Birth Story of Elisabeth Anne

So, this is what happened...

Monday morning June 10th, our family took off for our summer vacation to Lincoln City, OR. Normally, I would not have planned a trip knowing I would be 36 weeks pregnant. However, we had planned this trip back in August of last year without knowing there would be a baby in the picture when the time came. Since I have always delivered at 40 weeks and I was going to be back by Friday evening, I figured it would still be ok to go.

But first lets back up to the days leading up to that. I remember feeling very antsy, restless and kind of irritable. I was tired from thinking about having to get everything ready for this trip as well as getting final preparations ready for a home birth. Not to mention just being really uncomfortable as is usual in the final weeks. I actually remember thinking to myself that if I didn't know better I would think birth was getting really close. I just felt kind of off.

So, Monday we got to Lincoln City around 5pm. The rest of Justin's family showed up pretty soon after. My feet and ankles were horribly swollen from sitting in the car forever. I was glad to be at the house to be able to relax and enjoy family company. The kids were so excited to play with their cousins and had so much fun in the hot tub that night. We had pizza and salad for dinner. It was Katelyn's birthday that day too! She turned 7.  I had a lot of "braxton hicks" contractions that night, or at least that's what I thought they were.

That night Alaina had come down from the kids' room and wanted to crawl into bed with us. We were enjoying the luxury of sleeping in a king size bed and so it wasn't that big of a deal for her to snuggle in with us. At about 6:50 am she had started crowding my space enough that I decided I was just going to get into the other bed that was in the room and not have to worry about it. Justin got up to go to the bathroom. As I got in the other bed, I felt a leak. A leak similar to what happens when you sneeze (if you're lucky enough to have that problem). Then I felt more and more coming. I felt my pants and they were soaked. I got up to get in the bathroom and asked Justin if he was almost done because I was "peeing my pants"...or so I thought.

He got out of the way and I finished up on the toilet but it just kept coming and coming. Once I was done, I got up to get some clean pants and I felt more starting to come out, so I got right back on the toilet. By then I knew it was more than pee and I told Justin that I thought I was leaking fluid. There were small white chunks in the fluid.  I asked him to bring me my phone so I could call my midwife. She didn't answer, so I left a message, that she never got for some reason. After some time, I decided to text her. She called right away and I explained what was going on. She wasn't convinced that it was really my waters. I didn't mention the white chunks either. They looked like really small pieces of curd, you know...cottage cheese like. I thought about telling her about them, but my inexperience in knowing what it was decided to leave out that detail.

We talked about what to do. What my options were at that point. She told me to take it easy and to stay in touch with her. I didn't feel panicked or anything so I wasn't going to rush off to the hospital. I had Justin give me a blessing and I felt really calm about it all, although still super curious about what was happening.

Some of the family members felt like I should at least go get checked out and make sure everything was ok. So we found the office of a CNM (certified nurse midwife) and were able to get in to see her down in Newport, OR which was about 45 minutes away. I had contractions along the way every 15-20 minutes or so, but they only lasted about 30 seconds and I was still telling myself they were braxton hicks. Once we got to the office I could really feel myself tense up. I honestly didn't like the fact that we were out of town, didn't know this lady or anything about her practice, etc. I was so out of my comfort zone. She was really nice though and took her time with us getting as much information as possible. Her name was JoAnne Kort. She listened to baby's heartbeat, which was 143 or so. She did an exam with a speculum and confirmed that yes, it was in fact amniotic fluid and there was quite a bit.  She then checked me with a sterile glove and said I was dilated to 1cm and 50% effaced. She told me that she and I were probably going to get to know each other real well. She wanted us to go back to Lincoln City and go directly to the hospital and get checked in. I did as we were told, but I still felt somewhat uncomfortable about going there because I wasn't having any major contractions and I didn't want to get stuck there. On the way back I called my midwife again and let her know. She didn't think I needed to go to the hospital either. She wondered if it could have been a fore-bag of waters that broke. I reluctantly went to the hospital because JoAnne was following behind us and I didn't want to just ditch out on her.

When we got there and got checked in a nurse named Eileen was expecting me. She is training to be a CNM. When we got in the room, I told her how I was feeling about being there and let her know I was apprehensive because I didn't want to stay there when nothing was really happening. I was afraid of being pressured to do things to progress labor (if I was in labor) that I didn't want to do, such as be given pitocin or anything else. I told her that I didn't want to force something to happen if it wasn't time.  I still wasn't convinced that I was actually in labor.  She was wonderful and respected my feelings. She said she wouldn't officially admit us at that point. JoAnne pretty much told us that now that we were at the hospital that we really couldn't leave because the hospital would then be liable for us if anything happened. That is not what I wanted to hear. Again, Eileen came back in and was really on our side. She told us that it was absolutely up to us and if we wanted to leave, we could. I told her we would hang around for a while like JoAnne wanted. They monitored the baby for about 15-20 minutes. She was doing fine and there wasn't much going on in the way of contractions. So I got my clothes on and Justin and I took a walk around outside. I would have a few little contractions here and there. I called my sister in law Sarah to see if she would come down and bring some food. OH yeah! That's another thing, they LET ME EAT!!! I was so hungry. While Sarah was there, I thought I would try to get some rest because I was also really tired. Yeah, that never happened. I kind of lost track of the timing of everything, so my time line isn't very good, but late in the afternoon between 3-4 or so I started having some regular contractions every 5 minutes or so. They lasted anywhere from 30 seconds to just over a minute. And they were super tolerable, with only a couple that I felt like I needed to breath through. And then things seemed to die off a little. Also, when I got to the hospital they took a urine sample from me. Eileen came back and told me that the white stuff that was in there was vernix, which meant that my main bag of waters had definitely ruptured and it wasn't just a fore-bag. I let Kristin (my midwife at home) know that by text and she agreed that it was a good indication. I guess at that point I felt a little better knowing that I was there for a good reason.

So, I think we decided to go take another walk around out side. It was about 5:45 (Eileen was due to be off at 6pm).  While we were out there I started to have more regular contractions about every 2.5 to 3 minutes. Some were stronger than others. When we went back inside I decided that since I was having consistent contractions that were getting stronger, I would be ok staying at the hospital. JoAnne checked me once more at some point before she left to back to Newport for a while. Usually I am really good with details, but I'm so fuzzy on the order of things that happened. This time I was dilated to 3cm and up to 4cm with a contraction. She encouraged me to get on the birth ball, spread my legs as wide as possible and kind of roll around in a circular motion. She also told me to put my foot up and lunge while I was having contractions, to open up the pelvis and help the baby descend. Once I started rolling around on the ball, things really did pick up. The contractions steadily got stronger.  I was allowed to keep my clothes on the whole time. They also knew that back at home I was planning a home birth. Eileen asked me "one final time" to confirm that I didn't want anything for pain. I told her that was correct and she said said, "ok, we won't ask you again." And they didn't. I was actually glad that we were able to be in a small hospital if that's where I was going to have my baby.

Also, another side note: I hadn't yet done my Group B strep test here at home. Since it was too late to do one, I was an "unknown" status. They gave me the option to have the antibiotics, which would be routine in an unknown status. After I thought about it for a while I declined the test. They didn't give me a hard time about it. They were so respectful of my choices. They also never once told me they wanted to put an IV in or even a port. (YES!!!) They only did fetal monitoring around once an hour (or less) for 5 to 10 minutes.And then maybe more frequently at the end, but it was never continuous.

So when we came back in from our 2nd walk outside, I had a new nurse named Kristina. She was kind of quiet, but very nice with us. They really left us alone quite a bit to just do our thing. So over the next two hours the contractions got stronger and stronger. I had to breath quite a bit to get through them, but they were still manageable. I put the ball up on the bed and leaned over and hugged it. I just rocked on it side to side through the contractions and tried to do mini squats sometimes. I was trying to think of a mantra, but there wasn't one that stuck. I tried to remind myself to breath deep, to open my mouth, to relax my face. I thought about "letting my monkey do it" (something I read out of one of Ina May Gaskin's book). I tried to zone out sometimes, to just focus on a certain point. As they got stronger I had the urge to "relieve myself" (yay!). I think I did that twice. The second time, I stayed on the toilet for quite a while. The contractions were pretty intense at that point and I figured I was in transition. I got really hot and started stripping all my clothes off as I sat there. It must have felt good to sit on the toilet because I didn't want to get off. I felt the urge to throw up and once I did, I knew we were getting down to business. I knew the end was near. Sarah put a cool cloth on the back of my neck and then used one to wipe my forehead. The end contractions were really hard for me to breath through. They hurt so bad! I remember thinking in my head that I can totally understand why women want epidurals. But I also knew it was almost over since I had done it unmedicated with Alaina as well.

While I was still on the toilet, I felt my uterus bear down. It had begun the pushing process. Once I felt it a couple of times, we got out into the bedroom and it was right down to it. They put the monitors back on at this point and I didn't like that. Especially when they were trying to hold the lower one in place during a contraction. That hurt even more. Those final contractions were extremely, extremely intense and I think that's when I started getting more vocal. Apparently that is one of my natural coping techniques. I threw up again during one of those final contractions. The pushing contractions took over and as with Alaina it isn't something that I can stop. That part hurt much more than with Alaina. Much, much more. I felt like I got really loud, like I was screaming, but I guess it was more of a hollering. Her head just felt so hard coming out. I was encouraged by Justin and Sarah as they told me she was coming and that they could see her head. Even though it still hurt like hell. There was one point that I contributed to the pushing, adding my own pushing efforts to that of what my body was doing on its own. I wanted it over so bad! Finally at 8:21 she was born. She was beautiful! I could see her lying on the bed and she started to cry almost immediately. The doctor waited to cut the cord until he said it had stopped pulsing. It was a couple of minutes. I wish he would have waited just a little bit longer, but I am still glad he waited at all. They gave her to me right away. I just held her and held her and she pooped all over me. haha!  Even though I was really skeptical in the beginning, I accepted what was happening. No, I didn't get to have a home birth experience, but I knew that since we were so far away that there was absolutely nothing we could do about it. It is very empowering to be able to be able to make your own choices during your labor and birth. It is wonderful to not have scare tactics used on you. No one ever treated me like there was something "wrong". I was just going to have a baby, and that's it.  No one treated me like I was a ticking time bomb because my water had broken early that day. They didn't put time pressures on me, they just let it happen. That's the way a hospital birth should be. Considering the huge surprise this was for all of us and for being away from home and my providers who I had developed a great relationship with, I am really really grateful and so happy with my birth experience. I got to do it how I wanted to do it, even if it wasn't where I had originally wanted it to happen.

I think it was actually my favorite birth experience. It had purpose and it was meaningful. If that makes sense. And I got to call the shots.

When I was talking to one of the nurses after she was born. I was explaining that this time it hurt much worse than with Alaina, even though I did both naturally without any pain medication/epidural. She explained that the bag of waters can help to cushion things and since my water had broken 13.5 hours prior, that may have been why. I thought that was interesting.

Also, one of my sister in laws asked me in regards to the pain, if I were to do it again, would I have an epidural. After I thought about it, my answer would be no. I would rather go through that intense pain for a brief period of time at the end than to spend my whole labor stuck in a bed and numb. I love being able to move around freely while I am laboring. And what got me through the end when it really, reallllyyy hurt, was knowing that in just a few minutes it would be over. As soon as the baby is born, the pain is gone!!! But, that's just my preference :)

I saw this quote yesterday:

ALWAYS REMEMBER

YOU ARE BRAVER

 THAN YOU BELIEVE

STROGNER THAN YOU SEEM

AND SMARTER

THAN YOU THINK