries.  Nana and I stayed in close contact during this time and keep each other updated on our current statuses.

While I was starting to tire of being pregnant and becoming anxious to meet our new addition, we all preferred Nana be able to assist with Caleb at The Farm and were praying that Savanna Zoe would hold off until she could.  Caleb prayed every night for PawPaw to recover quickly so he would feel better and Nana could come.  Also, we were having new windows installed on Tue the 10th and Wed the 11th and wanted to have that project finished before she arrived.  What a thoughtful little girl she turned out to be!

On Wednesday I woke up feeling great and as if Savanna was coming really soon.  I cleaned the entire house and did all of the laundry, including towels and bed sheets.  I was also loosing the mucous plug bit by bit throughout the day.  I called our midwife, Carol Nelson, to inform her about the plug.  Nana called in the afternoon to see how things were going and let me know she was ready when we were and Mike was doing well.  When I told her how much cleaning I had accomplished she said she would go ahead and come down to our house that evening just in case and she arrived after dinner.

The next morning I awoke at 6AM with fairly regular contractions of 10 minutes apart and lasting about 30-45 seconds each while laying down and 5 minutes apart lasting 1 minute when standing and walking.  I stayed in bed until Caleb woke up and then told my husband and Nana.  We ate breakfast (except for my husband- who was busy trying start his vacation time from work and to print, fill out and fax in an absentee form for his master’s program on Saturday and fax his take home final to his instructor as well) and everyone showered and got ready for the day.

I called Carol and let her know about the contractions.  She suggested I drink a big glass of water and then lay down again and see what happened with them.  Emman left to have breakfast with his friend, mentor, associate, and accountability partner.  I did as Carol suggested and they spaced back out to 10 minutes apart and 45 seconds long.  I called her back and she said if they aren’t going away then they sound like definite labor contractions, but it is still very early and she asked when we thought we would go down.  Our plan had always been to leave at the first sign of real labor since second labors usually go faster and we had a 2 hour drive to get there.  So I said we would be packing up the last minute things and heading down.

My husband came home and finished with what I mentioned above in order to be excused from work as well as class that Saturday.  He also called a friend to arrange for our dogs Abram and Sarai to be picked up and stay with them while we were gone – they would also be keeping Sarai as their pet when we came back (Sarai has always desired to be the full and ONLY center of attention and a house with another dog and soon to be 2 kids was too much competition for her, so we decided she would be happier in an only pet environment where she could have the attention she craved).  He then posted the blog that we would be leaving.

Nana and I watched Caleb and loaded the van.  Caleb “helped” to load the van and pack last minute things as well.  We got the van loaded with food for a possible full week stay at the cabin, our last minute clothes, and Caleb’s stuffed animals, sound machine, bedding, and pack-n-play.  My husband finished with his tasks about the same time.

Then, as is customary in our family, we posed outside the van for photos before loading up and taking off.  On the way we called friends and family.  We stopped just once for a potty break for Caleb.  Caleb serenaded us pretty much the entire two hour drive with “BINGO”.  Only it had many more “B I N G O, B I N G O, B I N G O, B I N G O, B I N G O, B I N G O” than I remember the original version of the song having with only an occasional “there was a farmer who had a dog”.  My contractions stayed about 10 minutes apart and 45 seconds long the entire trip.

I called Carol and let her know we were on our way and she said she would have the cabin unlocked and ready for us and just to call her when we got in (there is a phone in the cabin for local calls to the midwives in order to allow for more privacy for the birthing family as well as quick access to the midwives if needed).

We arrived at the cabin around noon so we unpacked, ate lunch, and called Carol almost simultaneously.  Carol arrived and checked me while my husband put Caleb down for a nap.  I was 1 cm dilated and completely effaced.  She suggested a nap and a walk afterwards.  Nana and I napped and my husband took on the massive task of filling the large birthing tub.  The hot water heater was very small so he could only run the hose for about 10 minutes then had to wait 20 for the tank to refill with hot water, so he boiled water in several pots at the same time and dumped them in as the water got hot, then refilled and boiled again.

When everyone, including Caleb woke up we walked (except for my husband- he was still filling the tub- bless his heart!).  We went up and down a big steep hill that Carol had suggested and Caleb even walked up it by himself and faster then I could keep up almost!  Nana was very thankful that she didn’t have to carry him.  On our way back to the cabin from the walk we saw Carol drive by and stopped to talk.  My contractions hadn’t changed much and she suggested I try rubbing my belly during contractions and said I should not get discouraged, but try to get some sleep tonight and call her when things picked up.

We got back around 6:00 and Nana microwaved one of the thawed casseroles I had frozen for our stay.  The microwave was pretty weak as we soon learned and heating dinner took longer than cooking it in the first place!  We would heat food in the oven or a skillet from that point on.  My husband finished filling the tub.  He had made the water extra warm so that it didn’t get too cold since we didn’t know when we would actually be using it.  Caleb saw the tub of water and asked, “Where’s the toys?  Baby Zoe needs toys to play with in the tub.”

While waiting on dinner I starting rubbing my belly with each contraction.  Let me tell you, that works amazingly well!  As soon as I started rubbing, the contractions became a LOT stronger.  They were now about 5 minutes apart but only 30 seconds long.  By the end of dinner I didn’t want to rub anymore because the contractions were becoming very strong and painful.  Contractions were now 2 minutes apart and 50 seconds long.

I started to try to focus on relaxing through each one like we learned to do in Bradley class, but it was very difficult to concentrate on that with Caleb finishing dinner and getting ready for bed.  We promised Caleb that we would wake him up if baby Zoe started to come while he was asleep so that he could watch (we had been preparing him for this and he was very excited about his new sister being born and how it was to happen).  Caleb went to bed and I called Carol around 8:00 pm.  When she heard my voice during a contraction she said she would be right over.

When Carol arrived she checked me and I was 3 cm dilated.  At this point I stopped timing contractions and just tried to focus.  I stood holding onto my husband and trying to relax through each contraction while he pushed on my lower back.  I was finally feeling like I was starting to get a better focus and be able to relax through them, but I wasn’t quite there.  Nana offered to braid my hair in two braids one on each side and I gladly obliged.  My husband got me a cool rag for my neck and I sat on the bed while she fixed my hair, I would relax and lean over onto my husband during contractions and she would start braiding again when they ended.

I was losing modesty and getting very warm.  Once I was able to get focused and relax at the very start of each contraction, the pain went away!  That’s right, each contraction felt like a blood pressure cuff being inflated around my belly, but as long as I focused and let my uterus work the way God intended it to and stopped stressing out about it, it didn’t hurt anymore!!!  Labor from here on out was great!  I was doing so well at relaxing that Carol asked if the contractions were getting easier or if I was just getting better control.  Carol even told Nana that I was so relaxed she couldn’t tell where I was at in labor anymore.

It was then suggested that I try a birthing stool as it would put me in more of a squat position.  Sitting in the chair did exactly what it was supposed to and the contractions became stronger and harder, it took even more focus to relax through them now. Some time later I tried lying on my side in the Bradley® runner position.  This was very painful on my lower back and so we switched to Emman sitting behind me and propping me up in an alternate labor position.  By this point my legs were starting to shake uncontrollably which jostled my back (I have degenerative disc disease and several torn discs in my lower back) and caused great discomfort.

Nana and Carol massaged my legs and Carol remarked excitedly that this must be transition.  She wanted to check me since we were not advised to get into the birthing tub until I was 5 cm since the warm water often slows things down.  She thought I must be at least 5 by now.  It was 10:50 pm and I was 7 cm going on 8.  Carol said we could get into the birthing tub and the water temp was perfect.

Carol called another midwife, Sharon, to assist in the birth.  My husband and I took turns in the bathroom and then got in.  I had one contraction after getting in while myhusband was in the bathroom, then one or two more with him holding me up in the birthing tub.  I then had a strong urge to push.  I told Carol and asked Nana to get Caleb up.  Carol asked if I was sure since I was only 7 going on 8 a few minutes ago.  I said I was.  She started to put on the birthing tub gloves (they come up to their elbows) to check my dilation and my husband reminded me that if I felt that I needed to push to do so as my body knew what to do.

I started becoming a little frantic about Caleb being woken up as I knew that he was about to miss it.  Nana ran upstairs to get him.  I pushed with the next contraction; by this point the urge to push was so strong I could not have resisted if I tried.  Carol had one glove on when she turned around and saw the head already crowning and decided that she had 2 choices:  put on the other glove or catch the baby.  She decided to catch the baby.  At the same time Nana comes quickly downstairs with Caleb.  I push once more and she is out.  Caleb is in shock from being jolted awake and rushed down right as his sister pops out, I am relieved and my husband is nearly at muscle failure from holding me up!  It is 11:00 pm exactly.

About this time Sharon walks in and is surprised to see a baby!  She exclaims that she only lives 5 minutes away and she knows it didn’t take that long to get here.  Carol laughs and tells her that it happened so fast she didn’t even get the other glove on!  Savanna Zoe is placed on my stomach in the water with a blanket over her and my husband and I hold her and stare at her. My first thoughts are, “wow, that is a lot of hair and some crazy chubby cheeks, but the rest of her is so skinny!”

Sharon says there is no way that she is 41 weeks with so much vernix all over her.  I then ask if she is a girl and Sharon said that she would be an awfully pretty boy if she wasn’t and everyone confirms that indeed she is a she.  I tried to nurse her, but she seemed as exhausted by the whole process as I was and not extremely interested, so I just held her.

We asked Caleb if he wanted to put on his swim trunks and get in the birthing tub and hold her, but he said no.  He was still very shocked and not quite awake, also a little concerned about her crying and confused as to why everyone else thought it was fine. Sensing his nervousness about the crying and remembering the many rounds of BINGO just hours before, I told Caleb that he should sing BINGO to her since she would recognize his voice and had listened to him singing it on the way.  He began to sing and lo and behold, she quieted down!  (This would become his special song to her as he sings it to her any time she cries, most of the time it works, but only when he sings it!)  Later Caleb exclaimed, “mommy just went ugh, and out came baby Zoe!”

After several minutes, it seemed like at least a half hour, but I am sure it probably wasn’t that long, the placenta still had not come and Savanna Zoe’s blanket was all wet, and I was afraid the placenta wouldn’t come until I could relax and not be concerned about her getting too far under water, and Emman was shaking from muscle fatigue so I confirmed that the cord had stopped pulsing and requested Emman cut the cord and Caleb helped. I handed her to Nana. After I relaxed I felt another urge to push and the placenta finally came. My husband and I stood up to get out of the tub. This is when I apparently passed out.

Nana was kind enough to add in here a piece from her birth experience with Savanna Zoe since my version goes blank for a few moments:

“The most unexpected special blessing for me, was after your husband cut the cord, you handed her to me. It was such an honor to have you look in my eyes, smile & hand your precious newborn to me! I will never forget that moment or the look of trust in your eyes. I don’t know that it was something you had thought about or planned. I think it just happened, but I thank you for it. I got to be the first to hold her after you, not a stranger in the hospital, but her very own Nana!

“I know you were unaware as you were passing out, but I held her and sang to her (and held her down low for Caleb to see) for a very long time as the others worked with you. There was tension building in the room & much rushing around concerning you. I was very conscious of trying to reassure and comfort her (& Caleb) that her Mommy was okay & that we all loved her very much and that all would be fine now that she was here. I remained calm so she & Caleb would hopefully sense my calm, not the tension in the room.

“The midwife finally came to check her over, weigh & measure her as the other midwife went to the kitchen to fix the eggs & toast. (I don’t believe she held her at all.) I diapered her (& maybe put a t-shirt on her, or was that later?). The midwife wrapped her in fresh blankets and handed her back to me. When your husband was available to leave your side, I handed her to him.”

When they weighed and measured her she was a whopping 8 lbs 10 oz and 20.5 inches long! Not the little girl I was expecting!   I woke up moments later on the bed with everyone staring at me!  (This happened with Caleb too only we assumed that it was because I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink and such was not the case this time as I had been encouraged to eat and drink as I desired.)  Sharon made us all scrambled eggs and toast (such a wonderfully different atmosphere than what you find in a hospital- when does the OB fix the whole family eggs after delivery)!

I passed out several more times in the next 24 hours, they took blood samples, checked my iron, temperature, blood pressure, etc, but everything was normal.  I was okay, apparently I am just a postpartum-passer-outer!  So that is it!  We spent a few days on The Farm to ensure that I was okay and all got a little cabin fever since it was raining most of the time and the cabin was small for 3 adults, a very active 2 ½ year old, and a newborn (we all felt like the Ingall’s family on Little House on the Prairie).  It was a beautiful and peaceful place though with deer roaming around the cabin as we watched out of the windows and tried to take pictures!

Overall, this was one of the best experiences of my life!  It was invigorating, empowering, encouraging, uplifting, and spiritual.  During the Bradley classes as I read about women with “painless” labors, I thought, how can this be.  After all hadn’t God commanded that women have pain in child birth due to the original sin?  A word study on the passage revealed to me that the Hebrew word we have translated as pain in our Bibles is he same exact word that is later translated as hard work in regards to Adam’s side of the curse.

I can say that focusing on relaxing and letting my body do what it is supposed to and what God intended it to do without interfering is hard work, but it wasn’t painful as long as I did these things and let go.  This experience has taught me that life is the same.  It is a whole lot of hard work to “let go and let God”, but it is often extremely painful when we don’t.  I would highly recommend the Bradley method to anyone expecting a baby and would highly recommend The Farm midwives to anyone comfortable with that style of labor.  It was exactly the experience I was hoping for!  God is good and I feel so blessed for being able to experience the miracle of  childbirth like this!

The birth was so wonderful I decided to become a Bradley® instructor myself!

Jade
www.bradleybirth.com/ndweb.asp?ID=C564

Tuesday night I told Jon that we should go out on a date to get our minds off the waiting part. I was getting pretty cranky about the whole thing after being so chill for so long. So, after our 5 billionth walk around the neighborhood we went out to get some food and then went to see “The Hangover”, where at some point during the movie someone threw a pair of 3D glasses and hit me in the head. But, the movie was funny because: Mike Tyson… singing. Do I even need to mention at this point that I was having contractions? I had been having them so often all week I was pretty much just ignoring it. They would get stronger as soon as we left the house or went on a walk but then not much else would happen.

So, we went home and went to bed. And nothing happened. Wednesday when I woke up I just couldn’t bring myself to go into work and face everyone again. It felt weird to stay home though, because what if he didn’t come until the week after? how many days could I really cut work if he wasn’t coming soon?

I took the dogs for a walk first thing when I woke up. I’m sure I looked absolutely ridiculous all pregnant and huge and walking dogs around the neighborhood. Or at least evidently I did because people kept talking to me everywhere I went. Some men in the park asked me if I was “‘pregerated and walking two dogs”, which apparently to old men in the park (who may or may not have been drunk at 9am) is really hilarious. We walked and walked. And walked. Finally I gave up and came home. I called Jon and reported that I was having contractions. If you could consider being sweaty and tired contractions, which is to say, no. And I sat down to watch tv and mope.

Mid-mope, around noon I started having contractions again. Since Monday I had worried and worried, would I know when it was finally time? I was much further dilated than I could have expected and I worried about things progressing too fast. Even though I had been having contractions all week that were long and close together these seemed different. not painful but… different. they kept going every 3-4 minutes and by 2pm I called Jon and told him to finish up work and come home. He apparently took that to mean finish up stuff before you leave and take a long time, when really what I was saying was COME HOME NOW. And by the time he finally got there I had been starting to panic while pacing around the house.

So I paced. And he timed. I hadn’t showered after my hot and sweaty walk so around 4 I got in the shower while Jon gathered up all our bags and things. He was timing on the ipod touch with the labormate, which turned out to be totally fun. Every time I had a contraction I would yell GO! from the bathroom and then STOP! so he could do the timing while I washed up. Eventually that turned into “one’s coming!” and by the end I was just saying “it’s a one” and then, “one!” which turned into our sort of strange labor code for contractions for the rest of the night.

After that we figured it was probably time to call my doctor’s office. I couldn’t decide if it was really, you know… IT. Sure, I was having tough contractions every 3 minutes for a few hours. But, that had happened before. And technically the dr had said to call if they were closer than 5 minutes apart which we totally didn’t do. But, I just wasn’t miserable. I felt… fine. Especially in between. I figured it couldn’t really be it. When I did call the office they were no help at all. They just said they would call the hospital and have them pull my charts. I was still worried, because that’s the #1 Bradley rule- don’t go to the hospital too soon! So we waited another hour, maybe longer before we finally left.

When we went out to go to the car, between contractions, there was a dead snake in our yard. Apparently Bang had done battle with a little garden snake and somehow killed it. I still can’t believe it! Go Miss Bangerang! Feisty! We know it definitely wasn’t Nico because I one time saw him stand directly on top of a hissing pissed off snake and not even notice. He is oblivious to wildlife.

Back to our story. We headed off to the hospital which is only about 8 minutes from our house, no big deal. One contraction in the car. We got there, parked, and slowly walked up to check in. The woman at the triage desk kept trying to get me to sit down in a chair and fill out paperwork but I really NEEDED to be standing or walking at that point so I scribbled down whatever and then paced up and down the hall waiting to be “checked” to make sure I was really in labor and they weren’t going to send us home (yeah that was pretty unlikely at that point). I still don’t understand what all that paperwork I filled out and pre-registered with was for if I had to fill out more forms when I got there.

While we were waiting for a triage room we enjoyed the treat of some super-redneck people coming in looking for their girlfriend/daughter/friend wearing awesome oversized t-shirts with gangsta-chuckie on them. And then a huge family came in looking for a girl that had been transferred there from another hospital and they sent them all to the waiting room. When I was in getting checked out Jon said that they lost them ALL. All the family just… went somewhere. They went to tell them the girl was all settled in her room and they were gone. Did I mention that these same people RAN INTO ME when I was pacing in the hall during a contraction?? Had I been able to speak I would have yelled at them for sure, but that was not exactly high priority at the time.

In the triage room they hooked me up to all the monitors and crap to make sure I was really in labor and then did a cervix check. I was 6cm and fully effaced and definitely in labor. the nurse was all psyched that we were going to have a natural birth and was sad that her shift was ending so she wouldn’t get to help. And they actually asked for our birth plan, and read it, and took copies and attached it to everything. She put in my heplock and then walked us over to our official birthing suite in the FANCY WING! YEAH! And briefed our nurse, Kelly, on the no drugs Bradley deal, and then… there we were:

They have two wings, the new one for uncomplicated births and the crappy side for people with complications or if the fancy side is full. We had our fingers crossed the entire time that we would end up on the nice side with the flat panel tv’s and ipod hookups and private bathrooms… score!

Kelly said we could do whatever we wanted, but I was excited and wanted to keep walking around to keep things progressing. So she got me some ice water in a big tub and we walked around the floor. We only had to come back every hour to check in on the monitors. We also found out that of course, the doctor on call from my OBGYN’s office was the ONE I HADN’T MET. Great. So for our first hour we walked. The walking made the contractions ramp up but it still really wasn’t that bad. After an hour we came back to check in and my doctor was there for our monitor session. I was immediately worried because she kept asking me over and over if I thought I was really in labor. apparently, I didn’t look like I was in enough pain for her. She just kept staring at me and asking about my pain levels. And I kept telling her, yeah, it’s intense, but it’s really not that bad. Which evidently was not a satisfactory answer. I tried to reassure her by telling her that I thought I was just a slow laborer, and she said she would come back to check on us later.

So we walked and paced and walked, and came back again to be monitored. The monitoring was the worst part. I think if I had to stay in the bed the entire time I can understand why people need pain medication. it just sucked to be in the bed and there was no way to move to get my mind off of it. But, Jude was doing fine in there so they didn’t have any worries. After that it was time for “Ghosthunters”, and thankfully the labor suites had cable. So, I bounced on the birth ball and we watched tv. I wasn’t a big fan of the ball so I switched to the rocking chair, and I ended up staying there for a few hours.

And so it went. At this point the contractions were getting pretty intense. I still wouldn’t say that they hurt but DUDE, those muscles are WORKING. Breath and rock and breath and rock. Jon sat very patiently near me and waited for “a one” and then reminded me to sit still and breath. I pretty much zoned out for a few hours while we watched roasts on comedy central. At one point Jon dashed out to get some food because he hadn’t eaten in a long time and brought back caffeine drinks and gas station snacks from around the corner.

I started to feel nauseous. And I told jon to go tell Kelly right away. She came in and told us where the towels and supplies and a tiny vomit-catching bucket were. And then, a few minutes later, oh boo, the vomit. I tried to vomit into the little cup, but I was vomiting waaaayyy too much vomit for it to contain and ended up overflowing it and continuing to throw up all over myself and the floor. And I thought to myself, I know that nausea is a sign of transition! But I doubted that I could have gone so far in so short a time. I didn’t want to get too excited. So Jon and Kelly got me into the shower. From this point on I was pretty much naked the entire time. I threw up all over my handy $10 black dress and having Kelly and the doctor see me naked was really not high on my list of concerns anymore. I was in the zone.

So I stood in the shower. And the contractions were rocking right along. I was doubting myself. I had to wear a bag over my hand so water didn’t get in my heplock. and I stood and swayed and Jon stood there and helped me.

And then my water popped in a big flood of liquid, and I told Jon to go get Kelly. By this time I had the shakes and I was freezing cold. So they got me some towels and Kelly asked if I wanted to be checked since my water broke, and I said sure. And I was 9 cm! All of a sudden! Yeah! I was relieved, but things were coming pretty fast. That was when we found out that Kelly had to go call the doctor BECAUSE SHE HAD GONE HOME. Apparently she thought my labor was so boring and not moving along so she went home. And now they had to call her back for my delivery.

I went back to the rocking chair, but during each contraction I would stand up and lean on Jon and sway back and forth, and he would remind me to relax and breath. And that went on for a long time. Another hour? More? I literally have no idea. At that point I was in my own foggy world. In between contractions I would sleep in the chair and then pop up and sway and then back down and sleep. When my doctor came back she was still totally freaked out that I wasn’t screaming and crying and whatever. So they all just watched me and let Jon and I do our own thing.

My body pretty much decided it was time to push and started pushing for me when I would stand up during contractions, and I let Kelly and Jon know. So sometimes I would push, and then rest, and then push. I was so glad that the doctor let me just do what my body wanted, so we continued by feel. No coaching and yelling and counting.

I had been fairly quiet in the beginning, like dead silent. But by this time I was vocalizing with the contractions, I just couldn’t help it. And after a while of that they suggested I try some different positions to get things going. So they got me up on the bed on all fours, and I pushed that way for a hour or so. At that point it hurt more to NOT push than it did to go ahead and push, there is no choice. So push and rest, and push and rest. And Jon was up by my head helping me breath calmly. Then they suggested side lying, so we tried pushing like that. And that felt much more productive.

They were getting all set up and my doctor could see his head. And she kept saying that he had no hair! I was sad because I thought maybe he would have hair because Jon and I both have lots of dark thick hair. So jon held my one leg and I pushed and pushed and at that point screamed and screamed. I actually thought about how funny it was that I was probably totally alarming everyone else on the floor with all my yowling. And then finally he was almost out, and it was the worst possible part, not because of the baby but because of whatever the doctor was doing down there with her hand to try to help his face come out. OUCH. And my contractions were slowing down to give me time to rest in between but I wanted to keep going and going and get it over with and it was so frustrating to wait for them to come and everything was running together.

And then we found out he was sunny side up. surprise!

And one more push and he was there.
And they lifted him up and put him on my belly.
And he was so healthy and pink and super awake.
And Jon and I held him and it was so quiet and awesome.

Born 9-3-09 at 3:33 am
8lbs, 6 oz · 20 3/4 inches

Jon cut the cord and we delivered the placenta. Apparently we had some kind of weird extra lobe on the placenta and the doctor was sad that there weren’t any medical students there to show. It was probably why early on they thought I might have had placenta previa. Jude was hungry, and I fed him, and he ate like a superstar. I had a small tear and she gave me a few stitches. So all in all it was about 15 hours. And I feel like this isn’t a very dramatic story, but well… it wasn’t really that dramatic I guess.

The doctor kept telling us she was really impressed. She said I should teach a natural birthing class because I did it like a pro. And she was amazed that he was posterior because I didn’t have any back labor and I pushed him out all on my own. I still can’t believe we made it. To be honest, I really don’t think it was that bad until the end, and by that time it was way too late for medications. The best part was afterward, how I could get up and walk around, and go to the restroom and clean up, and jude was so awake and ready to hang out. And they put me in a wheel chair and took us to recovery after about an hour of just being together. One of my favorite parts was that Jon was out by the nurses station and they have these big tv’s with the status of every patient up on them, and he said every one said either “epidural” or “pitocin” except mine, which said “NATURAL” in big letters. I’m not going to lie guys, it feels totally surreal that we made it and I feel pretty proud.

Jamie
www.grumblesandgrunts.com

This method does not work well if you want a natural childbirth in a hospital. With Hemi I arrived too early to the hospital and “failed to progress” according to their schedule. As a result of my naiveté, all my fear and self-doubt buttons were pushed. I consented to four procedures (including an epidural) before Hemi was born.

In hindsight, and after reviewing the medical literature, none of these procedures were medically necessary to producing a healthy outcome. They were just things the hospital could bill insurance for.

So with Jack I read more on natural childbirth and reviewed the medical literature before blindly accepting what doctors or nurses said. The biggest help was “Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way” by Susan McCutcheon. In addition to not fighting contractions by tensing up, the most important thing you learn in this book is the emotional signposts of labor, which are far more telling than physical signposts (# centimeters dilated, position of baby, etc) of when the baby will arrive.

I had never heard of these. The first is excitement… “today’s the day!”. The second is seriousness… a woman can not be distracted, she need to full concentration to get through contractions and relax in-between. The final signpost is self-doubt… you don’t think you can do this.

My prenatal doctor is really a low-key and practical woman. Her biggest suggestion to have a natural childbirth was to stay home as long as possible, get most of the labor done at home and avoid the whole hospital scene. The plan was to go in when my contractions were about three minutes apart and at least a minute long (and in the serious emotional signpost).

On Wednesday, 23 September 2009, I was having strong but brief contractions throughout the night. When I woke in the morning, I went to work. While at work, I had more strong but brief contractions about eight minutes apart. It was not a bother.

I went home for lunch around 1:00pm. I decided not to get back to work at 1:30pm, my contractions were six minutes apart and only 30 seconds long. No sweat. I even “facebooked” that today might be the day. EMOTIONAL SIGNPOST: Excitement.

Sometime afterward I drifted into the serious emotional signpost. At 3:20 my husband called the doctor as we had to make sure there was a bed available at our preferred hospital. My contractions were 5 minutes apart and a minute long (below my threshold for going in). The doctor said we could come see her, stay home, or go to the hospital. I chose to go see her.

Before getting in the car, I had get my shoes on and stuff between contractions which had suddenly jumped to two minutes apart. I didn’t think I could do this. EMOTIONAL SIGNPOST: Self doubt. I knew I was getting wishy-washy, we called the doctor back and said we were going straight to the hospital.

The hospital is a 20 minute drive away. About 5 minutes into the ride, I began to have a pushing contraction. It was a tremendous urge… like your body wanting to push the biggest bowel movement ever out of your body. I thought I had “pooped” when the contraction was over and announced to my husband that I had… but then I felt wet everywhere and the sting of salty water.

I had pushing contractions all the way to the hospital, but I didn’t tell my husband as he would have freaked and anyway I was too busy trying to relax between contractions. I was too busy to recall what door we were supposed to go to so we pulled up to the emergency entrance. A volunteer was by the door with a wheelchair. I got in. The emergency room was on the opposite end of the hospital from the maternity ward.

All the way I was having strong pushing contractions. During one I felt my legs pull apart, I reached down and could feel a head. I announced, “I can feel a head!” as we approached the maternity ward. The nurse at the station said “She’s in Room 6.” “I don’t think we are going to make it to Room 6!” “Call a doctor!” “Doctor!” I was wheeled in to room 6, weakly stood up, pulled down my pants and pushed a 7.3 pound son out at 4:00pm! Amazing, only 3.5 hours of labor, including only 20 minutes of pushing!

Victoria

I was so miserable with all night long contractions that I was getting desperate.  Monday July 20th I was 38 weeks and had a 9 am appointment, I asked my doc to strip my membranes, then went to the park with D, my husband, to do some serious walking.  We spent 2 hours there, but got nothing but a sore back and lots of contractions.  I gave up.  I tried my best to remember that he would come when he was ready.

The next couple days were quiet and uneventful.  I had my 10 year class reunion coming up on Saturday and figured maybe baby would wait till it was over.  I really wanted to be able to attend, huge belly and all.

He had other plans.

My water broke just before 1 pm on Thursday, July 23rd just as I was getting ready to take a shower with my now 3 yr old, L. He laughed at me and said “mommy you peed on the floor” it took me a few more gushes to realize that it was not pee. I called D, and my mom, both of them were at work, then took my shower. Because she was closer, Mom picked us up and we were at the hospital at around 1:45.  She was so afraid that I would have the baby at home that she made what would have usually been 45 minutes of driving take 30.

We got there and did the initial assessment.  I got hooked up to some monitors and the nurse checked me.  I told her my wishes for a natural birth, and no IV.  I was 3 cm, but I already knew that I was more than that because doc had checked me on Monday. This nurse only was with me for admit, then her shift was over. In walked the nurse from my 35 week L&D visit, whom I didn’t really like.

I wasn’t contracting, so the doc said I had an hour before we would discuss pit. I was disappointed, but then my nurse reminded me that I had the right to refuse any treatment that I didn’t want. I was instantly relieved because I felt like she already knew how I wanted this to go and was willing to help me get there. About 5 minutes later I got some pretty good contractions, so I was in the clear anyway.

An hour after admit, around 3, I was checked again and I was a 4 almost 5 and 75%, which is where my doc had me on Monday, but I didn’t say anything, it looked like progress to them, and allowed me to do what I wanted. I didn’t dilate much for the next couple hours, but baby was moving down pretty well. They also started talking about antibiotics, because my doc wasn’t sure how long the ped on call would want before starting them.  I had 24 hours, so I had no worries.

I had done a lot of reading of the Bradley method and some books by Ina May Gaskin, and felt really empowered  and calm during this labor.  I pretty much just joked around with Mom and D and walked the hall, sat on the ball, or leaned against the tray table watching tv and rocking my hips. Labor wasn’t too bad really, but I was comparing it to the pit induction that I had last time. I kept saying, ”this should be getting worse pretty soon”.

My nurse was awesome at coming to remind me to change positions, and I was able to keep myself pretty relaxed.  I found that making moaning noise during contractions really helped.  I only had to be in bed periodically for monitoring, but then could be back out.

Before I knew it I was 7 cm, only because of a little lip of cervix in the front, otherwise I was complete. I figured I could move this along if I got up and walked down the hall.  I got to the end farthest from my room and all of a sudden I felt this pop and baby moved down, I almost fell down it was such a weird, powerful sensation. The doc and a bunch of nurses came running because they thought I was about to have the baby in the middle of the hall. With them all holding me up, I made it back to the room and was happy to find that I was completely dilated, and we were going to set up to push.

It was shift change time so I had to change nurses, and that was kind of hard, you work with one for so long and get comfortable, then have to get used to someone else, but the new nurse was a sweetheart, and a good nurse also, probably better for this stage of labor anyway.

I kept saying all night that it should be getting worse and this is were it got hard.  By the time I got back into the bed I had the urge to push.  I started to push at 11:15. I tried sitting on the edge of the birthing bed, but my cervix would close up in this position. I moved around and tried laying back, and pushed for a little while on my side, but couldn’t get comfortable.  I finally pushed in a semi reclining, almost sitting position with Mom and D holding my feet. Baby did really well during this whole stage.   With my first son I only pushed for 15 minutes because the pitocin caused his heart rate to drop,  he was then vacuum assisted out, so I was happy that this baby was doing ok.

I felt really uncoordinated during pushing, like I just wasn’t doing it right or wasn’t in the right position, I thought it felt different with my first birth, but figured I wasn’t remembering right. The doc kept telling me how much he was moving down, and I kept saying, “that’s all?, he should be farther by now.” I kept forgetting that baby moves slowly to a certain point.  3 forward 2 back until they get under the pubic bone.

Finally, after about an hour, things started to feel more productive. I felt like my pushes were doing something.  I was getting really tired, and frustrated because I had not expected it to be this much work. I was also really hot, and stripped off my gown, my Mom laid it across my chest to cover me up some, but at that point I didn’t care.

I kept asking how much of his head they could see.  Mom and D were both watching, and I could see the excitement in D’s eyes, and hear it in his voice, when he could see the baby moving down.  One minute all she could see was his scalp, and the next minute, 12:50 am, July 24th 2009, he was crowning and slipping into her lap all at once. She had wanted my to stop pushing so my bottom would stretch, and she could have a chance to suction him once his head was out.  My body had taken over, and there was no way I was going to be able to wait for anything before I pushed him out. Because of this, I ended up with a 2nd degree tear, and broken blood vessels all over my face and neck, I looked like I had freckles for a week.

The most amazing feeling was seeing him slide out of me and into the docs lap. I still want to cry remembering it. D didn’t want to cut the cord, so my doc asked Mom to do it.  I wanted him on my belly right away, but the doc was concerned because he was kind of juicy and floppy, so he went to the warmer to get checked out and suctioned well.  I was yelling at my mom, “get your camera!” she was too excited to remember to get pictures.

His apgar was only 6 at 1 minute and the same at 5 minutes, so  I only got to hold him for a few minutes. This was something that bothered me, because the same had happened with my first son, and I didn’t want to spend any time apart. He and daddy went to the nursery while I got stitches and cleaned up. My uterus was tired out and not contracting and I was bleeding quite a bit.  I got a shot of pit, then methergen when that didn’t work.  Being massaged internally and externally was horrible, I wanted to kick the doc, even though I was a bit scared and knew she needed to do it.

Daddy and baby S came back about 20 minutes later and it was then apparent why it took so long to push. His head was molded and bruised badly on one side. He was trying to come out crooked. It was so badly swollen that his head measured over 16 inches at birth.  Otherwise he was perfectly healthy.   7lbs 2oz, and 20.5 inches.  I was too tired to remind D that I didn’t want them to bathe him and put that stinky J&J lotion on him, so he came back smelling foreign. It didn’t really matter any more, I had my beautiful little boy safe in my arms. As soon as I got him back we tried nursing, it was like he knew exactly what to do.  He latched on and nursed for 20 minutes.

I felt great after he was born, I joked that if my tailbone didn’t hurt so much I wouldn’t know I had a baby.

We had jaundice issues with our first son because of ABO incompatibility. We spent a couple extra days this time, because of the same problem.  We wanted to avoid a level of 24 like his big bro had. After a day under the lights he was doing great and we went home.

I am so surprised at the differences between births, and children.  I keep realizing how much this baby is nothing like the last.

S was born at 12:50am on July 24th 2009
7lbs 2oz 20.5 inches

Heidi

At my 37 1/2 week OB appointment Friday morning I learned that the baby was positioned perfectly and I was 2cm dilated and 50% effaced. I knew I could remain 2cm for another few weeks, or I could go into labor immediately, I was still excited to know I only had 8 more centimeters to go. I had been fighting a cold all week and wondered if my cough could cause me to go into labor a little early. My OB said it was a small possibility and made sure I had a copy of my medical records, just in case.

I woke up Sunday morning with some very light menstrual-type cramps. They were very weak but something I hadn’t felt at all during the course of my pregnancy. I did my best to ignore them for the morning and most of the afternoon.

Around lunchtime I was starting to take the cramps a little more seriously as I had a couple that made me take notice. There was no rhythm to them, so I was still thinking that it was probably false labor. Either way, as my husband Bill and our friend Eugene were building a pedestal for the soon-to-be-delivered washer and dryer, I installed the infant car seat in my car. While doing that I had three contractions that caused me to stop what I was doing and force myself to relax.

It was at that moment that I realized that this could be it. I chilled in our patio for a little while watching Bill and Eugene work with power tools, had a couple of contractions and decided I needed to test to see if this was real labor or not. We had been taught to try five things, and if the contractions stopped, then it was false labor. Those five are drink water, eat a meal, take a walk, take a nap, and take a shower. After I ate, drank and walked, I tried to lay down and take a nap. I couldn’t sleep, as I had a few contractions that were centered in my lower back. Laying down made them worse. At that point, around 3pm, I began timing them. When I was having a contraction every ten minutes or so, I finally let Bill know what was going on.

The contractions I had at home felt like all of the muscles in my hips and lower back were cramping at once, and then relaxing very slowly. It was a bit bizarre. For a long while the intensity was inconsistent too. One moment I’d have a contraction that was about 20 seconds long and not painful at all. The next one would last for over a minute and require me to practice my deep abdominal breathing to get through it. I found that laying in bed was the most uncomfortable place to be. Sitting on an exercise ball and leaning on my bed or sitting up straight was great. Chilling in the shower with the hot water running down my back was great too, but I couldn’t stay in there for too long.

At about 4:30 I called my mom to chat and get some sort of confirmation from her that I was actually in labor. Even though the contractions were inconsistent in length and intensity, it was still labor. By this time, they were coming every five minutes. I relocated to the living room as Bill made sure that both our bags were packed and in the car. He made me a light snack and made sure I kept myself hydrated.

We called my sister, Jackie to have her come over. It was really helpful to have the extra person around. She also helped me time my contractions with an iPhone app. We called my photographer friend, Krista to give her the heads up with plans to let her know when we were going to head to the hospital. We had arranged for her to be present at our son’s birth to take some photos. She lives about a hour away and we wanted to make sure she didn’t arrive too early and have to wait around… or arrive too late.

By 11pm the contractions had finally maintained a consistent level of intensity for over an hour and were about 2.5 to 3 minutes apart. So we headed to the hospital. The 20 minute drive wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be, but it wasn’t fun either. We arrived and got checked in. The first stop was labor & delivery triage where our triage nurse, Shirley, was there to monitor the baby for a bit and to check how far along I was progressing.

While I was changing into my gown, I finally started having some bloody show. I was very happy to learn I was dilated to 6cm and 100% effaced. Shirley was awesome with her exam because my bag of water was apparently bulging a bit and she didn’t want to break it. She had read our birth plan thoroughly and was really wonderful about following it.

After Shirley was able to get about 15 minutes worth of info on the baby (he was doing great), I walked down the hall to my labor and delivery room. It was really spacious with a couple of couches and the Inspector Gadget delivery bed. I was able to walk around the room and do pretty much whatever I wanted to to make myself comfortable. Of course, the most comfortable position was standing up and leaning on the bed with Bill rubbing my back. I never really moved from that spot and just swayed my hips during a contraction.

I could tell when I was in the transition phase of labor when I started feeling really warm and was starting to sweat. It was interesting going through all of this as the labor nurse, Maria, asked me a bunch of questions about my health history. After about thirty minutes of this, I felt a contraction that was noticeably different, my body started pushing a bit, without any help from me. I seriously thought I had just emptied my bladder all over the floor when it was just my water breaking. Definitely an odd sensation… Bill said he only got a little bit on his shoes. I think he was being nice.

Because my water had finally broken, the nurse wanted to check me to make sure the baby’s head was in the right position and that there was no umbilical cord trying to come out first. I crawled into bed and was put back on the fetal monitor. Everything was great and I was complete at 10cm!  The on-call obstetrician was called… my OB was on vacation. I was able to adjust the bed so I was in a sitting upright/squat position that was much more comfortable than laying flat.

My body was ready for the baby to come out, at each contraction my body was trying to push with or without my participation. Trying not to push through these contractions was, by far, the most difficult part of my labor. Also during this time, the nurse was trying to get an IV into my arm. I had mentioned before that I was a hard stick, so our nurse, Maria, called a LVN to start my IV. After the LVN blew two veins in my left arm, reinforcements were called in and a phlebotomist got one going on my right hand. I know it took them a while because they would stop their work whenever I had a contraction. But I honestly didn’t feel any of the pain they were supposedly causing me. The ugly bruises I have on my left arm say otherwise, but they were merely a minor distraction.

Krista arrived right around this time and was able to start taking photos. I’m so happy she was there as I know Bill didn’t want to have to focus on me and remember to take pictures. I highly recommend it!

Finally, after what seemed like hours, (it was probably only ten minutes) the on-call OB arrived and I could start pushing. It was an amazing feeling to be able to push. I finally got to participate in what my body was doing instead of just breathing/moaning through each contraction. Bill was amazing, reminding me to breathe through each contraction and to keep my face as relaxed as possible. I actually started to panic if he wasn’t holding my hand, rubbing my knee or my back. His touch kept me focused and calm, best coach ever!

I pushed my way through half a dozen contractions with the OB perched on at the foot of my bed monitoring my progress. She was just sitting there wearing only one glove and was very chill about the whole thing. Bill was starting to wonder if she was going to catch this baby one-handed. She finally said something like, “two more contractions…” and then suddenly the room got moving. She got all gowned up and the bottom half of the bed was detached. Bill said it was pretty amazing to watch as they got everything ready for the baby to arrive. All of this took only two or three minutes too because I only had one contraction during all of this. I was incredibly thankful that I had about thirty seconds of rest in between each contraction.

After about three or four pushes, I finally started feeling the baby crowning. Man that was intense! I had a few moments of sheer panic thinking, “there’s no way my body can stretch that far!!” (my mom warned me I’d have that feeling) Then, suddenly, he was out and placed on my chest in one fluid movement. I opened my eyes and saw this beautiful baby screaming his head off as a nurse rubbed his skin and cleaned him off.

I developed tunnel-vision and had no idea what was happening beyond him. All I could see was his squishy face, full head of hair and incredibly long fingernails. I immediately saw Bill’s eyes and nose with my mouth and ears. It was an utterly amazing feeling.

The nurses left the baby on my chest, skin-to-skin, while my bottom half was tended to. No major injuries thankfully. He stayed with me while my post-pardum room was arranged and they got stuff ready to transport us. He was only taken from me for a few minutes to be weighed and measured and to have footprints taken, and  they did it right next to my bed. 6lbs, 8oz and 19.5 inches long. Apgar scores of 9 and 9.

Since he was born after midnight, the hospital policy had us staying at least 24 hours after birth. So we were discharged on Tuesday afternoon, so ready to go home. I really feel like the delivery couldn’t have gone better. At no point was I contemplating the need for pain medications or too exhausted to continue. Bill kept feeding me cranberry juice and his encouraging words and touch kept me strong.

Krista took some really beautiful photos and I’m so grateful that she was able to make it in time. You can see the best of her photos here.

Alexandra

My DH (Jason) got up to go to the bathroom a few minutes later and when he came back I told him that I thought I might have had an “accident” but that now I was having some weird cramping. He asked if it was my water and I told him I didn’t know, that it wasn’t like what I would have expected my water breaking to have been. I thought it was supposed to be like a flooding gush, but that I was now having the cramps.

I was losing my mucus plug the day before so I was kind of worried that this might be labor. We took the Bradley method and learned that sometimes you will have false labor and being that my due date wasn’t until july 21st, I thought that maybe this is what was going on. So, following the Bradley guide I got up around 6 am and took a shower to try and see if they would stop. Also, I wasn’t full term for 4 more days and the midwives told us at our last appointment that we could only delver at the birth center with them once we had reached full term which was still 4 days away, so i needed these contractions to stop.

Anyway, I got in the shower and had Jason start timing the contractions on contractionmaster.com (great site by the way!). I stayed in the shower for about an hour but the contractions kept coming. I still wasn’t sure if they were real or not because they didn’t seem to be getting any worse, pain wise and they seemed kind of sporadic but close together.

When I got out of the shower I checked the timing that he had recorded and they all seemed to be lasting about 30-60 seconds and were all between 1 1/2 – 2 min apart. Well, we had learned that when contractions start they should be short contractions but about 10 minutes apart, which mine obviously were not. It was only 7am so we really didn’t want to call the midwives yet, because we didn’t want to be those people who show up 5 times to have their baby and actually be having false labor, so I drank a lot of water and started walking around, all the while talking and going about doing things normally. But, I decided if they were still coming at the same rate by 8am I would call them.

Jason ran to his mom’s to get the lawn mower, because we had gotten a notice from the city saying we needed to mow or we may be fined, so he ran and got that and was back a little before 8am. He came in to see how I was doing and I told him I was still having contractions at the same rate as before and still not very strong.

We then decided I should call the midwife on call and tell her about the contractions I was having, that they didn’t seem to be very strong but were really close together. She said that since I wasn’t quite full term that I should go to the hospital near the birth center and if it was real labor that they would need to give me meds to stop them. I then reminded her that we lived an hour away and that I really wasn’t sure if it was just false contractions or not and that I had been trying to walk them off but I didn’t want to be speeding things up if they were real. She said “Oh yeah, I forgot you were that far away” and she suggested that since it didn’t sound like I was really having a problem with the contractions that maybe that was what was going on, so to stop walking and get in the tub, drink lots of water, take a double dose of  calcium-magnesium and call her back in an hour to let her know how things were going.

So Jason ran and got the pills she said to get and I got in the tub. I took the double dose while Jason called our moms and my sister to tell them what was going on but not to worry, that we thought they might just be false and that we were trying to get them to stop and then he went out and started on the lawn.

I stayed in the tub for about an hour and a half until I was so uncomfortable I had to get out. I figured it was because it is a small tub so I wasn’t even actually able to get my big belly under the water unless I turned on my side which in turn made my hips hurt, so I got out and called her back. She asked how far the contractions were apart and I told her I didn’t know because I was in the tub and Jason was mowing the yard. She asked if they were growing in intensity but I told her that I didn’t think they were, that I was just really uncomfortable being in the tub because it was so small.

I then told her that I had lost my mucus plug the night before and that I wasn’t sure if some of my water had broken that morning, because I forgot to tell her earlier. She then said that she was finishing up a home birth and that she wanted me to go ahead and come into the birth center so she could check to see if I was leaking fluid and to see if I was dilating or not. We agreed to meet there at 11:30 because we needed to get ourselves together and it takes an hour to get there.

I went and got Jason out of the yard and told him to take a shower while I got dressed and put all our stuff into a bigger bag and got a few more things together. He took a quick shower and started helping to get things together, but was concerned because the lawn wasn’t finished and we didn’t want to get fined so he started asking about what we needed to do to get a hold of the city to let them know that I might be in labor and that we wouldn’t be getting the lawn done.

Well, about that time the contractions really started getting bad, like almost instantly. one minute I was handling them fine then the next was really slamming and I had to stop and brace myself for it and I couldn’t even talk.

I got a few more like that while he was getting a little frantic about getting things out to the car and worrying about the yard not getting mowed, and he kept asking me were the phone number was for the city. I finally lost it and told him to “f*** the lawn” we needed to go and to leave a note!!! He ended up finding the number and calling before we left, at which the city guy said yes, don’t worry about the lawn get to the hospital!

If I wasn’t having such strong contractions, it was really quite comical to see my DH so frantic about getting everything to the car, and then he starts running around talking about “We need towels!! We need more towels!!”

We finally got out to the car and realized that we needed gas!! So, we stopped and got enough to get us there and then got on the highway.  At this point my poor DH is really stressing out and is hauling to get us to the birth center as fast as possible, but go figure that everyone and their brother decided to be on the highway at the same time I decide to go into labor. So, Jason puts on his emergency lights, is going like 95-100 MPH and is flashing his lights, honking the horn and trying to wave all these “fools” out of the way!

A little back info, we had planned that we would have fruit and cheese and crackers to eat when we went into labor, but being that we were 3 weeks till our due date we didn’t have any of it on hand, and neither of us had eaten anything before we left. He then remembers that we don’t have any of the food I wanted so he gets on the phone and calls his mom and tells (yells to) her that she needs to go get fruit!! “MOM!!!! I NEED FRUIT!!! I NEED FRUIT, YOU NEED TO GO GET FRUIT AND CHEESE AND CRACKERS AND MEAT!! WE HAVEN’T EATEN ANYTHING AND SHE IS IN LABOR!!!! BRING IT TO THE BIRTH CENTER!!!”  But, she doesn’t even know where the birth center is, so he then tries to tell (yell) directions to her.

He is so sweet, here we thought we would have this romantic labor and delivery, and he would feed me fruit and give me ice chips, so he was still going to do anything in his power to make my “labor day” dream come true.  Well, he finally gets off the phone with her and is flying down the road, when up ahead we see a state trooper pull out in front of us with his lights on!! “OH GOD!!!” he frets “WE ARE GONNA GET PULLED OVER!!”  but the trooper pulls over some one else, so he flies by them at near 100 MPH.

At this point my contractions are reallllllly bad and I am feeling a lot of pressure and it feels like my body is pushing and I can’t stop it!!! And we are still 30 minutes away!!!  I really started getting worried.  Luckily, he was going so fast that the 30 minutes turned into closer to 20 minutes and we finally are about 4 miles from our exit.

Well, he is steadily “moving” people out of our way when we come up behind a city police officer! Well, cop or no cop, he needed to get the hell out of our way and there was no way around him, so at this point emergency lights flashing, he flashes his lights non-stop, starts honking his horn like a mad man and we are BOTH waving at the cop to get out of the way!! BUT THE FOOL WON”T BUDGE!!!!  Then finally there is a break in the traffic and we are like 1 1/2 miles from out exit, so we go shooting around him and cross all 3 lanes to get to our exit lane, but of course the cop puts on his lights and PULLS US OVER!!!

Jason tore off the road and stopped so fast the cop probably almost hit us, he jumps out of the car and yells “OH NO, YOU GOTTA LET US GO!! MY WIFE’S IN LABOR AND SHE IS FIXING TO HAVE THIS KID RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW!!! THIS IS OUR EXIT, WE GOTTA GET TO THE BIRTH CENTER!!!!” The cop then walks up to the car while Jason is getting back in and as soon as he sticks his head in the door I feel a gush of water “OH GOD, NOW MY WATER JUST BROKE” I yell.

(I must interject, get some depends for the “big day” they really do the trick) The cops jaw drops and all he can do is stutter, ” Ah, ok, go on, just be careful, don’t hurt anyone!”  We take off!  We run the red lights between the exit and the birth center and get there at about 11:25am.

Jason jumps out of the car and rushes around to help me out and helps me to the front door, at this point I know the baby is coming, it felt like he was half way down my birth canal. we get over to the door and Jason reaches out to open it, and it is LOCKED!!!!  “OH MY GOD, IT’S LOCKED!! WHERE IS SHE, I THOUGHT SHE WAS GONNA MEET US HERE!!!” he yells and his face just drops as his heart about stops, we are going to have this baby on the side walk!

Just then a little old janitor lady comes to the inside of the door and tells us “they are closed”. He says to her “no, you gotta let us in, my wife is having this baby NOW!! Hope (my midwife) is supposed to be meeting us here please let us in!!” But she can’t get the door unlocked so she tells us to come to the next door, which is a pediatrician office that is attached to the birth center.

We get into the building and there just happens to be a pediatrician there. Usually there wouldn’t be anyone there, but she just happened to be holding a seminar there that day. So me, Jason, the ped, and the janitor make our way down to the waiting room of the birth center and the rest of the center is across the hall locked up tight! I grab the phone and call Hope. She anwers all pleasant and calm “hey, hows it going?”  I’m frantic, “Hope!! where are you?!?!?!  You gotta get here, he’s coming, HE’S COMING RIGHT NOW!!!!!!” She’s taken a back.  “What??? you weren’t urgent on the phone the last time i talked to you, what happened??? I’m almost there, I’ll call Sharon, she is right around the corner!! We will be right there!!”

At this point the ped (Dr. Cerone) and Jason help to get my bottoms off as dr Cerone instructs the janitor to get plastic bags, paper towels and gloves! And she states that she has delivered children before so she will deliver ours if she needs to. They get me to the floor as they are laying out the bags and paper and the dr is getting her gloves on.

Just then Sharon (the head midwife) comes through the door, bare foot and half dressed. “What happened? You aren’t supposed to be having him yet.” She smiles and asks dr Cerone if she has checked me yet, but she hadn’t. So Sharon grabs some gloves as Hope runs in, and she checks and says “oh yeah, i feel his head, he is right there, we need to get you to the birth bed. when your next contraction subsides let us know we need to move you. its not going to go away completely, so just when you feel it ease up some let us know.”

It eases a bit so they (Jason and Sharon) help carry me to the birth bed. Jason climbs into the bed next to me and I’m on my side pushing and about to rip his pocket off. I push a couple times like that and they say to get onto my back so I can push better, so they roll me to my back. I get one leg and Jason’s neck and Jason gets my other leg. Jason looks around and says “Oh my god, I can see his head! I can see his head, he has hair!!”

I pushed again and Jason can see him coming out and is so excited “You’re almost there, our little guy is almost here and he has so much hair!” They tell me to reach down and I feel my babies head and he does have a full head of hair! I pushed 3 more times and his head came out, then his little body!

They placed our baby on my chest and it was the most wonderful, shocking thing ever! It was so surreal, I couldn’t even believe that I had woke up only 6 hours prior and all of a sudden now I’m holding our baby!!

Jaxon Creed was born at 11:56 am and was 6lb 13oz and was 19 inches, he is so precious and perfect, with a full head of hair like I had when I was born. He has my lips and daddy’s nose and both of ours green eyes.

“Well, i didn’t see that coming.” Sharon said smiling once it was all over. Well, needless to say, there was no time to fill the tub to have the water birth we had wanted but we still couldn’t have had a better birth.

They checked his heart and lungs and wiped him off a little bit before they left us to bond together for about an hour. Kristin (the lactation consultant) then came in and asked if he had nursed yet and she helped me to feed him a little and showed me how to express some colostrum into a spoon to feed him if need be, while Jason held him.

About that time Jason’s mom called and said that she was about to leave her house to bring the fruit he demanded, but he told her that it was to late that the baby was born and she got to hear him cry. He said not to worry about it, that we would see her tomorrow. We then called my mom and sister so they could hear our boy and my mom was making her way up to my sister’s house. I then took a shower while Jason got some daddy bonding time and then he went and got us some food while Kristen again helped me to get him nursing. We stayed at the center till about 4 pm.

Because Jaxon wasn’t full term and so technically I was supposed to deliver at a hospital (but being that he was coming out there was no time to transfer me), they wanted us to stay in town for the night so they could keep watch on his vitals, so we went to a hotel to stay the night. you should have seen the looks on the peoples faces at the hotel when we got there. we showed him off to the man behind the counter, and on the way to our room there was a couple in the hall who asked “Oh, what a cute baby! How old is he? 1-2 weeks?” They were shocked when we told them, “No, he’s 4 hours old!”

We had a wonderful first night,in our king sized bed, both of us taking turns to watch him while the other slept and I spoon fed him throughout the night and took his temp and counted his breaths, which were all right where they needed to be. Hope came in the morning to make sure everything was going good and to check him over then we headed home with our new baby.

Alicia

Finally on March 11, things started to progress.  We arrived at the birthing center at about 9:30 am.  When we got there, our midwife was so kind and encouraging.  Soon after arriving I got into the tub.  Due to my long labor I had stopped eating and taking fluids and our midwife really started to get stern with me about drinking fluids.  After a while my mother came in and rubbed my back while I labored in the tub.  During this time my husband took a short nap.  He had gone days without sleep while I labored at home.

I drifted in and out of consciousness while in the tub.  I think it was more from the exhaustion then the pain.  I remember crying tears of love and feelings of oneness with the Universe as the beautiful Goddess chants calmed my nerves.

My husband returned and he and my mother helped me to the shower.  The midwife checked me and my waters were still intact.  She asked if I would be ok with her breaking my bag of waters.  I told her that would be fine.  She did and things started moving faster.  The contractions never got worse than the days before but they began coming faster.  It seemed as if I had no breaks from that time until the time he was born about hour later.

I went to the toilet to sit after having my waters broken.  As I sat there, my husband sat between my legs for me to lean on.  All of a sudden he became very excited when he announced to me that he thought he had just seen our son for the first time!  A few seconds later he yelled out again when he saw that our son had hair.

We all decided it was time to move onto the bed.  I sat up on the bed, my mother sat behind me for support, my Mother-in-Law held my left leg, my husband held my right leg, one midwife stood between my legs and another midwife stood further back holding a pulley.  Due to my long labor my uterus was not having strong enough contractions to birth my son without intervention so we used a pulley system.

When Marley’s head came out of me his eyes were wide open and looking up at his Grandmother.  Then the rest of him came out with the next push.  Marley was born after 15 minutes of pushing.

He was placed on my breast and did not cry.  He did not feed for about half an hour.  I never knew love could be so intense!  The experience was beyond anything I could have imagined.  After this loving experience I have no question that we would do it all the same if we have another child.

Marley was born weighing 8lbs 9oz.

Tammy

I should have known something was up on Monday. I always joked with my midwife that when I show up for the appointment in my sweats, I’m done and the baby will probably come soon. Sure enough, I went to my appointment in my sweats for the first time on Monday morning. All day, Levi, our cat would not leave my side. And around 9:00 pm, Evie started kicking like crazy and didn’t stop for TWO HOURS!!!

I woke up at 1:00 am and when I stood up, my water broke. I freaked out because at first I thought I was peeing my pants and couldn’t stop. Then I realized, hey… that’s not pee. I called the midwife to let her know and then the contractions started… five minutes apart and intense. After an hour, my contractions were two to three minutes apart and they stayed that way until second stage.

We went to the hospital around 4:00 am and I’m glad we did because once the contractions picked up, I don’t know that Jamie could have convinced me to leave the house, let alone move at all. At 7:00 am the midwife finally checked me and we found I was only 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced. I cried and told Jamie I didn’t think I could do it without drugs this time if I was only 3 cm!!! That’s still a lot of laboring to go. But then I pulled myself together and reminded myself of what I always tell my students – an exam tells you nothing more than where you are at that exact moment. It is no indicator for where you will be in an hour or how things will progress.

So I then asked if I could get in the tub since I was having a lot of back labor. I got in the tub (ahhhhhh… that helped a lot!) and after two and a half hours, the midwife asked me if it still felt like a good place to be. It then occurred to me that I had just had four very intense contractions without a break at all and I knew I was in transition. So I got out of the tub and made it back to the room.

Another exam showed that I was 6 cm now and I thought, boy am I in for a rough transition! However five minutes later I was at 8 cm and after another five I was pushing. I started pushing and the midwife noticed I had an anterior lip (a tiny little bit of my cervix that still hadn’t dilated). So we tried not pushing for a few contractions… impossible. After trying pushing in several different positions with no change to my cervix, she had to physically push it back as I pushed to get Evie through. Not so fun, but better than a c-section for sure!

I have to say, I pushed as hard as I could, but it was really difficult. Once Evie got pretty far down it became clear why she was so hard to push out, she was flipped up into a posterior presentation (sunny side up) and was much harder to push out. After a little more than an hour of pushing, she was crowning, but not coming out (I’ve been there before… for four hours!) and her heart rate took a huge nose dive. The midwife told me she really needed to get out and she’d have to do an episiotomy so I could push her out with the next push. No objections from me. So with the next push, out she came with the cord wrapped around her neck. She was absolutely fine and making plenty of noise to let us know it.

I nursed her right away and after ten minutes I asked if it really was a girl. The midwife laughed and said she didn’t know, she just handed the baby over to me. I looked and sure enough, Evie was a girl. She nursed for an hour before sharing her with my husband and my mother – it was such a warm, snuggly, special time. Ten hours, quite an adventure, but worth it all.

It’s amazing how different two labors can be!

Jo
2 children, Bradley Method natural childbirth instructor

However, something in me changed when I found out I was expecting Adelle. I couldn’t imagine jamming a needle in my back, pumping drugs through both of our bodies, and taking a vacation from experiencing birth. I knew I wanted to try a natural birth and I my husband and I both knew we wanted him to be a participant, not merely an observer, of his child’s birth. After a good bit of research, we opted to take Bradley Method classes. After our twelve week series was up, I felt confident and ready to handle whatever labor I had.

I began having contractions (not Braxton-Hicks) on Sunday afternoon. They were consistently 15-20 minutes apart but never progressed anywhere. I could tell my body was working hard and trying to go into labor, though. I tried to just ignore them the best I could and continue on with my life.

I had an appointment with the midwife at 3:00 on Tuesday afternoon and by then I was 50% effaced and already at 3cm. She gave me the award for “the most promising cervix of the day”! By 5:00 my contractions were already about 7-10 minutes apart and my labor had actually really started going. I called my best friend and my Mom who lived out of town and told them to come on up because I was sure I’d be having the baby soon.

My labor progressed pretty quickly, but when I decided to rest around 10:00 it slowed back down. Discouraged, I went to bed at midnight thinking maybe it wouldn’t pick back up again… I was pretty bummed and really tired already. But by 12:30 my labor did a quick jump and I flew into very active labor. My mom arrived around 1:00 am just in time for us all to go to the hospital.

When we arrived at the hospital I was at 6cm and was really working to relax through each contraction. At 4am the midwife checked me – 8 cm and a bulging bag of waters. I finally gave my consent and she broke my water for me and I was jet propelled right into transition. Thankfully, transition was very quick and after 20 minutes I felt like I wanted to push, so the midwife told me to go for it. This is where the really hard part started for me.

Everyone talks about how painful first stage labor is. For me, it was no problem. It was second stage that was really difficult. I ended up pushing for almost 4 hours before she was born. I am actually really surprised they let me go that long, but Adelle was handling it fine so they let me keep going. During the last hour she would crown every time, but she just couldn’t quite make it the rest of the way out. I was so exhausted that I would halfway fall asleep between contractions and then try again.

Toward the end my husband and I had both pretty much given up. We were asking the midwife to call the doctor to come vacuum her out. But she just kept encouraging us and saying that she knew I could do it because I was so close. So she would just suggest a few more pushes before we called the doctor and I would keep trying. To my amazement, she did finally come out. I was stunned! I am so thankful for my midwife! She never gave up on us, even when we had. Thanks to her, Adelle was born without any drugs or interventions. It was the most amazing thing ever. My husband and I both started crying and they laid her right on my chest and he told me we had a little girl. It was too perfect.

So, after third stage, they cleaned me up (and stitched me up) and after that, with some quick instruction, I nursed her right in the delivery room after she was born for a good 30 minutes. She was hungry!

Of all the things I’ve ever done in my life, I am the most proud of giving birth Adelle. I not only had a beautiful birth experience, but it changed me. Who knows… maybe one day I’ll teach myself how to ride a bike.

Jo
2 children, Bradley Method natural childbirth instructor