I did it! Not with grace or style but I did it!

MamaWombat · March 2014

While looking forward to delivery, I found reading birth stories really helpful, so I thought I'd share mine. Overall, my labor went great, and although most of my birth plan was thrown out the window, I'm incredibly thankful that with the support of my MW, doula, and DH my core desire to minimize interventions and avoid pain meds still came through.

On Feb. 19, I felt a trickle as I stood up from my desk. At first, I didn't think it was amniotic fluid...I figured it was just the next embarrassing step in pregnancy urine leakage, but after ongoing periodic trickles for the next few hours, I decided to call the midwives. They had me come in to the office and initially the tests were ambiguous - ph said no, but microscope ferning said yes. So, on to L&D for a 3rd test that came back as a definite positive. The monitor showed small contractions at 9 min. apart, but I wasn't feeling anything yet. The MW was willing to wait till the next morning to induce, but wanted me to spend the night in the hospital. Since I was already "on the clock," I agreed to having my membranes ruptured (which resulted in a movie-type gush of fluid, unfortunately with meconium) and we headed home to eat a quick dinner and pack.

Within an hour, contractions became noticeable (very) and by the time we arrived back at L&D with our doula around 10pm, they were 1 min. long and 4 1/2 min. apart. Most of the rest of the night is a blur - I was just focused on breathing/counting/vocalizing through each contraction. I was a lot louder than I planned/expected. I really focused, though, on trying to keep my sounds in the lower register (DH said it sounded kinda like I was doing gregorian chant for hours), and the sounds really helped. I focused on making each vocalization last as long as I could, and counted them as I went through each contraction. I totally lost my sense of time, but this way each contraction never lasted more than 10 vocalizations.

I had back labor throughout and DH and my doula rubbed my lower back for 12 hours straight as I stayed on my hands and knees - honestly not sure I could have coped without that. It's sort of funny that most of the things I expected to use to cope - labor ball, music, shower (was in it initially for about 40 min., but felt too cold to consider getting undressed again after my second round on the monitor), and squatting were the farthest things from my mind.

Apparently, labor initially progressed quickly, but because I was on my hands and knees so much, my cervix dilated unevenly, and when the MW had me flip over for several contraction, I started pushing without meaning to, which caused my cervix to swell, and by the next morning, labor had totally stalled out at 9 cm, with contractions getting shorter and farther apart. Basically, my body and uterus just got exhausted. I don't know if this would have happened no matter what, or if it may have been partially a result of the hospital not allowing me anything but ice chips and occasional sips of juice after about 11pm and the fact that what with the MW visit and tests and all, I hadn't eaten much of anything since 11am that morning (and then just vegetable soup and toast). No way to know for sure now.

In any case, they gave me a low dose of pitocin to get things started again, and within a couple hours my cervix was thin enough again that the MW was able to reach in and pull it over LO's head - that was the second most painful bit. (The most painful was the very last push to get him out - the tear didn't hurt at all, but the rug burns on my lady bits in front sure did!)

Something that may be encouraging to some - when I agreed to the pitocin, I was really scared the contractions would hurt a lot more and I wouldn't be able to cope. At that point, I pretty much felt I was already at the edge of my coping ability. However, when it came to it, the pitocin contractions didn't really hurt any more than the regular ones did. I'm not sure if this is because they were all concentrated in back or just because they started with such a low dose. They weren't easy, but the same coping techniques continued to work.

I never got a strong urge to push, so the MW had to do directed pushing with me. I think she was trying to mimic spontaneous pushing - during each contraction, she had me hold my breath and push about 3-4 times. After an hour and half of pushing, Baby Wombat popped out at a healthy 7# 11oz. They put him on my tummy for a moment (best moment of my life), but because he arrived just after 24 hours following my water breaking and the meconium issue, they had to cut the cord immediately and give him to the NICU team for evaluation. Fortunately, he looked great, so they gave him back to me just a few minutes later and I got to hold him while the MW stitched up a small 1st degree tear.

It wasn't how I imagined my birth story going, but all things considered, it went well. I'm so glad that with my birth team's help I was able to go "mostly" natural and I'm completely in love with my baby wombat!

NYGirl02 · March 2014

Congrats!

aylafsu88 · March 2014

Congrats! You did a great job especially with all the unanticipated events. I know what oyu mean about being loud. I had envisioned that I would have a quiet, serene L&D but I was very vocal as well.

FunSizeGrl · March 2014

Congratulations!! And amazing job too! Those unexpected turns can really throw some people off so that's amazing you were able to work through them

rubylovebug · March 2014

Great job! Congratulations!

CLLDLL · March 2014

Congrats mama! Great job!

alphahelix · March 2014

Congratulations! Thanks for sharing a great story!

alisonc87 · March 2014

We plan and God laughs.... Congrats!! As I get closer I get more and more worried about all the things that can happen that aren't part of my plan, and it sounds like you've navigated that very thing beautifully! Enjoy your new little bundle of joy