I finally got around to typing up my birth experience.
So here it goes.
When I gave birth to my son almost 3 years ago I did not know much about the whole process. I thought that the doctors always had the best of interests in mind for you and your baby but I learned that that is not always true. I had always wanted to have a natural childbirth but I thought that it would just come naturally. Boy was I wrong. After having my doctor with the little man tell me that being induced was a good thing, I was all over it. I got sucked into the trap. Luckily I did not end up on the operating table with my son. He still came into the world healthy but I knew that there had to be something that I could do to have a better experience next time. I read about it, asked others about it, watched movies on it I had my heart set on doing it with my next baby. I think that having a Doula there was one of the best choices that I could have made to help me get the outcome that I wanted, a natural childbirth. So here is my story of how my little lady came into the world.
On the morning of Thursday March 4th I woke up bound and determined to see my baby girl today. I made up a castor oil milkshake and sat down at the computer like I do every morning. By 7:30 am I had finished my shake and I was motivated to get a few last minute things done around the house.
I washed all the sheets on our beds, did the last of the dishes in the sink and just waited for something to happen. Before I knew it the clock was striking noon and I was still not feeling any different. A little frustrated I contacted my
Doula, Dianne. She told me that I could make another shake and we will see where it goes from then. This time I made more of a smoothie style. Since the little man was now awake I made it first without castor oil and then after he had his glass I added the main ingredient.
After seeing an ad for Arby’s on the counter I convinced the hubby to help me fulfill one last craving. So on the way to the Arby’s just up the road I chugged my smoothing and then engorged on the world’s most unhealthy fries. I was trying to be optimistic about the shake working but by the time late afternoon slipped into evening I thought that maybe this little girl just is not ready to come out yet.
With evening here we decided to head on over to Target and the mall to get some last minute items that might come in handy. After having another craving of overpriced movie theater popcorn and making our way around the whole mall, we were on our way home, still was not feeling any different.
Once we where home we all got our PJ’s on and climbed into our bed for some family snuggle time. After looking at the clock at almost 10:30pm we moved the sound asleep little man into his bed. I could not believe that neither the shake or the smoothie or the walking helped to start labor. I sat there reading for a little while and then shortly after 11:00 pm I figured I should get some sleep.
At 11:45pm I woke up to a very strange feeling and I rolled over and asked the hubby go get a towel quick. My water had broke (in my bed on my nice clean sheets). I jumped up and headed to the bathroom. All was clear and good but still no contractions. After a little debate about the time of night I did decide to call Dianne and ask her what she thought I should do. She told me to try to get some rest until the contractions started and if I nothing had changed by 6:00 am than to give her a call.
At about 12:30 am after cleaning up the bed, I tried to lie back down but before I could do that here were that contractions. They stated off about 7 minutes apart but quickly moved to about 5. We made sure that the bags were all packed and ready, the hubby started packing the car and I made one last phone call to Dianne. I told her that we were going to get the little man up and down to my parent’s house and head on over to the hospital because the hubby was so worried that if we waited around at home too long that the baby was going to be born here. She said that she would meet us there. So by about 2:00 am we were in the car headed down the road after one last search around the house for the MP3 player.
Dropping the little man off was very hard for me. He was half asleep not really knowing what was going on. Let’s just call this time very emotional for the both of us. After some tears I told the little man that he would get to see us and his sister in the morning and we were off.
As we pulled up to the hospital at just before 2:30 am, Dianne was already there waiting for us. It was so nice to see here friendly face since I was a little unsure about the adventure that I had started on. My contractions were now about 3 minutes apart and I was being wheeled up to labor and delivery.
Once in my room and changed into the lovely hospital gown I was hooked up for some monitoring and a heparin lock was inserted just incase it was need. At this time I was a good 4 centimeters. I was now starting to have some back labor and the bed was not a very comfortable place to be. After what seemed like forever (about an hour) I was finally a 6 and I was able to leave the bed and make my way on over to the jetted bathtub. The water and bubbles felt so nice.
Most of what happed next was a big blur. At some point I got out of the water, threw up all over myself, the hubby and the bathroom, and changed out of my wet tank top. I was still having some horrible pain in my lower back so I was trying many different possessions. I can remember saying that I could not do it anymore and having two great support people telling me that I could. I remember telling them that I just wanted to get the drugs and be done and them telling me that I could do it.
By 5:00 am the on call doctor came in to check me and I was a 10. I got back into the bed ready to push this baby out. I thought that the desire to push was going to be stronger than it was but before I knew it they were asking me if I wanted to touch my baby’s head and I remember saying ‘No I just want to get her out.’ Just a few more pushes later and she was here at 5:33 am, greeting the world face up. She was placed on my chest. I could not believe that she was finally here.
When the bleeding would not stop, she was removed from my chest and placed safely in the hubbies arms. The heparin lock that they had put in for ‘just incase’ did not work so another one was placed in my other arm so that I could get the medicine I needed to stop the bleeding. After losing about a litter it was finally under control.
We were both cleaned up and our family of three was now a family of four. I could not believe that I had really done it. I felt like my birth plan was more like a script than a plan. I don’t really feel any different as a mom or a person. I don’t feel like I am better than anyone else. I just feel happy for myself. I am not left wondering ‘if’ I could have done it. I did it.
