Violet Adeline was born at 6:31am on Wednesday 5/27/15, after 24 hours and 1 minute of labor. I awoke to a contraction in my lower back at 6:30am on Tuesday 5/26 and knew something was different. I also passed some of my mucous plug around the same time. I told Andy what was going on and he, too, felt this could be it! I started timing my contractions which were anywhere between 30 seconds to 1 1/2 minutes long, every 15 minutes or so. I ate breakfast, attempted to nap in between, and settled in our living room to watch episodes of The Office; something lighthearted and funny was going to get me through the day! Even though the contractions were consistent, and getting closer to 8-10 minutes apart, I sent a text to Andy around 2:30pm to let him know to come home from work.
From around 3:15pm onward is when things started to ramp up; the contractions were becoming more intense, my exercise ball became my best friend, and Andy was ready to call Kaiser around 5pm. At that point, the contractions were coming about 5-7 minutes apart, but were pretty intense to the point I needed counter pressure on my back. After getting the go ahead to come in because I thought my water had broken, we headed out to the car for our trip to Kaiser Sunnyside. I may have had a bit of a melt down while packing up a bag before leaving the house. I was a little nervous at this point!
Funny side note: I had a contraction as I was getting into the car, stepped out, pushed against the car with a leg lunge, and made it down the highway for the next 25 minutes without a contraction. Pretty sure I closed my eyes and took a quick nap during the break. Contractions began again once I was out of the car.
The staff was in the middle of a shift change, as we entered triage around 6:45pm, so we met a few different nurses. I was offered to have a cervical check and found out I was 5cm dilated. Some of the staff were surprised I had labored at home for so long (we learned to not leave for your birthing locale until contractions were 3-5 minutes apart). My water had not broken at this point, but possibly leaked a bit. Once we got to our room, we settled in by listening to music, eating snacks, and calling and inviting our moms and nephew to come visit. We spoke with our nurse and went over the birth plan: no epidurals, pitocin, or pain meds unless requested; I would be free to move about the room or halls, and try different laboring postions; and eating is okay. She looked over and said "We can accommodate all of this here. Let's have a home birth in a hospital." We were pretty excited to hear this statement, as we originally had looked into home birth options.
We visited with family until around 11pm when I decided to utilize the laboring tub. Before we headed to the other room, I was offered another cervical check; I had progressed to 8cm! Andy was still helping me with counter pressure all this time, all in my lower back, and making sure I was drinking water after each contraction. I had been using the exercise ball quite a bit and walking around as well. The intensity of the contractions were high, but being in the water was pretty soothing. I labored in the tub until about 1am. Our moms were still in the room, but Andy asked at this point if I wanted anybody there, to which I replied nope! I remember the walks to and from the rooms were tough and I would hold the wall railing as contractions took place.
We headed back to our room, and although the nurse was ready to offer assistance or guidance over the next several hours, she later told us we seemed to have our methods down, our teamwork looked great, and there wasn't much she needed to do. She did mention how it wasn't medically necessary to do another cervical check at this time, but the offer is available if wanted; I declined. I was also offered to have my water broken. However, because Violet had not moved down farther into my pelvis, they advised against it and we explored a few different positions for me to try to allow gravity to work its magic. At this time, I was connected to a fluid IV to help maintain my hydration, as well as a belly monitor to track Violet's heartbeat.
The most comfortable position was being on my knees, propped up over the back of a hospital bed. I spent the next several hours in this position, all the while Andy providing counter pressure to my lower back during each contraction. He was my super star! All I had to say was where to push and how much, and he was there. He also reminded me to breathe deeply, verbalize if needed, and helped calm me down when I started to panic at the onset of a few contractions. Andy noted that some of my contractions were 6-8 minutes long; these seemed to start, peak, come down, leave me with a thought of "is this one over?", but then immediately start again. For the ones that weren't as long, I could definitely rest in between.
Our midwife, Robi, was due to come back around 4am, but was involved with another delivery and I think made it to our room by 5am. I remember watching the sun rise outside our room and thinking it would be a great morning to meet our baby! I also had thoughts off and on of requesting something to help ease the pain, but thought if this was the toughest and longest part, I could continue to power through it. Once Robi came in, I was checked, had progressed to 9cm, and was offered to have my water broken. This changed everything! I was definitely feeling the urge to push by 5:30am, and I had progressed to 10cm! By 5:52am, the official push clock had started.
The nurses and midwife gave great direction and I actually birthed Violet lying on my left side, as this was the most comfortable position and was giving my body a rest from being upright for so long. I was in control of holding my right leg and pulling my knee up to my chest. I was told that if I continued to follow the directions and did just as I was doing, I wouldn't be pushing for 2 hours. This was very encouraging! Toward the end, we were told Violet needed to come out with the next 1-2 contractions as her heart rate was dropping as she was being pushed out, due to the cord wrapping around her body. I was also told an episiotomy might occur if she didn't. Nope, nope, nope! I said "That's not happening; she's coming out!" I do remember feeling the ring of fire, saying "it burns," and also worried I was having bowel movements, but it was all a part of the pushing process. I was bound to make the most of the contractions and able to have 4 successful pushes on my last contraction, and birthed our daughter after only 42 minutes of pushing.
Because Violet came out with her arm up near her face, I had a small labial tear requiring six stitches. I also had some hemorrhaging, which was controlled by misoprostol suppositories and a pitocin drip. I was a pretty shaky after the birth, but once I ate some breakfast and breastfed, I was able to feel more at ease.
Violet weighed in a 7lbs, 15 1/2ozs, and was 20 inches long.
I'm so glad we took a childbirth education class through Baby Nest Birth Serivces (babynestbirth.com), and considered everything presented to us, and were free to choose what methods would work for us throughout the whole labor and delivery. I highly recommend the class, and would take it again before having another child.
