I’m a funny woman… For as long as I can remember, I couldn’t wait to experience birth. I have always been enchanted with pregnancy and birth and my mother spoke so positively about her birth experiences that I couldn’t wait to experience labor and delivery myself.
Even with all that has happened since his birth, Logan’s birth was incredible and one of the greatest experiences of my life. Today, Brian and I returned to the birth center to debrief with our midwife, find closure to our birth experience, and relive the wonderful memory of Logan’s entrance into the world. I feel a deep sense of peace tonight and wanted to write out our story.
On May 23rd I woke up at 5:30 am because I thought I had wet the bed (oh pregnancy!). After I woke up a bit I realized that it definitely wasn’t pee and that my water had probably broken. Being the ridiculous nurse that I am and needing solid data, I totally tested the fluid with litmus paper to be sure (Insert monkey covering his eyes emoji here)… definitely amniotic fluid. Brian woke up shortly after and I told him that my water had broken. It took both of us quite a while to realize that we were not in fact going to work that day.
I called the midwife at about 6:30 am to let her know that my water had broken. Since I wasn’t contracting she told me to have a nice breakfast, take a walk, and call her at 9 am. When we went for our walk I was having frequent Braxton Hicks contractions but nothing serious.
At 9 am I checked in again with the midwife. She recommended that I come in to the birth center around midday for an acupuncture treatment and for her to check me. Brian and I decided to go and get pedicures (all it took for me to get him to join me for a pedicure was to break my water!). After our pedicures we headed to have lunch and then to the birth center.
My acupuncture treatment was awesome. She put needles in their respective spots and then actually ran a small current through the needles to stimulate those points. It wasn’t painful at all. After my treatment the midwife checked me and I was only 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced at 3pm. We discussed possibly using a foley bulb (you put a tube through the cervix and then inflate the balloon at the end of the tube with water to put pressure on the cervix and cause it to dilate), but decided to wait and see if the acupuncture worked.
Brian and I went home to rest and see what happened. Around 5:30 pm I started feeling some cramping. Around 6:15 pm I was no longer able to lie down through the contractions and asked Brian to draw a bath for me. I got into the tub, played Van Morrison pandora, and got to laboring. Around this time my mother-in-law came over with dinner. Brian went downstairs to eat and I remained in the tub. Brian came up to check on me periodically and helped me out by getting a fan for me and setting up my vomit receptacle…
My contractions were strange… they came in groups of three. A contraction would start to come down and then another would start and when that one began to come down, another would start, then that would completely come down and I could rest. I was completely in my head (surprise, surprise) and I just thought that my uterus was irritable… The contractions were intense but not painful so I thought that there was no way I was progressing much.
At 7:30 my mother-in-law had gone home and the midwife called me. I told her what was going on and even went through a contraction series while we were on the phone. She encouraged me to call her if needed, but that we would check in around 9 pm if nothing changed in the meantime. We hung up, I had another contraction series where I vomited and felt the most intense pressure in my butt that I had ever felt. I told Brian to call her back even though it had only been 5 minutes since she and I hung up. Brian was confused at first but I assured him that he needed to call.
She was surprised but I told her that if we didn’t head in now I wouldn’t be able to. She said to go ahead and come in and she would be ready for us… Brian helped me to get dressed and encouraged me out to the car through several contractions.
I got into the back seat facing backwards and clung to the headrest for all I was worth. Brian drove (he is such an amazing man to keep his cool and drive safely while his wife was laboring in the back seat) while I roared and cursed my way through contractions. When we were on the freeway I realized that I was making the deep guttural sounds that I had heard pushing women make on many occasions… I then realized that I WAS PUSHING! I yelled to Brian that I was pushing and I vaguely remember hearing him laugh (he said it was an overwhelmed hysterical laughter not that he thought the situation was funny).
10 minutes later we pulled into the birth center parking lot and I fell out of the car, without my shoes, and fell to my knees in the parking lot as I had another contraction. Brian went to find help and I held my crotch, moaned like a wounded animal, and pushed because I literally had no other option. Oh, by the way, there was totally a birth class happening at the birth center and all of my drama was happening right in front of those poor expecting parents!
When the contraction finished I was able to stumble into the birth center. The midwife met us on the stairs and ushered me inside. I almost made it to the room but again fell to my knees with a contraction in the birth center kitchen (totally in direct line of sight from the classroom where all of these parents to be were getting quite a show). I again had my hand on my crotch and felt my son’s head beginning to emerge.
When the contraction ended I jumped up, walked into the birthing room (with a head between my legs), ripped off my pants and depends (oh yes, I totally wore old lady diapers and 1000% recommend them if you find yourself with a ruptured bag of waters or for postpartum, genius!), and climbed onto the bed. Brian says that at this point he walked into the room to see my clothes strewn around, then looked up to the bed to see Logan’s head emerging, and that he began hysterically laughing, then crying, and then got onto the bed with me.
Up until this point labor had been intense but not painful. Don’t get me wrong, this was the most intense experience I had ever had, however, I didn’t think labor was painful… until it felt like I was ripping in two in the northward direction! The midwife helped me to take a deep breath, calm myself, and then coached me to push Logan out. She immediately put him on my stomach (his cord was too short to go any higher) and I got to meet the most beautiful person I have ever seen. Brian and I instantly fell in love!
Logan was born at 8:28 pm after only 3 hours of labor!! He was born within two minutes of our arrival to the birth center! Had we gone to a hospital I definitely would have delivered in the emergency department (one of my recurring nightmares during pregnancy) and had there been any traffic he would have been born in the car. My mother and grandmothers all had fast labors, but I think I take the prize for fastest first labor.
Oh, by the way, my ladybits were totally fine! In fact, I barely tore and didn’t need any stitches. I definitely loved my peri bottle for the first week and preferred my nethers to be the temperature of my freezer, but all in all, my “down there” trauma was negligible. That said, I am not about to hop onto a horse or a bike just yet (ouch!).
(Our birthing room where we first met Logan 🙂 )
