Sunday, March 6, around 8 pm I started to have mild contractions. After about an hour we started timing them and they were coming every 7-9 minutes. I immediately got in nesting mode (started laundry, dusted the house, and assigned J to vacuum duty) while J immediately started to freak out silently. As we were wandering around the house I would yell out "Start!" and "Stop" whenever the contractions would come and J would use the contraction timer on his iPhone (love technology).
Finally around 12:30 am, exhaustion set in and it was time for bed. I continued to have mild contractions throughout the night and I was able to get some sleep. By 4 am the contractions were starting to come stronger and I would wake up for each and doze in between and by 6 am it was time to get up and get moving.
Monday, March 7. I called the midwives at 9 am and they told me to come in at 1 pm. It was the first cold and rainy/snowy day we had had in a week but we decided to follow our plans and keep my butt moving. That morning we went on several walks around the neighborhood which helped to keep the contractions coming a bit more regular. They were becoming painful enough that I needed to stop walking and start breathing through them.
At 1 pm, we saw the midwives and they gave me the news I was most dreading….zero dilation. But I had gone from 50% effacement to 85% and they did say that this was true labor. So something was happening but I was not happy with the news. They sent me home with an Ambien and told me to get some sleep.
The afternoon and evening continued with more contractions lasting about a minute and coming anywhere from 5-8 minutes a part. At 7 pm my doula, Catie, came over to do a massage treatment and the contractions were starting to come a bit more regular and more painful. Catie showed us/Justin some methods to help alivate some of the pain such as hip squeezes and using a robozo. The hip squeeze helped me so much and Justin and Catie basically didn't stop until 2 pm the next day. I started to labor in the tub and shower while Justin talked to me and squeezed my hips through the contractions.
I finally decided to take the Ambien and this is where things started to go down hill and my memory starts to get a bit fuzzy. According to Justin, I became very disoriented. The only thing I remember was feeling very confused, not knowing what was going on, and seeing objects that were not there! Justin called Catie back to the house at midnight and she found me on the bathroom floor, completely out of it. Taking a sleeping pill while having contractions strong enough to keep me awake lead to a very long night for Justin, Catie, and myself. After hours of drinking lots of water, we finally got my system flushed out and things were starting to come into focus again. From 3 am to 6 am, we all laid down and got some sleep.
Tuesday, March 8. I was up bright an early and the contractions were starting to get much stronger and came anywhere from 4-8 minutes a part. The three of us took a walk around the neighborhood and J and Catie took turns using the robozo (a piece of long fabric that is wrapped around my hips and twisted in the back, J would twist the fabric tighter as I would have a contraction in order to squeeze my hips) as we walked…I'm sure we were quiet the sight for our neighbors!
At 11 am my contractions were getting very strong and much closer together. The contractions began "coupling" at this point (meaning two contractions would come back to back with no relief in between) and I started to focus all of my energy on breathing through each contraction. By 11:30 it was time to go to the hospital because I knew that things were only going to get more intense and I did not want to take the 30 minute drive to the hospital any later.
We arrived at Swedish a little after noon. They checked me upon arrival and I was at 100% effacement and 2 cm dilated. The most clear memories I have from this time: having the bed propped up, kneeling and holding onto the back of the bed while J and Catie squeezed my hips, breathing deeply through the contractions and then my breaking point…The nurses came in to put in my IV (side note, I am terrible with needles) and I apparently have the worst veins for putting in an IV. While the nurse was sticking me for what felt like the millionth time, I had four back to back contractions. I felt like my body was splitting in two and that the contractions would NEVER stop. This was my breaking point…this was when the plan for a unmedicated birth went out the window. After 43 hours of laboring, I asked for the epidural.
It was a descision that I don't regret in slightest. I think without it I would not have been able to make it to the end and the thing we were trying to avoid the most, a c-section, would have been the end result.
Once the epidural took over, they broke my water and I was able to relax and finally get some rest.
Around 3:30 or 4:00 things started to get interesting. Whenever I would have a contraction, Jack's heart rate would drop so we agreed to have internal fetal monitoring used. Once they were able to get a better reading of his heart rate, things were not improving and the "c" word was brought up as a possibility for the first time. My midwife was concerned that there was not enough amniotic fluid around Jack and when I was contracting it was putting pressure on his umbilical cord and causing his heart rate to drop so we agreed to an amnio-infusion (adding fluid to my uterus through an intrauterine catheter to relieve the pressure on the umbilical cord). This seemed to do the trick and his heart rate evened out during my contractions.
Our next mountain came when they checked me again. I was only at 4 cm and Jack's head had not fully descended into my pelvis because he was at the same weird angle he had been in my entire pregnancy and his was starting to come 'sunny side' up which could have slowed progress even more. So the midwife attempted to turn him manually and internally…at this point I was beyond thankful I had opted for the epidural! Once again luck was on our side, he turned downward and this pushed me to 5 cm.
The midwife gave me 2-3 hours to rest and dilate. When she came back to check me at 8:15 pm I had only progressed to 6 cm. So at this point the new problem was that I was not dilating and my body/mind/spirit were starting to wear thin. Again the "c" word was discussed if I was not able to dilate. So once again we agreed to a dreaded intervention and pitocin (a drug used to help dilate) was started around 8:45 pm.
My epidural was starting to thin out and I was becoming very uncomfortable and I was starting to feel intense contractions. So when I called them in to talk about kicking up the epidural at 9:45 pm they also checked me. I was at 10 cm, +2 station (he was fully decended into my pelvis), and 100% effaced!!!! It was go time!!! I remember my midwife, Jen, was so excited when she check me and she rushed out of the room telling us she had to call the OB and tell him to turn around and head back home. Apparently the OB on call had given me all the time he was going to and he was on his way to the hospital to perform a c section. The pitocin certainly did its job!
I remember when they told me it was time to start pushing I just started crying because I was terrified. Not terrified of the actual delievery, I was so afraid that this next phase would be as prolonged as the rest of my labor and I just didn't have anything left in me. I couldn't take 2-3 hours of pushing, I was just exhausted.
They asked if I wanted my epidural refreshed and I said no. I knew that I needed to feel what was going on in order to be done as quickly as possible. When it was time to start pushing, I had mentally rallied. I was focused and ready. I was laying flat on my side and I could feel the pressure of the contractions and of him in my pelvis.
Pushing was the most incredible experience of my life. I felt in control and powerful. And after 50 hours of labor and 30 minutes of pushing, at 10:31 pm, Jack came into the world and into our lives.
In retrospect, the pushing phase was the most memorable part of my entire pregnancy and labor. Those 30 minutes were the most personal and life changing minutes of my life.
We worked so hard during my pregnancy to learn about natural childbirth, medical interventions and ways to prevent interventions and in the end we had many of the interventions we had wanted to avoid. However, when Justin and I were looking back at our labor experience we realize that it wasn't a intervention "snowball" but rather without the interventions I would have had a c section and in the end that was the one thing we most wanted to avoid.
I lucked out and had the midwife I liked the most, Jen, and I am beyond grateful for all of her hard work and advocacy. I know without a doubt, had I gone to an OB I would have had a c section hours before. And our doula, Catie, was invaluable to us but she offered a ton of support for Justin in our 2days of laboring and I thank her for her patience.
My biggest fear about labor was having a long labor…I was afraid of hitting 24 hours, never in my life would I have imaged I would go 50 hours. But in the end it all worked out perfectly and Jack and I made it through safe and sound. If asked would I do it again…..Absolutely! I couldn't image never feeling so much joy again.
Lindsey
