Well, this one was definitely a new and different birthing
experience! Malachi decided to be prompt
and arrive on his due date (my other two were each at least a week passed their
dates).
It was funny, because while we were putting the kids to bed,
I joked with my hubby that tonight was probably the night because I was
irritable and didn’t want anyone touching me—just like I wanted to go be alone
somewhere. We decided to watch a movie
until bed. I was feeling kind of sick-ish
by bedtime and thought I’d had too much to eat earlier and was in for a night
of heartburn. I went to the bathroom
before bed and then as I was heading upstairs, my water broke. That completely shocked me because my first
birth, they ruptured my waters, and the second time, we aren’t sure when my
water broke, but it was intact when we arrived at the hospital and I was well
into labor. I had been having some
pressure waves, but they were spaced between 8 and 12 minutes apart, so I
figured it was just more warm-ups. I was a little concerned that things might not
pick up the way I would like once my water broke and I wasn’t already in a good
active pattern.
Our ride to the hospital was comfortable, and my waves were
between 4 and 8 minutes apart by the time we arrived at about 12:45. I was measured at 3-4cm and 80% effaced. We found out that Baby Thumper had moved and
was occiput posterior again, despite my earlier spinning babies success, and we
needed to do some work to get the baby to move down and into position. So we started walking, and walked until
around 3am. We ran into a granddaddy in
the hall who asked how we were doing and we chatted a bit only to find that he
was there to support his daughter who is 5 months pregnant and was pretty sure
she was miscarrying. He was so kind to
us in spite of his own trauma, and I promised to pray for them. When we finished walking, my waves were
increasing in intensity, so I decided I would like to try sitting on a birthing
ball for a bit and putting on my relaxation tracks. Our midwife, Kim, had arrived at the hospital
by this point and was so sweet to get the ball ready for me and find me some
snacks.
Ben was able to catch about a 2 hour nap at this point and I
worked on squatting as deeply as I could, circling my hips, trying to breathe
the baby down. In between surges, I was
praying for the family we met in the hallway, as well as for our birthing.
Around 5 ish I felt like resting, so I hopped up in bed and
my midwife put me in the Texas Roll position on my side to try to get the baby
to rotate. I was at a 6 at this point
and really focusing. The nurses came in
twice to try to get a Hep Lock placed during this time for pitocin after birth
(I have had big babies in the past, and since this was #3 they were concerned
about the possibility of hemorrhage).
This was incredibly painful, because my veins were rolling all over the
place and they could not get one in. It
took me out of my relaxation something fierce, and it took me a good couple of
minutes of intentional focus to get back to close to on-track. The waves were still pretty intense in my
back, so my midwife had me get up in hands and knees position, which really
moved things along. I wasn’t quite
prepared for how much it would change the game, but I was able to view it as
progress, so even though the intensity was greater, I could tell more work was
being accomplished, and for that, I was grateful.
I found that this birthing was not really what I visualized
at all, and I got a bit discouraged as the sun came up and my baby was not yet
in my arms. I had envisioned it being as
speedy as my last birthing. What really
helped me get beyond that was recognizing benchmarks and internally reminding
myself. I thought to myself that I was getting
to a place where I felt like I couldn’t do it anymore, and I knew enough to
tell myself that I didn’t have to for much longer, because I must be really
close to transition/transformation. Sure
enough with my next big wave, I started to throw up, surprising everyone else
who thought I had farther to go than that because of my calm.
It was about now that they tried the 2nd time for
the Hep Lock—not fun! But I got through
it. Decided I needed to go to the
restroom; the walk there and back felt pretty productive, and by the time I got
back to the bed, I wanted to get back on my side to get ready to push.
I started for the bed and a wave hit me, so I grabbed onto
the side of the bed and tried to climb on, only it is a bed that breaks down,
and somehow, I broke it down in the process, so mid-wave, half of my bed fell
to the floor. Looking back it was pretty
hilarious—definitely unexpected!
Everyone rushed around putting it back together, and then it was pretty
much time that my body started pushing.
My midwife was great; continually reminding me to “blow baby down and
into my arms.” That really worked for me
when I focused on it.
And soon, little Malachi Benaiah came yelling into the world
just as beautiful as could be, we snuggled, nursed, and I ordered
breakfast! It was pretty glorious in the
end. They did have to give me a short of
Pitocin in my leg and another anti clotting med, because my bleeding wasn’t
exactly what they wanted. Not as quick and easy as my last birth, but beautiful
in other ways. I learned about myself
that I can do hard things, and do them well even with hiccups in the road and
expectations that aren’t realized. And
in the end, I don’t think I would have had it any other way, except maybe a
better positioned baby from the get-go. ;)
I’m in deep smit, and likely to remain so!
