Caleb Joseph's Natural Birth

jrising · April 2011

Caleb's official due date was April 10th but that day came and went. At my 40 week 5 day appointment I had my first internal and I was 2cm, 60% effaced, and -1 station. They wanted to schedule the induction for that Monday but I requested that we do some tests first to see if the baby was doing well. I had no problems throughout my pregnancy. I was able to schedule an NST exam and an amniotic fluid test for Monday but we still had to have an induction scheduled on the books. I signed the papers for a Wednesday induction with the hope that if my tests on Monday went well that I might be able to negotiate another couple of days.
On Monday after finishing a big breakfast and starting to eat a chocolate doughnut I felt what I thought was my first real contraction. I had braxton hicks for months but this almost felt more like a painful menstrual cramp. I wrote down the time of 9:53am since it was so different. Fifteen minutes went by before I felt another. After that contraction they started to be almost 5 minutes apart consistently but not too painful. Peter was at school during this time but I thought that I would just go through my hospital bag and do some laundry while I waited for him to come home. He came home close to noon and I told him that I think I was having real contractions and I showed him where I wrote down my contractions. They were all around 5-6 minutes apart.
My NST exam was scheduled for 1pm so I called the midwives to see if I should come in for that since I thought I was starting labor. The midwife I talked to said that I should come in because I should have the baby checked and there was a chance that my contractions could space out and stop. So we took a 15minute car ride to our appointment. My contractions were very painful on the way over. Once I was there I got hooked up to the NST equipment and I ended up being there for almost an hour because the baby was very quiet in the beginning and then he was moving nonstop. They could detect my contractions on the exam but they weren't as regular or consistent as when I was moving around earlier. The midwife felt my abdomen when I was having one and thought that it wasn't hard enough. She said I was probably in early labor and she got check me if I wanted. I declined and thought that I would just go home and see what happened from there. They still wanted me to go to the hospital for the amniotic fluid test so we scheduled that for 5:30pm later that day.
We got back home around 2:30pm and my contractions were getting a lot worse. Once I was home I timed my contractions for an hour and they were 3 minutes apart. I finally was in so much pain that we called the midwives and we decided to head to the hospital. I arrived to the lobby around 4:20pm and they had me wait in an office for a few minutes until someone was ready for me (I really don't know why but I was starting to lose it at that point). They got a wheelchair for me and took me to triage. I was checked and was at 8-9cm, 100% effaced, and 0 station. The midwife offered to break my water but I declined it and said I would see how it goes. They immediately took me into the labor and delivery room around 4:40pm - I requested the one with the jacuzzi tub. While they filled up the tub they took my vitals and monitored the baby's heart rate for 10 or 15 minutes. Then I got in the tub and it felt amazing. I tried a few positions in there and after maybe 20 minutes Peter noticed that my water broke. I couldn't even tell since I was in the water. Shortly after that I started feeling a small urge to push. The midwife said that small pushes were ok but when it got stronger I was to get out.
A couple of minutes later I had an overwhelming urge to push so I dried off and got on the bed. I have no idea how long the pushing stage lasted but Peter said it was very quick - maybe 20-25 minutes? Peter had to keep reminding me to take deep breaths and calm down. Pushing was actually the hardest part of the whole process for me. Finally they said I only had a couple more pushes left and said to make them count. After a minute I heard this loud screaming and they brought my baby boy to my chest. I was so in love and amazed. After the placenta was delivered I had a couple tears that had to be stitched. I was just focusing on Caleb and he looked so beautiful to me. After maybe 90 minutes of holding him they finally weighed him and he was only 7lb and 19.75 in! I thought for sure he would weigh more for being 8 days past his due date! I also definitely had a euphoric high after he was born. I felt no pain or even tiredness. The nurses were also surprised that I had minimal bleeding since I wasn't on pitocin after the delivery.
Caleb has been perfectly healthy in every way and we couldn't be happier. We did accept all of the routine newborn procedures but declined circumcision. Breastfeeding is definitely a challenge at times though - it just takes us a long time to get going. Other then that we have been doing great. I had a lot of pain moving around for the first couple days after being home but now I feel almost completely recovered.
I am attaching a link to our blog where you can find pictures and videos of Caleb. Be sure to hit "previous posts" and the bottom of the page - it doesn't stand out and is hard to see.
Good luck to the rest of you with upcoming deliveries. https://blog.lilpnut.com/