At 8am on Wednesday, November 24th, I went to my 39 week appointment with my midwife. I got there and the receptionist was like "So, you're still pregnant?" I was like "Yea." The nurse then asked "Trying for a turkey baby?" I replied, "Hopefully!" They checked my BP, was pretty good. Checked my weight and I lost 3lbs. The nurse commented that labor was thus imminent because you usually lose weight right before. I had also lost weight the week before. She I asked how I had been and I told her about all my fun fake labor I'd be having. She took me back to the exam room and asked if I wanted the midwife to check me, and I said yea. She commented "You have to know so you'll know whether to put the turkey in or not tomorrow." I was like "Haha. I'm not cooking, but yea I'd like to know."
Midwife came in and asked how I'd been. I told her about all the fun fake labor instances and she said 2nd babies are notoriously bad like that. She checked me and said I was an "easy 4" and that she could probably stretch me to five. She asked while she was checking if I'd like her to "stir things up" and she warned me that it could put me into labor in a few hours and/or cause my water to break. Well, it caused my water to break almost instantly. It wasn't a huge gush though, which was odd...I really must have been leaking over the past few weeks because nothing else really came out after that, even after I got up and walked around.
So...she was like...your water broke, so now you will for sure be having a baby today. I was like "Great!". She said she was going to hook me up to the monitors and see if it started contractions. I guess I was having little ones, but I wasn't really feeling them. She said she could give me two options..since I was almost 5cm I could just check into the hospital, or she could let me go home for a bit, walk around and get any last minute things done. If I chose to go home though, she said I HAD to call her before I went to the hospital and didn't want me to just show up...and she said we'd have to concoct a story about when my water really broke and not tell them it broke at my appointment because she said some people at the hospital have conflicting opinions about what to do when your water breaks. Being the rebel that I am...LOL...I opted to go home. She told me to check in by noon if contractions hadn't started by then. Got out of there a little after 9am. We arrived home about 10:05, but stopped at McDonalds on the way to bring my SIL some breakfast and get something for myself as well. My SIL was watching my son Kelly because my DH thought he should probably go to my appointment today because he thought I'd be having the baby. We got home, I cleaned out the front seat of our other car, went inside and sat at the kitchen table. Contractions hit hard..instantly....coming at 5 minutes apart. I told DH, "I think we'd better leave sooner rather than later." He jumped up and we said goodbye to Kelly and my SIL. We had a nice 30 minute drive to the hospital.
I called the midwife after we hit the road, told her they were 5 min apart and I thought I needed to check in. She told me to tell them my water broke at 9am, and not to mention that it happened at her office. No sooner do I get off the phone with her, and they are about 3 min apart....then 2 minutes. I'm thinking to myself that I shouldn't have opted to go home. Look over at the speedometer and DH is only going 65mph, the speed limit. Thinking to myself "Crap he better drive faster if we want to make it in time." I was also starting to feel pressure in my butt.....just a little bit, but not too bad. But I wasn't sure how long I'd last. I didn't tell him this because I didn't want him to freak out and I wasn't able to speak much...
We got to the hospital. I told him there was no way I could walk up to L&D and to pull up at the main entrance, put on his flashers and get me a wheelchair. He got me a wheelchair and pushed me in. We had no idea where to go. LOL. We ran into some lady in the hall and asked her...she happened to be the ER supervisor and she could see I was in serious active labor and got us on the fast track up to L&D, bypassing registration and took us up a short cut route. They took me to my room....the "holistic birth center" room. I was unsure of this.....having the baby there meant no drugs, no epidural. I didn't know if I could do it. I was doubting myself, even though I had wanted to do it drug-free. I figured though I could start out in there and if things dragged on I could ask to be moved to the regular rooms and get my epi. Well contractions were coming pretty much with just a 1 minute break in between now, if that. They were getting intense....I was zoning out and the only way I could get through them was to close my eyes really tight and ignore the world.
They wanted me to undress so they could check me. I took me a few contractions to do that. I got in the bed...the nurse checked me. She said I was about 6-7cm. She called for someone else to call my midwife and let her know my status. I labored in the bed for about 15 minutes while they filled the birth tub up. When it was filled they asked me if I wanted to go in and I said I'd try it...figured it could only help, so why not. It was hard getting over there. It was about 10 feet away from the bed (the room I had was HUGE), and its a built in fancy one...so you have to go up a step thingy and step into it to get in. I didn't know if I'd be able to make it in between contractions, but some how I did...2 nurses helped me. Soon as I got in, contraction came... I sat down as fast as I could, gripped the walls and gritted my teeth through it. I needed to get to the other side of the tub, which was deeper, to get more comfy and submerge myself more. After that contraction I moved over to the other side. OMG....they were so much easier to deal with in the water. I still closed my eyes and moaned during the contractions, which helped also, but they were MUCH more tolerable. Then I felt like I was going to take a massive crap in the water...almost like I was having uncontrollable involuntarily explosive diarrhea. LOL. Except there was none. I figured though that this probably meant I was about ready to push. Between contractions they had me contort my body and lift my *** out of the water so they could check me. The nurse said there was just a lip left and told me to try to breathe through the next contraction. Well next one came and my body started pushing again. They were like "Don't push! Breathe!! Your midwife is not here yet!" They were sorta panicking. The one nurse told the other to call my midwife again and tell her I was pushing and she had to get there NOW, and said to get the on-call OB who was here to come stand in til she got here.
I wish that ******* hadn't come in. They wouldn't let me deliver in the water without my midwife there. There's only one OB who does water deliveries here, and my midwife. Of course neither was there. He told me I had to get out of the water and told me I had to stop pushing. I told him I couldn't stop pushing that my body was doing it itself. The nurses told him "She can't stop." He told them to make me get out...I was having contractions..how the hell did they expect me to crawl out of a tub, dripping wet and naked, while my body is involuntarily pushing?!?! Then he started yelling "We're going to give you drugs to stop labor if you don't get out of that water now!" ***? I don't think that's possible at all...lmao...to stop a pushing, fully dilated woman. Well basically they dragged me out and took me over to the bed. They said get on the bed.... so I crawled up, just barely. But another contraction started and I couldn't flip over. The OB kept saying "Turn over on your back, you can't have the baby that way." I kept saying "I can't". He was a major jerk. After the contraction, I flipped over. Again, just barely able to move. Then...another contraction and holy crap majoring pushing started happening. They're like try to breathe and not push. I was like "I CAN"T!!!" and started pushing more....meanwhile my eyes were still closed. My body started pushing more and more, and then I heard my midwife's voice telling me what a great job I was doing. Thank god that ******* OB was no longer "in charge". A couple pushes and she was out. It really just felt like taking a massive poop. It hurt mildly for like 10 seconds when her head was crowning, but then it sorta just naturally numbed itself and then I felt her body slide out, which felt much better in comparison. WOW!! I couldn't believe awesome natural birth was. I couldn't believe I did it. I felt a natural high afterwards for a bit.
My husband was sort of in a bit of shock at how fast things moved. He had been reading the USA Today on the couch, thinking things would take awhile.
The nurses and my midwife all thought it was cool how fast it went. My midwife told the nurses that they should have told her when they first called her that I was already 7cm and to get over ASAP. She just barely made it in time. There was no one else in the maternity ward while I was there...I'm assuming that all the doctors induced their "ready to pop" patients on Monday and Tuesday so their Thanksgivings wouldn't be interrupted.
What is really cool about the whole experience is how impressed and excited my husband was by it all. He for weeks had been having a dream that I had the baby at home...lol..which might have almost happened if we hadn't high-tailed it back to the hospital. He never thought I could do it natural and thought it was crazy to try. Now he is excited about having another one, and is totally supportive now of natural birth. He's even open to the idea of a home birth (with a midwife), though I'm not personally comfortable with that. I want to go back to the birth center there. It was awesome.... no IVs, no continuous monitoring, very supportive nurses and staff, and the room was amazing. The water birth tub was awesome and so helpful. The food was amazing as well...it was like room service... lol.. they have an awesome menu and you just call them up and order anything off there whenever you want it. My husband kept telling everyone how much he loved our experience except for that ******* doctor and how we'll be coming back for baby #3.
Anyways.... Lyla is a doll so far. She only cries when she is hungry and the rest of the time she sleeps or lies there with her eyes wide open, taking it all in. She nurses great, latches on perfectly each time. So different than my son, who had problems latching. I'm in love
Our son, Kelly, is so excited he has a little sister. Our first day home, Thanksgiving day, he didn't want to nap or go to bed because he just wanted to be up with us and her all day. All he could talk about was the baby. He's 16 months btw. We had to force him to bed. Today, Friday, he woke up and the first thing he did was say "Baby?" Then he pointed at the dirty clothes hamper where her outfit from yesterday was laying on top, and said "Baby" again. I said "Yes, those are Lyla's dirty clothes." Then Kelly said "I love baby..." Awww...it was so cute. So then I said "Let's go see baby." And we went and saw her and he was so happy.
If she cries he rushes over to her all worried, or gets my attention and points to her. He's doing so well!!
Oh yea.... she was born at 11:42am. 7lbs 13oz and 21.5 inches long.
*Edited to add photo*
Here she is in her going-home outfit, laying on the hospital bed just before we left:
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Lyla Rose's speedy entrance into the world!
But I did get a GREAT laugh out of the we'll give you drugs to stop labor thing! LOL! Um, yeah....
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