Davy's Birth Story

MandyPandyBear · May 2011

It was a dark and stormy night... or at least it was during one part of early labor. Anyhoo it all started Thursday May 26th when I went to my weekly midwife appointment and had my membranes stripped. Afterwards, David, Ashley, Mathew and I went and got some lunch at Coulis. I had the chopped salad and the waitress teased me that something so healthy wasn't going to get labor started. (HA!) Then it was off to Grandma's to drop Mathew off so we could go home and get some work done and do some grocery shopping. (Yeah that didn't happen.) So we get home a little after 1pm and I was pretty sleepy so I decided to take a little nap and maybe listen to my 'Come OUT baby' Hypnobabies track before we get started. (That didn't happen either.) I just couldn't get comfortable and I started feeling a little crampy a few minutes into the track so I went ahead and got up around 1:30pm and started having my first uncomfortable contractions. They weren't that bad but they started out coming 3 minutes apart and lasting about 45 seconds each... little did I know that was going to become a very familiar pattern to me over the next few hours. We timed them for a few hours and around 4pm decided to call the midwives. She suggested I try to labor at home for a while longer before coming in to get checked. I managed to go another hour and a half before I decided it was time to go.

So we get to the office at about 6pm to get checked and I'm only at 2cm. So she sweeps me again and asks me if there's anyone I know who lived close by so I wouldn't have to drive all the way home and then all the way back out again. My friend Lexi and her mother were only about five minutes away from the birth center and very graciously allowed me to labor at their home for a while. It was during our stay there that the dark and stormy part came in. I worried a bit about driving in the rain although the thought only came up vaguely because the conctractions were coming on stronger still about every two and a half to three minutes and now were lasting almost a minute each. A little after 8pm I threw up that yummy salad and made the decision to go to the birth center. No sooner than David called our midwife to let her know we were coming in, my water broke... filled with meconium. I quietly made peace with the fact I would no longer be able to deliver in the water as we left. Fortunatly the rain stopped long enough for us to get there without getting soaked.

Getting strapped to that bed to get monitered SUCKED and I had to stay there for 20 minutes! I got checked and I was only a 3/4 which was a little disheartening but at least they weren't going to send me home. I walked the room and tried different positions but my favorite by far was the shower with the hot water hitting my lower back. (Davy had decided to flip posterior the previous day just in time to give me some awesome back labor. Luckily he flipped again at some point but I have no idea when.) I was a bad patient... or at least I thought I was being one. I had all of these notions that I wasn't going to say all of the 'I can't do its.' or the 'This is too hards.' blah blah that you hear women saying on birth shows. I said them all and I said them often. I was very whiney and kept appologising to everyone for my behavior inbetween contractions. (Now that I think about it, I acted in a very similar manner the first time I had alcohol, strange.) During one extra strong contraction while I was in bed and complaining my midwife asked if I wanted some Nubane so I could get some rest. I screamed my code word for yes (yellow) three times but as soon as the contraction was over I changed my mind and continued on unmedicated. I did however beg her to check me again to see if I could go in the tub at a little after midnight. I had just been checked 45 minutes prior and was at 4cm but surprise surprise I was at 6/7! 'So I can get in the tub now?' Everyone laughed.

It took way too long to fill that tub in my mind but eventually I think around 12:30ish I was able to get in. The water was AMAZING. It honestly didn't help make the contractions any less intense but it certainly helped with the back labor and did it's job to relax the rest of my body so that I could sort of float over them. After about three contractions I started to feel a little pushy and I told my midwife as much. She smiled and told that we still had some time and for me not to push myself but let my body push on its own if it needed to. I couldn't not push. It felt so much better when I did so I gave tiny baby pushes with the next few contractions to relieve some of the pressure. After a few of those it was like my body went into a reverse dry heave and he slid waaaaay down. I told my midwife that I was pretty sure he was -right there- and sure enough he was. I got really worried and told her there was no way I was going to be able to get out of the tub and before she could even tell me not to worry his head was crowning and she was telling someone to go get the nurses. With the next contraction and before the nurses could even get there his head was out and with one more push was born and placed on my chest. He was wet and slippery and wonderful. I got the water and med free birth that I wanted so much with no adverse affects from the meconium.

David Christopher Marks was born at exactly 1am Friday May 27th on his due date, 8lbs and 20 1/4 inches long. My husband David was a wonderful labor coach and the others in the room told me it was inspiring how well we worked together to bring our son into the world.

mcatmay · May 2011

Congrats on your beautiful little one!!!! So happy that you had a great partner and that you were able to focus on bringing your cutie in the world!!!