Eliza Ruth
I had been dealing with prodromal labor for a few weeks, starting around 37 weeks. Off and on contractions, but nothing big. The day I hit 40 weeks was very uneventful for my poor uterus, so we made a due date “date” with Hannah and Brigham. We got out of the restaurant around 9:30 pm. Then we shot off and hit up the opening weekend 11pm movie showing for The Avengers: Infinity War. I did have a few strong contractions during the movie, and it was a bit distracting. However, they quickly fizzled out.
Come about Monday night, or a Tuesday morning since it was about midnight, contractions started about 15 minutes apart. It would go on for hours, and then stall out for an hour or two. Then pick up again, and stall again. It was exhausting, but I was happy to get that portion done. I slept maybe 3-4 hours that night broken up.
Come evening, I headed to the restaurant and worked on cleaning over there. I needed to move and get my mind on something else, but also needed some space from my kids. As much as I love them around, they were also part of the reason things kept stalling.
When I went to bed that night contractions started up again at 11pm. I had 2 or 3 at 15 minutes apart. Then one that was 10 and then 8 minutes apart. After those I stayed at 1-2 minutes apart for the duration of the labor.
I labored in bed for a while. I found leaning back, staying propped up with my arms behind me and tilting my pelvis forward made thing bearable. After several bathroom trips though, I decided to just stay in there. I spent the rest of the night going between sitting on the toilet, standing and rocking my hips, hands and knees on a bath towel on the floor, and leaning over the sink and rocking my hips. At a point, I was so exhausted and fell asleep on the toilet as well as when I was laying on the bathroom sink. It was only for that minute or two, but I grabbed what I could. I also ended up laying on the towel on the floor a couple times and dozing off for a moment at a time. The exhaustion was overwhelming.
I was tired of the constant laboring. The close contractions for hours and hours. I started pushing, breathing baby down, and trying to focus on visualizing my cervix opening through each contraction to try to help dilate my cervix more. I was going by my mucus plug loss, and it started going more at that point. Sometime around 4am I felt the beginnings of the bag bulging. Just a small part, but what a huge encouragement! I don’t check my cervix, but I will reach in far enough to feel for the sac or baby. Feeling the sac was wonderful! Not too long!
Brent woke up around 5am and made his way into the bathroom. Seeing how the toilet was occupied, and knowing I wasn’t budging for his bathroom run, he left for a moment and then came back.
As he was gone, I felt a large mass coming out of me as I labored on the toilet. I held my hand there as it came out, and then it burst! My water had broken, and the sac was definitely a strong one. It was really an amazing thing to experience. I was almost sure it was a baby with how it felt in my hand. That was at 5:10am, as I checked my phone to see the time.
Brent made it back within a minute, but going by my noises, he went and woke up Hannah to help. Unfortunately I was zero help with where I had stashed my tinctures. I had moved to the towel on floor and my communication was mostly waving him with my hand. In the end, we ended up without the tinctures, twine for the cord, or cord scissors for the birth.
Brent came back in from looking for my birth stuff, and saw me on my hands and knees but facing the door. He asked if there was any way I could turn around (we had been through this issue before with Z). I kind of laughed and managed to turn so he could help catch baby.
A moment later I felt baby’s head coming down. I couldn’t say anything at that point, so I just held my hand down and felt the head. I wanted another moment to prepare and relax, so I more held baby’s head inside me just to prevent too much more stretching. After the contraction I told Brent that the head was coming.
Although I’m pretty sure what I said was “Head, baby’s head, head...”.
The next contraction I gently pushed, but more just let things move on their own while holding baby’s head to keep it slow. As the head got about halfway out, I wanted to be done, and have a little push to finish up. The head was out! I started saying over and over “That feels so much better!”.
It felt soooo much better!
Brent said “He’s just looking at me”. The reassurance that baby looked good was amazing.
I’m not sure if I waited for another contraction or not, but I pushed and baby shot out! Brent caught baby and then said that baby was a girl!!! I was wrong! I was thinking boy the whole time!
I was so happy! I was done, baby was here!!! I turned myself around and sat on the towel then held baby as they got towels for her.
Everything was relatively easy, and my recovery has been amazing. Minimal after birth pains, minimal bleeding after the first day, and I’m not sore. Baby is healthy and just perfect. Her latch is not good. She has a lip tie making nursing almost unbearable at times. However it’s getting better. Especially now that my milk came in. She’s a sweetie though. If she’s upset I can just talk to her and she calms down.
Eliza Ruth
Born May 2, 2018
40w 4d
5:20am
9lb 1oz
