Gracie's Birth Story

Grace was due around the 15th of February, 2003,  but I expected her to arrive later - I was born a week or two late, so I figured my child would be late, too. I had my appointment with the midwife on Tuesday, 2/18, and my cervix was soft, 1cm long, and open about a fingertip's worth. I figured I'd see her again the next week, since this wasn't much change from the previous week. I went home and probably had a nap - I was so tired at the end of my pregnancy.

That evening, I saw a spot of blood when I wiped after using the toilet. I got a bit excited, but I knew it could be a long time yet, as some people lose their mucous plug a week or more prior to delivery. I mentioned to Chris as I got into bed that we'd "probably be having a baby sometime this week." You should've seen his face! It seems he was much more worried about my pain in labor than I was. We talked a bit and fell asleep.

I woke up sometime early Wednesday morning feeling some contractions. I wasn't comfortable lying in bed, so I went downstairs and sat on the floor (I'd sent out our couch cushions for repair the previous day). The contractions were about five minutes apart and uncomfortable, but not too much so. I think I watched tv for a couple hours before getting bored and sleepy and going back to bed.I had a couple more contractions before falling asleep. When we woke later that morning, they had stopped. I told Chris about what had happened and sent him to work, since he had a meeting to attend & I didn't think he'd miss much at home if he went.

Midmorning, I started having more contractions and called my doula. She was attending a birth and asked if she could assign me to her backup. I didn't have a problem with that, so she said she'd have her call me. Well, the backup doula was also busy, so I got the second backup, who came over, even though the contractions had fizzled out again by that point. When Beth got here, we sat and talked for a couple hours, getting to know each other and talking about how I wanted the labor and birth to go. Eventually, I decided to send her home again, since nothing was happening and I needed a nap. Chris came home from work early - he'd mentioned that I'd had some contractions during the night and was asked "And why are you here?!" I don't recall how we spent that evening, but I'm sure it was pretty boring - probably ordered pizza, went online, and watched tv.

I woke up to more contractions that night. They were more intense than previously, and I could not be lying down during them. I went downstairs and sat on the birthing ball (still no sofa cushions), and watched the news for an hour or two. I started to get sleepy and decided to try sleeping on the ball. I took it upstairs and set it beside the bed. I put some pillows between me and the bed, covered myself with a blanket, and dozed a bit. Eventually decided it was too uncomfortable & precarious so I got back in bed and fell asleep after a few more contractions.

Chris stayed home with me on Thursday. We talked some, watched tv, I think I had a nap. We decided to go for a walk to try to get things started. We'd walked almost all the way around the block before I had a smallish contraction. We walked a couple more blocks and then headed home because my hips or knees were hurting. My mom called that evening (she'd been staying at my aunt's house and was leaving in the morning) to see if we wanted to go out for dinner. Sure, we said, feeling that this was our last chance for a while. By the time we left, I was having contractions every 5 minutes or so, and it was feeling more like the real thing. I had to pause in my eating during a contraction, and towards the end of the meal, I had to breathe through them. We went home & sent Mom to my aunt's house with the promise that we'd let her know when the baby came.

This is where things start to get a bit fuzzy...

Around 9:00 or so, things rapidly got going. I had a good amount of bloody show, my contractions picked up, and we decided to call the doula. Beth arrived around 10:00. and we were upstairs laboring with the birthing ball. I think Chris was applying counterpressure during contractions, as I was having back labor. They tried to feed me some Jello and get me to drink, but I couldn't manage the Jello, so Chris ate it. I started having to moan during the contractions to stay on top of them, and Beth started timing them. We had the midwife paged, to let her know we were coming in that night. She said to page her again before we left for the hospital. I labored more and thought I felt a little urge to push. I now know that I was mistaken, but we took that as the cue to head out. The midwife was paged again, we got packed (I had packed stuff but changed my mind on all of it at the last minute), and I started throwing up. I peed my pants and had to change (Beth said to smell it to make sure it wasn't amniotic fluid, but I refused - I knew full well it wasn't.), and then we left.

The drive to the hospital was pretty short - it's only a couple miles away. We went in and I was wheeled up to the maternity floor. I would rather have walked, but didn't feel like arguing about it. They have a policy of monitoring incoming moms for 20 minutes to see how baby's doing and get a feel for contractions strength. I didn't like being on my back in the bed for that long, but the questions they were required to ask as part of the admitting procedure kept my mind off the discomfort. Once Beth came up from parking her car, Chris left to move our car out of the E.R. parking area.

When the monitoring was done, the student midwife checked me and said I was 95% effaced and 3 cm dilated. I was rather disappointed, since I'd thought the throwing up was a sign I was much further along. They started filling the birthing tub for me (I couldn't get in until I was 5 cm) and the midwife and I went to the shower in my room - she used the sprayer on my back to help alleviate some discomfort during contractions. After a while of this, the student midwife checked my cervix again and announced that I was at 6 cm with a bulging bag of waters - would I like her to break it? I agreed, figuring that it would help move things along. She broke my water, then we decided to head to the other room for the birthing tub. I got in and had a hard time getting comfortable - it was shallower and smaller in diameter than I'd expected. I finally settled on my knees leaning on the edge of the tub. I worked through some contractions and dozed between them. After a while (I have no idea how long I was in there!) I started to feel sick and threw up several times. Beth and the nurses tried to get some nourishment and hydration in me, but I felt sick to my stomach and didn't have an appetite. Ice chips were fairly acceptable, though. I got out of the tub to use the toilet and they decided to check my cervix before I got back in. The regular midwife checked me this time and said I was only 4 cm! I was not pleased - the student midwife must have made an error in her measuring. They also wanted to give me an IV because I'd been unable to urinate.

At this point, the subject of pitocin was brought up. I was against it, but they explained their reasons well enough to convince me. Then I begged for Nubain because I'd heard how awful labor was on Pitocin. Beth talked me out of it for the time being, and suggested we go for a walk before doing anything. We walked the halls a bit, I had a couple of contractions and leaned on Chris to get through them. We talked and I felt that my labor had slowed a bit - most likely by getting into the birthing tub too soon. Decided that the pitocin would help and I could do it without pain meds. I think this was around 5 am or so.

We went back to the room and announced our decision. The pitocin drip was added to my IV and I was hooked up to the monitor - they have to continuously monitor contractions and fetal heartrate while you're on pitocin. I worked through the contractions for a while - they hurt a bit more than before, but not too bad (comparitively). At some point, the midwife suggested a catheter because I'd been unable to urinate despite being given a liter or more of IV fluids. I was not pleased with this idea, but she was insistent. How I managed to get catheterized without hurting someone, I'll never know, That was the single most painful thing I'd gone through the whole night. I was laboring on my back, which was less than ideal for progress. I recall standing up and leaning against the birthing ball, which was on the bed. I rocked side to side during contractions, and this seemed to help a bit. Some time in here, probably around 7 or 8 am, it was suggested that maybe we could turn off the pitocin and get me back into the tub. They checked that the tub was still warm enough and turned the heater back on, and wheeled me into the other room. However, when they turned the pitocin off, my contractions spaced out again and weakened. I was not happy. Back to my room again. Around 9 or 9:30, I started feeling the urge to push. The midwife checked my cervix and said I was complete except for an anterior lip of cervix. I asked if it could just be pushed out of the way (I'd heard of this being done before) and was told that it was not possible. So I had to fight the urge to push while waiting for the contractions to get that little bit of cervix out of the way. We put the birthing ball on the bed so I could rock on it on my hands and knees. I struggled to not push during the contractions, but I felt such relief when I did push, that it was almost unavoidable. Beth had me focus on part of the cabinet in front of me when I wanted to push - it helped a lot. This went on for something like two hours! Finally, the decision was made that I was ready to push that baby out. I have never felt such relief! On the next contraction, I pushed and felt the baby move down. On the next push, I felt a burning pain. On the next push, I pushed through that pain and out came the head! The cord was wrapped around the baby's neck, so the midwife asked me to breathe through the next contraction so she could clamp and cut the cord. I was disappointed by this, as I'd hoped to leave the cord intact until it stopped pulsing. Once the cord was cut, I was able to push the baby out on the next contraction. I heard "What is it?" and said "It's a girl, isn't it a girl?" It was indeed a girl, and "She's got dimples!". I was so happy I wanted to cry - I'd known this baby was a girl ever since I knew I was pregnant. In my dreams it was always a girl, and I just felt that way.

They cleaned her up a bit while the midwife was stitching up my tear. After what seemed like an eternity of me asking for her, she was brought to me and put on my chest. She was so beautiful, so amazing. I couldn't believe that I had produced this amazing little human. Once they were done stitching me up, they adjusted the bed so I could sit up and we got Grace latched on for the first time. What an incredible feeling.

*A note: shortly after I pushed Gracie out, the phone rang in our room. We were all too into the events to answer it, but I was pretty sure it was my mom. She called again later. Can I just say how annoyed I was/am with the switchboard for not sending that first call through the nurse's station? Grr...

The events following Gracie's birth are a bit of a blur as well. I remember having a lot of trouble getting us positioned properly for nursing. I will be eternally grateful to the nurse who helped us with the football hold and showed us that lots of pillows under the baby was the key. We left the hospital fairly confident about breastfeeding, and it only got easier with practice. We have been lucky so far (almost 15 weeks now) and no problems. I can only hope that the coming years of our nursing relationship are as problem-free as the beginning has been.