Reid's Birth Story

Reid's Birth

I had been having frequent prodromal labor surges for about 3 weeks, so I was starting to feel like I would probably be half way through labor before I was actually sure it was time. On Monday morning (exactly 39 weeks), I woke up feeling crampy, with much crampier surges and some bloody show. My mom was arriving that day to stay with us until after the baby was born, so I was pretty excited that it could be early labor. That night I woke up at 4 am to crampy surges every 4 minutes and thought for sure this was it. Chad even loaded up the car as I decided to take a shower. Sure enough, an hour later, the surges died out.

I had my regular midwife appointment that morning and went in convinced I was on the verge of going into labor. I was really bummed to find out that even with the day and a half of crampy contractions, there was no difference in my cervix from the previous week. I went home really discouraged, but felt a little better that evening when I lost my mucus plug.

Chad and I decided that as long as there was no baby, we might as well take advantage of grandma's availability as a babysitter, and we went out to the movies Wednesday night, then out to a really nice dinner Thursday night (which was our anniversary). On the way to dinner on Thursday, I was talking about how I was starting to worry that the baby wouldn't come out on his own, and that it felt like I would probably be pregnant for another week at least. I was really crampy throughout dinner, and when we stood up, I could tell that the baby had dropped some more because I was really having trouble walking. Surges started getting closer that evening, about 7 minutes apart. Then around 11pm, I felt a pop during one of the surges, and when I changed position, my underwear was flooded.

I called the birthing center to let the midwife know that my water had broken. I was really excited to discover that my favorite midwife was on call that night. She had just finished with another birth and was headed home, and told me to try to get some rest until I felt like I needed to come in. I took a little Valerian, put some towels down on the bed, and laid down. Chad fell asleep pretty quick, but I started having stronger surges within 30 minutes, and knew that I wasn't going to be able to sleep. I had used Hypbirth to prepare for labor, so I put on a CD and started doing finger drops. A little after one, my surges were about 4-5 minutes apart, and since I was a second-time mom, I knew there was a chance things could progress pretty quick, so I decided it was time to head in to the birthing center.

We arrived a little after 2 am. My midwife examined me and said I was 3.5 cm, and she could still feel a bag of water, so it must have been just my forewaters that broke. I walked around for a little while, then got into bed and decided to try to get some 'rest.' I put on my labor companion CD, and lay on my side, with Chad on the other side of the bed rubbing my back. I gave up on finger drops pretty quick (with Hypbirth you don't learn a 'center' and I found I was needing to move and vocalize during surges), but the deepening aspects of the labor companion CD really helped.

Eventually I asked to get in the bath, and the midwife said it would really be better if I waited, since the bath can sometimes slow things down. We went through some more surges with my midwife applying counter-pressure to my back and my husband rubbing my leg. About an hour later I insisted that I really did think I needed to get in the bath.

The water was wonderful! I could completely relax between surges. After I got out out of the tub to poop, my midwife decided to check me again. This time I was dialated to an 8. She offered to break my remaining waters, but warned it would intensify things. I felt like I could manage things as they were and was making good progress, so I declined. Eventually, transition geared up, and I started having difficulty staying in my zone. We tried other positions in the tub, one of which made me feel like my tailbone was about to break. I had been planning a water birth, but eventually I felt a strong urge to get out of the tub.

I went back to the bed and labored on my side. Surges were *very* intense at this point and I started losing it (screaming). I lived for the moments between surges - they were total bliss! My midwife checked me again, and I was complete with a bulging bag. Since I still had no urge to push, she offered again to break my water and this time I accepted. Things moved very fast at that point. I started pushing and my baby was born within 5 minutes (it probably would have been even faster had my midwife not slowed me dow to try to give me some time to stretch). I ended up pushing on my back of all things, because I really felt like I needed the support of the bed against me. My beautiful son was born at 8:05. He was 9lbs. 5oz. and 22 inches. Just perfect.

The labor was much more intense than I was expecting, but I was so proud of myself at the end! I'm not even 2 weeks postpartum, and I'm already so excited for next time!

-Kori

mama to Carter (1/05) and Reid (8/07)