Labor of Love: A Midwife's Memoir (Hardcover)

She is finally here!! My birth story!!

Early morning on October 4th I was attempting to sleep out on the couch but my teeth were feeling a little sensitive and throbbing with each beat of my heart so I decided to get up and rearrange my livingroom. I did a major rearranging. This was at about 1am. I ended it by mopping my kitchen and livingroom floors. I felt satisfied that everything looked spic and span! I went to bed about 3am again on the couch after taking a tylenol for my aching teeth. At 6am I woke up because of two hard ctx. I went potty and kept hoping for more but none came so I figured it was like all the other times I was jolted awake from a hard ctx only to still be pregnant for days after. I decided to go back to bed. I laid down on the couch. At 6:15am I had the first ctx that begin my labor. The first so many were about 10 minutes apart. After that they went to 2 minutes apart. I waited until they had been coming consistantly for about 45 minutes and went in and woke up my dh and told him I was in labor. He just looked at me and said, "Are you serious?" I think he was pretty surprised. It seemed like we had been waiting for so long!
We then decided to get the pool ready because all of my past labors had been so fast we wanted to make sure it was ready. I just continued to walk and pace through them. They were still 2 minutes apart. I had seen a bit of pink and knew I was dilating. At about 8am I felt like they were getting pretty intense so I told John I needed to get in the pool. I got in and they stopped coming every two minutes and went to about 10 minutes apart. I figured they would pick back up so I waited in the pool. They did pick back up to about every 2 or 3 minutes apart but they weren't as intense. I finally decided to get out and go potty and see if that helped. When I got in the pool I felt that I was heading into transition but the water slowed it down. I went potty and while on the toilet I begin to have really intense ctx again. I decided to push lightly with a few to see if it was about that time. I begin to do that and felt that it was. I begin to push. I was pushing as hard as I could and nothing was happening. I began to get very tired and shaky from the pushing. I was in the bathroom squatting on the floor holding onto the sink for leverage. John tried to come in but I wouldn't let him. Finally he pushed the door open and came in. He told me to get back in the pool and se if it helped with the pain and pushing. He helped me to the pool. I got in and the ctx stayed vey intense but I just didn't feel right for some reason in the pool. I couldn't get comfortable. So I told John that I wanted out and wanted to go back into the bathroom and push there. I went into the bathroom and begin to push once again. Again nothing was happening. I asked John to check me and see where baby's head was. He checked me and could feel baby's head in the birth canal but still up a a ways. I begin to push again but I had to stop because I was shaking and weak from pushing so hard and the lack of progress. I decided to go lay down on my son's bed. My friend Robin had shown up during this time and begin to do counter pressure on my back during the ctx. I rested through about 4 of them and then decided I couldn't lay down anymore and needed to push. I leaned against the bed in a squat and pushed some more with again no progress. So I decided that I had to rest. I was so tired and wanted to sleep in between the ctx if I could. I also was feeling sick to my tummy, weak and shaky. Just plain worn out...
I had my dh John and Robin come upstairs with me. We decided to see if we could feel the water bag bulging enough to try to pop the bag and get things moving a bit. John checked me and to my dismay found that the baby's head had went all the way back up. He could barely reach it. He could feel the water bag but it wasn't bulging and there was no way for us to break it.
This begin my 3 hours of transition. I laid on my bed and would doze during the ctx. They were coming every 2 minutes for 3 hours. They were so intense I truly thought I was going to lose my mind. Robin did counter pressure on my back and after awhile John took over and begin to apply the pressure to my back. They pushed so hard my back is very sore and I am sure bruised. I would tell them push harder. I needed them to push hard to help with the intense back pain I was having. It gave me something else to focus on. While John applied the counter pressure Robin kept her hands on my belly feeling baby's position and if she was moving down. She felt the baby and discovered that she was posterior. At the end of this 3 hours I felt ZaraLayna being pushed down. I didn't feel pushy but I knew that she was being pushed into the birth canal and that the ctx were so intense that I had to push and get this done before I went crazy with the pain. So I got off the bed and squatted against it and begin to push. I probably pushed for about 10 minutes or so. When I begin to push lots of fluid begin to come out. And then right before her head came I felt a little pop of the rest of water bag that wasn't broken. Her head followed after that. Once I got her head out I then gave one last push and out came her body! The pushing hurt very bad. I felt like I was being torn apart. John grabbed her from behind me and Robin and John checked her over. After they had looked at her and saw she was breathing, etc.. they begin to see to me. I hadn't even looked at her yet because as soon as she was out I couldn't move. The pain in my bottom area was so awful that all I could do was stay in the sqauttiing position. Finally Robin helped me sit down against her. That helped with the pain. I begin to cry because I was in such intense pain. And then when I saw her I kept crying. She was here and she was so beautiful! I sat on the floor for quite awhile as we waited for the cord to stop pulsing and turn white. Then John cut and clamped the cord. ZaraLayna pinked up right away. When she was born her color was really good. She also cried as soon as she entered our world.
Eventually I was up and in the shower.
We are enjoying her so much. Although it was my hardest labor she was worth it! It was 6 1/2 hours long but being in transition for 3 hours and having her go all the way back up seemingly going backwards in my progress made it a very intense and painful labor. We did it! I did it without any intervention or pain meds. Now I know that even when its rough and things are discouraging I can do it at home. I love birthing unassisted! All the glory be given to God for our precious baby girl ZaraLayna!

She weighed in at 7lbs. 12-14 oz. She wiggled a bit on our scale so we weren't sure if it was 12 or 14 oz but somewhere in there. And she is 19 inches long. She has black hair and a great color to her. :) She is beautiful. She is a very pretty baby girl! :)

Thank HaShem for my 2nd VBAC and 4th UC!