XP Dec '12 board-- birth center story

choppinbroccoli22 · December 2012

Sam was born yesterday, 12/17 at 11:35 am, measuring in at 6 lb 12.3 oz, 19.5". We're all doing well.

We were discharged home from the birthing center at around 8pm, so we ended up getting home pretty late. We went over to grandma's to pick up his big sister this morning.

This labor and delivery experience was unbelievably different from my first. It was 18 hours instead of 44. I was completely present the entire time. My body was allowed to do what it needed to do, when it needed to do it. We had a water birth, which was fantastic (not easy, but awesome), and I pushed for 10 minutes in my H's arms.

I later thanked my H for being so good about it when I yelled at him to push against my pelvis harder, and then shushed him. The midwives told him that I was transitioning at the time, and so he said he was actually almost laughing when I did those things. He then thanked me for not biting his arm when I clearly wanted to... I reached for a towel instead.

The biggest difference for me this time around was that there were no constraints and measures to worry about, once I was admitted. OK, so here's our story.

It all started at about 5:15 pm Sunday night, going over bumpy roads on our way home from the grocery store. Slamming 2 big glasses of water and taking a bath did nothing to slow down the contractions, and at about 1 am we decided it would be a good idea to take our daughter over to her grandparents' house and get going.

At 3:30am we arrived at the birthing center, but I was only at 3cm. They don't admit until 4 cm. So while my H rested on the couch, I did lunges and stairs. That didn't seem to stimulate contractions for me, so I just decided to snuggle with my H and I immediately had better contractions. Four hours later I pulled the trigger and asked to be checked again. I was so relieved to hear that I was at 5 cm and didn't have to go home in rush hour traffic. We were admitted.

We went upstairs at 7:30am, and my bath was already running. An hour later, I had to get out of the tub to take a giant poo, and then they checked me on the bed. I was at a 5-6, and the question was put to me when I wanted to have my water broken, because they needed to know the color of the fluid. Yes, it could break on its own, but better if it didn't happen at 8 cm when I'd have to be rushed to the hospital trying not to push if there was meconium... So, I decided to have it broken then, so that I didn't have to get out of the tub later on. Everything was fine, so back into the tub I went.

The midwives loved my moves and positions in the water. I have to say, prenatal yoga was a good thing for me. I was able to rock, rotate, float on the foam noodle, or rest on my H's legs. Getting into low, wide-legged positions was easy in the water since my arms and legs didn't have to work as hard to support my weight. Shifting between positions was also easier for this reason. My H was also able to push against my pelvis from where he was, and sometimes the mw's took a turn.

The next time I was checked, because I started to report that rectal pressure was preceeding contractions, I was at 8 cm. They told me to let them know when the baby was coming so that they could prepare. I was unsure of what they had just told me--- so, they didn't have to check me again? I could just push when I needed to? Yep. I was unsure if I would know when it was time, but they assured me I would. The place I needed my H to push against got lower and lower.... they told me to push a little bit, which felt good. I started pushing a little bit when I felt a contraction building. After a while of this, suddenly, the full force of one contraction met with my gentle pushing force, and my body took over. I convulsively reared back from where I was on all fours with a big yell, and told them, "my body is pushing!" They had everything prepared in about a minute. The next contraction went by... and then the next one was super powerful, I felt the head descending and I yelled. "He's coming!!!" Because of where I was in the tub, they wanted me to lean back, and I couldn't really do it on my own. My H immediately climbed into the tub. Pushing was 10 minutes, during which I almost deafened my H. Our baby was placed on my abdomen and I put my hands on him and waited until they told me I could bring him to my chest. It wasn't until my H was cutting the cord that I realized that the song that was playing on our L&D playlist was the song that my dads walked me down the aisle to at our wedding. I cried. My H said hello to our baby, who looked up at him and reached out his little hand for his daddy. H is now in tears.

After everything was out and done, we got out of the water, which now my H couldn't look at. The mw's were doting on me, and I dispatched one to go make sure he didn't pass out.

That's our story.... Good luck to the rest of you! I hope that this post is helpful in some way or other to the readers on this board.