Four Weeks Later...A Birth Story.

You guys, Baby Bee's birth was so crazy...it was pretty fast and very different than my firstborn's birth.  I'm going to try to capture the craziness here.

On Thursday, January 26, three days before my due date, I woke up pretty early with a few mildly painful contractions.  It was about 6 am, and these just felt like Braxton Hicks but with a little pain at the peak.  I really wasn't convinced that it was anything yet.  I decided that since I was awake, I would pack up some jewelry orders so that they were ready to go.  Darryl woke up to get ready for work, and I told him, "I don't think it's labor, but I've had a few stronger contractions this morning."  He said he would keep his phone on and with him at work, just in case.


I had planned a play date for the morning, and we decided to go ahead with that.  At 10:30, my friend and her son came over.  At this point, the contractions had pretty much stopped, so I assumed it was false labor.  I told my friend about what was going on, and she was really nervous! I think she thought she would have to drive me to the hospital or something. I reassured her with what would become my line of the day, "I don't think it's labor."


We had our play date and lunch and my friend left at about 1:00.  Around 2:00 pm I started to feel those contractions again.  This time they were definitely painful at the peak, and I felt some pressure in my bottom at the peak as well.  I called my mom and told her about it, and said, "I don't think this is really labor, but I wanted to let you know just in case."  Then I had a contraction and said, "Hold on, I'm having one now," as I couldn't talk while I was having one.  At that point my mom said, "If you can't talk through a contraction, that's real labor.  Do you want me to come over?"  I said no, because I felt if it was labor, it was still early.  I think part of the reason I didn't believe it was real was because I had not had any bloody show, and with my firstborn, I had bloody show starting almost from the first contraction. 


My son and I sat on the couch to watch a DVD, and I kept having contractions, so I started to time them.  Well, that was puzzling as well, because there was not really a set pattern to them.  I noticed that I was having a harder time getting through them, plus I was getting crabbier, so I called my mom back and asked her to come over.  I also called my husband and said, "I don't know if this is real, it may be really early labor, so you can stay until your shift ends (at 4pm), but keep your phone handy." 


My mom arrived at about 3:30, and watched me handle a few contractions.  She was convinced right away that this was the real deal.  She called my dad and told him to be on standby.  The plan was for my dad to come and stay with my son while my mom and Darryl were present at the birth.  I decided I wanted to lay down for a few minutes, so I went in the bedroom and my son came in and laid down as well.  He fell asleep right away, while I tried to handle the contractions lying down, which was very uncomfortable.  Meanwhile, Darryl came home, grabbed the bag of packages and ran them to the post office. 


I got up, went out to the kitchen and started to get serious about timing the contractions with my mom and Darryl when he came back.  They were so weird, one would be 60 seconds long, and then I would have another one 7 minutes later for 45 seconds, then another one 2 minutes later for 20 seconds.   I was so sure that this irregular pattern was not really productive labor.  My first labor was textbook...the contractions were progressively longer and stronger and got closer together.  My mom wanted to call my dad, but I thought maybe Darryl and I should go over to the mall and walk a bit to "speed things along."  My mom thought that was a bad idea and said if I wanted to walk, we should just head to the hospital and walk before I checked into the Family Birth Center.  At this time I also called Dr. Diwan and told her what was going on, and she said I could wait a bit and watch the contractions before heading in. 


It was probably about 5 pm, and I will say at that time the contractions were taking all of my concentration to get through them, and they HURT.  Plus that pressure in my bottom was making them really uncomfortable.  However, for some weird reason, I didn't want to go yet...I was convinced I would be dilated only a centimeter or two and that they would send me home.  My mom finally said, "I'm calling your dad," and did, telling him to get over here now.  I had some more crazy contractions while we waited, and Darryl started taking the bags out to the car.  I was standing and sitting in the kitchen, trying to deal with them the best I could.  Looking back, I'm sure I looked so ridiculous, barely making it through contractions, yet insisting that I wasn't ready to go to the hospital.  I was totally in denial. Then all of a sudden I started to panic and said, "We need to go!  Where is Dad?"  A couple minutes later he arrived and Mom, Darryl and I hustled out the door. 


Now I will say that I think my husband was a little bit excited to feel like he could step on it to get to the hospital.  There were a couple times when he was a little too speedy for me, and I was all, "What are you doing?  I don't want to get killed on the way there!"  The whole ride was awful...contractions are much worse in the car.  But God bless the person who invented heated seats...what a relief for a laboring mama on a cold January night!


We pulled up to the hospital, and into the valet lane, and hopped out.  The attendant wanted to know if I wanted a wheelchair and I said no.  My husband works at the hospital, so everyone recognized him as we went inside.  People were smiling and waving, so excited for us. We walked in and got on the elevator.  A bunch of confused people got it as well and started asking Darryl questions about where something was.  We just wanted to get to the sixth floor in a hurry!  We got off at the sixth floor and checked in.  I had to fill out a form, and then sign a bunch of consent forms.  My contractions slowed down a little bit while I did that, and once again, my doubting mind said, This isn't real, they will send you home... (or worse, try to give me Pitocin to speed things up). No thanks!


After I filled out the forms, the receptionist told us to go to the waiting room and a nurse would come and take me back to triage.  Well, I started walking to the waiting room, and SPLAT!!!  my water broke!  And kept breaking...what a mess.  My shoes and pants were soaked through. I literally could not believe it.  I said, "My water broke!  MY WATER BROKE!"  Then I started crying because I think I finally realized, this baby is coming tonight!


They had me just stand there, soaking wet until a nurse came out with a wheelchair and took me and Darryl back to triage.  They put me on the monitor and checked the size and position of the baby with the ultrasound.  The ultrasound said the baby was 7 pounds, 14 ounces, but the nurse midwife said she thought more like seven and a half pounds.  Then another nurse came in to do a cervical exam, and said that I was 6 centimeters!  Yay!  So they wheeled me down to the labor and delivery room and we were able to have my mom come in there with us. 


In the LDR room, they wanted to put an IV right away, and I asked why, since I was Group B Strep negative and would not need IV antibiotics. They said in case the baby was in distress, they needed to have it in place.  I requested a Hep lock, so they did that instead, and that way I didn't have to be hooked up to any apparatus, but they would have access if they needed it.  The nurse that put the Hep lock in was not great, and of course it's horrible to have someone poking you while you're contracting away, especially when they don't know what they are doing.  But we got it in, and that was that. 


My doctor arrived shortly thereafter, and asked why I hadn't called her back, which I hadn't even thought about, because things were getting so hard to handle at home.  She did a check, and I was still at 6 cm.  She suggested walking around, which I couldn't even imagine.  I settled for sitting on the edge of the bed and standing, hanging on to Darryl.  I think that subconciously I knew if I stayed standing for too long, or started walking, things were going to hurt worse, and I was secretly trying to avoid it.  I chatted with my mom and Darryl a little bit between contractions, we were guessing if it was a boy or girl.  I also remember saying, "I can't believe I'm really in labor!  I think I need to wrap my head around the fact that this baby is coming tonight!"  I also sent a quick text to one of my best friends:

I went to the bathroom, and Darryl came with me.  I had a super intense contraction while in there, and I remember looking at Darryl and saying, "I have to keep it together and stay on top of these...they are really starting to hurt." 

After awhile I asked to be checked again, and I was still at 6 cm.  Dr. Diwan said, "Let me check you during a contraction and see if you are dilating while you contract."  I agreed, and let me tell you, this was the most painful thing I had ever experienced...I yelled, "Owowowowowowowow!"  But she did find out that I was opening up to 8 cm when I was contracting.  So she suggested I try getting on my hands and knees to help the baby descend and finish dilating.  I got on the bed on my knees and leaned against the back of the bed.  This position really intensified things and I quickly went into Transition and started to feel like I was going to lose it.  The contractions came right on top of each other without much break, I was burning hot and sweaty, I started thinking I couldn't do it, and the pressure I felt made me think that this baby was 15 pounds and had a Charlie Brown head.  I was trying to breathe through them and feeling like I was going to hyperventilate, and Sophie the nurse was standing right on top of me holding the monitor in place on my belly so they could hear the heartbeat.  Everything seemed so crazy and intense. I remember looking at my mom and Darryl and letting out a high pitched moan, then saying, "Down baby, down," then just silently praying, "Jesus, help me."  After about 10-15 minutes I felt an incredible urge to push and told the nurse, "I feel pushy!"  She called the doctor back in and she checked me and said, "You're complete!" 

Now it was time to push and I got into a semi-upright position on the bed and started pushing.  That didn't seem to be working so well, so it was suggested that I recline a little bit, which I hadn't wanted to do.  However at this point, I was just thinking, Get this baby out of me!!!  One thing I really wanted was to avoid an episiotomy this time, so Dr. Diwan and the resident were really working hard with compresses and oil to try and help me stretch. 

Pushing was hard work...I definitely felt the difference pushing out an 8 pound baby.  I felt like I was pretty loud this time pushing...it required a lot of effort!  I kept asking, "Is it working?" And at one point Dr. Diwan said, "Yes, the head is right here, do you want to feel it?"  I said, "No, I can feel everything just fine, thank you!" which made everyone laugh.   Once the baby crowned, it was pretty intense...I definitely felt the ring of fire and Dr. Diwan said, "Okay, we're just going to see what you do, I'm not going to do an episiotomy."  I pushed the head out, and then it got a little scary for a second.  Dr. Diwan said, "Kelly, you really need to help us now....push!"  And she had the nurse, Sophie push on my belly at the same time, while she was pulling the baby out.  After when we talked to her she said she thought his shoulders were stuck for a minute, but he was just turned at a slight angle. I could tell that it was serious for a minute and it was scary. Once the baby was out, she said, "It's a boy!" He was quiet, and I said, "Is the baby okay?" and he was, then he started crying and then everything was fine. It was 9:25 pm, about 7 hours after my contractions started that afternoon.



I did have a slight tear that happened when the shoulders came out, so after I delivered the placenta, she stitched me up. As soon as Baby Bee was born, I was totally fine...all the pain was gone, instantly. I could not wait to hold him, and when they brought him over, he latched on and nursed right away.

 

I was so excited that I didn't even use my nice camera in the delivery room, just my phone camera.  I wasn't thinking about pictures, just about holding my baby.

After I got all cleaned up and we got the all clear, I was wheeled over to the Mother Baby Care unit and tucked into our room there.  It was close to midnight once we got over there, and of course I was starving, and there was not any food service that late at night.  Darryl went over to the pantry and found a couple chicken salad sandwiches and apple juice and a peanut butter cookie for me.  After my mom and dad took my son back home Darryl and I sat up pretty late talking about everything...we were so excited still, and kind of in shock.  Everything happened so fast that I was still in shock that my baby was out of me, all bundled up and in my arms.

When I compare the births of both my children, I would say that the first one was much longer and gave me more time to handle the contractions and adjust to the increasing level of pain.  The whole thing was very peaceful.  I didn't feel like I couldn't handle any part of it, it was fairly easy to cope with everything.

This birth was much more raw. I feel like I really experienced the full spectrum of birth and pain with this birth.  The short duration of labor, the drama of my water breaking, the crazy pattern of contractions and the extreme pain of transition and pushing made this labor very intense. Even the way that I remember it, the images in my mind are very quick and seem to blur together.  Everything happened so fast.

I am so grateful to God for a healthy and speedy labor, and a precious little boy.  What a blessing!