I woke up early in the morning, probably around 1:15 after
maybe an hour of sleep (this pregnancy, I have had a really really hard time
falling asleep. It’s not uncommon for it to take me 2 hours to fall asleep) and
I felt kind of wet. It turns out that my water broke! When I woke Jonathan up,
and told him that I thought my water broke he just sat there with a really
confused look on his face. He just sat there blinking, with is brow furrowed,
saying “ok… ok…” over and over. haha! I told him that I was planning on calling
the midwife and that he should probably get ready to go; to which he responded
“don’t you think you should wait? Labor hasn’t started yet, right? Don’t you
want to wait ‘til you start labor?” I told him that when a woman’s water breaks
it’s a different story. Then he got out of bed, and woke up a little.
I called the midwives and a nurse called back saying that
Ann was in a delivery, and she would relay the message. I told her what
happened and she told me to come in.
After that, I called Megan Monk, and she said that she would
hurry over. Before Megan got there, I asked Jonathan for a blessing. I don’t
remember much of what was said except that he blessed my body, he said “your
body was made to give birth”. That gave me a lot of comfort because I have been
concerned about a C-section this whole pregnancy, and especially with my water
breaking, I was concerned that I might have to have one.
When Megan came over, Jonathan and I started packing our
bags, it was kind of funny because we really didn’t know what we should pack.
We remembered packing a lot of things last time, and only using maybe half of
the stuff, but we couldn’t remember what stuff we used. We just kept walking around
the house saying “what should we pack?” while throwing stuff in our backpacks.
This time I really wanted to use my Hypnobabies techniques,
so I took the time to go in my room and turn on my light switch. This basically
means I put myself in hypnosis so that I would be more primed and ready for
when contractions started. I was feeling really calm throughout the whole
process, and I was kind of surprised that I wasn’t feeling very intense
feelings in either extreme. I wasn’t feeling crazy excited, or really nervous.
We had to get one last pregnancy picture!
Not the best picture in the whole world, but you see the excitement on my face, and the bigness of my belly ;)
As we drove over, I listened to a hypno track, it basically
gives positive affirmations about what is coming up ahead. When we walked into
the emergency room (that’s where you check in at this hospital) we got all set up
and then a nurse came to take me to Labor and Delivery. She asked if I wanted a
wheel chair, and I said I would prefer to walk. Jonathan said something to the effect
of, “what? You are in labor and given the opportunity to be driven somewhere
and you want to walk?” I responded “I feel like I wet my pants, I don’t want to
sit in it too!”
When I got up to
Labor and Delivery, I met my midwife, Ann. I had only met her once before because
I decided mid pregnancy to switch doctors and hospitals. Not because I was
unhappy with the other hospital or my OBGYN, I just wanted to try laboring in a
tub and the hospital I was at didn’t offer that, and my OB was only able to
work at the one hospital.
Ann had been at the hospital all night, she had already
delivered two babies by the time I got there at 3:00 AM. I told her that I
wanted a tub, and she said that when things started progressing she would get
it set up for me. She said that if things weren’t kicked into gear now, she
wasn’t in a hurry to start them. So she suggested sleeping till about 5:00 or
6:00 because it could be a long day. I lay down but didn’t get much sleep because
I was thinking about the upcoming events. I was feeling pretty eager to get
things going, I wouldn’t say that I was really excited, that’s not the right
word, but I was anticipating the upcoming events and was looking forward to
labor. Jonathan fell right to sleep, by about 5:30 I couldn’t lay around
anymore.
We got Ann, and she suggested pumping, walking around and
even tried aroma therapy to get things going. All of those things got them
going, but didn’t keep them going; so most of the day I would have sporadic
contractions at best. The best thing about this labor was that Ann let me eat!
She even encouraged me to eat, so I ordered food from the cafeteria and ate all
day! It was so wonderful!!
I got checked at 11:00 and had only progressed to a 3. The
contractions were manageable so Jonathan worked on his computer a lot and I was
on pinterest and doing other things to try to occupy myself. It was so weird!
Such a difference from Cambria’s labor. It was a blessing that I didn’t need
Jonathan focused with me the whole day because he had a lot of deadlines and
work that he needed to do. He tried to front load a lot of his projects so that
by the time late September rolled around, he would be able to relax and help
take care of me and Cambria.
About this time, my nurse came in and told me that the tubs
were both being used! I was so sad! I had told them first thing that I wanted
one, and they told me I could have one… I was so bummed! I was especially
bummed because I was sure that I was there before they got to the hospital… if
it was first come first served than I should have gotten a tub! My only hope
was that the other moms that had the tubs would hurry, and I could get it after
they were done.
By about 3:00pm Ann checked me again and I had progressed to
almost a 5. She stretched my cervix in hopes to get things going. That for sure
got things going, but it didn’t last long. It amazed me how different labor
could be from baby to baby! With Cambria, I went to the hospital and I was at a
5, and I could manage my contractions on my own. But with Corbin, by the time I
was at a 5, the contractions were intense! They were harder to manage on my
own, and I preferred Jonathan to help me through.
By this point in the day I was still able to carry on a
conversation because my contractions were still inconsistent. This (being able
to talk) is actually something I wanted out of this labor. It was nice to be
able to be more coherent. I had some good conversations with the nurses and
also with Jonathan.
All this continued till about 7:00, if I were in the shower
my contractions came consistently 5 minutes apart, but if I got out and especially
if I laid down, they would slow down to about once every 10 minutes. So when I
was being monitored, they would slow down. At this point I asked Ann what I
needed to do to get the tub set up, I knew that the other moms were done with
them and they were just sitting in the hall again. She said that my
contractions needed to be regular. I responded that they were coming every 5
minutes in the shower, and had been for at least an hour. Then she said that
she wanted me to be progressed to at least a 5. I told her that I was almost a
5 when she checked me at 3:00. She had forgotten, and then said that she would
double check with the OB she was under and get back to me. When she came back,
she said that her OB was getting impatient, because I was getting close to 18
hours of labor, which is when they really start getting worried about infection
for both me and the baby. So she told me that they would give me an hour in the
tub, and if I hadn’t progressed significantly, then I would have to start up on
Pitocin. So they set up the tub (which takes about a half hour) and I got in
the shower because that is where I was able to manage my contractions best.
Still at this point, if Jonathan needed to do something I was able to work
through them by myself, but when he helped and they were much more manageable…
but I was able to do it if I needed to.
Then the tub was finally ready! I was so excited to get in!
When I had a contraction in the tub it wasn’t all I thought it would be. I
couldn’t relax on my own, and I needed Jonathan to help me. After I “woke up”
from my contraction, I told Jonathan that I felt really bad, but that I didn’t
like being in the tub. It wasn’t as affective as the shower was. I felt so bad!
I had been asking for the tub all day, and I even switched hospitals for the
tubs! So I gave it two more contractions, and it didn’t get any better. I knew
that they were going to get more intense, so I figured I should just go where I
was able to relax the most. I worried about what Ann and the nurses would
think, but then I remembered that women are aloud to be crazy and irrational in
labor… So I got back in the shower and Ann moved the ball in the shower and
that helped even more! Within 20 minutes in the shower I told Jonathan that I
thought I needed to push. It was weird because I only kind of felt the urge,
not like last time (last time they had to tell me to stop pushing so the doc
could get there)… So Jonathan went to find Ann and said “I’m only the
messenger, but Melissa says that she wants to push”, at that very moment she
was writing in her notes that I wasn’t progressing very much, and my
contractions were still only 5 minutes apart! Hah! I thought that was ironic!
When she came in and checked me, she said that I was about
an 8, but my cervix was really soft and I would probably be ready to go as soon
as she set her stuff up. That was good to hear, then when she asked me where I
wanted to deliver this baby I said “right here!” She told me that we would have
to turn the water off, and then after hearing that I told her I didn’t want to
be there. She said she was going to get her stuff while I decided where I
wanted to be. I turned to Jonathan and said “I want to be on my hands and
knees” and he relayed the message. When I walked into the room, the bed was
propped up so that I could lean against the back of it and be on my knees. Ann
put her stuff where it needed to be and then said “Melissa, you know what you
are doing. You know what your body needs, so I’m not going to say anything”.
What a relief! That’s exactly what I wanted to hear! Even at this point, my
contractions were still about 5 minutes apart! It was really nice because I
needed that time to relax and regroup before the next contraction. It was so
quite that I wasn’t sure if it was just Jonathan and I in the room, so I turned
around and saw Ann there, just waiting. I said to her “please help me, I really
don’t want to tear, so can you protect my perineum?” She said that she would,
and that was that! As the contractions came, Jonathan reminded me to relax, and
let things happen. I knew that I didn’t need to push, because Cambria was born
so quickly and I tore so bad! So I just tried my best to relax and let my body
do what it needed to do. I definitely felt some intense stretching and at one
point I just wanted to be done, because I was feeling so much pressure, but it
didn’t last long. This time, the baby came out of my birth canal really slowly
and it was amazing! As soon as he was out, he was crying! It was the best sound
I had ever heard! His little cry was so adorable! I felt so many intense
emotions the next few minutes! I still didn’t cry (just like with Cambria) but
I was so in love! I just kept looking at Jonathan, and kissing our son’s head!
I didn’t see his face for a little while because of the way I was holding him,
he was just so tiny and his head was down, when I lifted his head and looked at
his face I just lost it (still no crying, but so much emotion). He was so
beautiful, I was so incredibly in love! Then he peed on me J,
I didn’t even care! He was amazing, and I was holding my son. Corbin William Kershaw.
