I've been debating about writing this, but I love looking back at previous posts on this blog and remembering things I've forgotten and so, I'm going to write this down for myself. Nobody has to read it. Really.
It all started on Friday the 13th. Really. I had been hoping and dreaming what fun it might be to have a baby on Friday the 13th. So I got up that morning, pumped up with a plan. I had a day full of shopping planned all over the city of Nampa. I walked through Target, Costco, Winco, and Walmart while hauling Aftyn and getting lots of groceries because I knew I was going to be having the baby in the not too distant future, (remember I had 11 days left until my due date).(by the way, another reason I wanted to have the baby on Friday was because 2 friends were having get togethers at the same time on Saturday and we had said we would go to both and didn't know how we were going to do that without having to say no to somebody. Having a baby was the easiest answer.)
I arrived back home tired and just in time for nap time for Aftyn. I had some homemade strawberry limeade. Mmmm. Nothing happening, no contractions, just me really tired. I was a little disheartened, but at almost 10 months pregnant, what woman isn't?!
Fast forward to that night after dinner. It was nice outside, and a storm was fast approaching, but Reed and I took Aftyn down to our local greenbelt and did about a half a mile. Nothing happening.
I went to sleep that night pretty dang tired, only to wake up about 2 am with heartburn so I retreated to my usual spot on the couch, sleeping sitting up which is so terribly comfortable. Not. I slept that way until about 6 or 7.
I got up and went and crawled back into bed with Reed so I could have somebody to talk to because there was no way I was comfortable enough to go back to sleep.
Reed started preparing himself for the day in the bathroom, so I laid there in bed. And got the great idea of pushing on the pressure point in my hand to see if it brought on a contraction. It did. "Wow!" I thought, "it really works!" And then another contraction came. And another. They were getting harder and were not in any way predictable. They weren't timeable, because one would be 2 minutes later, and another would be 30 seconds later. Just crazy. After about 15 minutes of breathing my way through them, it seemed like they were starting to come on top of each other which scared me, so Reed called my parents and my mom drove to our house in 4 minutes. Luckily, she only lives 4 minutes away, so it wasn't as if she sped. :) Since I already had Aftyn's bag packed, we just handed it and Aftyn and her car seat off to my mom and I hopped in our car while Reed quickly grabbed all the bags I had already packed for us and we were off!
Of course the whole drive to the hospital I worried they would send me home. But the contractions weren't slowing down and were still pretty painful, so I had hope. We arrived at the hospital, and I had only progressed a half a centimeter, which was still something. So they set me up in a gown, some socks, and a whole labor and delivery ward to walk around in for an hour. Our nurse was so kind! She asked if I had had any breakfast and when she found out I hadn't, brought in a whole LOAD of food for me, which Reed mostly ate and I had an Italian Ice and some jello, mostly anything to keep my blood sugar up and water. My midwife had scheduled an induction for one of her other patients that day and so she was already at the hospital and saw me shortly after we got there. It was a nice surprise.
Reed and I walked around for an hour or so. I tried stopping walking when the contractions hit and leaning all my weight on poor Reed, which worked for awhile. Then I tried "hula-hooping" my hips, it worked a couple of times. Finally, I just decided to just slowly walk through the contractions with Reed leading me and my eyes closed and focusing on relaxing.
After the hour, at about 10:45, the nurse checked me and I had progressed a whole centimeter! Yay! I decided it was time to hit their jetted tub, and the nurse made sure to send me with lots of snacks and MANY cautions that if I felt ANY pressure to push, I was to call her immediately.
I just laughed her off, because I had heard that before with Aftyn. I stayed in the tub for about an hour until my bladder was so full I could hardly take it and the contractions were starting to get pretty uncomfortable in that tub. Reed and I made our way back to our room and the nurse checked me again. 8.5 centimeters! Yay!!
From there on, I just laid/sat in the bed in a slightly reclined position. It was the only position I could handle because the contractions were getting really hard. Luckily I had Reed to talk me through them because it was REALLY hard to relax my body. My midwife also broke my water about this time, but all the water was behind the baby's head, so there was hardly any that came out then.
After about an hour or so, I could tell it was almost time to push. I told Reed and he frantically tried to find the nurse call button. Since he couldn't find it, he ran out to the hall to get the nurse and my midwife. BAD idea! I found the button while dealing with the mounting pain in my body, and I think I told the nurse who answered something about being in labor, duh, and then I said I need to push! About that time, everybody showed up back in the room and I started crying and hyperventilating because I had never gone completely through labor with no pain meds and I was scared. With Aftyn I had steidol, which must have made a difference because I don't remember feeling so much of the pain that I did with Bronwyn.
With many people trying to get me to breathe deeply to stop the hyperventilating, I figured it out after Reed gave me a hug. I told him he shouldn't leave me anymore. :) A woman in labor is not someone who should be left alone. So, after trying to not push because it hurt too much, I finally took my midwife's advice and gave a good solid push and after a total of only 4 pushing contractions, Bronwyn was born at 2:10 pm.
So, what did I learn with this birth? Reed's a great coach, I don't like to be left alone at all while in labor, pushing hurts so just prepare yourself for it, and natural birth is awesome. But definitely not for everyone. The first hour after I delivered I hurt, but seriously from that point on there was little to no pain in my body associated with the delivery. Now the afterpains are a different story, but luckily they have meds for that. :) My recovery has been so painless! I would definitely do another natural birth. Loved it.
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