Lena Mae's surprise hospital delivery (XP @ PgAL)

anthrochica · July 2012

I wanted to start by thanking you all so much for being such a supportive community. I was not a frequent poster, but I read the board every day. My heart and best wishes for your pregnancies go out to all of you.

Short version: Lena Mae surprised her parents by arriving a week early with only a four-hour labor for this FTM. She was 6 lbs 10 oz and 19.5 inches long.

Long version: I started having menstrual-like cramps about 9 pm, but didn't think too much about them because they were mild and irregular and infrequently spaced. By the time DH went to bed at 10, I had to start breathing my way through them and he started timing them. They were coming every 3 minutes or so, but only for 30-45 sections each, so we assumed we were still in the early stages of labor. We were also confused because they were so focused in my pelvis -- I couldn't even tell if the upper part of my uterus was contracting. The sensations were intense, but not having any other reference point, I thought it was possible that they were still "mild" in terms of what we would be in store for later. We called the birth center and the midwife on duty agreed, so we settled in for what we thought would be a long, hard evening at home. I tried eating some ramen noodles and drinking a smoothie, but I started puking them up, which made me feel like maybe the labor was more progressed than we thought. I asked DH to call the doula to have her arrive.

DH was coaching me through a contraction when I told him it seemed like I could feel something moving out. I assumed I was just imagining things because it had only been three hours from when the first very mild contractions started. He checked and immediately flipped out, saying, "I can see the head!!" I felt relieved that I wasn't imagining how intense the contractions were, but then we realized that there was a very good chance that we would have this baby at home. DH immediately got on the phone with the doula and the midwives and then the paramedics. He moved me to the bathroom. The bag of waters came out intact in an hourglass presentation while the paramedics made their way into the house. We told them we needed to go to the birth center, but they said they only had admitting privileges at hospitals. I was so upset because I really wanted to be at the birth center, but if we had to choose between an unplanned home birth or a hospital birth, I wanted to be in a hospital.

They helped me to the gurney and put me in the ambulance. It was so surreal because it was not a part of my vision at all. The contractions started feeling really different -- intense but intensely calm in-between. I started worrying that we had rushed for nothing. But when we got to the hospital, they said they didn't even have time to get us up to L&D. In the ER I pushed Lena out at 1:40 am, ten minutes after we arrived to the hospital. I don't remember much of the pushing, just being in this calm peaceful black mental space. My doula later said I had a huge smile on my face for the whole pushing stage, even when she was crowning. We were able to preserve a lot of our postpartum birth plan: immediate and extended STS contact, delayed cord clamping, rooming in, etc.

So even though it wasn't what we imagined, her birth was just beautiful and we are all healthy and happy to be snuggling back home: