Baby E joined the world February 27th at 7:06 PM weighing 6 pounds 15 ounces and measuring 20 inches long. I am so in love with her little face.
I woke up on the 27th around 0300 to go to the bathroom when I heard and felt a distinct pop. Of course, I immediately thought it must be by water breaking, but there was no water. I tried lying on my side for 30 minutes then standing up, still no water. I also wasn't having any contractions, so I decided to go back to sleep.
I got up at 0730 like usual to work, but I had a nagging feeling something wasn't quite right. I texted my doula around 0900 and she suggested I contact the hospital to see what they suggest. The hospital said I should come in just to determine one way or the other. My mom and I started getting ready to go when my water truly broke.
I've heard the dramatic water breaking scenario that you see in movies isn't super accurate. More often than not, it's a slow but steady trickle.
HAAAAAAAAAAA. I definitely had the Hollywood style water breaking and it continued to do so through labor.
I decided I wanted to shower in the comfort of my own home before heading to the hospital, so I called them back to let them know my water had definitely broken and that I would be in soon. Contractions started around 1000 but didn't get regular-ish until 10:30 (every 7-8 minutes). They weren't very painful, just uncomfortable.
We got to the hospital around 1245, where they checked me into a triage room. I was 80% effaced and 3-4cm dilated. I originally intended to labor at home as much as possible, but since my water broke the hospital really, really wanted me to come ASAP since the risk of infection goes up once the bag of waters ruptures. Usually, hospitals won't even admit you until you are a full 4cm as that is considered active labor.
Most first labors last around 14 hours (or more), so I was expecting to have her very late on the 27th or in the wee hours of the 28th. Little did I know little miss was super eager to join the world. Only 10 hours passed from my water breaking to me holding her in my arms.
My nurses and doctors were fantastic. I don't know how much this played into my awesome experience, but I brought a gift bag for the nurses' station full of chocolate, granola bars, and other easy to grab and go snacks. I also included a thank you note. The doctor was thrilled and said no one had ever done that before in her experience.
Before I gave them the bag, the doctor wanted me on a constant IV drip, constant fetal monitoring and constant blood pressure cuff (going off every 15 minutes). This is the exact opposite of what I wanted. The doctor primarily wanted it done because baby girl's heart rate wasn't moving around like it should. Usually, her heart rate will go up and down in a range of 120-160 bpm. However, baby girl does that when she is sleeping (at least based on past appointments). The second the turned on the IV drip, she woke up and her heart rate started moving around like they wanted.
Then I remembered the gift bag and I gave the doctor a copy of my birth plan. She immediately took me off the IV (I had a hep lock), said I could do intermittent fetal monitoring, and that I only needed my BP checked hourly. I also discussed having the ability to push in varying position (NOT on my back, my sciatica pain goes through the roof when I'm on my back) as well as slowing the rate of pushing as well as other techniques once the baby crowned to reduce the likelihood of tearing. She was on board with all of that.
Early labor lasted from about 1000 to 1645. By that point, my contractions increased in intensity and got much closer together (3-4 minutes instead of 5-7). They were fairly long though, lasting around two minutes. My nurse commented on it as unusual and told me they should shorten in length. I went to the bathroom at that point and suddenly the contractions shifted into hyper drive. I was having an intensely difficult time getting up to get out of the bathroom due to the pain.
Once I finally did, I couldn't sit on the birthing ball during the contractions anymore. The nurse raised the bed up so I could put the birthing ball on it and rest my head and arms on it in between contractions. I tried rocking in a rocking chair, sitting on the birthing ball, and getting on my hands and knees in the bed. The only position that was bearable with these contractions was standing with the ball on the bed, so we stuck with that.
My mom started counting during the contractions (one of the methods we learned to try for pain management during our childbirth class) while my doula applied counter pressure and I did deep chest breathing. All of those things helped tremendously. I'm not sure how successful I was at deep chest breathing, but I was managing to avoid holding my breath/breathing way too fast. I also focused on not tensing up, relaxing my shoulders, etc.
My rhythm tended to be rocking my hips back and forth while lightly patting the ball with my right hand while my doula applied counter pressure. I also tended to moan during them, but in a weird staccato (almost like a goat hahaha).
At this point I was in a tremendous amount of pain. I heard the nurse say something about transition. They tried to get me on my back to be able to check my cervix, but that proved to be utterly unbearable. I cannot stress enough how awesome my nurses were. They ended up checking me while I was standing up and leaning over the bed to try and reduce the amount of discomfort I was in.
My nurse told me no matter how many children a woman has birthed, no matter her pain tolerance, etc, that nearly all of them want to throw in the towel at 8 cm. She said not to give up because by that point the baby is almost here. She was definitely right, I remember thinking at that point if I was not at least 7 cm I was not going to make it. She checked me and said some of the most beautiful words I have ever heard, "Oh, wow. You are almost 9 cm. You'll have this baby within the hour."
At this point, there was a big rush to get my husband on FaceTime. After some initial connection problems, he got through so he got to watch the end of transition and the birth :)
About ten minutes after the nurse checked me, I started to notice an intense pressure. The second I said I felt like I had to push they rushed to get the doctor. There were two contractions where the urge to push was utterly unbearable, but they kept telling me to pant instead of push because they wanted to be sure I was a full 10 cm dilated. The doctor arrived, checked me and gave me the go ahead.
My mom says I had the most interesting labor and delivery she'd ever seen/heard of. I stood through active labor and transition and I pushed on my knees, facing backward on the bed. The nurses raised the bed completely upright so I had the head of the bed under my armpits. Similar to this picture except with the head of the bed under my armpits. This was awesome for resting between contractions, plus it let me use gravity to get baby girl down the birthing canal.
I cannot tell you how amazing it felt to push. My mother said for her pushing was way more painful than transition, but for me it was the opposite. There was only one push that actually hurt more than the contraction and that was when her head was trying to crown along with her arm. This is called a compound presentation. Throughout it all, the doctor was using perineal massage and support. Once the baby began to crown, she told me to shift my pushes from full out bearing down to a slow and constant steady pressure. After about 20 minutes of pushing, baby girl was born :)
I had some bleeding/clotting issues that required some fairly painful and rapid action from my doctor, but it was fixed and all was well.
ETA: I can't believe I forgot to include this part of my birth story! After I birthed E, I was pretty much in my own world so this was relayed to me by my mom.
A whole lot of crazy was going on in the background when mom overheard my nurses say, "...I bet she would do it." So mom asked them what they were talking about and they asked her if she thought I would like to cut E's umbilical cord. Mom told them I probably would.
Of course I did :D So after her cord stopped pulsing (delayed cord clamping wooooooo, I seriously love my nurses and doctor), they passed her through my legs up to me and I cut her cord. I have a picture of it, but it's not exactly blog or facebook friendly. Family and friends who are interested in seeing it can shoot me a text though :)
All in all, I had a great birth experience. Quick, effective labor and pushing, all natural with no interventions, and no tearing. My husband got to watch the whole thing, which he says was amazing and awful at the same time. He loved being able to talk to me and see our child be born, but he was miserable to not be able to reach out and touch me and our baby or to be able to help in person.
The pain was about what I expected. Not that I had any way to imagine it or anything to compare it to, but I'm really glad that it wasn't significantly worse than what I thought it would be. The only thing that surprised me was how little time I was in active labor before I hit transition.
I kept a journal during labor and at 1645 I noted that the contractions were starting to be more painful rather than just uncomfortable. I could still talk and write through them, but it was difficult. 2 hours and 20 minutes later, I had my baby girl :) I expected the more painful parts of labor to last longer than they did, but man am I glad they didn't!
The hubs and I are both so in love with this tiny little person :)
For those who followed my pregnancy belly progress, here is my body after baby three days postpartum. Since I just birthed a tiny human, I'm obviously not working out at all (nor do I have any desire to). I am breast feeding though, and that apparently burns a metric ton of calories. I am inclined to agree, as I am absolutely ravenous most of the time haha.
