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Dean Alexander's Birth Story (ACrookston)

acrookstonacrookston member
in April 2014 Moms

Quick and Dirty:

To avoid going to the hospital to be induced (I had Gestational Diabetes), I had my midwife break my water on my due date after several other attempts to get labor started.  Dean Alexander was born without any pain medications on April 11, 2014 at 3:47am weighing 8lbs 12oz and measuring 21 inches.

Long Version:

Because I had Gestational Diabetes during this pregnancy, I had to deliver by my due date in order to be able to deliver at the birth center.  If not, I was going to have to go to the hospital to be induced.  At my 39-week appointment, the midwives attempted to do a stretch and sweep, but my cervix was tilted too far back to reach.  The following Monday, I went in for another attempt at a stretch and sweep.  Again, my cervix was too far back to reach and they couldn't do it.  I went home from that appointment 1cm dilated and with two  bottles of castor oil to take at lunch and then again before dinner.  The castor oil seemingly accomplished nothing but sending me to the bathroom all the time.  So the next plan of action was Cervadil.  I went in Tuesday morning to have the first round inserted.  That night I went in for another round of Cervadil and also to have a Foley Catheter inserted.  The Foley Catheter was soo uncomfortable but it did succeed in getting me dilated to 4cm :)  The next day, I was able to pull the Foley Catheter out since it had dilated me enough.  Later that day, I used some essential oils to massage on my belly.  I was skeptical of the oils but (placebo effect or not) I started getting regular contractions about seven minutes apart.  Unfortunately, I went to sleep that night and they stopped.  The next day (my due date) I went into the birth center for a third and final round of Cervadil.  The midwife confirmed that I was dilated to a four.  She tried to do a stretch and sweep, however, my cervix was still too far back and slippery for her to do a proper one.  Later that day, my husband and I did the essential oils on my belly again and I started to contract every four minutes.  We called the midwife and she told us to go ahead and come in.  Although I was contracting, they weren't strong enough to truly be in labor and my midwife thought that it was probably because of the size of my baby and the amount of amniotic fluid that was causing the contractions to be ineffective.  So she suggested that we break my water in order to get rid of some of the amniotic fluid and hopefully the contractions would be more effective and we would have a baby!

We got to the birth center and took a walk while we waited for our birth assistant to get there.  Our midwife needed her to be able to push the baby down while she broke the water so we could avoid  a cord prolapse.  Once our birth assistant got there and we broke my water, things started progressing.  I went from being able to talk through my contractions to needing to hang from my husband's neck and swaying through them.  In preparation for my birthing time, I used Hypnobabies.  Hypnobabies really helped me in remaining calm and alleviating a lot of the fear I had around giving birth, however, I did not practice my light switch enough and so that part really didn't work for me.  I did use the birthing day affirmations while I was laboring and during a contraction I would moan "Open" or "Relax" to try and keep everything open and relaxed (duh).  I felt like this was really helpful.

I started laboring on a bed on my side.  I stayed here for a while mainly because I was freezing!  My poor husband tried as much as he could to help by draping his coat and our beach towels (brought for the birthing tub) over me to try to warm me.  Thank god the midwife came in and showed him where the blankets were kept and turned on a space heater for me!  After I warmed up, I asked (read: begged) to get into the Jacuzzi tub.  The tub didn't end up being as magical as I thought it would be.  The best part about it was that my daughter and husband were both in there with me while I labored.  After a while I got too hot and got out of the tub. 

Thus began my hours of laboring on the toilet.  I tried other positions but nothing else really seemed tolerable.  I remember the midwife asking once if I wanted to be checked but I declined by whimpering "No, I don't want to be disappointed."  Somehow they convinced me to move to the bed and shortly after my body decided it was time to push.  My midwife asked me what I was feeling and my only response was "I don't know."  I didn't want to tell anyone I was pushing for fear they would tell me to stop.  Afterwards I told my husband that and he laughed at me, "We all knew you were pushing."  Anyway, they offered to move me to the toilet or a birthing stool to push.  I chose the birthing stool since they could bring that to me instead of me going very far.  Twenty-two minutes of pushing and Dean Alexander was born.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to have my magical new baby moment as I was bleeding too much and had to get a shot of Pitocin and deliver my placenta quickly.  DH got lots of skin to skin time with Dean while they gave me more clotting medications, an IV and had to clean out my uterus.  It was very scary but somehow I've managed to make peace with it all and can amazingly say I will someday be pregnant again and deliver med-free ....someday....

Enjoy the pics :)

Baby Birthday Ticker Ticker

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