Birth Story

I've sat down to write my birth story a dozen times in the past few days. Unfortunately, when you have a new baby who doesn't like sitting at the computer it's hard to stay at the keyboard long enough to finish typing. Here we go, try number dozen and one.

First off, about two weeks before I actually delivered, I had a bout of false labor. I'm not sure how long most false labor lasts but mine lasted 24 hours. No dilation or effacement, only 24 hours of strong contractions. That should have given me a clue as to how the real thing would go...

On December 1st, my due date, I went into labor in the evening. I slept, badly mind you, and my contractions kept up the next morning. By the evening of the 2nd (24 hours in) the midwife and her assistants decided to show up. I was only 1 cm dilated. Boo! I labored through-out the night, waking up for every contraction and basically passing out between each one. It was around here that I started to lose track of time.

By the morning of the 3rd I was starting to get horrible back labor. We called our chiropractor, Dr. Helland, and he came to the house and adjusted my back in an effort to get the baby to turn and help relieve my pain. Baby wasn't breech or posterior but he was slightly off kilter and it was enough to really hurt.

Sometime after that I started throwing up, a lot. One of the assistants convinced me it would be a good idea to take a pill and a half of the anti-nausea medicine I was prescribed for morning sickness. Keep in mind, I had only been taking a quarter of a pill to control my constant throwing up the last nine months and a full pill will knock me out cold for at least 12 hours. So, I was pretty out of it. I couldn't wake up enough to talk really well and although you would think that I would be comatose through the contractions, I wasn't. I could still feel them, I just couldn't move. And I was still throwing up.

The midwife finally told me I was dilated fully around 8pm on the 3rd. I say told me I was because it became evident in hindsight that I probably was only close and she just wanted to get the baby out of me. My water broke when I started pushing, inefficiently, at around 8pm on the 3rd. After four hours of pushing I was throwing up so much that I couldn't push anymore. It was like my body was in reverse; every contraction pushed upwards instead of down. We decided to go to the hospital.

Once there, I was given stronger anti-nausea meds and painkillers until they could get my blood work back so I could get and epidural. I was so exhausted that I needed to rest before trying again and I couldn't do that while I was feeling the contractions. I was so dehydrated that they had to wait a couple of hours while they put four bags of fluid into me. Luckily, the painkiller made it bearable. Rick was watching the contraction monitor when they set it up and was telling me that my smallest contractions were stronger than what the doctor said most women's strongest ones are. No wonder, I was in so much pain. I got my epidural and went to sleep, real sleep until morning. I don't really remember it well, but Rick said the nurse told me that I needed pitocin because my contractions were slowing down. With that, they sped right back up, and I already had an epidural so I couldn't tell if they were stronger or not.

When the doctor checked me at admittance, he said I was only 8 cm dilated and the baby was really high. I'm sure he was thinking I was going to have a C-section, but wanted to let me get some sleep. By the next morning, I was fully dilated (for real) and the baby was at +2 station, which is really low. He said that neither of us were in distress so I could wait until I really felt like pushing. I called him back a little while later and the baby was out in about ten minutes. I tore pretty badly, though Dr. Baer said I probably wouldn't have if I hadn't been so swollen from so much ineffective pushing the night before.

I got to hold Peter first thing for a little while and then they cleaned him up, right in the room. Rick got to give him his first ever bath and then I nursed him within the first half hour or so of his life.

A few people seemed to think that I should be sad that I didn't get my home delivery but honestly, I was really frustrated with my experience. There was a lot of in-fighting between the midwife and her assistants and I felt like no one was paying attention to me because they were too busy arguing. I should have gone to the hospital a lot earlier because I wasn't progressing fast enough for how hard my contractions were but everyone basically kept saying that I was a wimp and needed to just deal with the contractions. They were amazed when they all saw the monitor and realized that I was in as much pain as I had been saying I was for the past two days. Whenever I asked someone to get Rick, the midwife would tell me that I didn't need to worry about him, to just focus on me, that he needed to sleep and I would feel more comfortable without a man in the room. For two days nobody would let me see him and nobody even told him I was asking for him. He kept asking to come in and the midwife wouldn't let him and so he thought I was mad at him or something. When we got to the hospital, the midwife kept telling the nurses that I just needed something to make me stop throwing up and then I would be just fine and kept trying to send them away while I was asking for drugs and an epidural. Since Rick was finally in the room with me, he could tell that it wasn't working for me and he kicked everyone out. The hospital was the best thing that happened in my entire labor and I loved it. I loved being able to feel the pressure of what was going on when the baby was coming out but not the pain. I loved sleeping through my contractions. I loved that I didn't have to worry about the mess afterwards and that I got to eat food I didn't have to worry about making. The hospital actually had really good food. I still crave the pasta I had there.

Long story short, although I would like to try to go as naturally as possible next time, it will definitely be in the hospital and probably with the doctor who delivered Peter. I recognize the value of having an intervention-free birth if everything goes well, but my definition of 'going well' has been expanded to include a labor that is over within a day. I got to do two and a half days of drug-free intense labor, I think I earned my painless delivery and will gladly take the kind of treatment I got at the hospital (people respected my wishes and let my husband in the room with me) over what I got at home.

And for your viewing pleasure, some pictures. I will have more once I get the off my phone.

38 weeks pregnant



















and from the side



















For the first time: Mommy and Peter















Peter after his first bath, with his hair parted :)















Our first family picture













Peter holding dad's hand



















Peter inside his actual Christmas stocking



















First bath in a tub at home



















Mommy and Peter taking a nap