At the time my water broke, I wasn't experiencing any contractions. My midwives advised me to try and get some rest and let them know around 7:00 AM where I was at with my contractions. I also let our doula know my water had broken, so she knew we were "on the clock". Ideally, they like to have baby out no more than 24 hours after your water breaks due to the increased risk of infection. As a funny aside, the midwife on call when my water broke was the one we had treated with for a majority of my pregnancy. However, the other midwife, whom we had seen only twice during my entire pregnancy, was the one coming on call at 7:00 that morning and would be the one on call when I delivered. Andrew and I joked previously that the midwife on call when I went into labor was going to be the one we hadn't treated with as much. Luckily, we loved both midwives, so we would have been happy with either of them.
By 5:30, I woke up and my contractions had kicked in, but I tried to continue sleeping because I knew I was going to need as much sleep as I could get before the marathon I was about to run. By 6:30 AM, I couldn't sleep through the contractions, so I got up. I also woke up to find my nausea had kicked in again, but I ate some breakfast and went down to work for a bit to set up my out of office messages. At that point, it still hadn't sunk in that I was in labor. Sure, I was having contractions and they weren't exactly comfortable, but my mind hadn't fully processed what was going on or that our baby girl would be in our arms within 24 hours. Throughout the morning I had been in contact with our doula updating her on my progress. By 8:00 AM my contractions were consistently 5 minutes apart and lasting around 1 minute. At 9:00 AM, I thought it was probably time for our doula to come over. Around that time, I also had a call from the nurse at our midwives office. We had our normal weekly appointment scheduled for 10:30 that morning, so they wanted us to come in so I could get checked to see where things were at. Throughout our labor and delivery process, I was amazed by how awesome our midwife group was. Normally, once the water breaks, we would have been told to go to the hospital right away, but we were encouraged to stay home. It was also grea that I was able to go to the office to be checked rather than going to the hospital.
Our doula followed us down to the office in case we were sent straight to the hospital after my appointment. The car ride down to the clinic was less than enjoyable; contractions in a car are not my idea of a good time. When I was checked at the clinic, I was about 3 centimeters dilated and 90% effaced. I was sent home to labor further and advised to check back in with the midwives in the early afternoon. While I was happy we weren't going to have to labor in the hospital all day, I wasn't thrilled to be getting back in the car. We arrived back home around 11:30 AM. I tried to eat some toast and peanut butter for lunch to keep my strength up, but was only able to get down one slice. My nausea was really taking over at that point, thankfully our doula had peppermint oil on hand; that was the only thing that kept my nausea at bay throughout the day. Andrew made sure I was drinking fluids after each contraction so I could stay hydrated. Around 1:30 PM, we decided it might be time to head to the hospital; I guess our midwives thought so too because we had a call on our way down to the hospital to find out how things were going. Once again, contractions while in a car are terrible. The whole time we were on our way to the hospital, I kept thinking about our birthing class. The teacher of the class talked about how most people say one of the things they hate the most about labor is riding in the car. Thankfully, the ride was only about fifteen minutes. We got parked and made our way up to the labor and delivery floor with a few stops on our way in for contractions. I don't remember it sinking in, even at the point we were checking in to the hospital, that I was in labor and our little girl was on her way into the world. Most of what I remember was operating on what felt like robot mode, trying to coach myself through each contraction and reminding myself to stay calm and breathe. Luckily, Andrew was also there to remind me of those things. I think I had myself so convinced I was going to go past my due date I didn't know what to think when it was clear our little lady had other ideas.
I'm not sure if our midwives had talked to the admitting desk prior to our arrival at the hospital, but we were able to bypass triage and go straight to our delivery room. By the time we got settled into our room and they checked to see if I had progressed, I was seven centimeters dilated. I couldn't believe I had progressed that much in a relatively short period of time. While they did monitor her heartbeat from time to time, I wasn't continuously hooked up to machines for monitoring, so I was able to move around the room. I remember the view from our room looked out over much of downtown, so I spent a lot of time looking out the window breathing through contractions. They say during labor to find something to focus on; the downtown skyline became my focal point.
As you might recall from my prior posts, our plan going in to labor was for a completely un-medicated birth. I didn't want so much as an IV in. Because my strep B test was negative, I was able to get away with not having an IV. We had a little push back from one of our nurses, but our midwife gave the ok for no IV (just another example of why I am eternally grateful for working with the midwives). It felt great to have the freedom to move around as I wanted while working through the contractions. I'm not going to lie, there were a couple of times I questioned my sanity about not wanting pain meds, and seriously thought about asking for some. However, I reminded myself I had made it that far in the day without medications and my intent was to finish bringing our baby girl into the world without medications. By 6:30 PM, I had reached 10 cm, and had the overwhelming urge to push. I had many people tell me my body would tell me when it was time to push, and they weren't joking. At that point, it hurt not to push. While I did all of my pushing in bed, I was able to push in several different positions, which I'm beyond grateful for.
Our birth team was amazing; there is no way I would have made it through without their help. They held my legs when they felt like two ton bricks and I thought there was no possible way I could hold them up any longer. They brought me ice and cold compresses when I felt like my body was on fire. They held me up when it was time to push and my back felt like a knife was going through it. And when I felt like giving up, they reminded me how far I had come and that our little girl was on her way into the world. By 8:30, I was tired and wasn't sure I had the energy left to push through to the end. I had to gather what energy I could and remind myself we were minutes away from meeting our baby girl. I think Andrew also used every last ounce of his energy to practically fold me in half so I could push with all the strength I had left. Wednesday morning, we both felt like we had gone through a five hour workout; every muscle in my body burned.
Finally, on Tuesday, September 27th at 8:48 PM, we heard the beautiful cry of our baby girl. She was 8 lbs. and 4 oz. of pure perfection. In that moment, I felt a love beyond description. I finally understood when people told me about not knowing unconditional love until you hold your child in your arms for the first time.
As I reflect back on our pregnancy and the labor and delivery process, I cannot say enough good things about our midwives and our doula. I know we couldn't have had the beautiful birth experience we had without their assistance. The day our daughter was born was a whirlwind day, but I will always look back on it with gratitude for those who encouraged and allowed us to have the birth we set out to have.
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