The Unassisted Birth of Olivia

I worked my last shift Saturday evening, the 18th. I was scheduled 7 pm - 11 pm. I got there and they didn't give me any patients because I was a tasker. I was there to help where it might be needed. I did that for a while, and post-partum sent home some patients, so they asked if I wanted to go home around 8:30. Well, I jumped on that. I clocked out, but stayed for about 30 min. talking to people. I knew I wouldn't see them for a while after that. I got home at about 9:15 or so. Since I was prepared to be up until after midnight, I wasn't really tired, so I laid in bed and read for a while. At about 12:30 I turned out the light and tried to go to sleep. I actually drifted right off, which is unusual for me. I normally toss and turn for a while. Not that night.

So, at exactly 2:00 am, I woke with a very painful contraction. It actually brought tears to my eyes. I thought it hurt so badly because my bladder was full, so I went to the bathroom. Came back to bed. Then about 10 minutes after the first, I had my second. Well, this one hurt just as bad. At 2:15 I woke Tom and told him I was hurting really bad. He asked, "good hurt or bad hurt?" I told him good. He rolled over and went back to sleep (which is a misnomer since he wasn't really awake, I found out later). The next one hit, and I was groaning through it. Tom turned around and looked at me. I told him I had to get up. It hurt too much to lay there. OK, he says. I went into the living room (upstairs from our room) and paced around through a couple of contractions, then decided I needed water. So I went to the shower. I stood under the shower with the tub plugged until there was enough water for me to lay down in it. I laid in the tub for a while then started wondering where Tom was. I called out to him. He told me it was about 3 am. He came up and was surprised to find me in the tub. I guess he didn't think I was serious earlier. :o) I asked him if he was getting the pool ready and he said no, was he supposed to? I whimpered out a pathetic yes. I tried to check my cervix while he was getting the pool going but couldn't feel the opening, but I could definitely tell things felt different to me. Cervical change!! Ok, I knew for sure this was it! Tom came and sat with me while the pool was filling. He was trying to talk to me and I told him he couldn't while I was contracting. I don't think I said it very nicely. I can't remember for sure. He went and checked and came and got me when the pool was half full. Down to the basement we went.

I got in and noticed that cold water was coming out of the hose, so he shut it off. I tried knees and elbows for a while. That was ok. I was making a lot of noise. This hurt so bad. I thought, having been through induction with Pit-induced contractions, that this would be easier. It was going to be a natural labor pattern, not some thing forced on my body. That should have been easier, right? Well, it wasn't. This was the most painful labor I had experienced. I am now convinced it hurt more due to my c-section incision scar. I got tired of this position and sat on my bottom with my legs butterfly style. Between a couple of contractions, I remembered someone saying that deep groaning helps, so I did that with the next one. I think I scared Tom by not warning him of the change. He asked if that helped me, I told him yes, I'd heard it was better, so he was then ok with it. I had him check me to see how I was doing. I felt so much pressure, but no urge to push, so wanted to kind of see what was going on. He said he felt the head (Praise God!! Olivia had been transverse for so long and just turned right at the end of the pregnancy, so this was a relief to me). He said there was some kind of thin membrane covering her head. I assumed it was the bag of water. I asked if he felt any cervix and he said no. I was relieved that I could start pushing. I told him to go get Emily now. I knew she didn't want to miss this. When I would bear down, I didn't feel anything in my pelvic area. I knew I wasn't pushing right. That was ok.

The contractions were more tolerable with my doing just what I was doing, so I continued. Then I felt I needed to have a bowel movement, so we trekked up stairs to the bathroom. I was sitting on the toilet, bearing down with contractions (not really pushing) and there was an explosion in the toilet. My water broke. Tom, who had been standing right in front of me (I was holding his hands and burying my head into his stomach) jumped back and asked what was that?? I told him it was my water. It was 4:49 am. He later told me he jumped back because it shot out of the toilet and got all over his legs. He tried to be encouraging, telling me it was almost over, but I got scared. This had been so hard so far, and now that I was ruptured, I knew it would get harder. I had already been telling God that this needed to be short if it was going to hurt this much because no way could I endure hours, and hours of this. I had been praying for strength, and praising God for making my body to be capable of this. I could feel Him helping me through the contractions. But they still just hurt so much.

We went back downstairs to the pool and I asked Tom to check me again. Well, this time he found the cervical opening. What he showed me looked like 5-7 cm. It's hard to read someone else's cervical check. :o). I was upset. I thought I had so much further to go now. It was only minutes that I started feeling totally out of control. I knew at this point that if I had been in the hospital, I would have been begging for drugs, maybe even the horrid epidural (not that I would have gotten it - I went too fast after this). I was so glad I was home and it wasn't an option. I knew at this point I must be in transition. This helped me to know it was almost done. I could do this for a few more minutes. I asked Tom to get into the pool with me and he immediately did. I found out later, he's had a passing thought of "ewww" because of the yuckiness of birth - fluid, blood, and so on. Well, he didn't show it at all. He was the epitome of total support. He sat facing me, both of us with our backs to the pool. I felt inside me, and felt something that was odd. I had a thought that it might be cord. I had Tom check and see what he thought it was. He did not think it was cord. Turned out, it was probably just swollen tissue. A prolapsed cord was my only real concern through all of this. I had a dream about it early in my pregnancy. So, I was worried about that.

After Tom checked me, I was hurting so much, I begged God to get this baby out of me. Within about 30 seconds I suddenly found myself pushing. There was no urge. I just did it without even knowing. It was so funny. I didn't think about it at all. As far as I knew, here comes the next contraction and then boom, I'm pushing!! I pushed through a couple more contractions, and then looked at Tom. He was staring at my bottom. This was my one really not nice comment during all of this. I told him to quit staring at my crotch. If I wanted that I would be in the hospital. Poor guy. So he concentrated on my face.

With, I think the third push or so, I felt her head move through the birth canal. What a feeling!!! It was amazing. I told Tom the baby was coming. I told him he could look now. hehe He told me my bottom was swelling when I pushed. I already knew that as I could feel it. With the next push, her head came out. Tom was supporting my legs then and I told him to push them back. I realize I was in the exact position that women are in with a hospital delivery, but since we had only managed to get the pool half full before running out of hot water, this was the only way I could have my bottom fully under water so she could be born in the water. I was very comfortable with it anyway, and as it's convenient for docs, so it was perfect for Tom to experience his daughter being born. So, her head came out. I didn't so much feel a ring of fire as others have described it. It was more like a whole engulfing raging inferno over my entire bottom area.

So, her head was out. I felt it, and commented on the hair. I was so excited. I pushed a couple more times and nothing. I think because of my position, she just couldn't get her shoulder under my pubic bone. I tried to slip down more to help her out. It didn't work. I told Tom to gently guide her down. He did that while I pushed and she shot out like from a cannon! Tom said it was like when you push a ball under water and let it go. He held her for a few seconds then handed her over to me. When I took her, the cord was really tugging on me. I realized she had a pretty short cord. This was so funny to me. This was why she was transverse for so long, and it probably made it nearly impossible for her cord to prolapse! I was worried about something that couldn't have happened. That will teach me, right? God has all this stuff under control. My worrying will accomplish nothing.

Soon after, I felt a pretty good contraction. It was nothing like the labor pains, but I still had to breath through it. After the second one of these, I decided it was time to deliver the placenta. The short cord made this a little difficult, but Tom got on his knees and held Olivia while I stood with a bowl and out it came. I took Olivia from Tom, and along with the bowl, I went to the mattress we had on the floor and laid with Olivia and put her to breast. She was 15 minutes old. That is earlier by far than I've been allowed to nurse any of my others. The after pains I felt with nursing were really strong this time around. I know they get stronger with each baby, but I just wasn't prepared for these. I made it through, though. I had hardly any bleeding. My uterus was rock hard. I was amazed to note that I had less bleeding and a firmer uterus than the patients I take care of who receive Pitocin after delivery.

Hmmmm..... After Olivia finished nursing, we cut the cord, and I went up to the bathroom to clean up some. I had no pain at all when I urinated, so I thought I had no tear. I didn't look. I came back down with a bowl of cereal, and Hannah. I had woken her up while I was up stairs. I sat down on the mattress and was eating when the boys joined us. They were more interested in my cereal than the baby. Hannah played very shy towards her. It was funny. Eventually, all three of them fell in total love with her, and couldn't touch or hold her enough. She is a fantastic baby. In fact, she's a little too good sometimes. She slept 7 hours the other night. I woke up so full of milk I thought I might explode. Not interested in my fertility returning any time soon, so I need her to night nurse more than that!! How many moms WISH for their baby to wake up and nurse more at night? LOL

We are all totally in love... especially Tom. He's so attached to Olivia. I know they have a special bond. It's so beautiful to watch them together.

 

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