Noah's birth story

I'd had the 6th of August picked as my "guess date" for Noah's arrival, with my other two guesses the 8th and the 16th. On the 6th, I got up in the morning and went to a prenatal/hatha yoga class, as I'd been feeling the urge to do yoga for some mental centering and also to maybe position him correctly. I accomplished both of these, as I left feeling refreshed and with him turned from an OP to what felt like an ROA position! I'd even felt him make the move during class and swing his back around.

Later that day we went to my in-laws' for my nephew's 8th birthday party. We had a great time swimming and relaxing, though I had this nagging fear of my water breaking in my father in law's pool and him never swimming again. I didn't have a single contraction all day. When we got home, during the late afternoon, Nathan and I both took naps. I woke up around 7:30 still feeling groggy, unrested, and just kind of blah. Jason took care of Nathan's needs and I relaxed. Eventually I headed to bed at about 10 p.m.

At midnight, I felt a tiny trickle and thought the baby kicked my bladder so I'd better go pee. Then- gush- whoa, my water broke! I said as much to Jason and he popped right up. Then, another gush, gush, gush. I started to tell him to bring me a waterproof pad, no, a towel, no, just come help me get to the bathroom. I was just a little thrown off! The funny thing was that the last thing I thought before I went to bed was that I should put down a waterproof pad just in case. I called my midwife and doula, and began to have mild contractions 7 minutes or so apart. Both Rhonda and Kaleen said to call them in the morning, or sooner if things picked up. I also called my mom and Jason called his parents. We decided to take Nathan and Jada over to my in-laws' before things got more intense, so we did that and got back home around 1:30.

When we got home, Jason went to sleep, but I couldn't lie down during the contractions so I went to the family room. The best way to deal with them was to sit on the footstool of my glider and then lean over an exercise ball propped on the coffee table, so I did that for most of the night. I called Kaleen and Rhonda around 7 and things were still pretty slow, as I was getting significant breaks between contractions. I was listening to my hypnobabies tracks the whole time and just listening to the visualizations and affirmations. I imagined blowing toward my stomach and blowing the contraction away, and it worked. I felt very encouraged. The original plan was for Rhonda to come over and labor with me, but the way timing turned out, Kaleen came over at 10 and stayed with me from then until the very end. She wanted to get me into a good pattern of labor, so we tried some mild herbs, pumping, and lots of position changes. They started getting closer together, too. She checked me and I was bummed to hear only 2 but mostly effaced. More position changes, including lots of reclining and abdominal lift and tucks- he had come so far out of OP that he was too far out to put the right pressure downwards in my pelvis!

At lunchtime, we sent Jason to Toojay's to get sandwiches, and I told Kaleen that this point had actually been part of my birth visualization plan :) I knew eating something heavy like that might be a mistake later, but it sounded SO good. We continued changing positions and even went for a very short very slow walk. By this point, I had to lean on Jason during a contraction, because I couldn't just stand through them. They were definitely more intense and I think by this point I was feeling them differently and vocalizing a little through them, especially saying "peace" and "open" over and over. I asked Kaleen if the contractions were going to stay this way for the rest of labor, and she said probably. I thought maybe I was farther along than I thought, though in the back of my mind I knew it probably was not a very big number. After coming back inside for a while, Kaleen suggested that I get in the shower for a little while. Well, I hated the feeling of the shower, so I got out pretty quickly. Jason suggested that we head to the hospital, and I told Kaleen that I wanted to but I was afraid that I would give in to the epidural right when we got there. She asked if I wanted her to check me first, and I said no because the number was going to be the same regardless and we intended to go to the hospital either way. So off we went. Time was pretty much in warp mode all day, but I think this was about 3 p.m.

Kaleen had called me in already, but we still had to wait in admitting for a few contractions and then in the lobby area of the L&D floor. I honestly didn't care too much, I was still listening to my ipod and vocalizing as I needed to. We got into a room, and Jason immediately looked and found that there was no tub. Kaleen cleared this up immediately and had me walk around the corner to a different vacant room. We filled the tub and guess what? First it was too hot, then when I finally did get in, I hated that too :( Boo. Sometime around this point my mom had arrived too. There was a cervical dilation picture on the wall and I told Jason to cover it up because I didn't want to see it. Everyone found that amusing. By this point I was not on top of anything. I was not in a state of awesome blissful self-hypnosis. I was not avoiding the word "pain" anymore. I, at this point, was begging for an epidural. Jason, amazingly and awesomely, was the first person to tell me no, contrary to last pregnancy when he encouraged me to get it even though I had wanted to go natural then. My mom and Kaleen both told me no way. Kaleen checked me and I was only at a 4! Nooooooo! How could it be this bad and this was only just barely active labor? I said that physically I could do it, but mentally there was no way. Kaleen said this was all the more reason to push through it, that it was just a mental challenge. Finally they (mom, Kaleen, Jason) suggested that I talk to anesthesia and do the consents so that everything would be ready if I DID go through with it, and I said okay. Every contraction after that, I would ask in between where the interview people were. By the time they arrived, I just wanted to go straight to the epidural. I verbalized that I understood I would be giving up mobility, but also that I needed a break and maybe the epidural would allow my body to work since I was fighting myself with every contraction. Also, I had been feeling "pushy," as I did in my first labor, even though we knew I wasn't dilated, so I could potentially swell or even injure my cervix by pushing against myself.

Getting the epidural was pretty much the easiest part of labor. It was a little more uncomfortable than I remember, but it's like having the end of a race in sight. I believe as I was getting it or right before that Jason took video of me saying yes, I changed my mind, I did want it, and also confirming that he did try to talk me out of it- for later exoneration if needed, I suppose. This was maybe around 6:45 or so. After I got the epidural, Kaleen checked me and I was progressing, the baby was even coming down some. She left to take a sleep break and round on some other patients, and I just hung out in bed, still visualizing "open, open, open" every time I had a contraction. The contractions continued slow and steady. When Kaleen came back, she put in a IUPC to better see the contractions. She checked me and I believe at this point I was 5-6! I was moving in the right direction and was now more dilated than I ever got in my last labor. Over the next hour or maybe two, the baby had a few decels that were not great signs, and also I was having a little more blood than usual, which made me nervous. We decided if there were any more decels and/or I didn't make any more progress in the near future, that we would call it. I said that I did NOT want to end up in an emergency c-section situation. After that, things stabilized, and then I started to feel really nauseous/refluxy. I had a small emesis bin, ready to throw up some cherry popsicles, but after about 20 minutes I threw up... My corned beef sandwich! It made a huge nasty mess. Yuck. But, after that I felt much better. At the next check, I believe I was 8-9. They kept asking me if I felt different or felt any pressure. I didn't think so. Mentally, I started to prepare for getting my VBAC even with an epidural. At my next check, around midnight, I had swelled down to a 7. His head was not molding, and the swelling was a sign that he wasn't going to fit into the pelvic inlet. We all felt a little wishy washy, but at the same time knew it was the right call. I actually think I felt more okay about it than Kaleen- she really wanted me to have my VBAC! I told her that what I really wanted was to be given a true chance to VBAC, and I felt like I'd gotten that. Further, Noah and I would have the physiological benefits of labor.

She called the surgeon (incidentally, her backup surgeon was away, so we got HIS backup, who neither of us had ever met) and we started prepping for the OR. Jason had planned to accompany this time, but at the last minute, changed his mind and opted to wait in the room while my mom went with me. They wheeled me into the OR, gave me an assortment of meds, draped me, and then brought my mom in. I was a little nervous during the surgery, because I felt like I was going to faint, and also because it sounded to me like I was bleeding too much. When they got the baby out, I didn't hear him crying, but I just stayed calm and waited. It turned out that his first Apgar was 5, and they had to suction/bag him to get him going, but once they did his second score was a solid 9. They brought him over to me, my mom took some pics, and then he went off to meet Jason in recovery while they finished up with me. I was pretty loopy in recovery, but I remember Kaleen working at getting him latched. Just then, they came over to heel stick him for glucose... He had failed his first test :( Rest of story to be continued in a different post (Jason's emails to family)...