Water Birth Story

I love reading birth stories on your blog, so I thought I’d send mine
along! It was the most amazing natural waterbirth I could ever have
imagined! My blog is: minikonomia.blogspot.com

Thanks! And keep up the awesome blogging at Spearmint Baby!
Jill

THE BEGINNING

My birth story (and Jaye’s too) began on Wednesday, August 3, 2011
with a backache. I remember noting that my lower back ached in a
different way from my normal pregnancy backache. I didn’t think a
whole lot about it though. Phil and I went for a nice walk and had our
usual evening.

I woke up at 4:30 am on Thursday, August 4, 2011 with what I knew were
definitely some contractions. I felt them in my back, but they weren’t
bad and I dozed for awhile. Like we’d talked about in Hypnobabies
class, I tried to relax and sleep and not get too excited. I knew it
was possible to have light contractions for days beforehand. I got up
for real around 7 am as Phil was getting ready for work. My
contractions were coming every 10 minutes. We went for a walk and
decided that since Phil had been planning on taking a half day to go
to our scheduled midwife appointment that afternoon perhaps he would
just work from home until then.

I ate some cereal for breakfast- Kashi Crunch. I called the birth
center and just let them know that I might be in early labor. I think
I maybe read some blogs and tried to have a normal start to the day. I
lay down to take a nap at one point too. Around 9:00 am, I started
feeling nauseous. I started throwing up after every contraction. For
some reason, this was absolutely not something I’d anticipated or even
thought could happen at all. Perhaps I should have guessed, since I
generally throw up when I get migraines.

I think at this point, I put on the Deepening track from Hypnobabies.
However, I remember that the super calm and chipper voice got on my
nerves. At one point, she said, “You feel so good” and I remember
retorting “No, I don’t!” I didn’t listen to any more tracks after
that.

Around noon, Phil called the midwives again and told them I’d been
throwing up every 10 minutes after every contraction for awhile now.
Amy said, in her usual calm way, “It would be better if she wasn’t.”
We grabbed a few things and headed to the birth center to get some
nausea relief for me.

When we got there, we headed back to one of the two bedrooms, and I
got an IV with some fluids to rehydrate me and some nausea medicine.
My chiropractor came in and adjusted me. Phil says her presence really
calmed be down. I felt SO much better once I wasn’t throwing up
anymore. Phil urged me to eat some Larabar and drink some water. We
stayed at the birth center for awhile. Dozing on the bed or the couch
in between contractions.

The midwives checked me twice while I was there and I’d progressed
from 1 cm to almost 3ish. We took a walk several times around the
block to keep things moving. At one point, I stopped and threw up.
That’s what I remember. Phil tells it differently. He says that right
outside of a busy mechanic’s shop with the garage doors open and lots
of people around, I staggered over to a little tree and threw up all
over underneath it and then staggered on down the street while he
watched helplessly. I remember that throwing up was pretty miserable,
but I don’t remember the contractions being that bad. They weren’t
comfortable, but I generally just leaned on Phil and breathed through
them.

THE MIDDLE

The midwives wanted me to go home and get some rest since my
contractions were still generally 10 minutes apart (they’d gotten
closer together while we were walking, but spread out again once we
stopped). I really didn’t want to go home because I was so nervous
about the drive home and about having to drive back later. Sitting
down during contractions didn’t feel as good as standing or leaning.
But we headed home around 6:00 pm, stopping at the pharmacy to get
something the midwives prescribed to help me sleep.

My memory and sense of time gets cloudier once we got home. The
midwives wanted me to try to sleep, so I sat on the ottoman leaning up
against the bed. I remember that I was hot and then cold. I was
freezing in between contractions. I would wrap my giant snuggie all
around me. Then a contraction would start and I would have to stand
up, throw off the blankets, and turn on the fan. Phil would press on
my lower back and that helped. As the contraction slowed, I would head
into the bathroom because for some reason it’s the coolest room in our
house. After I cooled down, I would be freezing again and head back
under my blankets. In between I would eat a spoonful of peanut butter
with graham crackers mashed up and honey mixed in.

My mom arrived around 9:00 pm. I had called her around 3:00 pm to let
her know that today was the day. She hurried to the airport and made
it in perfect time. I remember hearing her chatting and greeting Phil
as she walked in, but Phil was all business, telling her how my
contractions were working and what she was supposed to do. She and
Phil switched off sitting next to me and pressing on my back when I
needed them to. My mom says I was very calm; she would never have
known I was having a contraction except that I would stand up and turn
on the ceiling fan. I remember asking how far apart the contractions
were but Phil and my mom didn’t want to tell me in case it was
discouraging to me. I remember insisting that they were definitely
getting closer and closer together.

A few minutes after midnight, my water broke right in the middle of a
contraction. It was kind of startling. Once my water broke, the
contractions became more intense. I decided to get in the shower. I
started moaning through the contractions and each time one started
Phil would come over and just hold me with his eyes. I started to
doubt myself some saying that I couldn’t do it when Phil would come
over. He told me I was doing it.

Phil had called the answering service for the midwives as soon as my
water broke, but I was getting pretty impatient to hear back from
them. It felt incredibly urgent to me that we be at the birth center
immediately. I said we had to leave right away even though we hadn’t
heard back from a midwife. Luckily, Cheryl called as we were heading
out to the car. We beat everyone to the birth center. I have a
distinct memory of standing out on the front porch in the middle of
the night leaning on Phil and swaying a bit through a contraction. It
was kind of surreal.

THE END

Amanda, the birth assistant, showed up shortly and let us in. We
headed back to the same room we’d been in earlier that day. Cheryl
arrived in a few minutes. She took one look at me and made me lay down
on the bed. I was concerned because standing felt more comfortable for
the contractions, but Cheryl said she’d coach me through it and after
a few in that position it would feel better. She said I looked too
tired to keep standing for all of them. She did coach me through them
and seemed to know just what to say.

Once I was lying down, Cheryl and Amanda got an IV of Group B
antibiotics started for me and did check me once even though they
don’t like to check the dilation much once the water has broken. I was
at 7 cm. That didn’t seem far enough to me at the time. I felt like I
needed to be MUCH further along and ready to push. But the birth
progressed quickly from that point. Cheryl had me get up on hands and
knees and do some slow hip circles to help change Jaye’s position
inside and help her come down more. The change in position made a big
difference. I remember saying “Open, open, open.” I remember Cheryl
telling me to relax into the pressure in my lower back. She described
exactly what I was feeling and I was able to let go.

Phil tells me that at one point he asked what he could do for me and I
replied, “Make it stop.” I must have been in transition. I don’t
remember feeling that desperate.

I was able to eat and drink more at this point. I ate graham crackers
with peanut butter spread on them. Cheryl asked if the tub still
sounded good and I said definitely yes, so they started filling it. I
got into the tub on my hands and knees at first. It was nice to be in
the warm water. Phil put on a swimsuit and joined me. I definitely
felt the urge to push at this point and the sensation of the
contractions changed a lot. It felt to me like the contractions slowed
down a lot and I had a lot of time to relax in between. I’d ask for a
cool washcloth on my face, drink some water, and eat something. Phil
told me later that the contractions were coming just as often as they
had been earlier. Perhaps I was just calmer or more in tune with them
so they felt further apart.

I remember Cheryl telling me that I could push as much as I wanted,
throughout the entire contraction. At one point she told me that it
had been a little while since the last contraction which likely meant
the next one was going to be more powerful. She said she could see
Jaye’s head descending and then retreating a little bit with each
contraction. Cheryl suggested that I change positions, to sit back and
lean against Phil. I really didn’t want to, but she said after the
next contraction we’ll change positions.

As usual, Cheryl was right. I moved to sit with my back leaning up
against Phil and my legs pressing kind of against the side of the tub.
Once again, changing positions made huge progress. I was very focused
on pushing Jaye out. I tried to push as long and as hard as I could
during each contraction. At one point, Cheryl said I could reach down
and feel Jaye’s head, but I didn’t want to. I was too focused on
pushing. But then right away Cheryl said, “No, reach down and take
her, she’s there.” There was one contraction that was pretty
uncomfortable, and I didn’t want to stop pushing at the end of it.
After the next push, I felt a huge sense of relief and release of
pressure. I looked down, and there was Jaye’s head and arm. Cheryl
helped me reach down and put little Jaye up on my chest.

I remember saying, “It’s a baby.” and “We did it, Phil. We had a
baby.” I also remember being so overcome with just emotion in general
that I couldn’t really form words, but just happy little moans. I
remember commenting on how purple Jaye was. She was also really sticky
because she was covered with vernix.

They wrapped a towel around Jaye as I held her in the tub. After a bit
(I have no sense of the timing), we all got out of the tub. Phil held
Jaye skin to skin and hung out over by the bed. Cheryl and I dealt
with the placenta. I didn’t really have to push it out, but neither
did Cheryl pull it at all. It just kind of came on its own. It was
kind of weird looking, and I was interested in learning about it.
Phil, holding the baby a few feet away from me, were less interested.

We lay down in bed. As soon as Phil put Jaye down on my stomach and
chest, she picked her little head right up and stared at me with her
big alert eyes and a wrinkled forehead.

And that’s how Jaye was born. I couldn’t be happier with my perfect,
natural water-birth! Or my perfect baby!

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