I had a couple of “false
labors” prior to Addison’s actual birthday. One
evening I was having pretty regular contractions 10 minutes
apart, only lasting about 30 seconds each but they went away
when I went to bed. The Monday before the actual birth day,
I was feeling very crampy all morning, very similar to how
I felt in the morning of the day that Marc was born, but this
also went away.
Thursday, November 29th, at 5 am, I woke up
because I was having some contractions. I had been slightly
aware of them in my sleep prior to 5 am but was going back
to sleep in between. At 5, I rolled over so I could see my
clock and started timing them. They were coming about every
10 minutes. I got up and did some stuff on my computer for
a little while and it seemed that they stopped so I went back
to bed. When I laid back down they started again. I tried
as hard as I could to go back to sleep but finally got up
around 6:00. Everyone else in the house was sleeping. Lily
was sleeping in our bed. Scott and Marc were sleeping on the
couch because Marc had had a nightmare in the middle of the
night. Logan was sleeping in her room and my sister Jennifer
was visiting us and she was on an air-mattress in Marc’s
room. Every other room was occupied, so I walked around and
around the kitchen/dining room waiting for the family to start
to wake up. The kids usually wake up between 6 and 7 but today
at 7 everyone was still sleeping. I was bored and lonely so
I woke Scott up and told him that I was having regular contractions.
He said, “Good!”, but I told him they would probably
go away again as they had on previous days.
When Jennifer woke up, Scott and I went to take
a walk around the neighborhood. By 8:30am, the contractions
were about 6 minutes apart. Scott called his mom, Cheri, in
Winter Haven to come and help watch the kids. I was hesitant
to call people because I still felt like the labor could stop
at any moment. The contractions were not difficult at this
point; I could still talk and walk during them. Scott’s
mom said she was going to go to a 9:00 meeting and then she’d
come. Scott called her again to update her (the contractions
had actually spaced out a bit) just before her meeting was
supposed to start, but she had already left and was heading
towards Tampa. She arrived at our house around 10:30.
Scott and I went for another walk and the contractions
were again about 6 minutes apart. When we got home I sat in
the bedroom (so the kids couldn’t climb on me) and read
a book and watched TV. My contractions slowed down a little
and were about 8 minutes apart. Around 11:15, Jenn and Cheri
took the kids to the mall so Scott and I could have the house
to ourselves. Contractions were still pretty easy at this
point.
Scott and I had wanted to go out to lunch or
dinner by ourselves before the baby came, but we hadn’t
had the chance. I had been watching The Food Network and seeing
all that good food made me hungry so I suggested that we go
out to lunch. For some reason Thai food sounded really good
to me (I enjoyed Thai food a lot during this pregnancy,) so
we went to Sukho Thai. We left around noon.
In the car on the way to the restaurant my contractions
picked up. They were about 4 minutes apart. At the restaurant
I ordered some chicken with coconut milk soup and some red
curry with chicken. My contractions continued to be about
4 minutes apart and lasting 50-60 seconds. I started to get
a little more serious; during my contractions, I would stop
eating and talking and wait for them to be over before I continued.
We left the restaurant at 12:45 and went back
home. Contractions continued to be about 4 minutes apart and
lasting 60 seconds. At home we went for one more walk. This
time I would stop during the contraction and wait for it to
end before continuing our walk. I remember that when we were
almost home we saw the mail man coming down the street. Scott
asked who I thought would get to the house first – us
or the mail man. I said I thought we’d get there at
the same time but then I had a contraction and we had to stop.
When the contraction was starting to ease up I said, “oh,
we need to hurry up!” Scott said that I must not be
as far along as he thought because I was still joking during
contractions.
We knew the midwives didn’t need to be
bothered with every detail of the labor and really only needed
to be called when it was time for them to come. Scott waited
until what he thought was the right time, but they said it
sounded like I wasn’t ready yet since I just ate a big
meal but to call back when we wanted them to come over. Even
though I felt I needed to stop and concentrate during my contractions,
I still felt like they were pretty mild compared to what I
knew it could be like. I had made a CD of songs with lyrics
I really liked, and I had it playing on repeat. Concentrating
on the lyrics of the song helped me relax my mind during contractions.
After another hour of laboring at home, Scott
was anxious to know where I was at. I kept telling him I thought
the baby wouldn’t come until tomorrow because my labor
wasn’t that difficult yet. He wasn’t so sure and
wanted me to be checked. Since he didn’t want to bother
the midwives until it was time (and they didn’t think
it was), He decided to do a brief internal exam himself even
though he wasn’t sure what a dilated cervix would feel
like. We knew it was safe as long as he was gentle, because
my water hadn’t broken yet. His conclusion was that
I was 5 cm dilated and 100% effaced. He called the midwives
and asked them to come over.
We had a birthing tub set up in our living room
and I got in it while we were waiting for the midwives. My
labor slowed down a lot as soon as I got in so I got out and
labored on the birthing ball instead. My contractions started
to come more frequently again, 2-4 minutes apart, but they
were only lasting for 30-45 seconds; much shorter than what
they had been
The midwives, Gina and Jill, arrived at our
house around 4pm. Gina did an internal exam and said that
Scott needed to get his midwife certificate because he was
very right. I was 6 cm dilated, 0 station and 100% effaced.
Scott described what he felt as, “a thin wet lasagna
noodle with a 5 cm hole cut out and a water balloon bulging
through the hole.” Gina later said she liked this description
very much and would use it with her students. She said that
bag of waters was dilating the cervix and it would likely
take a long time. She said if we wanted she could break the
bag of waters and then the baby’s head would be directly
on the cervix and things would likely go very quickly, especially
since I’ve had babies before.
I was reluctant to have my bag of waters broken.
Labor had been pretty easy up to this point but I remembered
how much harder my labor with Marc had been when my bag of
waters was broken the whole time. Scott and I talked about
it and I decided that I did like the idea of having the baby
soon, so we agreed to break my bag of waters. They broke it
at 4:43 pm and Gina was right, things did move quickly after
that.
Almost immediately my contractions became a
lot more intense. I hopped back in the birthing tub and tried
to concentrate on relaxing during the contractions. The contractions
seemed like they were lasting a long time and coming one on
top of another. I asked for a cold cloth on my forehead and
the back of my neck. Scott was trying to give me some visualization
to concentrate on but at this point I couldn’t concentrate
on anything. He tried using the rainbow technique (counting
slowly backwards from seven to one while prompting me to visualize
those numbers in colors of the rainbow – red seven,
orange six…), which I found helpful to listen to because
I knew as he got closer to one, I was getting closer to the
end of my contraction. This part of my labor was very difficult
but it did not last very long. At 5:05 I announced that I
felt a lot of pressure like I wanted to push. Gina told me
to just listen to my body and just do what feels right. I
started pushing at 5:07.
Marc, Lily and Logan were right there and when
I started pushing, they came to the edge of the tub to watch.
Marc actually held the flashlight for Gina. The kids were
great during the entire thing! I think seeing the birth really
helped the kids adjust to having a new baby sister. Even as
I write this, two weeks later, none of the kids seem jealous
of the new baby, they are just thrilled with Addison and want
to hold her as much as they can.
The last two babies I had delivered were the
twins and they weighed 4 pounds 4 ounces and 3 pounds 1 ounce.
I only had to push a total of 3 times to get both of them
out. Pushing Addison out was a little more difficult; however,
it did feel good to push and I had more time to rest between
contractions. I could feel the head was almost there and with
the next contraction I pushed and felt a lot of pressure.
Gina said, “stop, stop, stop!” She wanted to allow
the perineum to stretch to prevent tearing. I stopped and
waited even though it was difficult and I wanted to push more.
With the next contraction she said I could try pushing easy
and she’d tell me if I needed to stop. I pushed and
the head started to come out. At 5:15 the head was crowning
and at 5:19 the head was out. With the next contraction I
pushed again and at 5:20 our baby was born. She floated underwater
for a few moments and then I picked her up to put her on my
chest. As I picked her up, I saw and announced that she was
a girl! Scott and I held our beautiful baby in the tub for
a while. She had a lot of vernix on her and some dark hair
on her head. We waited until the umbilical cord stopped pulsating,
then Gina clamped the cord and we let Cheri cut it. Marc said,
“Daddy! That was sweet when the baby…” (he
trailed off.) A few minutes later he said, “Mama, you
did a good job!”
I got out of the tub and sat down in bed and
Addison latched on to the breast right away. I delivered the
placenta in bed. Gina was concerned that the placenta had
only detached half way and that there was bleeding behind
the placenta so she seemed to be in a hurry to get it out.
She pressed on the top of my uterus while I pushed to get
the placenta out. This hurt, but she seemed to think it was
necessary to prevent excessive bleeding.
Addison continued to nurse at the breast,
we bonded, Scott ordered pizza and proudly told the delivery
woman when she got to the house that we had just had a baby.
Everyone ate and we started our life as a family of six.
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