Josie was born 12 hours after my last prenatal appointment. I was 3-4 days overdue. I let the
midwife sweep my membranes. I was feeling crampy immediately after
getting it done. That was at 3:45 Tue. afternoon. That evening, we
walked into downtown Tigard to eat dinner out with friends. That half
an hour of walking might have helped get things moving too.
I was in labor for about 4 1/2 hours with 25 minutes of pushing. It was
very intense to say the least. I got to the hospital at 3:00 am, and
she was born at 3:30. I thought this one would go faster, but I had no
idea it would be so fast.
At 11:30, I was having contractions about every 15 minutes or so, but
they were short, and I wasn't sure if they would just fizzle out like
the ones I'd had a few weeks ago. Within an hour they were about 10
minutes apart lasting 20-30 seconds, and I was pretty sure they were
actually going somewhere. I couldn't stay in bed through them, and soon
I couldn't talk through them and was low-moaning pretty loudly. Naia
woke up at some point and came into our bed. Amazingly, even though we
had the light on, I was making all that noise and Mahlon was trying to
get everything ready to go, Naia still stayed asleep through it all. I
had Mahlon call his mom because she made a big deal about wanting to
watch Naia instead of us leaving her with our neighbor like I had
planned. That was almost a big mistake. She said she wanted to wait
about an hour before leaving. We ended up calling her and telling her
to please hurry!
I called the hospital to tell them we were coming, but I didn't have a
contraction while we were on the phone. I know that is what the nurse
was waiting for, so she told me to try to wait until the contractions
were 40-60 seconds long. She asked if I could wait for another hour and
see how I felt. I thought, yeah I can do that. But about half an hour
later I told Mahlon to call the hospital for me. Then I told that nurse
we were coming!
In the meantime I had tried to take a bath, but my contractions were now
about every 2 minutes and really powerful. Between contractions, the
bath felt great, but during them I couldn't find a comfortable position
because I couldn't stay on my back, and the tub is too small to be
submerged any other way.
Mahlon's mom finally arrived and off we went to the hospital. There was
no traffic, but I remember looking at the speedometer and seeing Mahlon
was going about 65. I thought he should be going 80 at least! Sitting
in the car through those contractions was absolute torture. We pulled
right up in front of the hospital doors and left everything in the car.
I had to wait to finish up a contraction, then we got out and made our
way inside. I had to stop at a bench just inside the doors as another
contraction hit. The guy at the information booth saw us coming (and
I'm sure heard me hollering) and came back with a wheelchair. He said,
I know you probably don't want to sit, but I have to offer. I said No
way! Mahlon was trying to make me hurry while I could walk between
contractions because it looked like L&D was pretty far. We just had to
make it to the elevators and up to the third floor, but
under the circumstances, any distance was far. He had to hold me up
during the contractions I had in the lobby. Then the next one was
in the middle of this open space, right in front of the elevator doors.
The only thing around was a huge pillar, so I braced myself on it.
At that point I really was feeling out of control, and like we needed to
get into a room ASAP. I could feel the baby coming. During that
contraction my water broke with a loud
pop and gushed out full force. We had to laugh at the
coincidence...last time, my water broke in the elevator, this time was
right in front of it. I was scared at first because my pj pants were
soaked and looked brown and I thought there might be meconium, but it
was just the
bloody show mixed with the fluid. Then my body started pushing, and I
got scared that we would have her right there.
We got into the elevator, went to the 3rd floor and then L&D was only a
few steps away. Hooray we made it! I had a contraction at the desk,
then managed to fill out the
check-in information before another contraction hit. I was very proud
of myself that I got that paper filled out. Then they put us in a tiny
triage room where they usually monitor laboring women for 20 minutes,
check your cervix, etc. and make sure you are really in labor. This
insane nurse asked me if I could please submit a urine sample. I said,
"what? how?" I was not worried about peeing in a cup at that point.
Mahlon
had to strip my clothes off for me. I was a mess. Then I got up on the
hospital bed
and yelled through a contraction on all 4's, climbing over the headboard
of the bed. My body was pushing, and
there were some nurses telling me to stop pushing until they could get
someone to check my cervix. They said I still might have cervix left
and something about tearing through it. I told them I couldn't stop. I
think I breathed through part of one contraction successfully, but it
was a lost cause. Mahlon says I never got checked. I heard someone
say, "I have a feeling this baby will be here soon anyway!"
Oh, and I had been begging for water because my mouth was all of a
sudden so dry I couldn't even swallow. I
have never been so thirsty. Mahlon was searching for water or a cup but
he didn't want to leave me alone. He almost just used his hands because
there was a faucet in the triage room. The nurses said we'd have to
wait until we got into the delivery room. I think they were afraid I'd
shoot the baby out any second before anyone was ready. I was getting
worried because I couldn't stop pushing, and I hadn't seen any of my
midwives yet and no way did I want to deliver with an OB. Then they
wheeled my bed to the delivery room. I remember feeling the
wind on my skin on the way there, so we must have been going pretty quick.
Then Helen Welch (one of the midwives in my practice, and one of my
favorites) grabbed my hand, looked into my eyes and said, "Nadine,
I'm here, everything is fine, you are doing everything right. Just
listen to your body." I told her I didn't know how to stop pushing.
She said, "Then push, do
what you need to do. Trust your body." When we got into the delivery
room, she turned the lights way down, even though I heard a nurse object
and say she couldn't see. She told the nurses that I only
needed intermittent monitoring instead of wearing the belts. She said
we know the heartrate will go down during contractions, that is fine, we
don't need to know every detail because this baby is obviously coming now.
I felt the doppler on my belly every now and then, but mostly I wasn't
even aware of it. Much nicer than having to wear those belts. I also
didn't have to have an IV, so no nasty bruise for a month afterwards.
Plus she got me some water! Yay!
I was sitting upright in a weird position, because in the triage room
someone asked me to flip over so they could listen to the heartbeat I
think. A couple contractions like that weren't very fun. I was trying
to get up higher and I guess I was resting my head on top of the
headboard. They kept offering me pillows and I said no. Helen asked if
I would like to try hands and knees to get the pressure off my back and
bottom. I said yes and flipped over. I don't know why I didn't think
of that myself! She raised the
head of the bed up more so I could support myself on it. When I had a
contraction, she would put pressure on my butt (it really helped) and
told me to push back into her hands. That really gave me a focus point.
I asked Mahlon to get a cold cloth for my face because I started
getting really hot. He also was rubbing my back and giving me water
whenever I asked. Helen reminded me to open up to the pressure and
push into it, not to back away. She was really good at letting me know
when I had made good progress and really moved the baby.
I could feel the baby move down when I was pushing and then back up a
little between contractions. Helen had been stretching my perineum
during the pushing. The bottom of my belly was really hurting and Helen
said it was because the baby's head was trying to get past my pubic
bone. That helped to visualize her getting past that point. Soon after
that I felt that ring of fire I never felt with Naia. At that point I
said "it really hurts". Mahlon told me to reach down and feel her head.
I reached down, but I couldn't tell what I was feeling. I think I
just felt myself honestly. It was good to know she was almost here! I
pushed a couple more times and her head was out. Helen told me to just
do some tiny gentle pushes so I wouldn't tear. Then her shoulders came
out with a few little pushes. Her shoulders coming out felt even
crazier than her head. Mahlon said he could tell that was a really
intense part for me. He said the midwife rotated her a little so that
the shoulder would come out and that was what must have felt so weird.
After her head came out, Helen said, "hey dad, wanna catch?". Mahlon
was a little surprised, but he was thrilled to be able to catch baby
Josephine. So, she was born at 3:30 AM, into her daddy's hands. Then
they passed her up to me through my legs from behind since I was on all
4's. Her cord was longer than Naia's. I sat there and cuddled her and
said Hello Josephine. She was totally awake and aware and looked up
into my eyes for the longest time. She didn't cry until she got her
first bath. She had a perfectly round little head since she came out so
fast. Her skin was perfect and beautiful, no bruises or bumps or
anything. She had a head full of dark straight hair. I had a feeling
she'd have dark hair, but it still was surprising to see compared to
Naia's blonde locks, and she had so much of it. They waited until her
cord stopped pulsing and then Mahlon cut it. I wasn't really paying
attention because I was too busy looking at my new girl. I remember
thinking it was a significant moment though, when the cord that had
connected us was severed. Then I layed down, and she nursed a little
bit. She was only maybe 15 minutes old. A little while later the
placenta came out, and then I got a couple stitches. I only tore a
little along my old episiotomy scar, and it wasn't into the muscle. So,
first degree...midwife said just a skidmark really. She asked if I
wanted a shot to numb it up. I asked if she could just put something on
topically because I really didn't want an injection there, especially if
she only needed to take 2 stitches. So she agreed to try something and
whatever it was, it worked. I didn't feel the stitches.
She was 8 pounds even...a pound heavier than her big sister, and 20 3/4 inches long. Her head was something like 13 inches? Her apgar scores were 9 and 9, like that means anything, but hey, she aced her first test!
I had asked my mom to be in the room to help me labor and be part of the
experience, but it all happened so fast that she missed it. We figured
we would call her once we got to the hospital, but then there was no
time until Josephine was born. In the end though it was nice having it
be just Mahlon and I.
It was so wonderful to have my baby, and then to have her by my side the
whole time and go home the next day. She did have a bit of jaundice and
had to have her blood tested a couple days after we brought her home,
and a couple days of formula supplementing, but nothing compared to the
week in the hospital and seemingly countless heel pokes that Naia had.
Now I have my two beautiful girls and our family is complete. I had two
amazing birth experiences and I feel extremely lucky to have had no
complications, healthy babies, and a supportive family even though I
haven't always done things the conventional way. I wouldn't change a
thing about any of it.
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lethargic
determined
drained
crushed