Everett's Birth Story
stahlop
member
Alright, here goes. I talked with my midwife last night, so I think I remember everything now.
I originally started having contractions on Wed, March 9th. They were pretty easy and I could talk through them, so I went to work. We even went to our doula's Bradley class that night for a refresher on signposts in labor (pretty ironic I thought).
By Thursday the contractions were much more intense, but I was determined to go to work. While at work I decided I would probably only do half a day, but before 1st hour even started, my principal sent me home because of the contractions. So my maternity leave started a week earlier than intended (I wasn't technically supposed to start until after spring break). I went home and the contractions were getting worse. I had a midwife appointment that evening (conveniently) and she checked me and said I was 2 cm and 100% effaced. She didn't think we'd have the baby that night, but possibly the next day.
That night contractions were getting worse. I'd been up since 3am the night before and was really tired. The doula and the midwife team came over. My midwife checked me again and I was only at 3 cm. She suggested some Tylenol and Benadryl to help me sleep. I agreed. The next day, my contractions had slowed down to maybe one every half hour. I was not happy.
So Friday my DH and I putzed around the house waiting to see what would happen. He usually doesn't work Fridays, but they had a big order that needed to go out so he had taken the day off. He wasn't happy either that nothing was happening. When we went to bed that night the contractions had intensified, but weren't regular.
I woke up at around 2 am to really painful contractions. I started timing them and they were around 5 minutes apart. I woke up my DH at around 3am to let him know what was going on. We then called our doula as well. She got there around 4am and they helped me with contractions. This time around they were really intense and in my back, so she and my DH were either massaging my back or giving me heated rice socks to help relieve some of the pain.
We called the midwife at around 10am the next day to let her know what was going on. I think she was doubtful that I was in serious labor, due to the previous circumstances, so the and her assistant didn't get there for about two hours. I, at this point, was already in the tears stage, bawling because I didn't think the baby would ever get here and I'd be in labor forever. When my midwife came she checked me and I was at a 5, but she still didn't think I was going to progress much farther any time soon. She left to see another patient and left her assistant. I labored for a few more hours and then tried half the dosage of tylenol and benadryl to try and get some sleep because I'd been laboring for over 12 hours at this point. I was really scared that if I took a full dosage I'd wake up without contractions again. I really couldn't sleep this time though. The contractions were too strong and they were in my back and laying down was really uncomfortable.
By this time is was around 7pm, my midwife came back at some point around here. She checked me again and I was still at a 5, possible stretchable to a 6. I was miserable. I asked if she could break my bag of waters to help get labor progressing (at this point I'd labored in pretty much every position possible and nothing was comfortable, I was on the toilet resting on a labor ball until a contraction came and then would sit up for the contraction by this time). DH and the doula came in and the midwife went over our options. She could break the bag of waters, but that put us on a time schedule. If nothing happened we'd end up at the hospital. We could go to the hospital instead for pitocin to get labor going, or we could do nothing and see if I progressed on my own. My DH thought the hospital might be the best option, but the doula and I didn't agree. I really wanted my bag of waters broken. Even my midwife was surprised (even though I suggested it). She thought, having been in labor for about 18 hours at this point that I'd want something guaranteed at the hospital. So she broke my bag of waters, which was exactly what I needed.
By 11:30 I started having the urge to push. Unfortunately, I was only at 9, so I wasn't allowed to go full force. My midwife kept trying to stretch my cervix into a 10 because otherwise my pushing was basically all pushing against a wall. I remember my DH saying that he hoped the pushing part was fast so we could actually have the baby on that Saturday since I'd done all my labor that day. I was still stuck at a 9 for another hour though. Finally, after that hour, at around 1 in the morning, I was finally at a 10!
After another hour and 11 minutes of pushing, he was finally out! I was convinced that he was never coming out. I was pretty much on my side, almost on my back, with my knees back trying to get him out. Turns out he was posterior (hence the back labor) and when his head came out, he was facing up and started crying before I could get the rest of the body out. Even the assistant midwife was a little freaked out by that (and my DH got a great shot of it). Besides being posterior his head was also military style, which meant instead of being tucked down, it was up, and it was slightly tilted, so he had a big cone on the side of his head when he was born due to being stuck in the birth canal. My midwife thinks I'm a rock star for never even mentioning going to the hospital. We were team green so it wasn't until my midwife handed him to me that I knew he was a boy (she doesn't tell, she likes the parents to discover, although she was convinced he'd be a girl). DH was ecstatic.
Everett Lawrence came into the world at 2:11 am on March 13, 2011 (11 days early) after about 25 hours of labor. He was 7lbs 8oz and 20in long. He has beautiful dirty blond hair and has taken to breastfeeding pretty well. The only problem he has is that his penis hole seems to be abnormally small. The midwife insisted we see a pediatrician right away (luckily, we were going to start interviewing today anyway so we just had the first one we saw give him a once over). We do have to see a urologist and may not be able to do a proper bris for him. Hopefully, nothing is too wrong. And that is Everett's birth story.
Sorry, I don't know how to make the picture smaller.
Re: Everett's Birth Story
Congrats on joining team blue! I really want to go natural and reading stories of woman having a successful natural birth is so inspiring! Thanks for sharing!