C's Birth Story

I wrote down C's birth story so that I would have a record of it for myself.  Warning: slightly gross labor details included!

Those of you who have been keeping up with these things know that waking up in the night with contractions is nothing new to me these days!  It's been happening pretty frequently in the past month, and had happened on three different occasions in the past week-- I had almost called the hospital on all three occasions, but after about two hours of regularly spaced contractions, they had always slowly become more spaced out, and then eventually stopped.

On Sunday night at about 12 AM, I awoke once again experiencing contractions.  These felt slightly more intense than they had in the past, but I still didn't want to get too excited.  I grabbed the laptop and went downstairs to time them for a little while, hoping not to disturb M to much.  They were averaging 8-10 minutes apart, but as I was timing them they started intensifying and I was having to breathe through them--which hadn't happened with any of the other contractions I'd been having.  I took this as a possible sign that this might finally be the "real thing"--but I still went back upstairs to lay down for a while and make sure they wouldn't go away.  As I laid down and was deep-breathing through contractions, M let me know that he was awake and ready to go if I needed him.  After a few more powerful contractions, I decided to call my doctor.  At that point it was about 2:00 AM.  I explained to the doctor what was going on, what had been going on in the past week, and asked her whether she thought I should come in.  She said I should since this was my third baby, and we had no way of knowing how quickly things might go.  So we called my sister (who gets the Aunt-of-the-year award for coming to stay with N and L in the middle of the night!) and headed off to the hospital.

We arrived about 3 AM.  They checked me and I was 3 centimeters dilated and 80% effaced.  This was a little disappointing to hear.  Given the intensity of the contractions, I had hoped to be at at least 5 cm dilation.  They were averaging 5-8 minutes apart at that point, but sometimes there would be longer 10-15 minute breaks in between.  However, I was feeling some moisture and trickles with each contraction, so the nurses were thinking my water might have broken, and was leaking slowly.  If that was the case, they said, they couldn't let me go home without a baby.  If my water wasn't broken, however, they said they might want to send me back home to wait a while, since I hadn't really progressed that far yet.

They kept trying to get a sample of the fluid I was leaking, so they could test it to see if it was amniotic fluid, but nothing came back conclusively either way.  They called my doctor again to let her know what was happening, and she advised them to admit me to the hospital, since she didn't want to send me home if it was possible I was leaking fluid (this increases the risk of infection for both Mama and baby).

We were moved into a labor room and both M and I tried to lay down and get some sleep.  I was able to doze a little bit at that point, thanks to the occasional 15 minutes (sometimes as long as 20) between contractions.  Even in my sleep, however, I was getting discouraged... fearing that these contractions would yet again slow down and stop.

When the nurses shift changed at about 7 AM, the new nurse came in and put me on the fetal monitor (this monitors the baby's heart rate and the mother's contractions at the same time).  I was on the monitor for almost 30 minutes without having a single contraction.  When the nurse left the room I finally had a couple, and she took me off the monitor.  She then advised that get up and walk around, or change position somehow to try and get the baby moving down and stimulate contractions.  I tried sitting on the exercise ball and the contractions stopped again for about 30 minutes.  Around this point (about 10 AM), my Mom arrived (she has been a great assistant labor coach for all three births!)  She was very encouraging and predicted that I wouldn't have to wait long to have the baby.  I really hoped she was right!

Mom and I began walking the hallways and contractions started picking up again.  They still felt pretty intense-- I had to pause and hold the railings in the hallway as they came and went.  As we were walking the halls, my doctor arrived, greeted me, and told me she would check me to see how much I had progressed, and possibly break my water to get things moving along, if it wasn't broken already.

I think everyone (including me) was thinking that I wouldn't have progressed much, since there had been so many long breaks between contractions.  But when the doctor checked me we were all amazed to discover that I was 8 centimeters dilated (at 10 you can start pushing).  My nurse was especially surprised-- I heard her say to the doctor "She's not even really contracting that much!" to which the doctor replied "Once your body has done it a few times, it gets really good at having effective contractions."

While she was checking me the doctor broke my water, so things started to pick up in intensity a little.  It was around 11 AM.  They had me on the monitor for a few minutes to make sure the baby had tolerated the water breaking.  As I was laying in bed on the monitor I was thinking about getting in the tub like I had before giving birth to L, but I was also afraid to be too far from my bed in case I dilated quickly to 10.  So I asked if I could get in the shower, which was a little bit of a shorter walk back to the bed.  Everyone helped me in, and M stayed in the bathroom with me while I put the hot water on my back and belly.  It felt great and was really helpful managing the pain.  When I started to feel some pressure I said I wanted to get out in case the urge to push came quickly.  M and the nurse helped me out of the shower and I sat down on the exercise ball next to the bed.  A few more contractions came and went and I started feeling like pushing.  The doctor came in at that point and they got me up on the bed between contractions.  She checked me and I was fully dilated, and they told me I could push with the next contraction.  I gave two big pushes with that contraction.  I remember thinking that pushing her out felt a little harder than it had with my last two babies... maybe because I'm 30 years old now!!  But then I remember somebody saying, "It looks like she's got a lot of hair!"  I knew this meant they could see the head so I was encouraged.  With the next contraction I pushed with all my might, hoping she would come all the way out-- and the nurse told me to stop and catch my breath.  So I stopped for a few seconds to catch my breath, then gave one final push, and she was out!  With all three of my children, the moment when you finally see the baby has been just about the most joyful you could ever experience.  She was so beautiful and I was so thankful to have her in my arms.  She was on my chest and they were toweling her off, and she felt so perfect-- soft skin, a beautiful face that was a combination of her two sisters, and the softest fuzziest little head!  It was love at first sight.

The best part was that I didn't have any damage from the delivery so I didn't have to have any stitches.  So I remember delivering the placenta (which feels like it's going to hurt as much as the baby did, and then you're surprised by how easily it comes out!) and I saw M cutting the cord and remember it.  It's nice to have that memory this time.  I was so distracted by the unpleasant feelings of being stitched up that I have no memory of the cord-cutting after N and L were born.  Also, because I didn't have any stitches, I was able to get up and move around much more easily, and really felt pretty much back to normal within a few hours, aside from a tiny bit of swelling and soreness.  It has been such a blessing to be able to move around easily and care for little C in these first days at the hospital.

A few pictures and then I have to nurse this little one!

In labor... waiting...

She's here! 

First moments

We are pleased!!

Perfection!

Big sisters visit later in the day

Thrilled to be a big sister!!

The big sisters with Aunt Beth, who stayed with them while Mommy and Daddy were away

She was delighted with all her visitors (Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Ben came too!)

By the way, as most of you know I don't use our full names here on the blog for safety reasons, but feel free to emal me for baby C's full name: blog.everything.nice@gmail.com