Before I gave birth to my first son, Abe, I wanted to know as much about labor & delivery as possible! With a non-medicated labor as my goal, I figured ignorance couldn't be bliss! ;-) So I read labor stories, asked every mother I met about their labors, took classes at my Birth Center and asked my Mom about her labors for the umpteenth time!
If you are pregnant or want to have a baby one day, maybe you like to hear about the process. The details of how a baby goes from living inside of his Mom to greeting the world! Since every labor & delivery story are different I feel that the more stories you hear, the better! You want to get a good overview of the long labors, the short, hospital births, birth center & home births, water deliveries and your occasional "side of the road" birth!
I would like to share my journey, in hopes that it will encourage...or atleast entertain you! ;-) So, here is the story of how not-so-little Abe came into this world on the Fourth of July!
To begin with, I had a lot of braxton hicks contractions in the latter part of my pregnancy. I was still waiting tables four days a week and the walking really brought on a lot of cramping and contracting. At 30 weeks I was sent to the hospital by my Midwife because one evening they were coming very frequently (I believe they were 3-5 min apart) and I couldn't get them to dissipate. By the time we arrived at the hospital they were abating & I checked out just fine! After that, my Midwives and I figured out that I just had a uterus that liked to contract a lot! The next 10 weeks were full of episodes similar to the first (minus the drive to the hospital). The last "episode" before real labor came six days before his birth. For about 5 or 6 hours I had a lot of Braxton Hicks (some got to be painful). I was very uncomfortable. And as quickly as it came on, they went away.
Abraham was due on Sunday, July 5th. He came on Saturday, July 4th. On the Friday before he was born I was very tired and took a nap. That evening I remember being quite uncomfortable (which wasn't uncommon during my 3rd trimester!). :-P My Husband was giving me a "history lesson" as we watched a documentary and I remember barely being able to concentrate on what he was saying due to my menstrual-like backache & crampy Braxton Hicks. By the time I was going to bed he could tell I wasn't acting like myself and he asked me if I thought this was "it". After having so many bouts with Braxton Hicks and "false alarms" I played it cool and passed it all off as normal end-of-pregnancy symptoms.
11:00 PM: Went to bed.
1:00 AM: I woke up having Braxton Hicks and feeling pressure "down-yonder". I went to the bathroom. From my notes that I typed on my contraction app, I think I had what felt like a "rush" when I came back to bed. (I had been reading stories from Ina May's book and they refer to contractions as "rushes".) All of a sudden I knew what they meant when they called them "rushes" because it came from my back and wrapped around my midsection to my belly in a rush of crampy pain!
1:47 AM: I began to log the contractions on my app. (They were 2-3 minutes apart and lasting an average of a minute)
1:56 AM: Moved from my bed to the couch. Beginning to experience some very painful contractions.
2:09 AM: Texted my sister Chris that I may be in labor. Then I went 3 minutes without a contraction & began to doubt myself. And then, boom! A hard one hit!
2:15 AM: Went to the bathroom to go #1 because the contractions were hard enough that I was afraid I would wet my pants! :-) During a contraction I laid my head on the counter and closed my eyes. When I opened my eyes again, my vision was blurry. I remembered my Mom had always said that her vision got blurry during transition so this worried me (even though I still wasn't fully convinced this was ACTUAL labor! ) ;-)
2:24 AM: Contractions were lasting 40-60 seconds on average and coming every 1 1/2- 3 minutes apart. In my notes I typed, "I cried just now bcuz the reality of this is hitting...if this is for real, we will meet Junior soon."
2:41 AM: Took a shower because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to later if this was labor. And they tell you to shower during "early labor" in Birth Class. Wrote in my notes that I had 3 contractions in the shower and they had been "shorter, easier ones...maybe bcuz of warm water?"
3:00 AM: Woke up Brian. I didn't want to have a "false alarm" so I made sure he knew I still wasn't 100% sure this was the real thing. He suggested I call the Midwife. I bargained, and asked if I could just call my Mom instead! (I didn't want to call the Midwife needlessly. I knew my Mom could help me determine if this was "real".) Contractions are consistently 1 1/2- 2 1/2 minutes apart and usually lasting 30-40 seconds.
3:24 AM: From notes- "Called Mom. Had maybe 3 light ones. Hit with a doozy where I put down phone....told Mom I had to go. Went to toilet had another doozy."
4:17 AM: My contractions were 1 1/2- 2 minutes apart and lasting closer to a minute long again. From notes-"Called Mom. Told her to tell KT and F. B has called Vicki. We r gonna go soon."
KT and F are my two youngest sisters. B is my Hubby and Vicki our Midwife.
4:57 AM: I stopped timing contractions on my app and no longer took notes.
Before we left, Brian was so sweet and neatened things up around the house. He also read the list I had made him and packed his bag. He made the call to the Midwife around 4 AM for me and I remember being surprised that Vicki didn't ask to talk with me. (They usually ask to speak to the Mom in labor to guage how far along they are.) At that point I was on the floor, leaning across our rocking chair's ottoman, moaning and breathing through the contractions.
We had a 15 minute drive to the Birth Center and I was able to labor sitting in the front seat, buckled in! I was so thankful to God, because I had been laboring on my hands and knees or standing, leaning on bathroom or kitchen counters. I had called my sister Chris (or maybe she called me?) in Canada, right before we left our house. I told her I was in labor. I had to put the phone down during every contraction & ended up hanging up on her saying I had another one coming! Chris knew I was getting close because she later told me I was extremely focused. She also said we were only on the phone for a couple minutes and I had a few contractions...basically I was having them more frequently than I had told her! I asked her to pray over our drive because I was concerned about not being able to be on my hands and knees. She prayed. And God was gracious! The car ride wasn't too bad. I pushed my head back against Abe's car seat and my head rest (somehow that helped me). I think Brian prayed for me on our drive as well! I know my parents were praying too! I was covered in prayer!
To be continued...
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