As I made it back to bed, the contractions started. Now, I had been having contractions, or Braxton Hicks, since the previous Wednesday and since then had been thinking, "Hey, these contractions are a piece of cake. I can totally do this!" Boy, was I wrong. The contractions that started at about 1:04 am on the 19th of December were anything but a piece of cake. They came fast and furious right from the start. I woke Riley with some sort of profound statement like, "Umm...hon...I think my water just broke." He slowly woke up (the only way he knows how) and asked if I was having contractions. My grunting noises as I tried to breathe through that particular contraction must have answered his question.
We decided to time the contractions, as Barb and Nicole (our midwives) had told us not to call in the middle of the night if I just had two contractions (which we totally understood). I decided to have a shower to see if that helped the pain any. While I was in the shower, Riley was timing contractions with an app on my iPhone (oh, technology, what would we do without you?). I got out of the shower with contractions coming an average of 2 minutes apart, and not letting up any. I realized that this was very likely the real thing.
At about 2:00am, we decided to call the midwives. Riley got ahold of Barb, who was already at a birth and told us later that she was thinking, "These first time parents! She's only had contractions for about an hour. Why are you calling me?" However, she said she would call Nicole and have her come over to check me, if only to appease us. Meanwhile, Riley was rushing around preparing our basement for our impending home birth.
I guess this is where I should back up a little. When we first decided to work with the midwives (by the way, greatest decision ever - but I'll save this for another post), we still wanted to deliver in the hospital. This was to be our first baby, and who knew, after all, how my body would handle labour and delivery. What if something went wrong? We wanted to have the "safety" of the hospital on our side. However, as the months went on and we did more research on the topic of home birth vs. hospital birth, we decided that a home birth would better meet our needs. We would be surrounded by the comfort of home, our own things, and could enjoy the privacy of delivering the baby with just the midwives and the two of us. We also decided that we wanted to try a water birth. I'd read many articles that claimed water births were helpful to the mother in dealing with the pain of labour, and I even saw it referred to as an "aquadural."
So, while Riley was setting up the shower curtains (to cover the floor downstairs), duct taping them together and making a path from where the tub would be to the bathroom and the downstairs bedroom, I was trying to deal with the pain of the contractions by using different techniques we learned in prenatal classes. My contractions were still about 2-3 minutes apart and weren't letting up any. I was still dealing ok with them, and making noise helped. I am thankful that I was comfortable enough at home and with my husband to give myself over to the labour and not be inhibited about the sounds I felt naturally inclined to make.
At about 3:00 am, Nicole arrived. She hauled in all her supplies while Riley finished up the preparations downstairs and I breathed and groaned and grunted through contractions. When she checked me, I was already 4-5 cm dilated. That's when it really kicked in for me - this was really happening! We were having this baby! Today! Well, hopefully it would be today and it wouldn't take until tomorrow to happen. The pool was filled up and ready for me to get in, which I was looking forward to. The contractions had started to move around to my back and were getting more painful. The warm water helped and was soothing. The baby wasn't quite in the right position yet, so Nicole had me get out of the tub and try standing and doing one leg-lunges on the stairs to turn him. The next time she checked his position, she discovered that it had worked and he had turned! With each further contraction, Nicole or Riley put pressure on my back, which helped me deal with the pain.
Around 7:30, when Nicole checked me again, I was about 9 cm. Shortly after this my body told me it was time to push, and a little while later Barb arrived. At this point the contractions and the pressure became nearly unbearable. We put on my hypno-birthing CD and amazingly, I was able to relax between contractions, even to the point of falling asleep for a minute or two. I think this relaxation is what allowed me the energy to push the baby out. Afterwards, I was trying to decide which was more painful - contractions or pushing. I still can't decide. They were so different from each other. Pushing gave me some sort of relief - I felt like I was DOING something, where with the other contractions, I felt like I just had to endure them.
I pushed for about an hour and a half, all in the pool, until the last 5 minutes. After each contraction, Nicole would check the baby's heart rate. Finally the baby was crowning, but after 2 consecutive contractions, his heart rate dropped considerably. They had me change positions a few times, but I still couldn't push him the rest of the way out. When his heart rate dropped again, they pulled me out of the pool and had me lie down on the floor. Barb's tone of voice when she said, "You need to push this baby out NOW!" is what motivated me to expend any energy I had left to finally get him out. Barb had to physically move his hand, which was stuck up by his face and was hindering his arrival. I was worried something was wrong, but as soon as he was born, he started to scream. The next few hours is somewhat of a blur for me. I remember crying, so happy that it was over and that he was safe. I was relieved and amazed that I did it! I had a natural child birth at home, and both baby and I were safe!
Barb and Nicole had Riley cut the cord and we officially named him (even though we were pretty sure this would be his name for the past month or so) - Griffin James Barrett was born at 9:01am on December 19th. He weighed 8 lbs 14 oz, and was 21 inches long. He was perfect!
So, while Riley was setting up the shower curtains (to cover the floor downstairs), duct taping them together and making a path from where the tub would be to the bathroom and the downstairs bedroom, I was trying to deal with the pain of the contractions by using different techniques we learned in prenatal classes. My contractions were still about 2-3 minutes apart and weren't letting up any. I was still dealing ok with them, and making noise helped. I am thankful that I was comfortable enough at home and with my husband to give myself over to the labour and not be inhibited about the sounds I felt naturally inclined to make.
At about 3:00 am, Nicole arrived. She hauled in all her supplies while Riley finished up the preparations downstairs and I breathed and groaned and grunted through contractions. When she checked me, I was already 4-5 cm dilated. That's when it really kicked in for me - this was really happening! We were having this baby! Today! Well, hopefully it would be today and it wouldn't take until tomorrow to happen. The pool was filled up and ready for me to get in, which I was looking forward to. The contractions had started to move around to my back and were getting more painful. The warm water helped and was soothing. The baby wasn't quite in the right position yet, so Nicole had me get out of the tub and try standing and doing one leg-lunges on the stairs to turn him. The next time she checked his position, she discovered that it had worked and he had turned! With each further contraction, Nicole or Riley put pressure on my back, which helped me deal with the pain.
Around 7:30, when Nicole checked me again, I was about 9 cm. Shortly after this my body told me it was time to push, and a little while later Barb arrived. At this point the contractions and the pressure became nearly unbearable. We put on my hypno-birthing CD and amazingly, I was able to relax between contractions, even to the point of falling asleep for a minute or two. I think this relaxation is what allowed me the energy to push the baby out. Afterwards, I was trying to decide which was more painful - contractions or pushing. I still can't decide. They were so different from each other. Pushing gave me some sort of relief - I felt like I was DOING something, where with the other contractions, I felt like I just had to endure them.
I pushed for about an hour and a half, all in the pool, until the last 5 minutes. After each contraction, Nicole would check the baby's heart rate. Finally the baby was crowning, but after 2 consecutive contractions, his heart rate dropped considerably. They had me change positions a few times, but I still couldn't push him the rest of the way out. When his heart rate dropped again, they pulled me out of the pool and had me lie down on the floor. Barb's tone of voice when she said, "You need to push this baby out NOW!" is what motivated me to expend any energy I had left to finally get him out. Barb had to physically move his hand, which was stuck up by his face and was hindering his arrival. I was worried something was wrong, but as soon as he was born, he started to scream. The next few hours is somewhat of a blur for me. I remember crying, so happy that it was over and that he was safe. I was relieved and amazed that I did it! I had a natural child birth at home, and both baby and I were safe!
Barb and Nicole had Riley cut the cord and we officially named him (even though we were pretty sure this would be his name for the past month or so) - Griffin James Barrett was born at 9:01am on December 19th. He weighed 8 lbs 14 oz, and was 21 inches long. He was perfect!
Thank you for sharing this...wow! Totally touched my heart.
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