To sum it up I was sick of being pregnant! And I was trying anything and everything I could to get her out. I tried bouncing on the birth ball all day, spending hours on all fours, scrubbing all of my floors and baseboards, walking walking and more walking, going up and down stairs, red raspberry leaf tea, evening primrose oil, squats squats and more squats, oregano, spicy food, literally pounds and pounds of pineapple. Like so much pineapple my tongue started to look like it was falling apart.
Oh and I'd been having contractions on and off for 2 weeks. So when my last midwife appointment came around I figured I'd be dilated or effaced or something. They checked me at 40 weeks 6 days and I was "maybe a finger tip dilated." That was it on the way home I broke down crying that she'd never come and I'd have to be induced and probably end up with a c-section. Little did I know that my baby was coming the very next day.
I woke up at 3:23am and felt it. A gush of fluid. At first I thought maybe I'd just peed myself (like I had been doing for the last 2 weeks almost daily, NEWS FLASH: Pregnancy is really gross). But when I went into the bathroom and felt the liquid I knew there was no way that was urine. This was happening and I was one of the 15% who's labor starts off with their water breaking. And this was not the ideal situation for me at all.
Earlier in the pregnancy I suffered from a kidney infection cause by Group B Strep. It's a virus that naturally lives in 30% of the population's digestive track and it's usually harmless except during pregnancy where it can wreak havoc on your urinary tract. It can also cause complications with the baby during child birth which is why they immediately start you on IV antibiotics when you go to the hospital in labor.
So the real risk to the baby occurs when the water breaks it opens up the amniotic sac to the world which can expose the baby to infection. Generally the first 16 hours are safe after that the risk of infection and complication increase. Which means they need to get the baby out stat, which unfortunately means Pitocin.
We called Wendy our midwife and she confirmed that we should head to the hospital. So off we went! And we went and in the excitement and nervousness we forgot to leave our weapons at home. At 3:30am when you get to the hospital you have to go through metal detectors Nick panicked and through a magazine in the trash before he realized he also had a knife on him and ran back to the car leaving me alone to enter the hospital. I went through the medical detector and so did my purse when I heard, "Ma'am is there a weapon in your purse?" the puzzled look on the security guards' face was priceless. I had forgot about my big scary knife in there. I then told them about my husband's situation and they had quite a laugh claiming, "that baby will be born holding a glock."
I finally made it up to labor and delivery where they took me to triage and checked me, I was still only 1 cm dilated and I couldn't even feel my contractions. They sent me to my room and started me on pitocin and within an hour or two I was in agony. One of my nurses was sweet and understanding quiet and non intrusive. The other was in my face, pushy and drove me nuts. Her intentions were good but she kept giving me advice that felt completely unnatural to me. When you're in labor your body lets you know what you should be doing and everything she told me to do felt horrible and I eventually refused to do it. Since having the baby I've forgotten a lot of my labor, but here's what I remember. Once things got going I didn't want anyone around me besides my husband. I wish so badly that the nurses could have just left me alone to do my thing, but they couldn't. The baby did not stay still during labor so every few minutes they'd come in and try to find her heartbeat with the strap on monitors. They did this in the middle of horrible contractions. It's hard to get in the zone when people are pushing on your sensitive contracting uterus. I remember walking around the halls contracting and everyone kept stopping and asking me if I was okay, annoying. I remember we moved between rooms and I remember that every time we were alone and I got into a good place with my contractions someone came and interrupted me telling me to do something else. Wendy my midwife was MIA all day through my labor and I really needed her there. She is the only one besides my husband who ended up giving me any strength or comfort, unfortunately she didn't get to the hospital until I had already gone through 14 hours of unmedicated pitocin filled labor. I was exhausted, scared and completely on edge. I could not relax at all. I went from breathing through my contractions to screaming through them. Wendy arrived and helped me to catch my breath a bit, but it was too little too late. I needed an epidural.
I really wanted to have a natural childbirth. No medical interventions. I wanted a midwife to help me through my labor, not just come in at the last minute to deliver my baby. But that's not what I got. I got pitocin, antibiotics and an epidural. I barley saw my midwife. Things did not go as planned. Right before I got the epidural my body started to push a bit through my contractions. After the epidural I still felt quite a bit of pain and still kept feeling the urge to push until it was unbearable. I was 6 cm before the epidural an hour or so later the baby's head was in the birth canal and I needed to push.
I pushed for half an hour and I got the mirror so I could see what was going on. It was so encouraging to see the baby's head come out a little more with every push and then very quickly the head was out. After a few more pushes I heard someone start shouting out numbers and suddenly one of the nurses jumped on top of me and pushed my belly with all her might as my midwife told me to push over and over again. The baby's shoulders were stuck but after a few crazy panicked seconds she was born.
They plopped her on my chest and nothing else mattered. She didn't cry at first she just laid breathing on my chest. Feeling her warm skin against mine was the greatest feeling in the world. Her first cries were the best thing I'd ever heard. Everything about those first moments was perfect. My pregnancy was not perfect, my labor was not perfect, but my baby was.
It was the best thing that has ever happened to me.
