Labor story.

Labor Story:

this might be more information than you want to know but if you want to know - here's the details. In very cut and dry form. I tell it better than I type it. eh. oh well.

Saturday. I mowed the yard like I have every weekend since we moved into our new house. We went and ran errands for part of the morning and afternoon. That evening my sister and I circled our neighborhood twice. I told her no more than 2 laps because I would be back out in the morning trying again. Ha!

We went to bed at 11pm. 

Sunday.
12:30am I woke up with shooting pain up my back. At first I thought I had messed up my back by sleeping wrong. I went to the bathroom and then went back to bed. About 15 minutes later, I had more shooting pain, I tried to stretch and pop my back. After another 15 minutes, I pulled out my phone and started keeping track of the times. I thought they could be contractions but because it was just pain shooting up my back and no contractions on my belly I wasn't sure. 

At 2:30am was probably my 5cm mark. The contraction was super painful. I reached over and grabbed Tim's hand and shoved it on my spine. Of course this woke him up. He was super excited. 

"Are you in labor?"

"I know what you want to hear, but I don't know, my back is killing me."

I caught him up on the previous 2 hours. I was worried that Timothy was facing the wrong way and I was having back labor. Tim kept rubbing during that contraction and the next one. He asked if I wanted anything. I asked him to get the yoga/exercise ball, it had been stuffed under the stairs in the garage, so he cleaned it off and brought it to me. I found only one position that seemed to work and give any relief. Sitting on the yoga ball, leaned back, with my elbows propped on the bed. Tim showered figuring that we wouldn't be going back to sleep and he should be ready.

I kept getting cold then warm, so I pulled the sheet off the bed and pulled that over my shoulders. Between contractions I instructed Tim to where everything was that needed to go in the car. Fan, camera, snacks, etc. Tim had also downloaded an app to keep track of contractions. I was not consistent. 3 min, 8 min, 5 min, and varying levels of pain. I also was not enthusiastic about hitting the start and stop button every time while Tim was trying to load the car. 

I also found out that I didn't want to try to throw up during a contraction. That was disgusting and so painful. oops. I only "threw up" twice, (I didn't really have anything to throw up so it was just stomach acid.) 

At 5am, I suggested that we call the midwife Kathy, I was trying to wait for a reasonable time, figuring she would like as much sleep as possible too which is why I didn't call her at 2:30am… for about 45 minutes we called and texted back and forth keeping her updated. Finally I was like "let's go in. I gotta know what's going on."

We left right at 6am. Every bump in the road hurt. Just like they said it would.

We were there at the Birth Inn by 6:30. We got into the room, I tried to find a comfortable position while they set up a few things. "They" is Kathy, my midwife and her daughter Holli.

I got on the bed. I was dilated to 9cm.

They got me in the tub, we wanted to try a water birth. I think at 7am ish they told me if I felt I needed to push to push. I asked about pushing if my water hadn't broke. They told me it had broke, Timothy's head was just plugging it up. So I started pushing at every contraction. So no back relief, and tensing all my muscles to push at every contraction. By 9am ish, I had tried multiple positions in the tub, but wasn't progressing along, and I felt like I had been working out for 2 hours straight. They got me out of the tub, dried off and on the toilet. That was a completely different level of pressure and pain. Like trying to push out a 7 lb. terd. ouch. They made me push for a few contractions on there, then they checked me and he was crowning!!! finally!

They waddled me over to the bed. I was so tired and just wanted him to come out. I pushed a few times there, and they seemed to think I should see how close I was and put a mirror down there. I could barely open my eyes and told them so, but I managed to open my eyes. I could see the top of his head- it had white mucus type stuff on it. Like that was gonna help me push him out more.

They told me that I needed to grab my knees and pull them back to my chest. I tried to move my arms and my legs. I told them that I couldn't move anything and they would need to pull my legs back for me. Holli pulled one leg and Tim pulled the other, I limply grabbed my knees and pushed.

I screamed when his head came out. They don't call it the ring of fire for nothing. Ouch. Kathy told me I would have to push again to get his shoulders out. Gosh, I thought he was just suppose to slide out. I pushed again and he was out. 

10:02am. 

She cleaned out his mouth and tossed him up on my belly and they threw a warm towel over us. Timothy peed and pooped all over me. I didn't care. There was finally relief and a precious little baby laying on me. I couldn't believe I had a little person on me. I couldn't believe he had come out of me either. Tim took some pictures of us. Holli helped Timothy latch on. Kathy "massaged" my belly to get the placenta out. I think "punch" is a better term for that process. another ouch. They had to stitch me up too. Thank goodness they had numbing stuff for that. 

They cleaned Timothy up and weighed and measured him. They switched me back to the bathroom to sit down and clean up and change clothes. Then we moved into a "recovery" room. More pictures! and lunch time! Every 30 minutes until 2pm they made me get up and went to the bathroom to "massage" my belly to get more clots out and go to the bathroom. 

2pm we headed home! 

(By the way, he was faced the wrong way so all I had was back labor, never felt a contaction on my belly. Of course I didn't know this until a couple hours later.  But now I know what that's like. )