I know I will have a brand new story to share very soon, but here is my birth story with Adelaide:
WARNING: this is very detailed content!
I had been having very strong Braxton Hicks contractions for about 2 and a half weeks, which really made me nervous for the upcoming birth because I was planning on having an all-natural home birth... no drugs! I remember saying that if it hurt this bad so early on then I can't imagine how badly the "real" contractions were going to hurt!
At this time, I was going to a women's bible study on Thursday mornings and we would have lunch afterwards with my mother-in-law and some friends. The night before I had gone to the bathroom and there it was, my mucus plug. I was super excited because I knew that meant that the baby wouldn't be too far off, but I also knew that it could be weeks before she got here too. So I went to bible study on Thursday morning and my contractions were just as strong and painful as they had been for the last couple of weeks. They had been steadily getting stronger each day so I really didn't worry.
At lunch that day, I ordered French Onion Soup and a BLT with avocado sandwich. My contractions were actually making me hunch forward and were making it more difficult to talk through them, but again, I didn't think anything of it because I thought they were just progressing as they had been for days.
It was a normal night and my husband had a long day of work and we were both really, really tired. I woke up (for probably the 6th time that night) to go pee and went back to bed. Then a few minutes later I was thinking that I must have had more pee in my bladder because I was leaking. So I went to the bathroom again and wondered how I had so much pee again, but didn't think much past that. Then about a minute later I thought I peed again so I went to the bathroom and again had a lot of pee come out.
Not getting the picture, this happened about 3 more times in the next 10 or 15 minutes. Then I remember sitting on the toilet and yelling to my husband "I think my water might be breaking!"
His response was "stand in the bathtub!" (I told him this just a few months ago and he didn't know that he ever said that... I guess he had it prepared to say even in his sleep!)
So, thinking that was weird but doing it anyway, I stood in the bathtub and more came out, then more again and again and it wasn't looking like pee. So I yelled "Yep, this is it my water is breaking!" That was at 2am.
So my husband jumped up and grabbed his watch and we started to time the contractions. Here's where we got confused... they were come anywhere from 1 minute to 6 minutes apart and some would last 20 seconds and some 1.5 minutes. So we both agreed that they were too irregular and I couldn't be in "real labor" just yet.
We called our midwife and she said to call her when my contractions were lasting about a minute and 3-5 minutes apart. So I told my husband to go back to bed and I would go downstairs and watch movies and try to relax.
I watched TV for a while and then put on Mr. Magorium's Wonder Imporium. I don't remember being able to watch any of it because I was in pain but I waited until it was almost over and I called my husband from my cell to his and told him to come downstairs because I was REALLY in labor! This was at 6am.
I also texted my whole family (who are all in California) and told them that I was in labor so that they could start heading out to Arizona, and they all pretty much left right away.
I remember hearing so many stories of how relaxing and comfortable a home birth is because you can watch movies, and eat whatever you want, and walk around your own home feeling relaxed... and so I was thinking that it wouldn't be until the middle of the next night that she would arrive. But it all happened so much faster than I thought it would!
The first of 2 of our midwives got here at about 9:30am and she watched me for a while and talked to my husband and took a bunch of notes, then started preparing our room for the birth.
She asked me at one point how I was feeling I said, in between contractions, "I think I'm doing ok, but if it get's any worse I just don't know if I can do it." Again, I was thinking I had about 20 more hours of this!
She replied "Well I don't think it's going to get any worse than this, just maybe a little closer together."
That gave me SO much hope! Then she checked me about a half an hour later for the first time and I was 8cm dialated. It felt like it was 20 minutes after that (it was really a little bit longer) that she said that if I feel like I need to push then I can start to push with my contractions. I was shocked! I didn't realize I had even gone through transition yet!! This gave me so much encouragement! But I said that I did not in any way feel ready to push.
So she stepped out of the room for a minute and I was laboring on my hands and knees by my bed when I said "Oh no, I think I need to push!"
My husband, who is extremely weary around female blood started yelling for our midwife "Robin! Robin! She's pushing! She's pushing!!"
I asked him to tell me what time it was thinking it had to be almost night time again, and he said it was 11am. What?! It was going by soo fast!!
So she came back in and I got into place on the bed and started the beginning of 2 hours of pushing. It wasn't really that bad pain-wise but I kept feeling like every time I pushed the whole room turned dark and hot and I was going to pass out. It made me feel sick to my stomache each time I pushed. So when I finally felt the head making it's way out, yes it was painful, but it was such a relief to know that something was actually coming from my pushing. (I found out after that the whole first hour I wasn't really pushing how I should have and so those were more like "practice pushes".)
I stayed, surprisingly, level-headed the whole time. I never really lost my composure. In fact, while I was in the midst of pushing her head out I peed and I yelled to the midwives while pushing "I'm peeing!" and they said "okay just don't talk, keep pushing!" I thought that was funny afterwards.
I also never lost my sense of modesty. Apparently, once you get close to transition most women have lost all sense of modesty but when I had to get checked to see how far I was dialated I asked "do I need to take off my underwear?" Duh!
Anyways, at 1pm, after 11 hours of labor, Adelaide was born! She weighed 7lbs 10oz and was 19" long. They put her straight on my stomach and it was such a surreal feeling! I felt like I could run a marathon, I was so full of excitement and energy! And a plus.. no ripping or tearing!
There was a lot of blood and a lot of pain! And the recovery wasn't a blast, but Addy made it all completely worth it! I would have done it again right away if it meant getting another little baby girl!
If someone had told me then that every single day I would love this little girl more and more, I never would have believed it. My husband was glowing!! Our family had a new, perfect little person to love and we cherished every single second of it!
To this day I don't know why God chose to bless us with such an amazing little girl that day, but I am so grateful for it! I can't wait to meet Jackson and see what amazing things God will do with our family once he is here!
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Entries end on Thursday 5/17 and a winner will be selected on Friday the 18th. Have fun with it!!
