But let me backtrack a little bit.
Tuesday morning I went in to the midwives office to get a membrane strip. I was feeling really ready to have the baby and for the past month had felt a bit of urgency at making sure he didn't go too far overdue. Mother's instinct maybe? I'm not sure. I finally convinced the midwives to go ahead and do the sweep and I felt it was going to work. At the appointment, I was a good "stretchy 3 cm" and about 80% effaced. I was pleased with that.
Later that day, I started having contractions and thought, "This will be it!" But they petered out. I was discouraged, thinking that I'd have to wait until Friday, when they had scheduled an ultrasound to check on him since I was overdue and they had also scheduled another sweep at the same appointment. But then in the morning, I started having contractions again and they were pretty strong. I called the midwives and told them what was going on and they seemed to think it was pre labor stuff again and to just take some Benadryl and sleep. I had hardly slept the night before and really was exhausted. So I took a 3 hour nap and woke up, wracked with contractions. I got up and moved around in my room for a while, and my husband took care of the kids. I wasn't comfortable anywhere. No position lessened the contractions. I started timing them and figured out they were coming about every 5 minutes, lasting only about 45 seconds-1 minute 20 seconds long. For some reason I brushed that off and thought, "Well, they need to be longer and they need to be closer." So I got back in bed to try to rest some more and turned on the TV to try to distract my tired brain from the pain.
Around 8:45 pm, I started timing the contractions again and I noticed the time had shortened quite a bit and we were now at a very consistent 2 minutes and 45 seconds apart, and they were lasting exactly 1 minute, 2 seconds each time. I don't think I've ever seen contractions be so perfect and exact, over and over. So I snapped into gear. I messaged my lovely babysitter and told her I needed her to come right away. I got a little snappy with my husband and kept rushing him around the house, to get all the last minute stuff ready, all the while, I got myself ready (oh you know, my hair needed brushing and styling...can't look like a crazy woman during labor! Forget the makeup...I didn't have patience for that...plus I've never been much into that! If I could only figure out how to apply it and actually look half decent, maybe I'd enjoy it more). My sweet husband loaded up the van, got the car seat clicked in, put the towel down just in case my water broke and finished cleaning the bathroom.
Each contraction was getting more intense and I had to cling to the counters, walls or whatever was near me at the moment. I was worried we wouldn't make it there because I started having a lot of pressure. Paul had already called the midwives and they said they would meet us there at the birth center. My babysitter arrived and we left immediately.
After getting to the birth center and unloading the stuff, my midwife, Emily, asked if she could check me, and I agreed. I was at 5 cm. I was a little disappointed because I was sure I was further along. I had felt slightly pushy already and knew I had to hold back on that now. I think that was around 11 pm. I moved around for a little tiny bit of time and squatted into the contractions, trying to help the baby descend, but I was exhausted. I had about 3 hours of sleep total in the past 24 hours and probably about 6-7 hours of sleep total in the past 48 hours. I seriously could barely keep my eyes open. I ended up leaning against Paul while I relaxed between contractions and I think I drifted off a few times. Around 1:30 am, I felt some change coming, slowly, but faster, at the same time. I could tell each contraction was getting stronger and way more painful, and I also noticed that I had a ton of pressure in my back. My midwife came behind me and put some good strong pressure on my back and it felt sooooo good. I normally hate to be touched during contractions, but this was like a balm to my contractions. I also noticed I had a tendency to want to squeal through the contractions which is always a sign to me that baby is getting closer. I could feel his head descending and I could feel a really tight, slightly burning sensation. I wondered briefly if he was starting to crown already. They had me stand up and labor for a mere few minutes and then something funny happened.
I've never laughed in any of my labors. Like ever. I'm serious, concentrated, no-nonsense, keep the lights down low, don't laugh, don't talk, no noise kind of person in labor. And heaven forbid if you break those rules while I'm having a contraction (God forgive me!). But suddenly, I felt a POP and fluid rushed down my legs. I was almost dancing, people! I'd never felt, or heard, my water break before, except for TJ's birth, but his was a lot different and was broken manually. I laughed and laughed, saying, "My water broke! My water broke! That's the first time I've ever known for sure that my water broke!" My midwives and husband were all laughing with me. I'm sure they all thought I was half crazy. But then it was all back to business.
I crawled on all fours onto the bed and buried my face into the pillows, knowing that the pain was about to get intense. Sure enough, without much warning, I was in the pushing zone. That happened around 1:43 am. I got myself into the roaring lion mode and before I could even push, my body started pushing for me. I felt him coming further and further down. Then right at 2 am I felt my brain connect to the contractions and I started physically pushing. I felt a bit of urgency in my body. I've always believed in my body to know what to do. Every time, in birth, it has served me well and I thank God for giving women the ability to work with their bodies. It's a miracle. It truly is! I pushed and pushed and I felt the ring of fire. I was excited, because I knew that meant I was close. But then I felt him swim right back up to my uterus. No, baby! No!!! I'd never had that happen. It was if he was suctioned back up inside me by some invisible source. So I pushed with the next contraction and he hit that ring of fire again. I was determined to not have him go back up again. I felt instinctively that if I did that, I would be in this painful cycle for a while. So before the next contraction came, I pushed again. It held him there until the next contraction came and I felt his head fully crown and almost come out. Again, I held a push while I waited for the next surge to come. Slowly but surely his head came out and was officially out at 2:08 am. His neck had a nuchal cord, but the experienced midwives pulled it gently over his head and he was just fine. Then with some more lioness pushes and roaring, I delivered the rest of his body at 2:10 am in the largest gush of fluid ever! He must've asked God to put half the ocean in there, because there was just a ton! Maybe he'll be a little surfer dude! :)
He was already pinking up and looking great as I pulled him closer and rubbed his chest. I got settled against the pillows and felt pretty great. I texted my parents and told them he'd arrived and then the midwives did their thing with checking me over to make sure I was doing good. Of course, they were checking Liam over as well. We settled in nicely and didn't have too much bleeding or anything crazy at that moment. After about 10 or 15 minutes, I delivered the placenta and squeamish as I am, I took a glance at it. With my last birth, the placenta didn't come out the way it should and I was half terrified this one wouldn't as well. But it came out looking perfect and healthy! So thankful!
The midwives left us alone to bond with Liam for a
little bit and nurse. He latched within seconds. That was one of my prayers
during pregnancy is that he would latch straight away and be a champion nurser.
With my first two babies, I had a rough go at nursing and ended up giving up
about 3 months in each time. With Sophie, she latched perfectly almost right
away. I wanted the same with Liam. He nursed for a little while and drifted off
to sleep. That's when things got a little fuzzy for me. I felt a huge gush of
blood and told them. They pressed on on my stomach and massaged it for a few
minutes, watching the blood flow. They didn't seem terribly concerned, but they
did want it to stop. We had a couple of episodes like that, but eventually, the
bleeding stopped coming in gushes and we were ready to begin our journey of
getting ready to go home.
Long story short, when I'd get up to walk, I'd come
close to fainting for the first few times. When I did finally make it up and
took a step away from the bed, I found myself waking up on the bed, wondering
what had happened and where my little Liam was. Apparently I'd fainted and also
had some sort of seizure type thing. I have no recollection of what happened,
besides telling my midwives that everything was going fuzzy. Then I was on the
bed, freezing cold, whereas I'd been burning hot moments before. My husband
later narrated everything to me and I'm just thankful things weren't worse! A
combination of being overly exhausted and loss of blood caused me to have some
small complications right at the end, but everything turned out ok!
By that time, it was around 5:30 in the morning, one hour after I could
have been released to go home, but they wanted to keep me for observation and
to make sure I wouldn't pass out walking again. My husband loaded up the van
and got me safely in the van as well. Then he went back to get Liam and we were
on our way home! So from the time I knew for sure, without a doubt that I was
in labor to the time I was headed home from having the baby, it was less than
12 hours! So thankful for this experience and how God showed Himself faithful
one more time to me. He is a good God!
