Claire Audrey's Natural Birth :-)

Claire's grand entrance:
Well, the beginning of my labor is a little hard to determine. I guess you could say that it began when I was 36 weeks. I started having a lot of cramping beginning the night before my last day at work (I teach middle school). My last day wasn?t great but it was tolerable in terms of how I felt (the kids were great but I just hobbled around). I was REALLY glad I took maternity leave then.
Anyway, Saturday and Saturday night were the worst. I had a wonderful baby shower Saturday and it was so nice but the continuous cramping which got worse on and off wasn?t my favorite. I didn?t have Braxton Hicks contractions throughout my pregnancy (at least that I could feel) and from my understanding they weren?t supposed to hurt like these! I knew from the Bradley class and everything I had read and had learned that if I were to go to the hospital then, I wouldn?t be admitted. But I wanted to know if something was wrong at the same time. Living 45 min away made it a little hard to determine what to do. Sunday, the crampiness continued until late afternoon. I finally slept through the night Sunday night and by Monday I felt nothing again. Luckily, I had a doctor?s appointment that day so I could find out what was going on. They checked my cervix and after that rather crazy weekend, I was dilated to 3 cm. Guess you could say that weekend gave me a head start.
For the next two weeks, I had no problems. My cousin came to visit and we went to the beach, hung out at Taps and I had another great baby shower put on by my mother in law and her friends. The week after that was pretty calm. No work, just a work shower, a doctor?s appointment (which confirmed I was still at 3 cm) and a hair appointment. I puttered around getting various baby items ready thinking I would just head to my due date.
The following Saturday was any other Saturday. My dad had been graciously helping us put in our backyard. DH and my dad worked all day digging trenches for the sprinklers and installing the pipes etc. I remember at lunch looking at my husband, all hot and sweaty and tired and saying, ?I promise, I?ll try not to go into labor tonight.? I gave me a pointed, ?you better not? look. I just laughed, not thinking this was a remote possibility.
Yet, that evening God and the little person inside me had a big surprise. Around 7 pm I started cramping up again. I got in the bath and did all the things I was taught to do to test if what I was feeling was real labor. The cramps weren?t going away. By 8, I decided I would try and relax and go to bed. I slept little and by 9:30 DH and I decided that, to be safe, we should head to my grandparents house who live 10 minutes from the hospital. I think I was in complete denial that this could actually be it, but I told DH to pack church clothes in his hospital bag, just in case it wasn?t it. Riiight.
The car ride to grandma?s was the WORST. Every contraction I had, I would say things like, ?I just want out of the car. . . get me out. . . stupid/damn car . . .? I hated being in the car. Got to grandma?s and my parents decided to stay there are well. We didn?t want to alert Christian?s parents yet since they live far (45-55 min away) and would feel horrible for any of them to drive out for a ?false alarm? (see, there?s my denial again). We tried to go to bed but I just couldn?t sleep. By 10:30 or so, DH began to time the contractions and he wouldn?t tell me how close they were together. Funny thing, they never really regulated like clockwork but they did get stronger and stronger and were in the 2/3 minutes apart range for the most part. By 12:40 we knew it was time to go when I got up to try and go to the bathroom and I threw up. Contractions were pretty close together and getting more and more intense. If this wasn't "it" something was definitely wrong.
We made it to the hospital at around 1 pm. I had 3 or 4 contractions while the nurse was checking me in and I signed the paperwork. One asked, ?Um, how long have you been having hard contractions like this?? ?Gosh, an hour and a half?? I replied. I mean I?d been having contractions for a while by then but they hadn?t been that intense. They took me straight to triage where they found I was dilated to 7 cm. They got me a room really fast.
Now, one of my favorite parts of the story was my labor nurse. She was incredible. Throughout the pregnancy, DH and I had been preparing for a completely natural birth. We were aware that in the hospital, sometimes that is hard to do, depending on the support staff. She first asked if I would want an epidural. I told her we were going to try it without and she replied, ?That?s how I had all my babies, you can do it!? Every time she came in she would remind me to concentrate on breathing, brought me tons of water/ice (geez, I was thirsty) when I asked and never brought up the epi or drugs again. She seemed pretty confident that I could do it and, in turn, made me pretty confident that I could too. I mean, we never turned in our birth plan and everything she was doing totally supported our plan. DH and my mom were the designated ?coaches? during labor (PIH allows you to have 2). DH did a great job of trying to keep me relaxed and focused, although, he was running on no food (never ate dinner) and one crazy day of digging in the backyard. Someone brought him food (I don?t even know who) at one point and he ate while my mom sat with me during contractions for a few minutes. I didn?t want to move around much at this point but I did much of transition sitting up in bad or with my legs hanging off the side of the bed. Lying down sounded like complete torture to me.
Around 4 am or so, I finally dilated to 10 cm and could push. The baby was still fairly high up in the canal and my water had not broken. They kept saying I had a ?bulging sac,?- whatever that means. Finally, the doctor was called to break my water. The nurse had mentioned that if she didn?t drop, I was looking at pushing for at least 2 hours. One thing I knew was that pushing would be hard work, but I didn?t count on it being as difficult as it was. I have asthma and general lung issues and it never occurred to me that the whole ?hold your breath and push for 10 seconds? would be so hard for me and my limited lung capacity. I remember my mom doing the counting and how she had to start over every time I had to breathe in mid-count. I remember looking up at our nurse and saying, ?I don?t know if I can do this for 2 hours!? She laughed a bit and said, ?Oh no, I scared you! You won?t be two hours, she?s dropped!? The bag of water must have been holding her up. She rolled a mirror in front of me. I never thought I?d want that. . . but it was quite motivational. I could see there was some progress, I was moving toward getting that little head out.
Funny thing about the doctor. I am in a medical group where there are around 7 OB/GYNs who could possibly deliver your baby. You meet them all prior to your birth so you are familiar with everyone. None of them were on call that night. Filling in, instead, was the same doctor that delivered me (and several of my cousins too). He is obviously older, very good at what he does but also very used to a time where OBs went ahead and did what was necessary and didn?t talk much to the patient. I liked him, don?t get me wrong, but it was interesting. Coming in to break my water and deliver the baby, he took one look at me mid-contraction and exclaimed, ?You didn?t get an epidural?! By choice?!? Although in the midst of pain, I wanted to laugh. He got everything set up, put blue ?sterile? paper all over my belly. The nurse said, later, that he is the only doctor that does this. Somehow it came up that we were Bradley trained. The doctor looked up and responded, ?Bradley? These Bradley people who insist on torturing themselves!? I don?t know if he was serious or just being a smart aleck but I just thought it was the funniest thing. I don?t know why. Maybe because even though it was painful, hard work, it was do-able. I didn?t feel like I was ?torturing? myself. He made me laugh. I remember at one point he asked, ?Did you guys have a birth plan? You know what you call people with Birth Plans- Caesareans.? Good grief. While I was continuing to work though pushing, he started to tell, ?back when I met Dr. Bradley? stories. Yup, he?s been around that long. I don?t even remember what he said. DH said later he was telling how he?d met Dr. Bradley?s dental hygienist and how he rarely came in for dental work because he had no pain tolerance. If I?d been paying attention, I?d have thought that was funny too. . .
The only shocking moment was when at some point I felt a small stinging sensation . . down there. I immediately knew what was going on. He said nothing and was going to give me an episiotomy. Now, this was on the list of ?we?d rather not.? So DH immediately asked what he was doing. I was proud of him for being concerned about me and speaking up. I love my husband.  After a short discussion, I finally said, ?We?ve gotten to do everything the way we wanted, if I?m going to tear that bad, I don?t want to. . . I can take an episiotomy. . .? With the next push, she made more progress. After the next contraction was over, he told me to keep pushing. Apparently, the cord was wrapped a bit around her neck and he wanted to get her out soon. All I remember was him placing her wet, purple little body on my tummy. I was in shock. She was here. She was moving and happy and breathing. DH cut the umbilical cord. They would have left her on my tummy but they didn?t like that she wasn?t crying much. They placed her on the warmer in the corner of the room and immediately she let out a cry. She liked it with her mommy, is what I reasoned. No need to cry over there! They wiped her down a bit and weighed her, measured her. I heard the nurse say the time she was born. The doctor gave me a line of pitocin and started pressing on my belly to get the placenta out. That hurt pretty bad. I wasn?t expecting that as much but it didn?t take long.
Afterward, they gave us 2 hours together. My dad and mother-in-law and brother all came in at one time or another to see her. I got to nurse her right away and she did very well. She seemed so alert. She had ?pinked up? pretty fast and received an APGAR score of 9/10. She was so healthy, so perfect and here. ?Every good and perfect gift is from above.? ? James 1:17
Claire Audrey
May 30, 2010 4:22 am
7 lbs. 10 oz. 20 inches