While we await for the 3rd little girl to arrive, I thought I'd post my 2nd birth story. :)
Tailyn Michelle’s Birth Story (July 1st, 2004)
About 4 am on Wednesday, June 30th, I began having contractions about every 8 minutes or so. They weren’t too bad, but definitely kept me up. I got up and had some cereal. When I went to the bathroom, I noticed some bloody show and got excited! When Brian woke up, I told him what was going on and we decided that he would stay home with me, just in case. The contractions had slowed down and probably stopped, so I was able to go back to sleep for a couple of hours. I got up around 8 or so and wasn’t having contractions. But I called the midwife and she told me to come in for a NST and to get checked, just to make sure that the blood was cervical, etc. My mom came over and we all went over to the hospital together. They triaged me and hooked me up to the monitors. Within minutes, they could tell that the baby was doing great and that a NST was definitely not needed. But they kept me on the monitors. I was still only 2 cm dilated and maybe 60 % effaced (Monday, I was 2 cm and about 50%) so no real change. While on the monitors, they saw me have about 3 contractions about 8 minutes apart. So the midwife said that I would probably be back that night, but to go ahead and eat something and walk around, etc.
So, we headed to the outlet mall to eat lunch and walk. After a couple hours, it was obvious, that my labor was going no where – I was having a contraction here and there, but nothing regular. And the bleeding had pretty much stopped. So we headed home so Emma could nap and I could rest. When I got up to eat dinner, they picked up again and were about every 4-6 minutes for more than an hour. Still not horrible, but definitely requiring some concentration. So we called the midwife again. :) She said to come on in and get checked and see what was happening. We called my folks and they came over to watch Emma. We said that we would call them if it looked like my labor was going somewhere. We arrived at the hospital around 9 PM. We tried a different triage room and the nurse hooked me up. The contractions had slowed to every 8 or 9 minutes or so and I was maybe 3 cm and 60 % effaced. After some deliberation, we decided to head back home to rest. I sent my parents back to their house with Emma to spend the night. I was definitely frustrated, but if my labor was not progressing, I didn’t want to get stuck in the hospital. We got back home before 11 PM and I went to bed.
I slept until about 2 am when I was woken by a contraction. They started coming about every 10-20 min. It was hard to keep track of them though b/c I kept dozing off and couldn’t remember what time it was for the last contraction. But I had to get on my hands and knees for the contractions, lying down through them was too painful. Around 6 am, we got up and Brian made me some breakfast and the contractions started picking up again. And the bloody show was getting much heavier. At 7 am, I got in the shower and they started coming every 3 min. The shower felt so good and I asked if we could just have the baby at home. :) We called the midwife (Paula this time, as she was on call on Thursday) and told her what was going on. She asked if they were getting more intense and I couldn’t really tell. I just knew they were coming every 3 minutes or so, but they still weren’t as hard as with Emma. She said to come in and get checked and if I was still not progressing to head back home. In the back of my head, I knew it was time to go, but I was still skeptical. I did not want to get sent back home again!
The contractions in the car spaced out a bit to about every 5-6 minutes. Of course it was rush hour when we left (about 8:30 am), but we managed to avoid most of the traffic. (We left about 8 am on a Thursday morning during Emma’s labor.) The contractions were really hard in the car and I could tell that they were really working and bringing the baby down. It took everything within me to relax through them and not climb out of the car seat. I felt a lot of pressure in my bottom and I think that sitting down through them helped me focus to relax there. When they were at their peak, I would just think of Emma and that this was all worth it. We got to the hospital and headed into the 3rd triage room (there were 4 in all, and I did not want to have to try all of them). :) I got hooked up again and was asked a bunch of questions. The contractions were still a little bit spaced out, but definitely every 5 minutes. Paula came in and checked me and I was 6 cm and 100% effaced! Woo hoo! All 3 of us were so excited.
So we walked to my room and worked through some contractions as they asked me some more stupid questions. Sometimes I could completely talk through my contractions, but other ones; I had to totally concentrate. I was worried that they were going to space out again, but confident that it couldn’t be too much longer. Paula asked if I wanted to get in the tub and I jumped at that. It was a little after 10 am, when I got in the tub. It felt really good in there and again they spaced out a bit. So we were worried that I might need to get out of the tub to keep things going. It was just Brian, Paula and I and it was really nice. I was able to talk in between contractions and even joke a little bit. The contractions themselves took all of my concentration and I just focused on relaxing my bottom to bring that baby down. I then had a pretty hard contraction (required some vocalization – the other ones did not though) and Paula wanted me to make sure to tell her when I felt pressure and wanted to push. I hadn’t really felt anything like that though. The next contraction was super intense and I felt a pop all of the sudden. It was a very strange feeling. I told Paula that I think my water had just broken and she agreed. She grabbed the portable Doppler and listened to the baby while I had my next contraction. She sounded great. Paula said that at the end of that contraction we were going to get out of the tub since water births are not allowed :(. And right at the end of that contraction I started to push. I couldn’t help it. Paula pulled the emergency call cord and Brian and her helped get me out of the tub. She just kept telling me to blow through the pushing and not to push and to pant, but I couldn’t help it!
I walked over to the bed (no time for drying me off) and climbed into bed. Brian said that as soon as I lay down, he could see the bulge from the baby’s head. We had talked about lying on my side for the pushing, so that’s what I was trying to do. But I think I was so freaked out that it was time to push, I didn’t know what to do with myself. I totally held back on the pushing, b/c of my uncertainty. But at the same time, I couldn’t help but not push. It was the exact opposite as with Emma (since I never really had the urge to push). I couldn’t not push with this one. Fortunately, Brian held my leg up for me and they put a mirror up, which was so helpful, b/c I was really having a hard time believing that there was a baby coming right now. I was super loud and totally screaming that it hurt. They kept telling me to get my voice lower to help with the pushing. I was even able to reach down and touch her head, which was really cool (knowing that I was the first to touch my baby). Then all of the sudden, her head popped out and another push for her shoulders. And then I was able to reach down and pull her out onto my chest! And again, still totally in shock and having an out of body experience! I couldn’t believe that it was a baby on my chest and it was the baby that had been inside of me! I didn’t really keep track, but the pushing was pretty quick – probably about 10 minutes? And I believe only 3 contractions. She was a little blue, so they brought her over to give her some oxygen and I delivered the placenta, which was very easy to do and wow that was a huge relief after that came out. The placenta was pretty small – much smaller than with Emma (like only a third the size). I had about a 1st degree tear, not in the perineum though and required only a few stitches, but that is just no fun. That first half-hour or so was not very fun. Just getting stitched up and having people pushing on my belly. Tailyn Michelle weighed in at 7 lbs. 1 oz and 20.5” long (although Brian thinks that they were a little generous in their measurement). Her apgars were 8 and 9. She was born on July 1st at 10:58 am (3 or 4 days before her EDD – depending on whose date you were going by). Her birthday is 11 days before her big sister’s. She has light hair – mostly blond and not too much of it and very long fingers. She also has no butt and little tiny chicken legs. :)
