Labor was intense

When last we spoke, I was sitting on a birthing ball in my kitchen and the contractions were just starting to make themselves known. My labor was fairly short, but very intense and I am pleased with how it went. After some time on the ball in the kitchen, I decided to try to get some sleep. I laid down with Shawn for a little while, but every time I dozed off, a contraction would come and I would have to wake up and breath through it. I gave up and took the ball into the guest bedroom where I hoped to be able to lean on the bed and rest between them.

By 1am, I wasn't able to keep myself calm through them and I woke Shawn up to help me. Hypnobirthing was working fairly well, but I needed help. Shawn put on our relaxation music and rubbed my back while I sat on the ball and leaned on the bed. By 3am things were really intense. I could hear my toning during the contractions getting deeper and more guttural. When I had to vomit, I thought to myself, "Anne, you sound like you are in good active labor. It's time to go to the birth center." Shawn called the midwife who was in another delivery so didn't call us back for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, I was struggling to keep calm and not looking forward to the car ride. The only way I could deal with the contractions, was sitting on the birthing ball with Shawn rubbing my back. The car ride was as awful as I imagined it would be, and I moaned through every contraction while trying to get into a better position. Shawn kept trying to relax me, but it was pretty useless. Once we got to the birth center, it was another challenge to get from the car to the center. I remember squatting in the elevator while Shawn held the "door open" button and said, "Baby, can we just get out of the elevator?" Once inside, I saw with relief that Jen was filling the jacuzzi, and there was a birthing ball waiting for me. I fell onto the ball, and felt a little more in control.

After starting my IV for penicillin to treat my GBS and listening to the baby's heartbeat, Jen checked my cervix. I was so proud to be 5 cm, halfway there! I got in the tub hoping for some good relief, but was disappointed to still feel the contractions just as strongly. I just withdrew even more completely into myself, chanted my birth affirmations, and OOooooooooed through each contraction.

I was in a very interesting state of consciousness. I was aware of Shawn talking to me, but I couldn't answer him. I remember thinking very clear thoughts between contractions, from the mundane like what happened on a recent TV show, to wishing there was a dimmer switch on the bathroom lights. Then when the contraction would hit, I would just start moaning until it went away. I tried to keep my body as limp as possible and just go with my labor, but once in a while I would have a really intense contraction and panic. My moans would become higher pitched and I would try to run away from them and tense my whole body. Shawn was with me the whole time, rubbing my back and encouraging me. When my moans would get too high, he would tell me to lower the pitch. When I got too tense, he would help me to relax. I remember him telling me how much he loved me and how proud he was of me, I just couldn't vocalize anything back.

When I got to 7cm, the urge to push hit me. I couldn't help but bear down with some of the contractions. Jen said my cervix was stretchy enough to handle the limited pushing, so I just listened to my body and went with it. A little while later, Jen declared me fully dilated and gave me permission to push as needed. I seemed to feel the baby descending, so I checked myself and felt a big, fat anterior lip of cervix. That's when the cervix is open everywhere except at the top. I told Jen I thought there was a lip and asked her to reduce it for me. Holy Crap that hurt!!! The rest of labor was intense, but mainly felt like extreme tightening of my uterus and terrible back pain, but having my lip reduced hurt so bad it made me want to vomit. I was trying to push as she pushed up the bit of cervix, but it wasn't very effective. By that time, Kimla came to relieve Jen, but since I was so close, they both stayed with me. Jen said the words that I have told so

many of my patients, "Push where it hurts the most. Don't run away from it." It turns out that Emma was OP. That means she was facing up, instead of down, and makes pushing much harder, especially for a first timer. I had to get out of the tub to push more effectively. That's about when the cliched phrase of, "I don't want to do this anymore" came out of my mouth and everyone laughed at me.

I tried walking and lunging to turn her little head, and ended up squatting for most of the rest of pushing. Once things felt like they were moving well, I got onto the bed in a side lying position laying in Shawn's lap. Feeling Emma's head moving down, and seeing her head bulging through my perineum was surreal. I have seen it so many times from the other end of the bed, looking down and seeing my own baby emerge from my body was incredible. Once her head was out, I

forgot that I had to keep pushing. She had a nuchal cord that was too tight to reduce, so Jen delivered through it and brought the baby right up to my chest. Shawn and I held her together and we rubbed her little back until she got nice and pink and had better tone. Shawn was crying so much, his tears were falling into my eyes. I asked, "Shawn, what do we have?" and spread her little legs to reveal that we had a daughter. That brought on a whole new wave of tears. We cut her cord together and just snuggled while Jen tried to put my labia back together.

We had a few hours of new family bonding time before we were ready to go home. We breastfed well (or so I thought, but that's another story) got dressed, packed up, and were home 5 hours after Emmaline Grace was born. There was no cell service in the birth center, so the car ride home was for calling family. I was so proud of myself for having gone through labor and birth without medication and to have been in the birth center. Hypnobirthing worked pretty well and I was pleased. I wouldn't say it was "an easy, comfortable birth," but it was manageable. We have a beautiful daughter who has not let me write this birth story until now that she is 2 weeks old. I hope to update my blog soon with the first 2 week woes, which were much more complicated than I thought they would be! Things are better now, she is feeding well and gaining weight. I am thoroughly in love with my little girl, and Shawn is a great daddy. He went back to work today and Emma has been crying a lot more today. I think she misses him.

There are great pictures both on Shawn's blog smseifert.blogspot.com and his photo site smseifert.zenfolio.com

My water broke!

Just as I was starting to get anxious about being 40 weeks and 4 days, my water broke this evening. I had really hoped to be in good active labor before that happened, but with the barometric pressure today, I didn't stand a chance. I was lamenting the weather and wanting my Spring baby when I pulled up to the house after a difficult prenatal yoga session, and saw the blossoms on the Bradford Pear's just starting to open. I stopped dead in my driveway and said, "My baby is coming!" and then in true prego fashion, burst into tears. I was home for maybe half an hour and started journaling a little. There was a birthing book I wanted to look at upstairs in the baby's room. When I was about 3 steps into the room, I felt a gush of fluid, clamped my legs together, and shuffled into the bathroom to sit on the toilet. Luckily Shawn came home about 5 minutes later and was able to rescue me with a wet washcloth and some Depends. I called the midwife and am waiting for good active labor. I tried to sleep a little bit, but laying in bed makes the contractions worse. I am much more comfortable sitting on the birthing ball (also known as an exercise ball for those in the regular world.) I am going to try to sleep leaning on the bed while sitting on the ball now. I am hoping for a good labor and birth, I am just a little sorry that it is going to take a heck of a lot longer than I had hoped. Next post will be my birth announcement! I can't believe I'm going to be a mom so soon.

A Due Date is only an estimate

Here's me last night.

Tomorrow is my due date, but only about 6% of women give birth on their due dates so I'm not holding my breath. I went back to work this week, no use wasting my maternity leave waiting for a baby. Fortunately, the scheduler has been kind to me and I haven't had any L&D shifts. Today, while reviewing charts at our private office with one of my colleagues, we had a phone call from a lady who is 31 weeks pregnant asking when she should go out on maternity leave. I looked at Katie and said, "I'm 40 weeks tomorrow and I'm still working. I don't think I can keep from snapping at her. Can you handle this call please?" Turns out the lady works at Jiffy Lube so her belly will be getting in the way of oil changes sooner rather than later so it wasn't a totally insane question. I probably still would have told her that I delivered a baby at 37 weeks so suck it up! Good thing I know my limits, huh? :) Shawn also got the flexibility to take 2 weeks off whenever baby comes so we are both good on the leave front.

Last week, my friend Kathy did a belly cast for me. I think it turned out great. It was funny though when she asked if I wanted breast and belly or just belly because both gets a little personal. I laughed at her because we went to midwifery school together and practiced pelvic exams on each other. It doesn't get much more personal than that! Her baby is about 2 so this is both of our casts side by side. Mine is the one on the right.



I'm definitely feeling more uncomfortable. I am now sleeping with 6 pillows; 3 under my head for the heartburn, one under my belly, one behind my back, and one with an extra blanket stuffed inside between my legs. Shawn likes to reach over and pat my head now and then as he can no longer find me to snuggle. The last two days I've been feeling really nauseous and gassy. I've taken 4 doses of Tums today alone. This morning I had oatmeal to try to start things off nice and bland, and still had heartburn by 10. My back is aching, but mainly the upper part, and I am very tired all the time. I am still getting up 3-5 times a night to pee, it's just taking longer to get back to sleep because I have to rearrange my multitude of pillows every time.

At my prenatal visit yesterday, the midwife was telling me about one her patients who lost her baby at 38 weeks. People often forget that I am pregnant too and that shop talk is not always the best! So this morning around 4am when I got back from peeing and realized I hadn't felt the baby move for 2 potty runs, I began to panic a little. I poked my belly a bit to wake baby up, and then gave up, grabbed my stethoscope, and lay on the bathroom floor listening to the baby's heartbeat for a while. Then I couldn't go back to sleep so I got up and sorted through more baby clothes. I went back to sleep around 5:30, before my alarm went off at 6:30 for my morning clinic day. I'm pretty tired.



Shawn took this picture two weeks ago and I think it's just beautiful. I was feeling very big, but not too uncomfortable yet.

I am looking forward to baby being here and getting more of my body back. I think I am as ready as I'm going to be. I continue to stay calm and not rush things so as to reduce the stress hormones that can inhibit labor. I am getting bombarded with phone calls of, "are you in labor yet?" and "is the baby here yet" and am practicing my calm, relaxation techniques so as not to be too stressed and snap at everyone. Like I would really have the baby and not tell anyone! People also think that babies just fall out and forget that I will be in labor for a long time so everyone will have plenty of warning. Average labor for a first time mom is about 14 hours. I think I'll be fine on the notification side of things.

Shawn and I continue to practice our relaxation techniques and guided imagery/hypnosis and I think it's going well. I am able to put myself into a very deep relaxation and have been able to mentally remove my back pain. I recite birth affirmations every day, and am feeling confident that I can have an unmedicated birth.

38 weeks and a snow day

It snowed last night and into most of the day today. I'd like to point out that it is March. What happened to my Spring Baby? There are buds on the Bradford Pear trees, but it's in the low 20's and there's about 5 inches of snow on the ground. My acupuncturist canceled my appointment today because she didn't want me out in the snow, and I am not going to my prenatal yoga class tonight because I would have to shovel my driveway to get there. I told Shawn it might be good because maybe it would put me into labor, be he insisted that one fall on the ice is all I'm allowed this pregnancy. I'll have to do my DVD at home instead.

I'm having a bit of a dilemma about what to do about work. This is my last scheduled week of work, but I am afraid the baby is going to come later than that and then I will have wasted a few weeks of my maternity leave waiting for the baby instead of mothering the baby. The easiest thing to do would be to take a few of my boss/assistant boss's shifts because they can always take administrative time, but they are both doing long L&D shifts early in the next week. There is no way I am volunteering for a night shift at 39+ weeks pregnant! Plus, Shawn is already committed to taking his 2 week vacation/paternity leave starting next week. On one hand, I want the baby to hurry up and come when it is convenient, but on the other, I trust nature to know what to do and when the best time is for labor to start. I'll just have to do what women have been doing for centuries and let the baby come when it is ready.

Shawn gave me a prenatal spa day a couple of weeks ago. I had a prenatal massage, a facial, and then a pedicure. It was great. Ever since we found this spa in a new area of town, I've been looking forward to my pregnancy and getting the "Modern Momma" spa package. Here's me getting my toes done. Note the rather coma like expression on my face.


Here are the requisite belly photos. They are from last week and I swear I am already bigger. I think we will take more tonight.



This is Julius and me watching TV. I think he likes his new perch. You should see when the baby kicks him, it's very cute.