It started on Thursday, February 5th. During the afternoon, I started feeling crampy and started bleeding a little bit (which is one sign that labour is imminent). So, I started thinking that I would be going into labour soon and was very excited!
Friday morning, I had an appointment with my midwife, where she checked me and my cervix was 2 cm dilated and 50 to 75% effaced (thinned out). So, it was looking like I was right with my prediction that I would have the baby on the weekend! So, I went home very excited.
I had cramps all afternoon and around 4pm I started thinking they were getting worse than just cramps and were the start of contractions. I timed a couple of them and they were about 20 minutes apart at this point and only 30 to 45 seconds long.
The contractions kept getting a little more intense and longer and closer together throughout the evening. At about 8:30pm, my mom showed up (her and Carlos were my 2 support people). By about 9pm, they were 5 minutes apart and lasting about a minute. This is the point we called our midwife. We first paged our primary midwife (the student), but she was off call for the weekend since she was sick. So, we paged our other primary midwife, but she was going off call in 5 minutes for the weekend. CRAP! I started crying at this point since neither of the 2 midwives we really liked would be present at the birth. We were stuck with the 2 we didn’t like as much. Now, in the end, I didn’t care about this, but at this moment, I was quite upset. It actually turned out that the midwives we had were WONDERFUL; I can’t say enough good things about them.
The midwife showed up at our house around 10pm to check my progress. I was 4 cm dilated at this point and officially in active labour – yay! The contractions were getting more intense, I could no longer talk through them. Carlos was wonderful. We would walk around the house and every time I had a contraction, we would “slow dance” and he would rub my back. I had a nice bath at home sometime around midnight, which felt awesome.
The midwife checked my progress again around 1:30am and I was at 6cm. She said at this point we could go to the hospital, or we could wait a little longer. She had already called ahead to the hospital to see how busy they were. Turns out it was a busy night because they only had 1 labour and delivery room left! So, my midwife asked the hospital to hold the room for us and we headed to the hospital. The midwife went a few minutes ahead of us so she had all the paperwork done by the time we got there. She took care of everything, which was amazing.
So by the time I got to the room, it was around 2am. I laboured in the room for quite awhile trying all sorts of positions. Everyone was so impressed with me that I would be cheerful and smiling in between contractions. I sat in the shower for awhile which felt great. At around 4am the second midwife showed up (there are 2 present for the pushing stage) and they checked me again and I was 7cm dilated and they broke my water at this point. At around 7am, I was 8cm dilated and was getting very uncomfortable, so I laboured in the tub for a couple of hours. This was the most intense part of the labour (this is what they call “transition” and is from 8 to 10cm). I was so glad to be in the tub at this point since it made it a lot more bearable. There were a few contractions that I thought I couldn’t do it anymore, but there was never a point where I seriously considered drugs. I just took it one contraction at a time. Carlos, my mom, and the midwives were amazing support!
At around 9am, I got out of the tub and was checked again. I only had a small rim of cervix left, so it was almost time to start pushing! We sent my mom to the waiting room at this point, since I wanted it to just be Carlos and me for the actual birth. I started pushing shortly after this point and they brought in a mirror so I could see the progress. I pushed until 11:30am with some progress, but it seemed that baby was stuck in the birth canal. She would make a TINY bit of progress with each contraction, but not much. After 2 hours of pushing with no baby, the midwives are required to consult with the OB on call. The baby was also showing signs of distress at this point, so it became apparent that they had to help get baby out; they couldn’t just let me keep pushing considering how slow the progress was. I was absolutely exhausted at this point, so I was glad for the help.
The OB came in at about 11:45am and watched me push for one contraction. Since I didn’t have an epidural, he didn’t want to use forceps. So, he decided a vacuum would be best, although I think most people have pain meds for that too! It was so close to the end, I certainly didn’t want any meds at this point. It was too late anyways, they really wanted to get baby out. It only took 2 or 3 contractions with the vacuum before she was born. I did need a small episiotomy, which makes sense since she is such a big girl! The OB was amazing; he said that he didn’t even need to tug very hard; I did most of the work.
Baby’s head was out at 12:04pm and entire baby born at 12:05pm. Turns out she was in the birth canal off-centre, which totally explains why I couldn’t push her out on my own – she wasn’t coming down straight, her head was tilted to one side. It was such an amazing moment when she was born – the most special moment in my entire life. And I was so glad to have the mirror there so I could actually watch her being born – what a miracle!!!
As soon as she was born, they put her on my chest. The funny part was they didn’t tell us whether she was a boy or girl – I had to ask! After about 10 seconds of holding her, I asked the nurse “Is it a boy of girl” and she said “I didn’t even check!” but then responded with the words I was waiting 9 months to hear “It’s a girl!” All along I was hoping for a girl. I would have been happy with a boy, but I really wanted a girl. Carlos and I both shed a few tears at this point; just totally and completely in love with our new daughter.
They took her away to do some checking and measurements on her and it turns out they weren’t completely satisfied with the way she was crying (it was more like grunting). So, after about 20 minutes or so, they decided to take her to the special care nursery to be put on oxygen and monitoring. She ended up being on oxygen for about 12 hours, which was really hard. All sorts of family started showing up, and baby wasn’t in the room with me! Carlos had to take them one at a time to the nursery to see Julie. This was not the way I wanted it. I wanted to get started on breastfeeding right after the birth, but I couldn’t. I HATED not having her in the room with me that first night. I had to get up every 3 hours and walk to the nursery to try to feed her. This was hard, but luckily, she was fine by the morning and we got to take her home.
Here are her stats at birth:
Name: Julie Erika T. (Julie just because we like the name and Erika is after my grandmother).
Date and Time of birth: February 7, 2009 at 12:05pm
Weight: 8 pounds, 11.4 oz
Length: 51 cm (20 inches)
Head circumference: 33.5 cm
Chest circumference: 34 cm
3 comments:
You are a trooper!
It was great to see you guys! :)
What an amazing birth story. Thanks for sharing with us!
I love all the pictures of little Julie - she is so gorgeous. How's everything going now that you're settled in at home?
Things are going MUCH better. The last 2 nights, I have gotten about 8 hours of sleep (in a few chunks of course). It takes me about 12 hours to get 8 hours of sleep, but I am feeling much more like a human being again ;)
The first week was pretty rough. Between going back to the hospital and waiting for my milk to come in, I was only getting 3-5 hours of sleep per night for the first week.
Julie is an absolute angel though! She is such a content baby... and a good sleeper - I hope that continues!
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