On the eve of miss Alaina's 2nd birthday, I think it would be fun to revisit her birth story and one of the most incredible experiences I have ever been through. Enjoy!
Alaina’s Birth Story
Tuesday September 1, 2009
The day started out like most of the other days leading up to it. I had already given my Dad a hard time for “cursing” me. He really wanted me to have the baby in September, rather than August because we have so many birthdays and anniversaries already in August. Justin was at work and I stayed home with Dean and Joyce. They were helping can peaches that day. I guess they weren’t really “helping”, they were doing all of it and I sort of watched and asked questions here and there. I made a nectarine pie earlier in the day and was really looking forward to eating it after dinner. I felt pretty low key the whole day. I was trying to remain relaxed and patient as we waited for the baby to come. I was feeling somewhat restless though, and I was able to get some dusting done. Just after 6pm, I decided to go lay down on the bed for a little while. As I was laying there, I started to have some contractions, but they didn’t seem to be a big deal and weren’t painful. I had been having contractions like this on and off for several days now and decided not to get too excited about it. Besides, they didn’t last or progress, so no big deal.
Justin worked late that night and I was still resting when he got home. My mother in law made dinner and I came out to eat around 8pm or so. After dinner, I completely indulged in some nectarine pie and vanilla ice cream, having a little more than I should.
Sarah had done some acupressure on my ankles earlier in the evening and she was encouraging Justin and I to take another walk after dinner. We left the house around 9pm and as we were leaving, Katelyn came running out crying. She wanted to come on the walk too and it just about broke my heart seeing her upset and running to us. She was probably wondering what we were doing and why she was being left out this time. We like to go on walks as a family.
We didn’t go on a very long walk, but we found one small hill to go up. Katelyn got tired after walking up the hill and wanted Justin to carry her back. She fell asleep on his shoulder-it was really sweet. On the way back to the house Justin said to me, “you know, this might be the last walk we take as just a family of three.”
We got Katelyn to bed and decided we would try a few more “at home” induction techniques. I hardly had a chance to fall asleep when I felt my first contraction. I looked at the clock and it said 11:11pm. It was a fairly strong contraction, so I decided to pay attention and see what would happen. About 9 minutes later, I had another one. These were a lot stronger than the contractions I had previously been having and I wasn’t able to try and sleep through them. I decided to change into my “labor clothes”, managed to put some fresh deodorant on and just started walking around trying to breathe through the contractions. I started writing them down as they came. Here is what it looked like:
Contraction:
11:11pm
(9 min)
11:20pm
(6 min)
11:26pm
(5 min)
11:31pm
(4 min)
11:35pm
(contraction while on the toilet)
11:41pm
(3 min)
11:44pm
(2 min)
11:46pm
I Stopped keeping track after that.
I could not believe how strong the contractions were. I called Amanda, my Doula at 11:52pm. I told her I was going to try and stay at home for a while and she told me she’d be here in an hour. I really didn’t want to wake Justin up because he had been up since 4 am and had just barely gone to bed. I did go in and tell him that it was happening though. However, he has no recollection of that. After I called Amanda, I went down to tell Sarah that things had started and she came out to help me. I had been trying to use the breathing techniques I had been practicing, but it wasn’t working very well. I could not sit still. I had to keep walking or rocking. I tried to sit on the birth ball, but it was really uncomfortable. The contractions were getting more and more intense and I started thinking to myself that there was no way I was going to make it several more hours like this without any pain medication.
I started to feel sick to my stomach and went in the bathroom. I had pooped about three times already, which I was happy about because I really don’t like to do it while I am pushing. I threw up big time. That nectarine pie wasn’t so good the second time around. Sarah came to check on me and I told her to go get Justin up. He came down to see if he could help and turned the bathroom fan on right away. He asked if I was ok and I told him, “no! we need to go!” I asked him to bring me the phone so I could call my mom and then he went upstairs to get our bag and get some clothes on. My mom answered and sounded like she didn’t know who I was, which admittedly, kind of annoyed me at the time. Like who else would be calling in the middle of the night. I couldn’t talk because another contraction was coming on and I put the phone down and told Sarah to “tell her”. Apparently my mom didn’t hear me say, “hold on” and they got disconnected (I think). Eventually she got the message. It was about 12:15am when I called her. Justin was about ready and got the car started. Sarah was trying to get Audrey’s things together to take her out to my mother in law in the trailer. I remember saying to Justin, “screw the birth plan.” I had to go to the bathroom again and went upstairs. I was having another major contraction and suddenly I felt my body bearing down. I think I was in shock and I called for Sarah and told her, “I think I’m pushing, I think I’m pushing! We have to go, we have to go now!” I tried to breathe. I wiped off and saw some thick blood. I grabbed a towel and headed out to the car. The cool night air felt so good to me. I threw to towel on the seat and got in the car. Justin was close behind and I started having more contractions along with the urge to push. I became very vocal at this point. I think I may have howled as we backed out of the driveway and went over some bumps. I was so thankful that Justin wasn’t poking along. Things got crazy at this point. With every contraction, my body was pushing. I felt my water break in the car. I absolutely felt zero control over what was happening. I was yelling and screaming and telling Justin, “I’m pushing, I’m pushing!” I heard him floor the gas pedal. Luckily under normal circumstances, the hospital is only about 10 minutes away. I believe the clock in the car said 12:26am when we left the house. Justin remained very calm, but drove fast. I seriously was howling and hollering and screaming with each contraction. I could not believe what was happening. I was trying to breathe fast and keep my chin up like I remembered hearing you were supposed to do if you were trying not to push. Nothing was working though. I kept screaming, telling Justin, “hurry! I’m pushing, I’m pushing! She’s going to come out, she’s gonna come out!” He got on the phone and called 911 to let them know what was going on. I swear they were asking a million questions and I was getting a little annoyed. Couldn’t they hear me screaming in the background. We were a few blocks from the hospital and I was very worried that this baby was going to come out in the car. Justin was great. He was holding my hand and saying, “don’t push, don’t push, you’re doing great!” I felt slightly hysterical at this point. I yelled some more. “She’s coming out, I can feel the burning, I can feel the burning!” They were waiting for us at the ER entrance with a bed. They tried to help me out, but I could hardly move. I managed to get on the bed and continued howling and yelling the whole time. I lost a shoe getting on the bed. I remember saying, “help me, help me! She’s coming out, she’s coming out!” They ran me down the hallways (luckily it is a smaller hospital), and I was yelling the whole time, like a mad woman. I saw one woman come out into the doorway of one room. I could not help myself. I was telling the medical staff, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, I never thought I’d behave this way.” On the way into the room, I said, “can I get a shot of something?” I don’t think anyone heard me or answered me. They managed to get me onto the delivery bed, take my pants off etc. My body just felt rigid. I was grabbing the bed rails with all my might. At some point Justin made it into the room. He tried getting me to grab his hands, but I wanted to bed rails. He was cute. I remember him asking if I wanted the music. HA! I declined. The staff was telling me to bend my legs and don’t be scared. One of the nurses only managed to get one glove on and another one’s glove was all crooked and had some fingers in the wrongs spots and some fingers not in any spots. I got my legs back and my body kept pushing. It felt like the baby was coming out of my crotch and a huge turd was coming out of my butt. It hurt. I felt more burning and pressure, but there was nothing I could do. There was not one push during the entire process that was of my own will or choice. I could not believe what I was feeling. Her head came out and I felt some relief, then some more burning and her body was out, then more relief. Alaina was born at 12:40 am. She was delivered by Dr. Brooks. We barely made it into the hospital room and it was the most horrifying, intense, exciting, exhilarating, coolest, most amazing experience that has ever happened to me. I got the natural birth I was hoping for, just not nearly in the way I had imagined. So much for all that practicing. I felt so bad for Sarah and Amanda, who along with my midwife, missed the birth. But it was incredible. Total scene out a movie, type birth story. All of it true. We have a beautiful, healthy girl and are so happy.
I put on my running music to listen to while I was cleaning up and Alaina immediately ran down stairs to get her "dancing thing" on (tutu). I thought that was pretty cute, but that's not the point of this post.
