Clara's (very long) Birth Story

This is a long story - but it was a long birth! I really enjoyed reading people's stories when I was pregnant, so maybe someone will enjoy reading ours. :-)

Sunday, September 25
We went to eat at YC’s Mongolian Grill because I thought maybe eating spicy foods would help her come. That night we started watching the movie “Morning Glory” and I started having mild contractions at 8pm. I knew they were contractions because they wrapped around my back as well as front. I practiced breathing through them, and each time they would start, Charlie would pause the movie as I lay on the couch.
After awhile, it got to be too much to sit on the couch and I went upstairs to take a bath. I know at some point we went downstairs again and finished watching the movie, and we tried to sleep in between contractions. What happened that night is kind of fuzzy, but between 8pm and 5am I had contractions, ranging from 3-8 minutes apart. They seemed to get farther apart near the morning time, and at some point we both drifted off to sleep as the contractions stopped completely. Between 5-9am, there were no contractions and we both slept.
Monday, September 26
I was so disappointed when I finally woke up and realized nothing had happened! Charlie was exhausted (as was I) and thought he should take a rest as he had to work that day at 11am. I decided to take our dog Stanley for a walk. I could feel that the baby was low and I am pretty sure I was walking way too slowly for our dog to be getting any exercise, but I was hoping the contractions would start up again.
When I got back home, I lay down on the couch and watched TV and after a few minutes, felt a contraction. They were 10 minutes apart this time. I debated whether or not to wake Charlie. I wondered if I should call the midwife, especially since last night nothing had actually progressed to the point of going to the hospital.
I eventually woke Charlie and he called for a labor check appointment at Valley Women for Women with Belinda since she was on call. We went in at 11am and she said I was still in the early stages of labor (dilated a 2.5) so we could go have a nice lunch somewhere and labor at home some more. Well, I felt pretty yucky, but we drove to mail a package and then had lunch at Brio at the San Tan Mall.
It was still pretty hot outside and the walk to the restaurant seemed to take forever, but somehow we made it to our table. Seated at the table, I was having contractions and would close my eyes and just breathe. It was very uncomfortable to be sitting upright but we tried to look over the menu and have one last “nice meal” together. Well, it ended up that we ordered our food to go because I felt so nauseous and out of place in a fancy place with my eyes closed, ignoring the waitress. So we started walking back to the car. We had a contraction standing outside the restaurant, and then Charlie decided to bring the car to me as I waited on a bench. I wondered what the people walking by me thought seeing a pregnant lady “asleep” on a bench in the middle of the day, ha!
We drove back home and Charlie ate his to-go lunch on the floor of our bathroom, as I lay in the tub. I felt too hot after awhile and got into bed. Charlie started fixing the “go bag” with the last minute items like toothbrushes and sandwiches in between my contractions. Around 2pm, I was really focusing on “giving in” to a contraction and picturing my cervix opening when I heard a “pop!” and felt like a cork had popped inside me! Then I felt water rushing out, and I called for Charlie to come. He called Belinda again and we eventually got in the car and drove for another labor check – we really wanted to make sure we were not going to the hospital too soon.
The second drive for the labor check was so intense. I threw up on the outside of Charlie’s car midway through the 2-mile drive, and I know I was a frightening sight in my wet nightgown and unkempt hair when we walked into the office again! It seemed like we had to wait forever to be called back, and I eventually convinced Charlie to ask if we could just lie down on any old bed in a room while we waited. I know I threw up again in an ultrasound room, but that time was also fuzzy in my mind. I was just focusing on breathing and relaxing as much as I could.
Belinda checked me again and said “you’re a 4-“ and before she could recommend us to go back home, I jumped in and told her I thought I was at my limit, whatever that meant, and that I just wanted to go to the hospital to labor. No more driving back and forth. She called and got us cleared for a delivery room – no triage! – and we drove straight to the hospital and parked in the very closest spot to the emergency room.
I threw up in the parking lot, in the lovely flower pot outside the door of the emergency room, and then proceeded to heave and heave, looking for a trash can that I could hold. Once we got one, Charlie went to check us in. I had my eyes closed the whole time we waited, and it was the worst feeling sitting alone having bad contractions by myself, knowing strangers were probably staring at me after my lovely entrance. About 10 minutes later, Charlie finished with the paperwork (we had already preregistered – silly hospital paperwork!) and they brought a wheelchair to take us up. It was about 4pm.
They mistakenly wheeled us to triage and then Charlie explained we were bypassing that part, before they brought us to our room. It literally felt like I was on a rollercoaster, it seemed like we were going so fast! When we got to our labor room, our first nurse Jill was working on filling the enormous labor tub, so I lay on my side and Charlie coached me through contractions.
Around this point, and upon entering the labor tub (fully naked – I guess my modesty disappeared fairly quickly!), I was seriously doubting my ability to handle the rest of labor with no drugs. Maybe it was the stress of getting checked twice and coming to the hospital, but I just felt like I was really at my limit of pain. I mentioned that I might have to have an epidural to Charlie, and he calmly told me that we had discussed the fact that I might say this, and reminded me of why we were having a natural birth. That was really all it took for me to feel almost completely reassured. That, and when midwife Diane came to help us before Belinda arrived. We had been told that we had to get out of the tub because they had found meconium in my water, and although I felt like crying, Charlie guided me out of the tub and into the shower.
I could not stand at that point, so I just sat in the shower floor and let Charlie shower hot water on my back. Diane peeked her face through the curtain and commended us for our great work. She asked me how I was feeling and I told her honestly, “I am really doubting myself right now.” I will never forget the look on her face as she told me that I was not doubting myself and that I was doing it. Her eyes were like lasers into mine and it honestly felt like the Word of God coming from her mouth!! I wonder if they take drama classes in midwifery school just for this purpose of reassuring women.
I was so happy when Belinda arrived. We had plugged the drain of the shower (Diane and Charlie’s idea!) to make it a small tub, and I was getting too hot, so we went back to the bed. The new nurse was Lynda, and although she was a very nice person, I came to associate her with the intermittent monitoring that made me so uncomfortable. Around 7pm, I told Belinda it would help my spirits if I knew how much I was dilated now, and she determined that I was an “uneven 7,” whatever that meant. I wondered if Clara was going to be born the next day, since only 5 hours were left of the 26th.
The timeline of laboring techniques that Charlie and Belinda helped me with gets fuzzy between 7 and midnight. We tried the ball, but I found it so hard to keep balanced and relaxed during contractions. Lying on my side was no longer comfortable, either. One of my favorite positions was hanging my arms over the back of the bed, my head resting on the very top of the bed, with the bed in an upright-sitting position. They encouraged me to spread my knees nice and wide and relax into each contraction. Charlie and Belinda would rub my back and rock my hips during contractions. At first, this felt scary, but the more I did it, the better it felt. They also took extremely hot water and wrung washcloths in it to give super-deep pressure and heat on my back, which hurt a lot at this point. The washcloths were the only thing that really got rid of the back pain during and in between contractions. I remember Charlie and Belinda discussing Gate-Control Theory and how pressure and heat occupy the pain receptors first, hence the amazing power of the hot cloths.
I got back in the shower at some point and stood up as Charlie poured more extremely hot water on my back. I think we decided that this was transition, as I was shaking so hard. More hot washcloths and pressure in bed, and at some point, I started feeling the urge to push, little by little. I wanted to know if I could push safely (Belinda never pressured me to get checked – it was my own curiosity) and at that point I was declared a 10!! I felt so happy and proud of Charlie and I for making it all the way to 10 with no drugs, I felt like celebrating already.
It was around midnight when I started pushing. We tried 2 positions. The first was squatting, using the bar. I would rest gingerly on my back between contractions. I kind of sensed that Clara was not coming out very fast. The contractions slowed way down (about 6 minutes apart) during pushing, but Belinda was not worried. Clara had been doing fabulously during the entire labor, according to the annoying monitoring, and Belinda told the nurse basically to “chill out” even though they were far apart, because my body knew what it was doing. (She did this without me hearing, but she told us later what she had said to the nurse.) The next hour of pushing was in a sitting up position, with my feet pushing on the squatting bar. I kept asking what was going on down there, and they brought me a mirror, even though I was a little scared at first to see what was happening to my body!
Eventually the contractions made me want to push, push, push, and it felt so good. Even though I felt the “ring of fire” it was totally manageable. Belinda called for the baby nurse to come, and I started getting excited. I could see the whole circumference of Clara’s head in the mirror. It was so surreal! She said something that really motivated me on the next contraction – “let’s really surprise ‘em and have this baby before they get here!” and sure enough, the next contraction pushed her head and her body all the way out. Charlie caught her, and they plopped her right on my chest. She was crying and her eyes were already open. She was very alert. I couldn’t believe I was looking at our own baby!!