In the final days of my pregnancy, I was having very few
noticeable contractions and I really wasn’t feeling too anxious to get her
out. The main reason I was ready to give
birth was because I had pretty much checked everything off my to-do list and I
wasn’t really sure what else to do with myself other than just have the baby
already! Also, my house was clean and if
she waited too much longer to make her debut, it would not be clean any longer
(I mean, a toddler lives here). So, when
I went to see my midwife on Tuesday, May 31, I had her check my cervix just to
see what was going on in there. I am
really not a fan of getting a lot of cervical checks because they don’t tell
you much and they carry unnecessary risks but I figured it couldn’t hurt just
to see how dilated and effaced I was.
Well, I was glad my midwife checked me because although I was only
dilated maybe 1cm, my cervix was very soft, and she noted that baby’s head
wasn’t in the optimal position on my cervix to make it start opening. So, she gave me a DVD with some
exercises/yoga stretches to help get baby into an optimal position. That evening, when I got home, after walking
around at Target and a couple other stores, I was feeling quite a bit of
pressure down in my pelvis. I had a feeling
that that night was possibly THE night.
So, I got Eden to bed (which took FOR-E-VER) and finally went downstairs
and did the yoga DVD. Then, I headed to
bed as soon as possible so I could get plenty of rest. The night passed uneventfully and Eden woke up
at 6:30am (Ughhh). I was lying in our
bed nursing her as we always do when I heard/felt (?) a pop and I knew right
away that my water had broken. I jumped
up and ran to the bathroom, telling Eden that I had to pee (which was also
true). She was not happy at all and
cried, unable to be consoled by Daddy.
Not a lot of amniotic fluid came out but it was definitely enough to be
certain that my membranes had indeed ruptured.
I threw on some underwear and a huge pad, threw a chux pad under me, and
crawled back into bed and continued nursing Eden. It was about 6:50am at this point, so I
figured my water broke around 6:45am. My
plan was to try and rest and see if I started having any contractions. I emailed my midwife since it was still so
early in the morning. I nursed Eden for
a little while longer and had a couple contractions. They really weren’t painful and they lasted
only about 30 seconds each. They were
just a few minutes apart but I figured I would just keep an eye on them and see
if they continued to be that close together.
I was curious to see if they would continue when I stopped nursing. Jeff got up with Eden so I could try and get
some rest before what would probably be an eventful day of labor but I
continued to have contractions and, at this point, I was too excited to go back
to sleep. So, I got up and jumped in the
shower. I continued to have contractions
pretty close together so I decided to call my midwife at 7:40am. My phone call woke her up and so, she said
she would get up and get ready and head my direction (she lives about an hour
and a half away from me). She didn’t
want to come to my house too early and was just going to hang out in Lynchburg
until I felt like I needed her. I wasn’t
really sure when she should come so I asked for a little more concrete time
frame for when she would want to come (how close together my contractions
needed to be, etc.) and with that question, she decided maybe she should just
head straight to my house. I also
messaged a few of my close friends and let them know that my water had broken and
it seemed like I was in labor. One of
those friends also happened to be the person designated to watch Eden so we
needed to make plans to get her over there.
At this point, I went downstairs and ate a peanut butter and honey
sandwich. I turned on the playlist I had
made which consisted mostly of praise songs.
(During the hour and a half drive to the birth center when I was in
labor with Eden, we listened to my Meredith Andrews and Kari Jobe albums and I
sang through my contractions which seemed to help a lot so I decided to expound
upon that this time and made an entire playlist). My friend came around this
time to pick Eden up. She was very upset
and did not want to leave me. This made
me so sad but my contractions were already so painful that there was no way she
could stay any longer. She wanted me to
hold her and I couldn’t. She wanted to
play with me and I couldn’t. I had a
really good cry after she left. The next
time I saw her, she wouldn’t be my only baby anymore!!! :,(
I decided I wanted to eat a little more so I started making
a smoothie. It took forever because I
kept getting interrupted by contractions.
They were already debilitating at this point and pretty close together. I tried to sing through my contractions but
they were very intense and it was not helping much. I was starting to panic slightly as things
were progressing very quickly! I sent
Jeff to start getting the birth pool set up because I really wanted to get in
ASAP. While he was working on it, I
started pulling the hose and adaptor out.
Much to my dismay, I discovered that the adaptor was not going to work
on the downstairs sink. It would only
work on the shower upstairs. This
presented a major problem since we were planning to set the birth pool up in
the Dining Room and the hose would definitely not reach all the way from the
upstairs shower down to the Dining Room.
I was starting to freak out a little but decided to let Jeff worry about
that. I needed pain relief and I needed
it fast. So, I got in the regular
tub. Jeff worked on getting the birth
pool set up in our guest bedroom. It
wasn’t an ideal space but it would have to do!
While I was in the tub, I was messaging family and some close friends
about the progress of my labor. I asked
Jeff’s family to pray for me because I was having a difficult time coping with
the pain. Jeff’s sweet sister, Robin,
offered to come over to support me and I accepted without hesitation. I was worried that my midwife and her
assistant would not arrive for another 30 minutes or so and I wasn’t sure I
could make it until then. Robin lives
about 20 minutes away but I didn’t really care about the timing at that
point. So, I survived through several
more VERY intense contractions in the tub before Robin arrived around 9:45am
and was wonderful. She rubbed and
provided counter pressure on my lower back and gave me words of affirmation to
make it through each contraction. My
midwife showed up not long after that and listened to baby’s heartbeat with the
Doppler (it was good) and checked my vitals (they were good). I started having some nausea after
contractions at this point so she went to her car and got some peppermint
oil. It really helped and, praise God, I
did not throw up. I had the thought in
the back of my mind, at this point, that I may be in transition. After another contraction or two, I decided
to try to go pee and I just stayed sitting on the toilet to wait for the birth
pool to finish filling up. My wonderful
birth photographer arrived at this time.
After what felt like an eternity and the torture of a few
contractions, the pool was finally full and I could get in. It didn’t take long after getting in for me
to feel the urge to push. I tried not to
push too hard but instead to let the baby work her way down with each
contraction. After just a few contractions, this became impossible as the urge
to push overcame me. The whole time I was
in the tub, I was leaning over the side in a semi-squat position or kind of on
all four’s. This was my planned position
for pushing in order to push more effectively and to hopefully avoid tearing.
Jeff got in the tub not long after I did and he and my midwife were offering
perineal support (and other unmentionable things…suffice it to say Jeff should
win “Hubby of the Year Award”). It
wasn’t long before I could feel her head full of hair and I was pushing that
big head out. It’s kind of weird but one
of my favorite memories of her birth is this point, when I had just delivered
her head, and I reached down and felt all of her soft hair on that perfect
round little head. Just a minute later,
with another push, the rest of her body was out. Jeff was positioned to catch
her but I pushed his hand out of the way (so he says, lol) and I caught my
baby. At 11:05am, 4 hours and 20 minutes after my water broke, Clara Randolph
was born. I pulled her up between my
legs and out of the water. Then, as I was trying to unwrap her cord from around
her neck, I accidentally dunked her back under the water. It’s a good thing my
midwife was there to keep her from drowning because I had never thought of it
being an issue before, lol. Her lungs
were a little gurgly and she needed to be bulb suctioned but she cleared everything
out just fine within several minutes. I settled back against Jeff and we
admired our new, perfect baby girl together. After several minutes (10? 15?),
we decided to go ahead and cut the cord so I could stand up and deliver the
placenta. Tita Bones (Jeff’s sister and Clara’s aunt) held her while Jeff and I
got out of the tub. We settled onto our bed and I cuddled with Clara and nursed
her for the first time. She latched great. The next few hours were spent doing
Clara’s newborn exam, stitching me up (yes, I tore, ughh), Eden meeting her
baby sister for the first time, getting food, and announcing our exciting news
to friends and family. Clara weighed a
whopping 8 lbs 10 oz, almost a whole pound more than her sister! I was quite
surprised. She measured 21 ¾ in. long, too (five days later at her first
doctor’s appointment, she measured 21 in. and I think that was probably more
accurate). Eden was pretty unsure about her baby sister and wanted to nurse
right away but did seem excited overall. In the last 2 weeks, Eden adjusting to
having to share Mommy has been our biggest challenge but that’s another post
for another day. Thanks for reading my (surprisingly long) birth story.
