Long awaited birth story!

Yeah, just like I told you, we got the internet back this week. I couldn't sleep and got to thinking about my birth. It has been exactly 6 weeks so I decided it was time to share what happened.

I can't really say when labor started. Around 8:30 p.m. on the night of the 16th I started having contractions that weren't any different than any others I'd had the entire pregnancy. They were 5-7 min apart and about 50 seconds to a minute long and didn't hurt hardly at all. I timed them until midnight then gave up and tried to sleep. That lasted an hour and then I was awake. At that point they were more annoying than anything. Still didn't really hurt but were about 2-3 min apart, still lasting less than a minute. I decided to get in the tub to see if that would make them go away so I could finally get some good rest. Dh came and checked on me off and on but nothing ever really changed so I kept sending him back to bed. I think about 4:00 he finally gave up on sleep and just stayed with me. I got him to get my labor music out for me to listen to just because I was getting pretty bored resting in the tub and timing contractions. I guess I could have gotten out of the tub to get some more sleep but I was comfy right where I was so I just stayed. Maybe if I'd gotten out of the tub they might have hurt more and maybe I would have realized a bit earlier I was in labor? Lots of maybe's! Our talking woke up two of the kids about 4:30 so they chatted with us for awhile. I told them I might be in labor but I wasn't really convinced so eventually they went back to sleep. I kept just wishing the contractions would either stop or turn into full blown labor. Even at this point they were the same, 2-3 min apart and 50-60 seconds long and not really hurting. I could have easily talked and walked through them.

About 5:00 they started getting a bit more intense but I still wasn't very convinced I was in labor. I suppose, looking back, I could say that was when labor started. I know that about 5:30 I finally admitted to dh that I was in hard labor. We started discussing what our options were since we hadn't really hired a midwife yet. We had planned on going to the hospital before 36 weeks and having a midwife at 37 weeks because state law prevented my midwife from attending me before that point. For that one week I hadn't really decided what I was going to do since I had several options that I could have chosen but none of them felt quite right so I avoided making any decision. I just prayed all along that she would come before 36 weeks or after 36 weeks (obviously I didn't really want a before 36 weeks preemie but those were my options). I wasn't really thrilled about delivering in the hospital but I birth quickly and I was worried about delivering in the car. Looking back I realize now that I was in transition and should have just stayed home but at the time I just felt panicked and confused (obvious transition signs!). At 6:00 I finally decided I needed to just go to the hospital. We called the hospital that I had previously chosen due to their newborn/birth policies and told them we were on our way. I won't say if it was to our advantage but also looking back if we had chosen the hospital that was a bit closer we would have had a different outcome.

It took us 1/2 hour to get me and dh dressed and into the car so we left at 6:30 in the morning, rush hour! The whole way driving there I was having very, very hard contractions. I think about 15 min into the drive I realized we had made a mistake but was too far out of it to realize we should just turn around. For those that know the area we were going to the U of U hospital and in the area of the stadium I realized that I would feel much better if I pushed. I told dh and he asked if he should pull over. I told him yes and moved to the back seat. It took me a minute to figure out how best to do it and how best to arrange the two towels that we brought just in case my water broke. I tried to move a seat out of the way but that didn't give me enough room so I finally decided it would have to be the seat although I knew that would be quite the mess to clean up. I took off my pants and had one knee on the bench and the other leg on the floor. I pushed, my water broke and in the next breath, baby came out. Dh finally was able to pull over at some point and he came to help me. When he realized baby was already out he got back in the car. LOL I often wonder if anyone saw anything while they were cruising by and the door was open! LOL

Dh took a video of it at this point. I will see if I can figure out how to get it on here for the adventurous. I know that I was a bit confused, trying to figure out what to do next. I knew that baby needed to be kept warm but the towels were soaked. I finally tucked her under my shirt then later, on the way home, I remembered that I had a blanket for her in the bag I had packed several months ago. I was also trying to make sure she was ok and that I was ok. I kept trying to figure out if I was bleeding too much (midwife in me) and if the placenta was ready to come out. I eventually looked at the clock and realized we should figure out the time of birth. It said 7:02 so we think it was pretty close to 7:00 when she was born. I then got dh to show me my labor timer so I could have a second hand to figure out her heartrate. I later gave her an apgar score of 7 and 9 (also the midwife in me!). Then I started trying to decide what to do next. I wasn't thrilled about showing up to the hospital in the state I was in. I was trying to imagine showing up at the ER doors or front doors with a newly born baby in my arms and a placenta still inside me, half naked with blood everywhere. Not a pleasant thought for me. I also know that if baby is born outside of hospital they tend to treat it like it's contaminated and check for all kinds of infections and other problems that "might" arise from such a "traumatic" birth. I really didn't know if this hospital would be like that but I decided I didn't want to find out so I made the decision to go back home. I knew I had all the equipment I needed to take care of the cord and whatever else we needed although I was a little nervous to drive on the freeway with her just in my arms and no car seat but I decided to trust the Lord that He would watch over this baby and get us safely home. I did have a thought on the way out that I should grab the carseat but dh said he could bring it later although I don't know how that would have worked anyway. Cord was still attached to the placenta which was still inside me and she was warmer next to me anyway.

I called my son on the way home, told him what happened and asked him to clear out one side of the garage so we could pull all the way in (thank goodness there was only a couple of things to pick up, I hadn't parked there for a while and didn't know what to expect) and asked him to bring a large bowl, some towels and my robe out when he saw us coming. We drove into the garage, closed the door, I got out and squatted over the bowl and pushed the placenta out. (Yeah my son was a bit grossed out! LOL) We went inside and I got my girls to bring me my midwife kit. I cut her cord and since we were both completely covered in blood, I got in the tub with her. I had called my Mom on our way home and she met us at the house and started the clean up. I also called my friend and told her what happened since we were planning on her being sort of a doula and helping with cleanup afterwards. She and dh worked on the car for about 4 hours but were finally able to get it all cleaned up.

I think I did hemorrhage a bit, maybe 500-600 cc's, but it was really hard to estimate it because it was, well, everywhere! The seat of the car, the garage floor and in the bathroom. Several of my friends kept mentioning later on that I was pretty pale, so that also makes me think I hemorrhaged a bit, although I never felt dizzy or light headed so I don't think there was ever any reason to worry about it. After I got out of the tub we both got some pj's on and we curled up in my bed together, finally able to rest and get to know each other! I slowly did a newborn exam on her over the next few hours. We had a funny time trying to figure out how much she weighed. I sent dh to the sports store as soon as it opened to get a fish scale for me. We put her in my sling to hang on the scale but it kept varying what the weight was. We finally picked a middle weight and agreed that she was about 7lbs 9oz but it kept bugging me all day. She just didn't look that big to me so we got 8 lbs of butter and weighed that. We finally came to the conclusion that the sling weighed about 6oz and the scale was off an oz or two. When she was 5 days old we got her weighed at the dr's office and she was 6lbs 7oz, so figuring she lost the typical 10% we think she was about 7lbs even or 7lbs 1oz. To keep it easy I just tell people she weighed about 7lbs.

The next two weeks I feel were also part of the birth story but I want to put it in a seperate post. I know I've covered it some in previous posts but I wanted to sum it up with thoughts so that is coming up next.

Oh, yeah, people have asked if dh was scared when I told him baby was coming. The answer is not at all. He is used to this baby birthing thing and has felt for several births that he was confident enough to catch. He also knows that I know what I'm doing (for the most part LOL) and trusts me.