Birth Story: C and R
We caught our baby at 8:05 in the morning. It was an absolutely wonderful experience.
My water broke at 9:45pm Tuesday night and we calmly went to the hospital (since I tested positive for GBS, I had to be put on a penicillin IV asap) with all of our gear in toe, including two copies of our birth plan. From the emergency room we went up to registration and were quickly admitted in to Triage. We gave them a copy of our birth plan to keep in their charts and we actually witnessed our nurse looking over it with care. R was able to stay with me and the nurse was fantastic (Her name was P…hard to forget since every push I am pretty sure I called for everyone including her…) we had the IV lock put in and my dilatation checked, I was 3cm and 80% effaced, and not at all disappointed with it.
After a quick run through triage, we were placed in a labor room around 11pm. We were able to grab about 45 minutes of sleep before the stronger surges hit. I visualized and meditated through most of them and then found myself making some of the strangest sounds but continued with the pelvic exercises. This is were R really made this labor work. He used reflexology to relax me and kept instilling me with the confidence that – I was made to do this, that I was breathing down the baby, that the baby and I were working together. He was wonderful and really held his own when it was time to push.
P was incredible as well. When I told her I needed to push, she checked me very quickly and paged the doctor, we were ready to go. after a couple pushes though, the baby started moving slower down the birth canal…which led to almost three hours of pushing! Come to find out after the first two they could see his little wet locks of
hair but instead of just pushing a head down, he was sunny side up, with a hand and arm leading the way! Just like superman.
At this point we had a nurse shift change and were placed with nurse D, who had also had her first naturally and was 23 weeks with her second. She started using perineum massage right away giving me a focal point for pushing – also VERY helpful. Once he crowned though – that was probably the most magical, I watched it, I was able to feel his head, I was able to move – feeling everything was, well, there are no words.
The OB on duty was Dr. A from my office and he was amazing. Great sense of humor and a joy to work with. When S crowned he made the comment – ‘this is when I wish that little baby heads came with handles, because this is when I want to help the mother out’. I chuckled in between pushes…. Anyway, before I rant on further – the lil’ one crowned and after just a few pushes he was out and on my chest. R announced the sex to me and name, then cut the cord after it has stopped pulsating – it was absolutely the most beautiful thing that I have done in my entire life!
I felt everything and would do it again a million times over and push longer if I had to. We were both so alert at his birth and were able to look at each other eye to eye within seconds of him being birthed. This was ALL so priceless. Thank you so much for giving us the knowledge and understanding of birth. I feel like the hypnobirthing class gave us that extra confidence that we could do this naturally. It really is a pleasure telling people that we got through our 11 hours of labor with the strongest medication being an IB pro-fin 3 hours after birth. All the preparation really paid off. I will never forget this day and cherish it always. It was everything and more than I could have ever wanted it to be.