Birth Stories

XP: Successful Bradley Birth Story for LO#2 after having an Epi with #1

XP from Natural Birth.

Mild contractions began Sunday, January 1st early in the morning and continued throughout the entire day between 10-15 minutes apart. (I knew the previous Tuesday (6 days prior) I was already dilated to 3 cm and 60% effaced) By Monday morning they had become slightly more intense but were still only about a 3 or 4 on a scale of 10 and were coming about every 8-12 minutes. I was really hoping that although they weren?t painful, they either A) my bag of waters would spontaneously break or B) they would speed up so I could actually determine if I was in labor or if my body was just going to spend days preparing!

MH Tommy?s mom and dad decided to come visit for the day around lunch time just in case things did progress so they could stay with Evelyn. I tried to stay busy and moving during the day cooking, cleaning, and taking breaks from time to time to rolls my hips on my exercise ball. By around 4 o?clock I was tracking 45 second contractions about 8 minutes apart - still easy to talk through - so Tommy and I decided to go walk around Target and try to speed things up. After only about an hour of power walking they were consistently a minute long every 4-6 minutes. I was still kind of in denial at this point that I was really starting labor since I had been having them for 2 days... I really just wished my water would break so I knew I could head in to the hospital!

I decided to call my midwife just to give her a heads up. She said since I had been 3 cm for almost a week and contracting for two days I should go to the hospital to get checked and if I wasn?t progressed far enough I could always leave and go walking some more. We arrived at the hospital just after 6:00 pm. I was 5cm, 80% effaced, and measured contracting every 4-6 minutes. 

The nurse checked with my midwife and they decided we should walk around the hospital until 8 o?clock and then officially be admitted. We waddled the loop around the delivery floor at the hospital. I was still able to talk through contractions which sped up to every 3-4 minutes. I went to the bathroom probably every 10 minutes. For the last 20 minutes of our walk I would stop and lean on the wall while Tommy squeezed my hips together. I started to feel myself getting more focused and serious.

At 8 o?clock we went back to triage and were approaching 6 cm. We were taken to our room so they could monitor baby?s heart rate for 30 minutes then I hopped in the shower. I then tried kneeling on the bed with the back upright which made contractions slow down back to every 5 minutes so my midwife suggested we go walk around for 45 minutes before they checked on the baby again. I was pretty over the idea of walking more but knew that it would help baby progress faster. As soon as I was ready to leave our delivery room I started having a contraction. Then another. Then another. Every time one ended and we went to leave the room another would come. They were back to every 3 minutes. The were about 5-6 in intensity. For relief I would lean over the hospital bed and have Tommy squeeze my hips more for counter pressure.

My midwife came back and checked on the baby while I sat on the exercise ball and Tommy helped me work through contractions by more squeezing. They were getting very intense (8 or 9 out of 10). I was sitting on the ball, leaning over the bed during contractions. Some I was able to moan and breathe through with the help of Tommy and my midwife coaching me. Others I just cried. Each contraction felt like huge pressure was pushing on the front of my pelvis. I kept praying my water would break to relieve the pressure. I knew I wasn?t going to, but I told my midwife I had been thinking about the epidural for two hours now and how I wondered what it was doing and why I was so against it :) She said that was a good sign because it meant I was getting close. F that.

Just before 11pm they lowered the end of the bed so I could sit on it like a step and get checked and see what the status of my bag of waters was. I was about 8.5 cm and 95% effaced. Contractions were 10 on a scale of 1-10. My midwife offered to break my water since in my first pregnancy my daughter was born within an hour and a half after and I wasn?t as nearly far along. I was torn and wanted to wait because I KNEW it had to be close to breaking on it?s own. 

I sat on the bed and worked through contractions by visualizing them going up and down on the monitor. I followed along in my mind when they ?peaked? and visualized them going down even though they were at the worst. I also focused on making consistent groans and moans throughout each contraction without making my voice higher or lower. I don?t know what prompted this but it seemed to work. I was at a crossroads of knowing this would end soon and having no idea how I could survive a minute longer. 

I final decided to let them break my water at 11:36pm. From there, I seriously went crazy. Contractions were one on top of the other and no position worked. In my head I wanted to scream to just have them cut me open and get this baby out! I squatted next to the bed and started to push. I didn?t care what I was at, I was getting this baby out. NOW! I turned on all fours and my midwife reached to feel the baby?s head. She told Tommy to lower the bed and yelled at me to get on it right now. I got on the bed on all fours and pushed. She said I had to lay down on my back which sounds like the absolutely worse position possible but I did and pushed and out the baby came. Two or three pushes was all it took. It was a BOY! Our little Will we had dreamed since our first date together :) born January 2, 2012 at 11:51pm.

He laid on my chest while he got cleaned off. Then it was very obvious that I was bleeding too much. His cord had stopped pulsing and was clamped and cut. Will went with Tommy to be cleaned off and get weighed and such. I was immediately put on Pitocin to help clot some blood and delivery my placenta.

My legs were put up in stirrups, my placenta delivered, and then it was determined that I had a second degree tear as well as a third degree tear going up. They did a local to numb for stitches and honestly as intense as the last 2 hours of labor had been, they were nothing compared to the 45 minutes of repair I went through after. No one will admit it to me, but I?m pretty sure my frantic and premature pushing was the cause... so I guess I deserved it!

William David is perfect - named after his two grandpas. 
Mom was 39 weeks and 3 days along (his sister was born at 38 weeks 6 days). 
He weighed 8 lbs 6 oz (almost a whole 2 lbs larger than his big sister!) and was 20 3/4 inches long. 
Total active labor was about 7 hours.

He was with us for about an hour and then, due to some breathing issues, went up for an X ray in the nursery to look at his lungs. Thankfully, he just had an air bubble in his chest that has now cleared itself up. God is good :)
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evelyn 4.2010 | will 1.2012 | baby BOY due 12.2014
pregnant and/or breastfeeding since 2009.

Re: XP: Successful Bradley Birth Story for LO#2 after having an Epi with #1

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