If you haven’t read the first half of Nova’s birth story, be sure to go back and check that out and then come back here for more.
I left off with us heading down from our bedroom to leave for the hospital. When we got down the flight of stairs, I decided on one more trip to the bathroom before the 30 minute drive to the hospital. Going pee was the worse. Even if I wasn’t in a contraction, going to the bathroom made one come on. Then standing back up gave me one. Jacob told me he was going to run the bags out to the car then come back to help me walk to it. My reply (which I’m sure was quite grumpy) was that I wasn’t going to wait and I would walk when I could, since I couldn’t walk through these contractions. I wanted to make progress to the car when I wasn’t in immense pain.
Up the outside stairs, into the garage, Jacob got the door for me and held my arms as I went through a contraction.
Now comes the worst 30 minutes.
The moment the car is turned on and we leave up the driveway, my contractions go to a new level. I blame the vibrations of the car and being forced to sit, but dang they hurt! The driving felt jerky, too fast and just made everything hurt so badly (I’m sure the driving was normal, I just wasn’t in a normal state). Contractions were coming on every couple of minutes. I would close my eyes, tap my fingers on the car door intensely, then as the wave of pain would pass, the tapping would begin to slow until it stopped. Now even though the pain was unreal, we still managed to talk in between the contractions for some moments. I don’t remember what about, except for two conversations. We’ve laughed about the first one many times now. At some point on our drive I said “I hope they don’t send us back home if I’m not far enough along yet”. Jacob lovingly agreed with my statement, but thought I was a crazy lady in his mind. My worry didn’t happen. The second conversation I recall was me telling him to take lots of pictures during the birth since I didn’t want the third baby to be left with no pictures. That one didn’t happen either.
We arrive at the birth center parking lot at 8:30pm.
Jacob went to park in an open spot near the birth center front door. Unfortunately he didn’t see that the sign said ‘for practitioners’. I saw it. I yelled, “you aren’t a practitioner, you can’t park here”. As he went to back out if the spot, I made him stop driving so I could handle the contraction in a non-moving car. It passed and he parked in the next parking lot area.
We got out of the car, he grabbed our bags, and I had my arm over his shoulder as he helped me walk in. A contraction hits and I’m on the ground. I can’t stand through it. It passes and we take a few more steps. Another one comes and I’m back on the ground. I then tell him to get a wheelchair, that I just don’t want to walk anymore. He runs to the birth center to get one. After the contraction passes, I get up, take a few more steps and another one hits me. I’m back on the ground and I break down. I can’t stop crying. Not because of the pain, but it’s just an emotional release. As I’m on the ground I see a lady walk by across the road and I’m instantly pissed – why is she not helping me? I’m in labor, crying on the bark dust. To her defense it was dark and I was in black clothes.
Moments later Jacob and a nurse come out with the wheelchair. Lisa sees them and is walking up too. She hadn’t seen me in the bark dust either and ran over along with Jacob and the nurse. They helped me into the wheelchair (I’m still crying non stop) and offered many words of encouragement about how great I was doing. Lisa told the nurse about my labor throughout the day, which midwife group was mine, that I wanted a water birth, and that triage probably wasn’t necessary for where I was at in my labor.
We went to triage.
In triage I got out of the wheelchair, and a contraction came on, which had me back on the ground on my hands and knees. Maybe one or two more happen and my water broke. I yelled, “my water broke – oh my gosh the baby is coming” probably on repeat. The nurse insisted on checking me, so finally when I wasn’t having a contraction I let her check me. And I was right, the baby was coming! I’m off of triage floor and onto the bed, on my hands and knees with a blanket draped over me as they rolled me E.R. style to the delivery room.
Things are crazy – there are so many nurse – they are all getting things ready (I assume… Jacob tells me there were many and it was hectic). We are in the room and I’m yelling over and over again, “take off my socks, take off my socks”. Finally the midwife heard me and took them off. She put Jacob at ease with her chill demeanor and made comments about how we are wearing the same socks. She came to see my face, told me her name (I met her once or twice when I was pregnant with Zoe), smiled and said “let’s have a baby”. Loved her already.
All this seems like it lasted a minute long, but I’m sure it was many more than that. After my socks are off, a contraction came on and I wanted to push, so I did. I’m pushing (maybe fast), and the midwife told me slow down a bit. Another contraction came and I pushed as she guided me along – when to slow and when to continue – and then all of a sudden a baby was born! The midwife laid her on the table under me (since I delivered her on my hands and knees). The rest of my water broke right onto where she is laying (poor girl). After the water wasn’t pouring down onto her, I remembered to look and see – it’s a girl! I grab her up and held her close as I sat on the bed. Instant love. Instantly I also felt totally normal again. I went from the most intense thing in my life, to instant relief and no pain.
8:46pm Nova Sienna was in my arms.
I am still shocked by how quickly it went down. We arrived at the hospital parking lot at 8:30pm and she was born at 8:46pm! Never would I have imagined her arrival would be this quick, but it’s a birth I always hoped I would get to have – laboring at home as long as I could handle (in hindsight I cut it a wee bit close), no IVs and no need for pitocin. Completely natural!
Like I said in the beginning of part 1, each of my kiddos births have been different and unique, and I’m so thankful to look back on all three with such a positive light. It is so amazing, thrilling, painful (but you really do forget that), and the greatest joy to bring babies into the world. And then keep them and love on them! And we sure love our Nova so very much.
I hope you enjoyed reading our experience. I love birth and sharing our unique story.
Heather
Want to read more birth stories? Check out Hunter, Zoe and Nova’s below!
- Hunter’s birth story part 1
- Hunter’s birth story part 2
- Hunter’s birth story part 3
- Zoe’s birth story
- Nova’s birth story part 1
2 comments
Amazing birth story! Healthy ans beautiful family!
Thank you Sana!
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