The Bird and The Bean: The Birth of Clara Randolph

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.