Tuesday, June 16th
(Note: all times are approximate)
5:00am - I started having contractions that I could no longer sleep through. They still didn't hurt, but they were different from the ones I had the day before. This might have been it, but I still wasn't sure.
5:30am - The contractions were still coming with consistent strength. I woke Chris up to let him know. He was excited and started timing contractions. At the time, they were about 8-10 minutes apart.
6:00am - We got up, showered, got dressed and ate some breakfast. The contractions were still coming strong and closer together. I did my best to relax through each one.
8:30am - Chris called the midwife clinic to let them know that I was having contractions about 6 minutes apart. They said when my contractions were consistently 5 minutes apart and I could no longer talk through them would be a good time to come in. They also offered to check me at the clinic before going to the hospital.
10:00am - Chris and I started walking up and down the hallway ... an almost guaranteed way to increase the speed of labor. And sure enough, the contractions were stronger and were coming closer together. We continued to labor at home. Chris was an amazing coach. He helped me relax and breath through each contraction, just like a good Bradley coach :o) All morning I was drinking juice and eating what I could. Knowing this could be a long day, I wanted to store up as much energy as possible.
12:00pm - The contractions were 5-6 minutes apart and increasing in strength. We decided it was time to go in. Chris loaded up the car and we headed to the clinic. When we arrived, our midwife checked me and I was dilated to 4cm, fully effaced and she said my bag of waters was bulging. In her words, "you're a keeper; let's get you to the hospital". She offered to break my water to help 'get things going', but we declined, wanting my body to do things on its own.
1:00pm - We checked into the hospital. I gowned up and they hooked me up to the external fetal monitor to do an initial read on the baby's heartbeat. His heartbeat looked and sounded great. Then they asked a thousand questions. This whole process took about an hour and my contractions were spacing out to about 10 minutes apart. Sitting on a bed is the worst way to labor, and I told our nurse as much. As soon as she had the info she needed I was off the bed. I certainly didn't want to wait around all day for this baby to be born.
2:00pm - We moved to the ball and labored there for a while. Chris, again, was an amazing support, getting me water in between each contraction and talking me through everything. In between contractions, Chris read some scripture verses I had written down earlier. He read the one that said, "Whatever you ask for in prayer shall be given to you." He asked what I wanted to ask for in prayer. I said I wanted this labor to be quick and easy. I wanted this baby today. So we prayed just that.
2:30pm - We decided to do some walking in the hallway to move things along, but I didn't make it very far. As soon as I stood up and put my robe on, I headed straight to the bathroom and threw up. I started shaking for no good reason and was freezing, then sweating. I was in transition.
3:30pm - Contractions were quite strong by this point and I wasn't talking during them, or in between them. I was focused. I moved back to the bed so they could check me and listen to baby's heartbeat. I was dilated to 6cm. We were making progress. I stayed in the bed for a while. It was nice to lie down and rest between contractions. I threw up again. This time I really knew I was in transition.
4:30pm - I moved to the whirlpool tub. I realized then I should have done that a lot sooner. It felt amazing. The contractions were very strong, but sitting in the warm water helped take the edge off. After what felt like 10 minutes (but was more likely an hour), I felt the need to push.
5:30pm - I moved from the tub back to the bed. By this time, the room was filling up with people getting ready for the baby. I was dilated to 9cm with a cervical lip. The nurse re-positioned me on the bed and it seemed like minutes later I started pushing. The nurse firmly told me to stop pushing as it was just her and Chris in the room with me. But I couldn't stop; it was time for baby to come out. The room immediately filled with people, most of whom I didn't know. I didn't care. Then I was informed that my midwife was in the next room delivering another baby. Great. There was a resident doctor who was there, along with a supervising doctor to deliver the baby. It wasn't my preference, but I didn't have much choice. This baby was coming!
I was pushing for about 30 minutes or so when my midwife arrived. Hooray! Well, at that point I didn't really care who was catching the baby, I just wanted him out. Because of the nuchal cord, they kept a really close watch on his heartbeat. But I knew God was protecting him and it never wavered. I pushed and pushed. I was instructed to stop pushing once his head came out so they could assess the cord situation. I pushed through a crazy amount of pain and finally his head came out. The baby's cord was loose enough that our midwife was able to safely unwrap it from around his neck before he fully came out.
6:40pm - Brooks David Anderson was born. The cord was actually wrapped around his neck 3 times when he was born. But like I said, they were able to quickly unwrap it and he was never in danger. We had originally wanted immediate skin to skin time and to allow the cord to finish pulsating before cutting it, but because of the situation Chris cut the cord almost immediately. They quickly moved him to the warmer and put oxygen on him. But our little boy is a trooper and God is so good. He was breathing on his own, his heartbeat was strong, his oxygen levels were great and within minutes he was back in my arms! What a miracle baby.
No comments:
Post a Comment