Tag Archives: birth story

06/18/12
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clara’s birth story

Boy do I have a treat for you today… another birth story!  Not mine though — from my friend Lindsay.  I just love reading birth stories, which is why I shared Hunters (part 1, part 2 and part 3).  I hope you love reading them too!

Hello all you Get Healthiers! (Get Heatherers doesn’t make any sense.)
I’m Lindsay and I blog at Lindsay’s List, a healthy living blog where I chronicle my life as a wife, mom of two toddlers, personal trainer and group fitness instructor! I dabble in crazy protein powder recipes, but my true passion is for fitness and for my family.

Since Heather is “out” on maternity leave, she asked me to sub in for her. I couldn’t think of a more appropriate post than a BIRTH STORY! Clara’s, to be exact.

Clara’s story actually begins a week before her birth. I started having very intense contractions, each lasting a minute, but they would never evolve into a pattern. Family and friends were on high alert for days and after nothing happened, I started feeling a lot like the boy who cried wolf.

On Friday, the 13th, I saw my midwife. I was 3cm dilated, 50% effaced. She stripped my membranes and said, “See you this weekend”. Again, everyone was on high alert (Katy even took Henry to the lake for two days in case I went into labor). Nothing happened all weekend and by the time Monday rolled around, I was hoping that Clara would wait until the next weekend.
On Monday night around 11pm, my contractions evolved into a pattern – every 4 minutes, 1 minute in duration. This was it!! I called Katy and she came to stay the night with Henry. I figured I’d call the hospital and tell them I was coming. But when I talked to the charge nurse, she discouraged us from coming until the contractions were 2 minutes apart. I knew that I wanted to labor at home for as long as possible, so we decided to wait it out.
I labored all night but the contractions weren’t getting closer. Again, I felt so defeated. I made Travis walk around outside in the moonlight with me MULTIPLE times. The next morning, I called my midwife and she said come in and she’d check my cervix. We left Henry with Mom and headed over to Sylva. When I got there, I was so sure they would send us home, but alas, I was a 5, 80% effaced with a bulging bag of water. YEAH! I wasn’t crazy after all – this was true labor!
We checked into the hospital at 10AM. At around 10:30, I was dilated to a 7! Mom arrived at 11AM with cookies and trashy magazines – I had NO interest in either, I was in “GO” mode ;) Around noon, Betsy came over and broke my water. After this, there was no turning back – we would have a baby, one way or the other, within the next 24 hours. (If the baby hasn’t been born within 24 hours of your water breaking, they’ll take it by c-section because of the risk of infection).
see, I warned you it was long....
Not long after my water was broken, the contractions got SUPER intense!! I never got to this stage of contractions with Henry – the epidural took all the pain away. Travis and I had decided that this time, we were going to try to have a natural birth – no meds whatsoever. We read Dr. Bradley’s “Husband Coached Childbirth” together and were as prepared as we could be for bringing Clara out without any meds. I give props to Travis for making me do my exercises every night for weeks leading up to the due date and for making a GREAT coach during the actual event!

As I transitioned from a 7 to a 10, I labored on a birthing ball and in the water-tub. When I got into the water, it felt fabulous – all of the pressure was off of my joints and the warm water helped me relax. It was during this time that I began to push, in various positions, but I could never get into a good position. My midwife suggested we move to the toilet. I’ll admit, this made me freak out a bit – I remember asking if they’d make sure to catch her so she wouldn’t get dirty :) . The toilet didn’t work – I couldn’t push Clara past my pubic bone. The last suggestion worked – moving to the bed. It was there that I could really bare down and get her out. She was “sunny-side up” so Betsy had to hold her neck and twist her in the birth canal. The nurse pushed on my belly and with one last contraction, Clara greeted the world. They placed her on my chest and she was perfect. Black hair and a cute button nose.

Almost two years later and her hair is lighter, but she’s still as cute as a button!

splendid…lindsay

Lindsay Wright blogs at the healthy living site, Lindsay’s List, where she shares her fitness journey as a NASM-certified personal trainer and group fitness instructor. A stay-at-home mom to two children, Lindsay’s just trying to balance fitness, family and fun!! Find her at Lindsay’s List.

06/12/12
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Hunter’s birth story: part 3

Here it is!  The final part to Hunter’s birth story.  Make sure to check out part 1 and part 2 as well.

Since I kept having my midwife check me, she was skeptical about when I’d really need to push. She said there were behaviors she would see and she’d know it was time.

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It felt like I was in transition f.o.r.e.v.e.r. Every check left me disappointed since each time I had not reached 10 cm. There was this tiny little lip that just wouldn’t budge.

When I switched from ‘I feel like I need to push’, or ‘I want to push’, to ‘I need to take a poop!’, that was the sign!

My midwife checked me once again and although I wasn’t at a 10 still, she told me to push with the next contraction and she’d see what my cervix did. During that next contraction I pushed, she pressed that tiny part of my cervix over (holy ouch!) so he could begin to pass and it begun.

I was so glad to start pushing. Finally the end is near! My midwife saw I still had part of my bag of water in tact, so she broke it. Surprisingly there was meconium (baby’s first poop) in the bag. That meant the neonatal staff had to be there just in case he swallowed any of it, which would be bad.

8:30pm

The team was intact. Me on the slightly inclined bed, my midwife there to catch Hunter, the nurse holding my left leg and Jacob on my right. It took me a few pushes to really get the feeling of what pushing was like. Honestly, it’s the same feeling as pushing out a poop. Just gotta give in to the feeling.

I’d get 2 good pushes out of each contraction, try to catch my breath and push for a 3rd. Everyone was cheering me on and telling me what they could see with each push. The feeling of his head making its way past my cervix was crazy.  I thought he was already out but that was just step one. Once he past the cervix I was in a rhythm. A contraction would come, I’d take a breath in, left it out, take another deep breath in, hold it, pull my legs back and push like crazy. Pushing was amazing. I was doing something! I couldn’t believe the lack of pain I felt during the pushes.  Contractions didn’t hurt anymore.

When his head started to crown I could feel the burn begin, but my midwife used oil and helped stretch me and he began to emerge, quickly. Once his head was out I just wanted to keep pushing, especially since it felt sooooo weird just having his head hanging out! A couple more pushes and boom he was out, face up, fist under chin and screaming like crazy.

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8:58pm

Just 28 minutes.  That’s all it took to push out our 7 pound 12 ounce baby boy Hunter.

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They put him on my chest right away since he looked and sounded good (the neonatal nurses left). All I remember saying was ‘oh my gosh, oh my gosh’ and that he was so big! Jacob thought he was big too, but apparently he wasn’t to the nurses.  To us he was!

Our baby was in my arms. He was perfect. After the cord was cut and
placenta delivered, my midwife was going to stitch me up a bit. I had tiny little tear, and since it was so little I was given the option to not have stitches, which I decided against.

About 30 minutes after he was born he already started nursing — for 30 minutes! He was a champ from the beginning.

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We let them weigh him, give him his vitamin K shot then he was back in our arms.

I could not believe how quickly he came out, especially being a posterior baby. All that working out a did during my pregnancy definitely had me ready for the big pushing event, which much like working out, I loved.

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Jacob was amazing the entire time. He was my rock and kept me from freaking out when my contractions would get intense. I felt so much support for our choice for a drug free child birth, not only from our midwifes (we started with one, ended with another), but the 2 nurses we had at the hospital as well. There were definitely some moments I didn’t think I’d make it, but once it was over I couldn’t imagine having done it any other way.

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06/7/12
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Hunter’s birth story: part 2

Before heading onto part 2, catch up on part 1 of Hunter’s birth story.

At 1am we arrived at the family birth center. I got hooked up to two monitors – one for my contractions, one for Hunter’s heart rate.

A nurse checked and indeed my water had broken — we were there to stay. When my midwife arrived she checked to see how much I’d progressed — 3 cm, almost 100% effaced and he was at zero station, meaning very low, locked and ready to go!

After 30 minutes on the monitors I was free to move as I pleased. I walked around the room a lot,  spent some time in the tub and did some hands and knees rocking. I was feeling pretty drained from the lack of sleep that I began to drift off into sleep in between contractions.

The switch

Typically things start to progress along in labor — longer and stronger contractions that get closer and closer together. Well the opposite began happening for me. They kept getting further apart, leaving me with 5-6 minutes of breaks in between each (where before they were 1-2 minutes apart). I was even able to get an hour long nap in, and apparently I had a 24 minute break from contractions at that time.

Although the relief was nice, I knew it wasn’t a good sign.

By noon on Monday my midwife decided to check me again, only because my labor didn’t seem to be going the right way. At that time I was 5-6 cm dilated. I had made progress, just slowly. We decided to give it a couple more hours to see if things picked up before talking about other options.

The nurse did some acupressure on my feet/ankles and we tried hot wash cloth nipple stimulation. Both things that can help pick up contractions. I moved around the room, did lunges, got on my hands and knees. I wanted my body to do this on its own without help.

4pm rolled around and I was check again — only 6cm dilated. Barely a change. Since my water had broken at 8pm the night before the 24 hour time clock was counting down.

I knew what my options were going to be, and I knew I didn’t really have a choice with them, but when my midwife suggested a little pitocin I broke down and cried. It’s not what we wanted or planned for.  The lack of sleep was making me pretty emotional, and at the time I felt like a failure. Why couldn’t my body do this? Did I do something wrong? This is not what we had planned.

We said okay to the pitocin. Our midwife knew what we wanted, but sometimes things change with  unexpected situations. I started off with the smallest dose of pitocin, which we hoped would kick start my body back to where it needed to be. For the next hour I got 2 tiny increments.

Things were starting to pick up. By 6pm the contractions were much much stronger. I could no longer walk them off.  I’d instantly have to get on my knees, arms on tub and Jacob putting hot compression on my back. It was the only way I could deal with them. There wasn’t talking, just walking then onto my knees during the pain.

I wanted to be checked again, hoping I’d be at the point of pushing. Pushing meant the contractions would soon end and Hunter would be here.

Only at a 9. Keep moving as much as I can. Keep things moving and getting to that 10.

Just about every 20-30 minutes I asked to be checked again and I was stuck at 9-9.5 cm. It seemed like I was stuck there forever.

Contractions were back to back and I could barely deal with them. I kept saying that I wanted to push, but they knew I wasn’t ready. I wishfully wanted to push.  That would mean it was over.

Stuck at that 9.5 I began to feel defeated. I kept telling them I couldn’t doing it any more. Jacob and my midwife would encourage me and get me through that contraction, one at a time. My breathing would start to get our of hand, then Jacob would just start doing the slow deep breathing and I’d begin to mimic him.

In my head each time I said I couldn’t do it anymore, to me that meant I needed drugs. That’s the thing about transition, you begin to say things you don’t really mean…