Med-Free Birth XP on Natural Birth Board

On December 29th I was 40w3d, which is when I went into labor with my daughter Emily.  When I woke up with no sign of labor I became resigned to the fact that I was going to go longer with this baby than my first.  We went out to a nice breakfast at our favorite breakfast spot, took down the Christmas tree and when it was time for DD to take a nap I decided I would rest as well.  I read for a little while then at 3:00pm I closed my book.  As soon as I tried to fall asleep I started having what felt like Braxton Hicks.  They were coming every 8-10 minutes.  I figured it was probably nothing and just continued to rest.

4:30ish- DH comes in and jokingly says, ?Are you in labor??  I say, ?yes?.  He says, ?How far apart are the contractions??  I say, ?8-10 minutes?.  He responds with, ?Are you serious??  I say, "Yeah, maybe"

5:30ish- Things are still very normal.  DH is asking me what size sweatshirt he should order online and my mom is showing off some new clothes she has purchased asking my opinion on a sweater.  DH asks me if I have had any contractions while we have been talking, and I say, ?One, maybe two.?  But I can still easily talk through them.

5:45ish-Things are starting to pick up a little more and some spotting assures me that today will be the day.  

6:00ish-After everyone eats dinner DH comes in and asks me if I think this is it.  I say yes and he gets all excited saying, ?We get to meet our baby today!?  He starts to get everything packed up.  Things start to go really fast at this point.  All of a sudden the contractions start coming pretty quick.  They are about 2 minutes apart, but that doesn?t seem right to me and I think that perhaps I am mistiming them.  I am also starting to feel pressure.

6:40ish-I go to the bathroom and stand there trying to figure out what to do.  It seems too early to leave for the hospital, but everything seems to point to the fact that I am getting close.  Looking back, I think this was the point where my decision would determine the course of our baby?s birth.  I stood there and looked at the bath tub and seriously considered getting in, thinking I would more easily be able to time the contractions and have a better sense of how strong they were.  All of a sudden something our Hypnobirthing teacher told us rang clearly in my ears, she told us, ?When you feel like it?s time to go, it?s time to go.?  I looked in the mirror and thought, ?it?s time to go?.

6:45ish-I tell DH that while it seems early I think we should head to the hospital.  They can always send us home I reasoned.  As we are leaving we have to stop on the stairs for a contraction and DH says, ?These really are coming close together.?

7:01-My dad sees our car pulling out of the alley.  In the car I am kneeling in the back seat facing the back window and my mom is rubbing my back through contractions.  At this point I can actually feel my body bearing down during contractions and I wonder looking back if I was already fully dilated at this point.

7:20ish-We arrive at the hospital parking lot, but it is a slow walk through the lot and hallways because my contractions are so close together.  As we are walking down one long hallway to the elevator, I have the almost overwhelming urge to rip off my dress because it is insanely hot and anything touching me is irritating.  Thankfully I resist this urge!

7:40ish-I walk into the L&D room to be evaluated by the triage nurse.  She was the same nurse that bathed DD and while I didn?t really like her, it was comforting to see a familiar face.

7:55ish- The nurse gets the bands to do an NST and asks me to lay down.  I tell her I don?t think I can and would she do it while I stand.  She tells me it?s better if I just lay down, get the 20 minutes over with, then I can walk, get in the bath, etc.  I know they can do this test with me standing by the bed and I am quietly weighing my options.  I consider threatening to decline it, figuring the nurse will have to work with me if she thinks that?s the only way I will do the test.  My mother chimes in and says, ?Why don?t you try it with her standing and if it doesn?t work she can get into bed??  The nurse reluctantly agrees and my mother helps to fasten the bands.  

8:05ish- I have been on the monitors for ten minutes (I later saw the NST strip).  The nurse asks me if I feel like pushing.  I said ?yes?.  She says, ?Then I need to get someone in here, I?m just a triage nurse!?  The back-up midwife comes in because the on-call is with a woman who is pushing.  Before the midwife checks me I tell her that I don?t want to know how dilated I am.  She starts to check me and says with surprise, ?This bag is bulging and the head is right there!?  DH could visibly see the head!  DH looked at me with an expression that read shock and excitement and said something like, ?Oh my God, it?s right there!?  The midwife left to get the midwife on duty (I was so out of it at this point that I didn?t realize one midwife had left and another came in, I thought I had the same midwife the whole time.)  Once the second midwife came in she broke my bag of water and told me I could push.  

8:11-I pushed twice and out the baby came.  DH exclaimed, ?It?s a boy!? and our son was on my chest.  I just kept crying and saying, ?My baby! My baby!?  Our sweet, perfect Noah James was here! I couldn?t believe we had a son and a daughter!  They were able to let the cord stop pulsating and Mike cut the cord.  My MW said, "That's a big baby!" They weighed him and announced he was 8lbs12oz and 20.5 inches long! Unfortunately they were not happy with Noah?s breathing so he was taken to the Special Care Nursery.  While I was worried as any parent would be, I didn?t have a bad feeling because he seemed so strong.  DH and my mother went to see him and confirmed that he was doing well.  He was released from the nursery a day and a half later and they theorize that he breathing problems were caused by what the midwives called a ?percipitous birth?.                  

Despite Noah's time spent in the nursery, he is a great BFer and so far at least a good little sleeper