Aubrey's natural birth story

Aubrey Michele?s Med-free Birth Story

It all started Thursday the 18^th. I was at work and feeling a little off all day. I knew there was a huge snow storm coming in that evening. When I left work at 6:30, I remember telling my boss to pray for me not to go into labor tonight because of the storm and my family would be stuck driving 3 hours in it. I got home and my super sweet husband had made dinner for me, yet again. He had been doing this quite often lately which I so appreciated. I sat down and relaxed after and at about 10:00 I decided that I better get started on making the appetizers for my work Christmas party the next day. I finished putting them together at about 11:30 and decided to head to bed. I woke up at about 2:30 with some cramping; I still wasn?t convinced that it was anything. I kept getting up to go to the bathroom because of the discomfort thinking that peeing would help. By about 3:30 I had lost my mucus plug and started with the bloody show. Now I was thinking that this had to be it. I called my sister, who was just getting off work and told her to head on over. Luckily she missed the storm because she had about a 45 minute drive. The contractions hurt but I expected them to be much worse. They were coming about every 7-15 minutes by the time my sister got there. Ryan of course was so excited that he started calling the whole family. I told him to wait until 6 am but he couldn?t. I wanted Kate and Ryan to get some sleep so I was really quiet and I went into the bathroom to take a bath. I was in there for about 3 minutes before Ryan came in there with a pillow and blanket to lay on the floor by me, he didn?t want me to be alone. I spent about an hour in the tub and at this point the contractions were about 3-5 minutes apart and getting much worse. I found that squatting when they came on and rocking back and forth really helped. Ryan?s mom called about every hour and at about 6 am when my contractions were 3 minutes apart she insisted that we get to the hospital which is about 5 minutes from the house. I had planned to labor at home to ensure that I would have a med-free birth so I told Ryan that I wanted to wait until much later to go in, I was thinking about noon or so. I did however tell Ryan to start getting stuff together because we still hadn?t packed or even installed the car seat. By 7:30 I was in the basement trying to get some things together and my sister was on the computer so I told her to go to contractionmaster.com to time my contractions. At this point they were so intense that I was almost crying when they came on and of course they were all in my back. I had to have Kate or Ryan press so hard on my back to help me get though them and I was bleeding quite a bit. It was 8:00 and now I was ready to go to the hospital. Unfortunately because I insisted that it would be much later when we left Ryan and Kate still had to get ready. I was screaming at them saying I didn?t give a crap what they looked like we had to go NOW! I tried to shower really quickly and I could barely stand it. Finally I got myself down to the car; everything was covered in snow at least a foot if not more. I felt like I was dying! It took 20 minutes to get to the hospital and I was so mad. Luckily when I walked in they were ready with a wheel chair to take me up to L&D. They told me I had to get registered and I was n so much pain. The registration lady said, I can see you?re in a lot of pain, let?s just get you over to get checked. The nurse walked in after about 1 minute and I still hadn?t gotten my pants off she said ?Where do you think you are honey.? I was so irritated, she then asked me if my water had broken and I said no and then she condescendingly said well I guess we will check to see how far you are. The doctor came in to let me know that my doctor was on vacation, which I knew and he asked me if I wanted anything for pain, I said no. He asked me 2 more times and the third time it took me a little longer to answer but I still declined. He then checked me and I was dilated to a 7! I was so excited I figured I would only be at a 3. Then there were people everywhere, they rushed me into the delivery room where I met my nurse Michele. She was wonderful! We still didn?t have a name and Michele was on our list. They checked me again and I was ready to push. There were people every where, I felt like everything was happening so fast. I started to push and wasn?t getting anywhere. After about a half hour all the doctors and people left except Michele and some resident doctor named Terry. They kept trying to teach me how to push and because I hadn?t taken Lamaze classes I now felt like I should have. They kept telling me to hold my breath while I pushed because it would make the push stronger, I had to do 3 sets of 10 second pushes and usually the first two were okay but the last one I lost energy on. I kept pushing with my face which after about an hour and a half my eyes were killing me I felt like I burst so may blood vessels. They kept telling me I was doing great but I was SO frustrated with myself. They tried to install a bar on the bed and hung a sheet from it for me to pull on, that didn?t work. Then I tried squatting which felt the best but they didn?t think that was working as well as it did when I was lying on my back. I asked Michele if I could stand and try it she was all for it but then the doctor came in and told me no. I hated this doctor he was so rough and rude and I wanted him to die. They then got me a mirror so I could see what I was doing to see if it would help. They got all excited and said look at her head when I pushed and I was so discouraged because I saw an opening of about an inch or two and there was no way a baby was coming though that. I was bleeding everywhere, exhausted and after 3 hours I was willing to do anything to get her out. I wasn?t even waiting for contractions at this point I just kept trying over and over to make some progress. They decided that they needed to give me a catheter to empty my bladder; I said no I can pee if you need me to. They put a bed pan under me and then came a strong contraction, I told them fine just put in the stupid thing. Of course no urine came out so they took it back out. My husband was arguing with them about me holding my breath because he thought I was going to pass out. Finally I started listening to my husband and breathing though while pushing; now I started to make some progress! The mean doctor was gone and a younger one took his place, thank God! At this point I had almost no energy but I had to get her out! I felt the ring of fire and knew she was almost here, I had to pause and take breaks while she was part of the way out. I asked Michele if it was okay that I rested, she said if I could stand the pressure it would be fine because I was able to stretch, most people can?t pause at that point. Finally she arrived at 12:20 pm, 6.7 lbs, 19.5 inches and a full head of hair. They put her right on my chest and I was just in awe. Ryan said she looked like an Aubrey or an Alexandra, which weren?t really names that were even in our top 5. They swept her away and did her tests while I delivered the placenta. They checked me and I didn?t tear at all, I guess that is one good thing about pushing for over 3 hours. Then Michele brought her back to me before her bath and I breastfed her for almost 40 minutes while she gazed up at me. I couldn?t believe that I did all that and I knew I would do it again in a heartbeat. God gives you some amazing strength and I still can?t believe that it?s all possible. After everyone cleared out Ryan and I talked about her name and decided on Aubrey Michele and I love it! My sister told Ryan that after watching the whole thing she knew we would be together forever because if you can watch something like that and still love the person you would make it though anything. I didn?t get to watch her come out but I am sure it was scary looking. Being a mom is amazing and I feel so blessed that God gave me this little one to treasure! I ended up with busted blood vessels in my eyes and bruising all over my face from pushing incorrectly but other than that I felt great after and was so happy not to have taken anything for pain, looking back it wasn?t bad at all and I have this amazing little one to admire!