Our Team Green & All-Natural Birth

pinkshades05 · February 2012

Short Story:

Our Team Green has now turned Team Pink! Natalie Paige was born February 11, 2012 at 4:31pm. She arrived on her due date weighing 8lbs 8oz and 21.5 inches long. My labor lasted about 27 hours and pushing for about an hour. She was born at a birthing center happy, healthy, and very eager to nurse!

Longer version:

I woke up on Friday (2/10) feeling cramps and dismissed it initially as bathroom cramps. After wiping, I noticed blood on the toilet paper?the first sign of labor, bloody show! It was kind of exciting to think that I might be in labor and that we might be meeting our baby really soon. I laid in bed for a little bit and noticed that I was already feeling crampy. After trying to sleep for a few hours and just feeling restless, I gave up and came downstairs to eat something and post on the bump Little did I know that that night was the last wink of sleep I would be getting for a while!

Eventually I was able to fall asleep and when I did, the cramps were gone. I felt fine, though slightly disappointed thinking that maybe this was just a false alarm. I did call my husband and my mom, both who were going to be at the birth, and let them know that things might be moving. My mom lives 5 hours away so it was important to give her enough notice. At 1pm, I thought I would go take a nap when the cramps came back, but now were obvious contractions with beginnings and ends and a gradually getting stronger. I timed them for a while and they were about 10min apart and only lasting about 30sec each?definitely not long enough to be considered active labor, so I started doing other things around the house to get ready for my parents to come. My husband came home early that afternoon and we went out to dinner to celebrate going into labor (my ?last supper?) and it was at that point that we started to evaluate the names we chose. We?re team green and we loved the boy name we picked out (Caleb Reed), but my husband wasn?t too confident on the name we had for the girl?Madelyn Elisabeth. The name seemed kind of long, so I asked him what did he like better? He answered, ?Natalie? and I added the middle name, ?Paige? because we had considered that as a middle name for Madelyn.

With the house clean and my parents arriving at 11pm, it was about time for active labor to begin! Contractions were gradually increasing in intensity, length, and decreasing in spacing. I couldn?t sleep out of discomfort and while I tried to give my husband some sleep, I also needed someone to be there with me. So he massaged me until about 7am when we decided it was time to call the birthing center. We arrived at 8:30am and I was really afraid that after all of the work I did that I had made no progress at all or very little. I was really pleased to find out that this wasn?t the case and I was 4-5cm dilated and fully effaced. Yay! We were going to have this baby!

I picked the room with the largest tub to labor in and as soon as I got in, all of the pressure on my hips and back seemed to melt away. It didn?t take away all of the pain and discomfort, but it definitely took off the edge! I spent the rest of active labor and transition in the tub until around 12:30 when things started to plateau. I was almost fully dilated (9cm), but there was no urge to push and labor was beginning to slow down. I got out of the bathtub and walked around, but at first the baby?s heart rate dropped to around the 80?s. For a few scary moments, we were trying to figure out what was going on and the midwife monitored the heartbeat with a Doppler. Sitting on my right side didn?t make it better, but when I shifted to my left, the baby shifted positions and the heart rate picked back up immediately. However, for the remainder of my labor her heart beat continued to be strong, though I was being monitored every 5-10min.

Being in the plateau was a little odd. There were mild pushing contractions mixed with transition contractions and there was a good reason?up until this point my water had not broken so my body was doing what it could to make that happen. I didn?t know what pushing contractions were supposed to feel like, but I knew I was there. I just didn?t know what I could do to get to the finish line! But my midwife helped with suggesting that I take another walk and when I got out of the tub for the second time, I started feeling unmistakable urges to push. It was the weirdest sensation ever, like I really had to go poop instead of push out a baby! I fought two contractions, but the third one was overwhelming and I went with it. POP! That?s all that was needed for my water to break and I could feel the baby?s body dropping down.

Now that I knew what pushing would feel like, it only took an hour for our baby to be born. First I started in the crouch position, but then the midwife suggested the birthing stool and as soon as I sat down, it was only minutes before I was holding our baby. I looked down to see what our mystery baby was and announced, ?It?s a girl!?? I was so surprised! I really thought we were having a boy! My mom?s first question was, ?What is her name??? And I turned to my husband with a, ?Umm?I don?t know! We had two names!? But my husband made the final decision and looking back, I think it was the best decision. ?Natalie Paige.?

After the placenta was delivered and checked and the cord was cut, my mom (who is a lactation consultant) helped get the breastfeeding started while I was being sewn up for first degree tears. I was pretty exhausted at this point since I hadn?t slept since Friday morning and Natalie arrived at 4:31pm, but after Natalie arrived and I was now recovering, I was no longer tired. I couldn?t stop staring at my baby girl and marvel that this little baby was mine. It was the best feeling ever, like a second dose of energy that kept me going for the rest of the night. Within hours, I was on the phone with friends and family who were all pretty shocked that I didn?t sound like I just had a baby, but I just felt so great!

A few hours after birth, Natalie was weighed at 8lbs 8oz and 21.5in long. She was a good sized baby and came out pretty clean. The umbilical cord was wrapped loosely around her neck which we think was the culprit for the drop in heart rate. There was also meconium in the amniotic fluid, but Natalie appeared to be fine and was able to breathe after a few minutes and a little suctioning.

Over all, this was the best birth experience that I could have hoped for. We always prepare for the worst case scenario, but it?s so wonderful and relieving when labor and birth go how we want it to go! I was able to labor without any pain meds and my labor, while it stalled for a few frustrating hours, kept progressing and I did have this baby! We came home that evening and have been settling in ever since and getting better acquainted with our surprise! And I am so excited that I can finally buy girl clothes!!

If you made it this far, I applaud you. I wanted this to be detailed because without monitors, my labor could only be measured by how I was experiencing it. Thanks for reading!

fish000 · February 2012

Great story. Great name. Congratulations. Post a pic when you can.

SapphireDreamRock · February 2012

I'm so happy you had such a wonderful birth experience that went pretty much as you hoped it would. Congrats on your new daughter, and finding her name!