Birth Story

March 28, 2018

On Wednesday morning I woke up and felt completely normal, so I went to work. All my co-workers knew that I was really anxious to get the baby here, so they had been giving me tips on how to start labor all week. I had tried all of them and nothing had worked. The final suggestion was to take castor oil, so my kind co-worker, Chris, picked some up for me at lunch and watched as I took a tablespoon (disclaimer on taste: not as bad as everybody says it is - it just tastes like plastic oil).

4:00pm

I started feeling really tired so I went home early, took a shower, and then took a nap. Two hours later, I was getting ready to go to the gym with Jordan and my stomach started feeling upset, so I told him to go without me. Castor oil is supposed to help you go into labor by giving you diarrhea, which causes sympathetic cramps in your uterus.

7:30pm

I started to feel the diarrhea part of the previous statement, but no cramps. So, not wanting to get my hopes up, I laid on the couch and waited. The next time I went to the bathroom, I had what is called "the bloody show," so I texted Jordan and let him know that he might want to come home soon but not to rush because even if it was real labor I figured we still had at least 15 hours. After I texted him, I decided to start timing what I had previously thought were just diarrhea pains. They came every two minutes and lasted from 30-50 seconds. This threw me off, because everything I had read about labor said that unless you were well into labor, your contractions would not be that close together, so again I doubted that I was actually in labor. Another 40 minutes passed and they were still two minutes apart and 30-50 seconds, so I decided to text my doula (Ruthie) and let her know what was happening.

After letting her know how many contractions I had in 30 minutes, she said that she would head over and just check on me. Ruthie arrived 20 minutes later, but was also thrown off that my contractions appeared to be so close together. She decided to check my "purple line" aka the "bottom line" (google it) to see approximately how far dilated I was and she said I looked like a 3 or a 4! 

11:30pm

Since I tested positive for GBS, we headed to the hospital because I needed to be on antibiotics for at least 4 hours prior to delivery. Jordan drove me and called my Mom and photographer on the way, to let them know what was happening. When we got there we walked to where we thought we were supposed to go, but the door was locked! I had a contraction and was squatting on the ground. A nightshift worker walked by and urgently asked, "Are you OK?" To which Jordan yelled back, "Of course she's not OK, she's in labor! Where do we go?" He pointed to a door about 100 yards away and we walked over but because of how labor and delivery units are set up, all doors are locked and you need to be buzzed in. Jordan repeatedly hit the buzzer and when the calm nurse answered, he said, "My wife is in labor! Let us in!"

11:55pm

We were taken immediately into the room that I ended up delivering in. The nurse checked my vitals and checked to see how far along I was. My doula was right. I was dilated to a 4 with contractions still coming every 2 minutes, lasting from 45-60 seconds each. They put me on my antibiotic drip I.V. and put a monitor on the baby.

At this point, the contractions were getting pretty intense and my doula had to apply counter-pressure to my back with Jordan pressing my knees toward her. I also threw up. The first of 5 times.

March 29th, 2018-2:00am

My doula, Ruthie, had the nurse come and check me because she said by how I was laboring, I was probably close to an 8. My water still had not broken and I was having to moan to make it through each contraction. When the nurse checked and told me I was a 6, I was definitely disappointed! That was the moment that I reminded myself that labor math does not exist. Meaning, even though it had taken me two hours to get to a 6, that didn't mean that I would still only progress at 1 cm per hour (the nurse told me I should be grateful my body progressed that much!).

At this point,  my doula said that since I was having so much back labor, it was likely that Julius was sunny side up and in order to make the labor go faster, we needed to try to turn him. Enter the rebozo. For those of you who don't know what rebozo sifting is, it is a technique that requires you to go on all fours and have your doula place a long piece of fabric under your belly and during each contraction she sifts the belly back and forth, sort of like cleaning a bowling ball. This was definitely one of the worst parts because I could not get any counter-pressure and I was having to do it through contractions. It worked, however and he turned the right way!

2:50am

My water broke and the nurse told me I was at an 8! I was so surprised at how out of control the urge to push was. It was the same feeling as needing to throw up. You can't control it. Once they found out I was an 8, they called my doctor in and set up the delivery table. Seeing a nurse set up the delivery table gave me a wave of hope--like I was getting so close and I could do this.

Jordan kept repeating "You're not dead yet" which made the nurse laugh but it's what I told him to remind me of--that if I was in this much pain, all I had to do was keep breathing and it wouldn't kill me. My contractions never had a longer space in between than 2 minutes but as I got further into labor they got closer together--30 seconds to a minute apart. I only had two contractions that double peaked (which was awful to not even have a second to breath in between). In between contractions, I laid there and focused on breathing. I don't remember holding any conscious thought during most of my labor, I just focused on getting through one contraction at a time and then resting and breathing when I got a break.

3:35am

By this time, I had moved to my hands and knees and Jordan was leaning over the bed holding up my entire upper body as I went through contraction after contraction. The doctor checked me again and told me I was ready to push. She told me to hold my breath and push with everything I had. And I did. I bore down on Jordan during every contraction, held my breath and pushed! I felt like I was trying to poop out a brick that wouldn't move. 10 minutes in, the doctor reached up into me and popped my second sac of water ( I didn't know that you had two layers you could break!) and it gushed everywhere. Remember, I am on my hands and knees so I'm just swimming in all the birth "stuff."

3:50am

I felt what is called the "ring of fire" and I felt so excited because I knew he was getting ready to crown. The next wave of contractions came and his head came out and then his body! That part went so fast. He was here! He didn't cry at all when he came out so they handed him through my legs to me, had me turn and lay down on my back, and put him on my stomach. My cord was so short he couldn't reach my chest. They let him stay connected to the cord for about a minute and then had Jordan cut it. Since he still hadn't made a sound, they took him and suctioned out some fluid from his lungs and stomach and he finally let out two small cries and then just relaxed. The nurses said he was such a calm baby!

The doctor basically pulled my placenta out 5 minutes later. I don't even remember feeling any contractions, it's like it just fell out haha. Then, they him laid on my chest for an hour and it felt completely surreal! I couldn't believe we had done it! 

A few notes...Jordan was my rock 100%. He was the only voice I wanted to listen to and he never left my side the entire time. I also could not have done it without my doula. She kept both Jordan and I focused and reminded me of the things I didn't want to hear (like lowering my moaning sounds and changing positions). Natural, unmedicated birth was more intense than I could put into words but it was something I felt strongly to do and thankfully, my body and labor allowed me to do so.