Note: I really enjoyed reading birth stories while I was pregnant, and I'm writing this so I remember mine and in case someone else finds it interesting and/or helpful. Birth stories are not for everyone :-)
Monday 2/24 was a pretty normal day, woke up at 5am having barely slept and felt some light gas pains. I ignored them for awhile but then realized it was happening at regular intervals - about every 12 minutes. I got really excited, I was huge and so ready to be done with being pregnant. I decided to work from home and started timing my contractions. They were pretty irregular in length. I kept in contact with my doula, Renee and took walks throughout the day - I felt pretty good. Labor didn't seem so bad! The contractions started to even out throughout the day and be a little more consistent. Renee suggested I have an early dinner because I might not feel like food later. We ate and then hung out for awhile watching TV. Aje on the couch, me on the yoga ball. (My yoga ball was my best friend all day - i even swapped out my desk chair for it while I was working it felt so good).
Adam talked to my mom somewhere around 8:30pm and I remember him saying "...yea, I don't think we'll be going to the hospital tonight" I waited for him to get off the phone and quickly informed him that Yes, yes we would be going to the hospital tonight, I just wasn't sure if it was going to be before or after midnight. I think then it really hit him that this was happening.
At around 9pm, Renee suggested taking a bath and having a glass of wine because the baby was coming tonight/early tomorrow and soon I won't have time to relax. I started a bath, poured my wine and it felt amazing in the tub. Afterwards, things started to pick up faster than they had all day. Adam and I started timing contractions again and once we got to 4-1-1 (contractions every 4 minutes, lasting 1 minute for 1 hour) we called the midwife on duty. I told her i thought I was ready to go in, things were picking up, I was 4-1-1 and i lived about 30 min from the hospital. I think I sounded too calm - she told me she thought it was early and while I was welcome to come in, she suggested waiting at home a bit more. This angered me - I am a goal oriented person and I had reached my goal of 4-1-1 and things were feeling intense, which meant it was time to go in! I hung up the phone and reluctantly waited. Adam said he was going to lie down for a bit and get a nap so he'd have energy later. A little later decided to lie down with him. The second I layed down things got really intense. I told him that we needed to go - we needed to call the midwife and Renee and no matter what they said we were going in. And we did. Driving to the hospital at 1am is awesome - no one is on the road! It made driving to Atlanta Medical Center a breeze.
Adam dropped me off at the emergency room, he went to go park the car and i had to wait for someone to walk me to the maternity floor. I remember someone getting wheeled out of the emergency room as a contraction was coming on - I was leaning against the wall focusing on my breathing when I heard the nurses giggling "oh, someone is coming tonight". I wasn't amused at this point.
After checking in, they took me to a triage room. I went to put on a black skirt and sports bra (my plan was to not wear a hospital gown)...but when i pulled out my black skirt, I realized I had accidentally packed YOGA PANTS, which as you can imagine, is no good for giving birth. I put on the gown but couldn't even get it tied, things were really starting to pick up. The nurses needed to check my dilation - I was so terrified that they were going to tell me that I was only 1-2 cm dilated and that this was just the beginning of everything. I was having a hard time laying down so they could check, we had to keep trying between contractions. The first nurse said the baby was too low and had to get another nurse. The second nurse said I was 6-7 cm. They put a monitor around my belly to track the babies heart rate. Around this point, Renee arrived. It was so good to see her. Adam was being very supportive but it was great to have someone who knew what to expect. Adam started rubbing my back and suddenly I threw up...everywhere - on the bed, on the floor, on my feet...blech. I started to freak out but then all the nurses and Renee where cheering - apparently throwing up is a good sign. The nurses wanted to get me in a wheel chair to take me to the labor room. This was not something I could do - sitting and laying down where not an option for me right now, standing and walking were the only things I could do. With Renee's help we decided to walk to the Labor room. |
| I love Adam's face in this photo. "Are you ready for this?" |
I remember entering the room and being a little disappointed. I wanted a waterbirth and there was no tub inflated in this room yet. I thought we'd walk there and it would be there ready and waiting. They said they needed to page the midwife before they could bring the tub in. Thank goodness Renee had Linda's number so she was able to get ahold of her too. Contractions were really picking up, I had to lean over for each one and apparently was sliding the baby monitor out of position each time I did. When Linda arrived I heard her say to Renee "you know the rule, we need 20 minutes of baby's heart rate before she can get in the tub, we aren't getting that..." So every contraction Renee had to hold the monitor in place to not lose her heartbeat.
They rolled the tub in and started to fill it up. I was so relieved to see the tub but at the same time it was torture because there wasn't enough water in it for me to get in. Then, my body started to push during the contractions. I was standing and the pressure was so intense I could feel myself pushing, but I was also trying to stop pushing because I had this (totally irrational) fear at the time that one push was going to push this baby out while standing. I was telling them I have to push, i can't not push. Renee kept telling me to trust my body. But it was hard, it wasn't what I wanted, I wanted IN THAT TUB! I looked at the tub and I remember not even being able to see water in it yet. After a couple contractions with what felt like the baby was about to come out, I started to crack. I started to say "I can't do this, I seriously cannot do this". Renee was so great - she reminded me of our birthing class and how this happens to everyone and I was simply getting to that point but that, yes, I could do this. After what felt like hours, the tub was finally ready and we had enough heart rate monitoring. My plan was to wear a tank top or sports bra in the tub so we could get some good pictures but I just got in the tub naked because it didn't seem to make sense to put anything on at this point. The water felt FANTASTIC. I loved it. The contractions and the pressure felt so much better, still hard and tough but the water provided a lot of relief. At Renee's direction Aje got a cup of and poured water over my belly continuously - this also felt fantastic. He also put a cold washcloth on my head. I grabbed onto the handles on the tub which allowed me to push better. I started to push during contractions - I made a lot of weird, loud noises during this time, oddly enough the grunting made me feel better. I started to think again that I could not do this, I remember saying "Help me" - though that's all everyone was doing in that room, I not sure what I expected. The seat in the tub was kind of uncomfortable - either it was too small or my butt was too big, but I couldn't seem to get in a good position on it. Linda started to show me visually how I had to push the baby around my pubic bone - this was actually really helpful and I adjusted my position. Renee pulled out a Rebozo, I put my feet on the side of the tub and she told me to pull back while she pulled on it too. This was awesome. They suggested I make less noise and focus my energy on pushing. So I did. This was also really helpful. Shortly after I heard Linda say "She has a lot of hair!" During the next few pushes, I felt the ring of fire - and her head was out. One more push and her body was out too. I felt such relief and I was totally out of it. I remember someone yelling "Valeri! You have a baby!" and then there was a baby on my chest, I could not believe it. I held her in the water for several minutes. She was wide eyed and alert - she barely cried. She was so beautiful. They checked the umbilical cord and once it stopped pulsing Adam cut the cord.
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| Just born! |
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| Loves! |
I stayed in the water a few minutes - Adam took his shirt off to have skin to skin contact with our baby while I got out of the water to deliver the placenta.
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| Skin to Skin |
Getting out of the tub was a feat - my legs were like jello and I wasn't quite sure how I was going to deliver something else - but compared to what just happened, it was a breeze. Renee brought Arya over to me to do some initial breast feeding - she latched on quickly.
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| First meal! |
We arrived at the hospital at 1:30am and she was born at 3:45am. I'm glad I labored so long at home where I was comfortable, though one of the few things I would change would be to get to the hospital a little sooner so we didn't feel so rushed. It was a fantastic birth, I really couldn't have asked for more, and I couldn't have done it without Renee, Adam and Linda.
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| With Linda, our midwife |
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