To mash everything up together Weeks 38-41 were so boring, just like the rest of my pregnancy (which is a good thing!). As soon as I hit the 40 mark, my attitude changed from, "when she gets here, she gets here." to "For the love of God, get this baby out." I think at that point I had gone through a million bottles of Tums, a billion rolls of toilet paper, and stretched out every single pair of underwear I had. I was done, done, done.
I’ve attempted to write my birth story about 80 times. I
wrote it twice and I realized I kept forgetting key events that happened that I
found important or super funny. Mostly, I thought they were funny and I wanted
to share. So here is goes, number 81, and I think this might be the winner.
I always planned to have my first baby in a hospital, but
that quickly changed after my husband and I watched the documentary “The
Business of Being Born”. Needless to say, even though it was very biased, it
opened our eyes to the idea of a home birth. After some prayer and a terrible
meeting at my OB’s office, we officially decided that we would go with having
our little one at home
We didn’t plan on getting pregnant so quickly, and we were
surprised that it didn’t take very long. We knew we wanted kids right away
after we got married, but we were leaving it in God’s hands. My pregnancy was
really uneventful and freakishly average. I had morning sickness, I was
fatigued the entire pregnancy, and my hormones were raging. During my pregnancy
I saw and OB once at week 10. I told her I wanted a natural child birth and she
did the whole “Oh yeah, uh, no problem.”
Then at week 14, I wanted to talk to my OB but they just wanted to pass
me off to a doctor who was free that day, who also worked for the practice.
When I mentioned home birth the receptionists (who do not have any degree in a
medical field what so ever) told me that midwives are not trained as well as an
OB and I could not have a home birth and they know so many women who’s babies
had died during home birth. Cue hormones. Needless to say, we left and sought
out our wonderful midwife Barb.
My experience with my midwife was so much different than my
OB. Barb took her time with me. Instead of 5 minute appointments and moody
nurses, I had a sweet natured woman who took her time to get to know me. I
enjoyed my appointments, and felt so relaxed. I never felt rushed unlike at my
OB who would send me off to a nurse, then the nurse would shove a cup in my
face and tell me to pee in it. 5 minutes later my OB comes in and asks, “Any
questions? No? Good.” As she plants her face into my file to even remember my
name. Now I know other women have had amazing experiences with their OB and
natural hospital births, so I wondered why mine was so snotty. In other words,
we just didn’t mesh well and I craved a different experience than what I was
experiencing. OK, enough about that. Let’s get to the good stuff.
Fast forward through pregnancy to 41 weeks, I had been
anxiously awaiting the arrival of our little girl. We had a name, the clothes,
and great baby gear, but I had given up hope that the child was ever going to
exit my body. 41 weeks to the day I walked down to the front door of our
townhouse around 11:50am to grab a package, and I felt a small gush as I
coughed and walked back up the stairs. I didn’t think much of it because, let’s
get real, gushing during a cough in pregnancy is pretty common. I’m talking
about peeing of course. However, I felt another small gush about 3 minutes later.
After 3 pairs of underwear in 15 minutes I called my midwife and my husband.
Mike brought me lunch and we decided to run to the store really quickly to get
snacks and some more food. At this point I’m only having contractions 20
minutes apart at the most and they get as close as 10 minutes. We walk into
Jewel and I feel a huge gush, luckily I was close to the bathroom and ta-da! My
bloody show. So we hurry through the
store and then my husband has a bright idea. “Hunny, I think I need a haircut.”
He says. “You need a what? Are you serious? I’m in labor right now, and the
next thing on your mind is a haircut?” I basically shouted. “Fine, let’s go get your hair cut, but I’m
sitting in the car and not going in with you.” I still wonder what the woman
who cut his hair thought when he told her his wife was in labor. In Mike’s
defense, the hair place was very close and it only took 6 minutes, and I
enjoyed a nice phone conversation while waiting.
My labor had pretty much stalled by the evening. Barb told
me to call her when the contractions were more consistent and closer together.
Around 4am Saturday morning, I called her when they were about 6 minutes apart.
She came by and I was laboring trying to rest. She brought Becky with her,
(another midwife) and they waited patiently while I rested. During the day Barb
had another labor and Becky left because yet again, my labor had stalled in the
afternoon. I labored with contractions 10-20 minutes apart all day, some of
which I labored in the birthing tub set up in our bedroom. It was exhausting
and I began getting no rest. The early evening came and Becky came back. She recommended that we take a walk or two to
get things moving and it definitely worked.
They were closer together, finally. I tried to lie down during the
evening but the contractions were getting more intense and I began to feel them
in my hips the most. I felt like someone had been pulling each side of my
pelvis and tugging on them violently.
By Sunday at about 3am, my contractions were about 2-3 minutes
a part and so painful. I walked up and down the hallway through each
contraction for about 2-3 hours. I remember crying to my husband, that I
couldn’t do it anymore. I was so tired. My husband said, “Yes, you can do it.
Your body is made for this. You’re almost there babe.” Unlike in the movies
where the women just want to yell at their husbands, I wanted mine to hold me
and love on me. Finally, around 8am, I felt the urge to push. I got back in the
tub and asked my Mike to come in with me. Just having him there next to me is
what I really needed. With every muscle in my body I began to push to get that
baby out. I went from pushing on the toilet to the tub a few times, going
between being on all fours to squatting. I was getting so tired, but I was on
an adrenaline high. I needed to get this baby out and she was so close. Mike
got in and held me up as I squatted and finally I could feel her moving down
and I began to tear, which really put me in a panic. I gave myself a tiny pep
talk in my head. “You can do this. If you tear, you tear, just get this baby
out.” I leaned back and pushed. I remember hearing Barb tell me to get ready to
grab my baby. I pushed the last push and then came sweet relief.
At 11am on May 20th, 2012, after 48 hours of
labor and 3 hours of pushing, came this beautiful little girl at a whopping 9
pounds 2 ounces and 22 inches long. I was in awe of her beauty and of God’s
miracle. This little girl was given to Mike and I, and I felt such a strong
love that I never have felt before.
(Tired and happy momma)
*This is purely my experience through home birth and my
experience through my OB.
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