This time around after seeing what happens when a woman gives birth without drugs and thought I could possibly birth my baby the same way. We decided to go to a midwife this time to see the difference between an OB and a midwife. I heard so many good things about a midwife that they care for your whole being and spend extra time with you. They have a relationship with a woman and not just an in out thing at the office. Now I have to say my OB was excellent! She knew what she was doing and delivered my baby safely. I didn't have much of a relationship with her but I loved her and thankful that I could trust her to help birth my baby.
With my midwife I felt encouraged, my voice heard, my choice and I was given options about what I wanted in our "birth plan." In the back of my mind I said to myself if I want to I can have an epidural but I really wanted to see if I could handle the pain and how far I could get without using the drug.
My experience was way different with Nolan. My blood pressure stay great the entire time. Our last appt was Thursday May 24th and my midwife asked if I wanted to be checked for dilation and I said sure. I was at 2cm then she proceeded to ask if she could strip my membranes? Yep that hurt! Not so sure I would like to do that again. The next day I lost my mucous plug and had some off and on
contractions pretty much Braxton hicks. She said I could possibly go into labor within 24-48 hours nothing happened so I was somewhat disappointed. Though I decided I was ok with him staying in a little longer since we were shy a few days from 39 weeks. 5 days passed...Tuesday night at 7:30 I went to the bathroom and a trickle came out. I yelled at Tim to come up and see if I was leaking water or urine. As I got off the toilet I leaked even more. My water had broke. So we got kaelyn ready to go to a friends house and headed to the hospital.We got admitted and settled in my nurse checked for water breaking and dilation and according to her I was 1cm dilated but my midwife said I was 2cm last Thursday 5 days prior to being admitted. I had learned that people can measure you differently. Who knew? Then she proceeded to ask me if I wanted pitocin to speed up labor. I told her no and wanted to see what my body could do. I also asked if I could stand up and she said yes but apparently baby's heart rate dropped and told me to get back in bed. She also told me I couldn't have water or ice chips even though I was so thirsty.
An hour later my midwife came by to check on me. She told me I could get out of bed if needed, eat ice chips and drink juice. After she left I did just that. I proceeded to stay in bed because I wasn't uncomfortable yet with contractions. I started to feel them close to midnight. Tim and I tried to get some rest but of course I couldn't sleep. All I was thinking was I can do this and I am going to take one contraction at a time. About 3:30 am I was at 4-5cm so I was progressing on my own. My nurse got me a birthing ball to sit on which was nice to get up and do something different than lying in the bed. About 5:30 am My midwife came by and checked on me and said I could take a shower...yes a shower! The warmth of a shower at 6am was relieving. I was grateful to have a shower and gave me some energy. Afterward I was transferred to another room into the actual labor and delivery area because the night before all the rooms were full. About 8am I was hurting more with contractions but I was able to do interrmittent monitoring meaning 20 mins on and 40mins off the monitors so I could move around and get baby down in the birthing canal. Standing up made my contractions easier. At about 9-10ish am that's when I was hurting I was at the 7-8cm mark dilated and that's when I started to progress quickly. I was to the point where I was singing opera and crying a few times to get through contractions and squeezing Tim's hand. Finally my midwife came in and told me to relax.
She checked and I was fully dilated and that I could start pushing. Pushing sucked, I mean really bad. The pushing with contractions made it relieving but now there was pain where baby was trying to make his debut. I was one of those you can hear down the hall in labor and delivery...grunting while pushing. My thought while pushing why didn't I take the epidural and I kept saying "This hurts so bad." My midwife asked "where does it hurt?" I said "I don't know!" Everyone started to laugh and what I wanted to say was my vagina, where else would I hurt! Haha! While pushing I felt so uncoordinated and felt like I didn't know what to do. I was on my back with 1 nurse on one side, Tim and another nurse on the other leg pushing them back and all I wanted to do was push my legs out. I am pretty sure poor guy didn't have much head room to get out. That's one thing I wished I had asked to do was to change position to see if it was easier to get him out. Finally at 11:36am Nolan was born. I can only remember saying yay with my eyes closed when he was out and didn't know he was on my chest just for a few minutes. He wasn't really crying so they hurried to cut the cord and took him over. Everything was ok and he cried as they carried him over to check him out.
The next step was the placenta apparently my placenta is called the "dirty duncan" because it came out maternal side up. This is another thing I had learned about in the birthing process of the placenta. My midwife had a hard time getting all the membranes out and had to give me medicine while in the hospital for bleeding. I also tore to a 2nd degree so I had to be sewn up as well so that meant needles in the hooha to be numb...not cool. The lovely side of birthing a baby with no medication.
After I got cleaned up I got to do skin to skin with my son he was alert and started breastfeeding right away and nursed for a full hour. I was glad he was finally out and everything seemed such a blur and still does.
My thoughts about birthing naturally:
Never thought I would ever attempt it!
I liked the privilege of eating ice chips, drinking juice, getting up out of bed, and showering.
I liked knowing I wasn't drugged or neither was my son so we could fully connect and breastfeed after birth.
Worth it? At this point not so sure I would do it again although I know I can do it! Maybe I will be ready for it again if we decide to have another.
I am ultimately proud of myself and I think it was one of the biggest accomplishments in my life!
I also want to encourage any mama that you can do it! You just have to have the right support and you have control in a hospital setting in birthing your baby!
I Hope Nolan's birth story is inspiring and encouraging. Birth without fear and just do it! Birth is beautiful despite all the blood and guts! :)
contractions pretty much Braxton hicks. She said I could possibly go into labor within 24-48 hours nothing happened so I was somewhat disappointed. Though I decided I was ok with him staying in a little longer since we were shy a few days from 39 weeks. 5 days passed...Tuesday night at 7:30 I went to the bathroom and a trickle came out. I yelled at Tim to come up and see if I was leaking water or urine. As I got off the toilet I leaked even more. My water had broke. So we got kaelyn ready to go to a friends house and headed to the hospital.We got admitted and settled in my nurse checked for water breaking and dilation and according to her I was 1cm dilated but my midwife said I was 2cm last Thursday 5 days prior to being admitted. I had learned that people can measure you differently. Who knew? Then she proceeded to ask me if I wanted pitocin to speed up labor. I told her no and wanted to see what my body could do. I also asked if I could stand up and she said yes but apparently baby's heart rate dropped and told me to get back in bed. She also told me I couldn't have water or ice chips even though I was so thirsty.
An hour later my midwife came by to check on me. She told me I could get out of bed if needed, eat ice chips and drink juice. After she left I did just that. I proceeded to stay in bed because I wasn't uncomfortable yet with contractions. I started to feel them close to midnight. Tim and I tried to get some rest but of course I couldn't sleep. All I was thinking was I can do this and I am going to take one contraction at a time. About 3:30 am I was at 4-5cm so I was progressing on my own. My nurse got me a birthing ball to sit on which was nice to get up and do something different than lying in the bed. About 5:30 am My midwife came by and checked on me and said I could take a shower...yes a shower! The warmth of a shower at 6am was relieving. I was grateful to have a shower and gave me some energy. Afterward I was transferred to another room into the actual labor and delivery area because the night before all the rooms were full. About 8am I was hurting more with contractions but I was able to do interrmittent monitoring meaning 20 mins on and 40mins off the monitors so I could move around and get baby down in the birthing canal. Standing up made my contractions easier. At about 9-10ish am that's when I was hurting I was at the 7-8cm mark dilated and that's when I started to progress quickly. I was to the point where I was singing opera and crying a few times to get through contractions and squeezing Tim's hand. Finally my midwife came in and told me to relax.
She checked and I was fully dilated and that I could start pushing. Pushing sucked, I mean really bad. The pushing with contractions made it relieving but now there was pain where baby was trying to make his debut. I was one of those you can hear down the hall in labor and delivery...grunting while pushing. My thought while pushing why didn't I take the epidural and I kept saying "This hurts so bad." My midwife asked "where does it hurt?" I said "I don't know!" Everyone started to laugh and what I wanted to say was my vagina, where else would I hurt! Haha! While pushing I felt so uncoordinated and felt like I didn't know what to do. I was on my back with 1 nurse on one side, Tim and another nurse on the other leg pushing them back and all I wanted to do was push my legs out. I am pretty sure poor guy didn't have much head room to get out. That's one thing I wished I had asked to do was to change position to see if it was easier to get him out. Finally at 11:36am Nolan was born. I can only remember saying yay with my eyes closed when he was out and didn't know he was on my chest just for a few minutes. He wasn't really crying so they hurried to cut the cord and took him over. Everything was ok and he cried as they carried him over to check him out.
The next step was the placenta apparently my placenta is called the "dirty duncan" because it came out maternal side up. This is another thing I had learned about in the birthing process of the placenta. My midwife had a hard time getting all the membranes out and had to give me medicine while in the hospital for bleeding. I also tore to a 2nd degree so I had to be sewn up as well so that meant needles in the hooha to be numb...not cool. The lovely side of birthing a baby with no medication.
After I got cleaned up I got to do skin to skin with my son he was alert and started breastfeeding right away and nursed for a full hour. I was glad he was finally out and everything seemed such a blur and still does.
My thoughts about birthing naturally:
Never thought I would ever attempt it!
I liked the privilege of eating ice chips, drinking juice, getting up out of bed, and showering.
I liked knowing I wasn't drugged or neither was my son so we could fully connect and breastfeed after birth.
Worth it? At this point not so sure I would do it again although I know I can do it! Maybe I will be ready for it again if we decide to have another.
I am ultimately proud of myself and I think it was one of the biggest accomplishments in my life!
I also want to encourage any mama that you can do it! You just have to have the right support and you have control in a hospital setting in birthing your baby!
I Hope Nolan's birth story is inspiring and encouraging. Birth without fear and just do it! Birth is beautiful despite all the blood and guts! :)
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