Throughout my pregnancy with Nathan, I had what they called an "irritable uterus" - meaning, it was contracting ALL the time. There wasn't much concern for preterm labor, but it was very uncomfortable and made me worry a little about if I'd be able to tell when real labor began. Thankfully, the Lord made it obvious for me!
The night before labor began, I had the same signs that I did during the beginning of Joel's and Isaac's births, so I was encouraged that things were about to start happening.
Around 3:30 am I woke up with a contraction, which wasn't unusual - I had been having contractions for weeks and weeks, but these actually kept me awake, and did not die down - I stayed in bed until 5 am and they were still consistent. I whispered to Michael we were probably having a baby today! So he woke up but stayed in bed a little while longer as I puttered around making sure all the bags and things were ready to go. The whole time, the contractions were consistent, but hard to time - I'd have a big, long on every 8-10 minutes, but then some smaller, less intense, and shorter ones sometimes every 3-6 minutes, so I really didn't know what to think.
I showered, and we got the boys up at 7 or so, and told them the baby was coming today! Ezra said to Michael "How do YOU know?! Only GOD knows when the baby is going to come!" So we told him God had a way of making sure mamas know when their baby is coming! ;-)
We got them dressed and loaded up and headed over to my sister-in-law's, where our family was waiting and excited, prayed for us and wished us well, and we were on our way to the hospital! I got checked in around 9 am and the put me in a triage room to see how far along I was, and I was at 7 cm! They asked if I wanted to walk down the hall to my room or if I would like to be pushed on the bed. I wasn’t feeling any sort of transition-type contractions yet, so I said I’d walk. I had one contraction on the way down the hall. We got to the room and settled in and I told my nurse I was feeling a teeny bit of pressure – no urge to push, but pressure. She called my midwife who came and checked me, and I was at 10 cm!
So she broke my water and said I could push if I felt like it, or not, just to listen to my body. I could feel a lot of pressure, but it wasn’t that “I have to PUSH!” feeling, so I wanted to wait for the baby to drop a bit more. She let me go to the bathroom, and walk around, and she rubbed my back during a few contractions as I stood up and leaned over the bed. I still didn’t have a huge urge to push, but the pressure was really bothering me, so I told her I’d like to give pushing a try.
She suggested I get on my hands and knees on the bed and try pushing that way. As I pushed, Michael put counterpressure on my lower back, which was SO nice. Pushing was hard, I hate pushing!! But the all-fours position really helped me feel the sensations of pushing a lot better than the times I’ve done it on my back, it was amazing how much easier it was to do it that way. All I heard from the midwife was lots of encouragement. I pushed for 10 minutes, and Nathan was born! Since I was on my hands and knees, I couldn’t see him right away, but Michael put his face next to mine and had tears in his eyes and said “It’s a boy!” and I cried from joy and exhaustion, lol!
When he was born, he had the cord wrapped around his neck, which scared Michael, but he said the midwife handled it perfectly. Then we discovered that his cord also had a complete, true knot in it, which the midwife said is really rare. I wish we had gotten a picture of it, it was amazing to see. She said the only reason it didn’t cause any complications was because his cord happened to be longer than normal, too, so it never cinched the knot tight enough to cause problems. I knew the Lord was protecting Nathan.
I was amazed at what a difference having a midwife made, she was really everything I had hoped for. It was actually a little weird at first to not have someone instructing me the whole time! At first I didn't really know HOW to listen to my body, and was a little self conscious, but it was so freeing to know there weren't any expectations at all. It was a wonderful birth.
I can't wait to post my next birth story soon!!
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4 comments:
it has been so neat to read your birth stories. i would agree that having a midwife makes ALL the difference in the world. amber's birth was the most wonderful even though it ended in c-section, just because i felt no pressure from my midwife and she encouraged me to go with my body. i hope you have as wonderful an experience this time!!
How very appropriate , seeing the name NATHAN means Gift from god !!
E - Wonderful stories! I know you don't actually remember, but you, too, were born with the assistance of a mid-wife - yes they had them in the old days :-). The OB, who I saw maybe 4 times my whole pregnancy, sat in the corner and read a magazine. Mid-wives are wonderful. Sadly, by the time Sarah was born, mid-wives were not embraced and no longer had hospital privileges in VA/DC, so I had to use a regular OB. If I had to do it again, which, don't worry, I most likely won't, I would go the mid-wife route.
Your timing is perfect; I had just been thinking of sharing birth stories on my blog too, although I only have half the number that you do. ;) Both my boys came out tangled in their cords, too. And I agree that midwives are awesome!
Looking forward to reading your next birth story!
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