I woke up on May 25th and noticed I had some “bloody show” and was losing my mucus plug. I was pretty excited but realized it could still be days. However, at about 11am I started to get contractions every 20 minutes apart or so. They were intense and at the time I would have said somewhat painful. In retrospect they were a piece of cake!
We visited with friends and toured DC. At 11pm we decided to get some sleep. However, as soon as I laid down my backed started to kill me! As long as I was standing or leaning over my ball, I was okay. At about 1am I realized I wouldn’t sleep and we called the midwife. My contractions were varied (between 5-10 minutes) and the midwife told me to try to rest. When this did not work she told me to come in to get checked. She said she’d likely give me a sleeping pill and send me home.
I arrived at 3am and I was 2 cm dialated but 90% effaced. I did not know the midwife and had had trouble getting ahold of the doula. I was afraid I’d have to labor with all strangers. As I was examined, I stretched to 3cm and I immediately went into intense one on top of another back labor until Eleanor was born at 11:17am. I didn't even have a long enough break to remember to call my Mom or Dad!
We tried to walk to the car to get my stuff and I could not even make it there. The pain was completely in my back and terrible. I could not find any relief.
I decided I needed to have a bowel movement so Tom and I went into the public bathroom. It was a very traumatic experience for both of us. I was unable to sit because the contractions hurt too much, so I finally dangled from the handicap bar and would tried to poo on the floor! When it was time, I’d jump on the toilet. Tom put paper towels on the floor and was so great. I spent an hour in there and with each contraction started making “ooooooo” sounds. I swore I wouldn’t be a lady that made crazy labor sounds . . . but I was! After the hour, my bowels were completely cleared and I was at 4cm.
I was so miserable at this point and half crawled to the labor room. Once there I was allowed to get into the tub. It was heavenly! The pain melted away for about 20 minutes. At this point we remembered to call the doula (who we reached!) and Tom’s parents. We were never able to call anyone else until the next morning!
Basically the pain would subside for 5-10 minutes in the tub, then would slowly get worse and worse, until I would stand, walk around the room with ice on my back, do a few standing contractions, lay down for a bit, then get back in the tub. I did this the whole labor.
After the first 2 hours I felt like I couldn’t go on. I asked to be checked to see how far I was. I was only 5 cm. However, the midwife said “well, you are 5cm . . .hmm . . . maybe 6cm . . you know it is possible you are 7cm. I’m going to call it 5-7cm” I knew I was only 5cm but she was trying to encourage me. I was still feeling dejected and did the math that if it took 2 hours to go 1cm then it would take me at least 10 more hours of labor! I was so upset I asked what I needed to do if I wanted to go get drugs. She said she’d check and disappeared for about an hour! Haha. It was great stalling tactic! By the time she came back, I had hit a rhythm and didn’t ask her what she found out.
Everytime I had a contraction, I would make my “ooooo” sound. I needed pressure on my back because of the pain and Tom spent most of the labor in the tub with me pushing on my back. The doula was incredible and would use her hands as well. Every once and awhile my mother-in-law would grab my hand too. It was all so helpful. I often had to direct them to move their hands and at the labor progressed I couldn’t talk so I would say “ooo” if what they were doing helped and “noooooooo” of what they were doing didn’t help and they would try something new. It was a great system. A few times people tried to get me to imagine I was on a roller coaster or something but that didn’t work. I dealt with the pain by trying to control it by directing them what to do. I think that is kind of funny.
At about 7am, I was not doing very well. I was screaming instead of “ooooing” and asked for “something to take the edge off”. The midwife again vanished. This was funny because I was essentially asking for Demoral, which I throw up whenever I take. I was honestly out of my mind. I made it through the next hour thinking “okay 15 more minutes then I’ll go to the hospital to get my epidural”. One thing that kept me from asking to go was the thought of being in the car for 20 minutes without people helping me through my contractions. When she came back I didn’t ask her what she found out again.
At shift change at around 8am, the new midwife came in and sternly said, “Saundra! You need to stop yelling! You are going to lose your voice and it isn’t helping! Do that ‘ooo’ thing again!” Having 2 new midwives (both of which I knew very well and liked a lot) gave me a second wind. Plus, I asked to be checked and I was at 8 cm. I was in transition!! This was about 8:30am. I was so excited to be in transition and it made me get focused again. I hoped transition would be short for me but it lasted 2 hours!
At about 10:30am, I was out of the water leaning over the bed. I started to push a little during the contractions, which helped ease some of my pain. I was checked and the midwives said I was fully dialated and could start pushing. My water still had not broken and the midwife asked if I wanted her to break it. Tom and I had discussed not having it broken before hand but I just said “yes”. I would have agreed to anything! I can easily see how women can get bullied into procedures while in labor. My water was broken and I laid down on the bed.
I planned to birth in the water. While I labored much of the time in the tub, when it came time to push I laid down on the bed! Who would have thought that Ella would get pushed out with me on my back in bed! I had some useless pushes at first. I was trying to use my Kegel muscles. Once I realized I needed to pretend I was pooping on the table, I did great! I held onto Tom’s hand and the doula’s hand and pulled myself up on them while I pushed. In between pushes I feel asleep. At one point Tom suggested going back to the water, but I was so tired I didn’t want to move. I pushed for 45 minutes and at one point wanted to ask for a vacuum to help pull her out (but I didn’t)! She was born as the Brandi song “Baby Baby” was playing on the IPod. She was beautiful and perfect and was rated perfect on her APGARS. She was born sunny-side up and with her arm over her face so it probably would have been even faster if she’d been in the proper position.
There was some trouble getting all of my placenta out so she was given to Tom after her cord was cut to do skin to skin. Then, we tried to do an infant lead nursing but she took too long so we helped her.
All in all, I had 3 stitches and a broken tailbone. I felt good and was so high from the endorphines of my natural childbirth.
We had trouble nursing because she was tongue-tied. After 10 days of sore nipples, tears, and pumping we had her tongue clipped and now everything is perfect (except my broken tail bone, Plantar facistis, and carpal tunnel!) Ella is 9 months old and a super nurser and a perfectly healthy baby.
Overall, I am so happy! Labor was hard and at the time I was miserable. But, I really did have my perfect natural childbirth. I was in active labor for a little over 8 hours and feel so lucky to have my baby girl! I would do it again without changing a thing.
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