Our Natural Hospital Birth

In light of the new baby we are expecting in the spring, I thought I'd share my birth stories.  I've posted them in various places over the years but never on my blog. By the time we were expecting our first child I was positive I wanted a drug free natural birth. I was also positive I wanted nothing to do with the hospital but MrLivingOurWay won this argument.  We prepared by taking Bradley Classes and by reading Super Natural Childbirth by Jackie Mize. 

On Wednesday October 9th, I went to see my midwife. I had been seeing blood for two days. I was a finger tip dilated and told that I would KNOW if I was in labor. So obviously the discomfort that felt like my cervix was stretching like a rubber band was just a normal part of pregnancy. She did say she was almost positive I would go into labor that weekend.

At 4:30 AM on Thursday, October 10th, I woke up to the discomfort again. This time the discomfort was 8-10 minutes apart and peaking after 30 seconds. Once I got out of bed at 6:00 AM, they stopped. I didn't feel them for the rest of the day. I even went for a walk that afternoon. We had a friend over for dinner that night. I was telling her that MrLivingOurWay and I were planning on going to my Mom's house that weekend because I was sure the baby would be late. Of course, I was having those discomforts again and they were again peaking at 30 seconds.

Around 10:30-10:45 PM , I was working on pulling some stitches out of the sling I made for the baby (I had just about no experience with a sewing machine). During one of those discomforts, I felt a pop and some wetness and I knew that my water had broken. My midwife had already called once that night and I had assured her I didn't see any signs of labor. After all I was supposed to KNOW when I was in labor. MrLivingOurWay called her after my water broke. After calling the midwife, MrLivingOurWay wanted to know what he could do. I told him to go to sleep. He said he couldn't go to sleep and proceeded to check the oil in his car. I got on the computer for about an hour. I talked to my mom over AOL IM who told me to get to the hospital. I told her not to worry that I had plenty of time. My contractions were 8-9 minutes apart and about 40 seconds long. I got off the computer so MrLivingOurWay could call his parents.

When I got back on the computer around 11:30 PM my contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and between 45 seconds and 1 minute long. Around 11:50 my contractions were 1:05 long and still 3-5 minutes apart. I began to find it uncomfortable to sit at the computer so I logged off. MrLivingOurWay was about to go to sleep and I told him maybe he should stay up . He wasn't thrilled but we sat on the bed timing contractions for the rest of our time at home. At midnight, my contractions were consistently under 3 minutes apart and 1:05 long. I was still laughing and joking between contractions so we knew it wasn't time to go to the hospital yet. At 1:00 AM I started having bad contractions. MrLivingOurWay asked if I was ready to go to the hospital yet and I said no. About 10 minutes later I changed my mind and we pulled out of the driveway at 1:20 am. At 2:10 AM we arrived at the hospital.

Once we got to the hospital, we parked the car together in the emergency room parking lot and only grabbed the notebook that I had made for MrLivingOurWay so he'd know how to help me in labor. The rest of our things we left in the car figuring that as soon as MrLivingOurWay filled out the paper work he could go back out and get them. However, by the time we got upstairs, it was obvious he couldn't leave me there. I was shaking and I found that I could absolutely not lie down so they took my vitals and checked me standing up. I was at 5 cm. I was not looking forward to anyone touching me at all. They brought me a birth ball and let me get in the shower which didn't last too long because I found that I didn't like it. I asked for something to eat to help the shaking, but got apple juice instead. It did help.

I remembered from our Bradley classes that the peak of the contraction would come after the first 30 seconds. This helped tremendously. For two hours I paced the room.

At about 4:10 AM, they checked me again and I was at 9 cm. At 4:30 AM, I still had a slight lip. During this time I felt most comfortable on the toilet and really felt the need to push. My midwife told me not to, but I did anyway. I told MrLivingOurWay I wanted to have the baby on the toilet and he told me there was no way his baby was going to land in the toilet.

Around 5:00 AM, the midwife told the nurse she could check me if she wanted. I had to sit on a birth ball because she said she couldn't check me standing up. I was ready to push so they set me up with the squat bar.

I really did not enjoy this experience. I suddenly couldn't feel any of the contractions. I switched to a modified squat in the bed but it felt awful so that didn't last long before i was squatting on the floor again. I kept trying stand up and was panicking. My midwife came in and said she could see the head and to calm down. The "ring of fire" is some of the worse pain that i have ever felt.

Our first FindingOurWay was born at 5:33 am. She was a little on the blue side so they gave her a little oxygen. They placed her on my belly while they were cleaning her up and giving her oxygen. MrLivingOurWay cut the cord. We forgot to ask them to wait until all the blood had drained from it, but all we cared about was that she was here and we were so in love with her.

I had a partial third degree tear. MrLivingOurWay got to hold her most of the time while they were stitching me up except when they gave her a bath. He helped with the bath and I video taped from where I was lying (they were done stitching by that time). MrLivingOurWay was upset about not getting the bonding time we had requested and the other midwife had suggested but I was glad that they went ahead and stitched me up. We have 18 years to bond with our daughter. Two hours later I got to walk down the room where we would spend the next 30 hours.