N's Birth Story

When I found out I was expecting our first baby, my husband and I were thrilled! I knew right off the bat that I wanted a natural, drug-free birth, if at all possible. We watched The Business of Being Born the day after I got my positive pregnancy test. Wow, it was very eye-opening, and we both learned things we had never known. After seeing it, we definitely knew we wanted a midwife to attend the birth. Although I was interested in midwifery/natural birth, I still wanted a hospital birth (though now I am wanting a home birth with future babies).

On June 8, 2011 at 6:30am, I woke up to menstrual-like crampy feeling in my abdomen and got up to go to the bathroom. As I walked from the bathroom back to our bedroom, my water broke! I quickly grabbed a towel to wrap around me, texted our doula, and then woke Keith up. He went from groggy to instantly wide awake when I said "My water just broke, I think she's coming today!"

Since no contractions had started, I knew it could be awhile before we would go to the hospital. Keith actually had a meeting at work that morning, and a job interview in the city we were moving to the next month, which was an hour drive from us. He cancelled the interview, but went on to the work meeting there since I had no contractions and he could be home in 8 minutes. Around 8:30 or 9am I began feeling mild contractions, but I continued to stay busy around our apartment, since I knew activity could speed up labor and also help the baby get positioned in my pelvis. I did laundry, made the bed, straightened up the house, and washed dishes. When Keith got back from his meeting, it was around 9:30am and I was feeling more uncomfortable, but not terrible. I wanted to wait as long as possible before going to the hospital, since I was more comfortable at home. Around 10, Keith put on a chick-flick for me, and I sat on the birth ball while breathing and trying to relax. About 20 minutes into the movie, I couldn't focus on it anymore, and went into the kitchen to bake brownies to bring with us to the hospital (dumb, I know, but I thought it would be nice to bring my nurses something!) As I began mixing the batter, a contraction hit me so hard, I threw up! Needless to say, Keith stopped me from baking, threw the batter in the sink and helped me get to the bed. I laid on my side with a pillow between my knees for I don't know how long, trying to rest and relax through the contractions.

Keith was unpacking the car during this time, because the night before we had taken out the car seat and loaded up the whole car with things to bring to the new apartment! He re-installed the car seat and packed the car with my hospital bag. He kept checking on me, knowing I wanted to wait as long as possible before leaving for the hospital. Finally, I told him I was ready to go. He asked, "Are you sure? You said you wanted to wait as long as you could." I replied that if we waited any longer, I wouldn't be able to walk to the car!

I waddled out slowly, and Keith drove us to the hospital. As I was wheeled to the triage room, I remember being barely aware of what was going on, trying to focus on making it through each contraction. Once the nurse and midwife came in and checked me, saying I was already dilated to 6, I felt a relief through the pain, knowing I was over halfway done already! Keith asked, "So, we're staying, right? You're not sending us home?" They laughed :) It was about 2pm at this time.

 Once in the L/D room, they put a monitor around my belly, but were totally fine with me moving around. I switched positions, from side lying to sitting on the toilet, to kneeling over the back of the bed  and hanging off Keith's knees (they elevated the bed, had him sit on the side, put chairs under his feet, and had me put an arm over each leg so I was in a squatting/hanging position.) It was good to change positions often, I could never have managed the pain lying flat on my back in bed! Sarah, my doula and a friend who also taught our childbirth class, arrived just as I was settling into the L/D room. She applied pressure to my lower back/hips through each contraction, using a heating pad, and also used other techniques and tools to help me manage the pain.

Keith was always at my face, I remember having my arms around his neck, pressing our foreheads together. He held a little hand-held fan at my face most of the time, which Sarah had brought, and I was so thankful for that cooling relief! I asked several times, "What if the batteries die?!?" That little fan brought huge relief since my face and neck felt so hot. Keith had made a birth playlist on his iPod for me, which included Norah Jones, Jack Johnson, Switchfoot, Amos Lee, John Mayer, Bob Marley, and more. He had thought I would want a mix of chill and upbeat music, but once I was in the middle of labor, I could not stand the fast-paced music! In fact, one of the songs he had put on there was Every Body Hurts by REM.  I didn't even notice it, but afterwards Keith told me that when the song started playing, Sarah gave him this "Really? Are you serious?!"-look :)

Finally, I remember the overwhelming urge to push coming over me. I continued kneeling over the back of the bed, but as the baby got closer to being born, the midwife wanted me to move to my back/slightly sitting up. I didn't want to, but went ahead and began pushing. I have no idea how long I pushed for, but to me it didn't seem long at all! At 7:17pm, our little girl was born! They immediately placed her on my belly, leaving the cord alone like we asked. I felt a huge relief from the pain and an overwhelming joy at holding my precious baby! N didn't receive any shots or medicine at birth (no eye ointment, since this is mainly for protecting a baby whose mother has an STD which I don't) because I wanted as gentle a birth as possible for her. Keith was able to cut the cord once it stopped pulsing and then we ooo-ed and ahh-ed over our little lady. I needed a little stitching up (ouch) afterwards and then Norah had her assessment done (right there next to my bed instead of being taken to the nursery). She was exactly 7 pounds, and 18 1/2 inches long. During all of this, Sarah went out to the waiting room to announce the birth and name to our parents and siblings who had been anxiously waiting! :)

I feel like we had a wonderful birthing experience and am so thankful for the birth class we took with Sarah in preparation. Little N is definitely a blessing to Keith and me, we love her so much!