R/P: Evan's Natural Birth Story

beedale862003 · August 2011

I woke up with contractions at 2:30am on Thursday morning, they were pretty uncomfortable so I decided to get up about 4:00 to see if doing something else would get my mind off of them. They were coming every 6-9 minutes for the most part, I had some bloody show when I went to the bathroom. I did some work on the internet and it helped take my mind off of them, DH got up at 6:00am and said he was going to go into work for a little while, he works an hour away so I told him I really thought I was in early labor and wanted him to stay home. He agreed so a little while later my son got up, we ate breakfast and went for a walk. After our walk my parents came and got my son and my husband and I went for another walk, I really wanted my contractions to get closer together but they stayed right around 6-9 minutes apart. We came home and I laid down on the couch to rest for a while, my husband was a little annoyed that he had not gone to work. He thought they were just BH, but I was confident it was labor. I wasn't talking during them but smiling and joking and vacuuming when I wasn't having one so he thought yeah right. So his lack of confidence was making me feel a little silly so I called my doctor's office to tell them I thought I was in early labor and see what they said. My midwife asked if I could come in for a labor check at 1:15, I said sure. I figured we would get checked I guessed I would be about 2-3cm and we could go back home to labor some more but at least maybe she would confirm that this was it. I decided to bring my bags just in case, so we got to the office (contrax were 5 min apart) and they let me go right back since I was working through my contractions. She checked me, and said "Wow, I've got to check again to be sure." So she checked me twice and I was...6cm! Yeah, the look on my husband's face was awesome, my MW couldn't believe it either, she was like I was expecting 2 cm, since I was in a good mood as long as I wasn't breathing through a contraction. So she said it's time to head to the hospital, and DH was like we want to labor at home as long as possible. She said if my water broke I could cough out the baby. So instead we stopped for some lunch on the way, which she wasn't thrilled about either but the office is right across the street from the hospital.When I got to the hospital (2:45) my other midwife was there to meet me, she was awesome. She informed the nurse no IV, no saline lock, and just intermittent monitoring with the doppler. We didn't even have to remind our midwife of our wishes. She checked me then and I was 7 cm, and my contractions had started getting stronger but I quietly worked through them by rocking against a table in the room. At 4:00 she checked again and I was almost 8 and the contractions were definitely stronger, I let my MW break my water (my only intervention). After that my contractions got really strong and breathing through them was difficult, and I could not find a comfortable position. I guess they were about 2 min apart, I'm not sure. But I started feeling more pressure, my MW suggested sitting on the commode for a couple of contractions, I ended up pooping. Then I couldn't sit, stand, anything. She checked me during a contraction and I had a lip of cervix all the way around so I had 2 more contractions and she checked again and I just had a lip at the top. She said because she was checking me on my hands and knees it maybe just the position that was causing her to feel the lip and if I felt the urge to push I could. I couldn't really tell what I was feeling but at the end of the contractions my body was pushing on its own. So they asked me if I wanted to use the birthing chair, I said I didn't know so DH spoke up for me and said yes lets try it. (I told DH he may need to do that once things got intense and just tell me to do something.)So...pushing. I sat on the chair right before my next contraction (my nurses moved fast it was awesome). And with my first push I crowned, my second push I delivered his head, and my third push his body. Three pushes and less than 1 minute of pushing time and he was here. Thank God because pushing was unbelievable. It was the only noise I made the entire labor but I screamed, and yelled "Get him out". I did have a 2nd degree tear so the stitches were no fun but it wasn't as bad as I tore with my first.Evan Zachary was born at 5:13 on Aug 18th, a little over an hour after breaking my water, and 2.5 hours after we got to the hospital it was a great birth. He was 7lb 6.1oz 19 1/4 in long. He is nursing like a champ!