Birth Day

I'm feeling the love on my birthday today :)

But I'd thought I'd share a story of another birthday today, the story of Andromeda's Birth Day!

June 6th, 2014 I started to have a bit of sharp cervical pain, like someone was poking a needle into me down there, and chalked it up to my body preparing for birth as my due date was only three days away. That day I also got acupuncture to help my body naturally progress. I really enjoyed it and recommend it to any expecting mom. Although, Karl did not help my zen vibes as it was a hot day and he ran the car battery all the way down by blasting the air conditioner while I was at my appointment! Luckily his mom came to our rescue and soothed the ire of a very pregnant woman.

After my work baby shower around 37 weeks.

Sunday morning, June 8th, I started having light contractions, strong enough to feel a bit of pain, noticeable, but not really as bad as my normal period cramps but definitely timeable. As I went about my day they subsided, I would get a contraction about every 30 minutes to an hour for about 30-45 seconds. This continued over the next few days. Looking back I was probably in this "early" labor stage of light contractions for about a total of 5 days.

On Monday morning, June 9th (my due date), I lost my mucus plug when I got up that morning. At my 40 week appointment at the OB, I was only 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. No change from before but I was mentally ready to be about a week late anyway.  Everyday I would try to walk a mile at least once or twice, not getting much sleep at all because the light contractions, hip pain, and bladder would wake me up. My due date passed but I was enjoying spending time at home with Karl for our last few days alone. 

The last picture taken of me pregnant! This was before we went to the Portland Opera.

June 10th we came home from his parents after dinner and were sitting on the couch when I felt a pop in my lower abdomen at around 9:45 pm. I immediately though my water broke and yelled to Karl to grab a towel. Sure enough, when I stood up a gush of fluid came out. I called my doula/montrice Jocelyn and she agreed, saying she'd head over to the house to check and monitor baby in a bit. I was excited and started to get everything ready for the hospital, however by the time Jocelyn arrived 20 minutes later I had had at least 3 or 4 painful contractions I couldn't walk through. She confirmed it was my water and listened to babies heartbeat, but even just sitting still waiting for her to check became really uncomfortable. We timed the contractions and they were 5 minutes apart for about a minute. I got in the shower briefly but soon realized it was time to GO. Karl called Sunnyside as we got into the car at around 10:45 pm. I had planned to labor as long as possible at home, but I progressed so fast it wasn't for long!

At labor & delivery I couldn't even walk 10 feet from the car to the door without having a contraction, so they wheelchaired me in to triage. I was so focused on getting through contractions that I barely remember much besides blindly signing papers! Couldn't get the hospital gown on without having one or two contractions from the bathroom to the bed. My contractions were 3 to 1 minute apart at this point, definitely very active labor. Sometimes I wouldn't even get a break between them. I don't think they even checked my cervix! Karl called my mom to come in to the hospital. I was able to get a room with the deep tub and we moved there.

I labored in the tub for an hour or two before I started getting overheated and my face was tingling so I moved to the bed. I labored there in almost a reclined sitting position as I worked through contractions. I thought I was being loud with vocalization, but apparently they couldn't even tell when I was having a contraction! My doula suggested other positions like standing and knees but those were just too painful. My hormones hadn't had enough time to catch up with how fast and strong the contractions were. I ended up getting an IV because I kept throwing up (at random, never felt nauseous) and couldn't even keep water down. I did have continuous monitoring (luckily with telemetry) but I think that was because my contractions were so close together or because my water had broken. But according to babies heart rate she barely noticed I was in labor. 

At about 6 am June 11th, I had the "I don't think I can do this anymore" feeling so I asked that they check my cervix. I was 8 cm! That really helped me, whatever I was doing was working :) By around 7 ish I was complete but still didn't feel the strong urge to push, although mentally I was ready to push that baby out! I started to do self directed pushing but it wasn't as effective as it needed to be so the midwife offered her help. I pushed on the toilet with her really directing me, it was hard to push past the pain and that wall of pressure. We got baby almost all the way through the birth canal and moved back to the bed. That was a fun walk! With my mom and Karl holding my legs and supporting me Andromeda Wren was born at 9:45 AM.

Andromeda Wren Baker was 8 lbs 14 oz and 22 inches long. Her head was 14 centimeters (no wonder pushing was so hard!). My 12 hour labor was totally unmediated and I was so happy with the whole experience. We did skin to skin immediately and she barely fussed and was super alert. I tore in a few places but none were too bad, although my tailbone was a bit bruised. I would go through the whole thing over again in a heartbeat. 
Her daddy and I love her so much!

xoxo 

K