The Labor Story

I don't think I posted what my labor was like with Eliana and I really want to document what it was like with Gabriella as it was the complete opposite.

So, here is the story of how Gabriella came into the world.

I had been having contractions, regularly, for about 2 weeks but they weren't leading up to anything. All they did was make me a bit uncomfortable. I had been told that this little girl would probably come early, so my hopes were up.

On the Saturday before my due date, I was planning on going on a walk with my dad in hopes of making things progress. I got up at about 6:30 a.m. d proceeded to walk out the house at 7:00 a.m. for our walk. Then I fell, sprained my ankle, and was put on crutches. I was 39 weeks pregnant and not so happy about the whole situation. Seriously. Do you even know how difficult and uncomfortable it is to hop on crutches while 39 weeks pregnant? Probably not. But I can attest to you that it is very difficult and uncomfortable. Oh, and pretty painful as well.

The entire next week I kept praying that all the hopping would put me into labor. I was tired and done by the time the due date arrived. December 24. That was supposed to be the day, but it came and went.

So when Christmas morning came around and I was experiencing contractions every 15-20 minutes I was pretty skeptical about the fact that these contractions might be the beginning of the end of the pregnancy. I felt it deep down inside that I would be going into labor sometime in the very near future, but I didn't voice this to anyone. I didn't want to jinx it. You know, just in case I was right.

By late afternoon the contractions were becoming more regular and much more uncomfortable. Then when I went to the bathroom I noticed my mucous plug had fallen out. At this point in time I still hadn't mentioned to anyone what was going on, not even Marco. But after the whole mucous plug thing I told Marco that I had been having contractions all day and we might be having the baby on Christmas.

The contractions continued to increase in frequency and intensity through the rest of the evening and finally, just before 11:00 p.m., I told Marco that I was pretty sure we would be heading to the hospital sometime in the very near future. I had gone to the bathroom and there was some bloody show and, from what I could tell, my contractions were about 3-5 minutes apart and I was no longer able to talk or walk while in a contraction. I decided to wait an hour before we called the midwife just to make sure the contractions stuck. They did. So at midnight we called the midwife on-call and told her that we would be coming to the hospital, but it wouldn't be for a little while because we still had some things we needed to pack up. (I know, this should have been done earlier, but I am a bit of a procrastinator.)

Finally, at about 1:00 a.m., we informed my parents that we were headed to the hospital and called the midwife again to let her know we were on our way.

Marco got all our stuff, including me and my crutches, into the car and we were off. The drive to the hospital was a bit exciting. We were nearing our exit and Marco had moved over to the right lane so he was ready to get off and the next thing we know there are 3 deer walking around in the two right hand lanes and Marco had to swerve across 2 lanes in order to miss hitting them. We were so close to hitting them too. It was very scary. But we were definitely blessed and about 5 minutes later we had made it to the hospital.

Once parked, Marco got me a wheelchair and rolled me in to labor and delivery. After about 10 minutes or so (it is about 1:40 a.m. at this time) they had me checked in and were taking me to my room. I got changed and ready for the midwife to come in and check my progress. She told me my calculations of contractions coming every 3-5 minutes was correct and that I was at 3 cm and 90% effaced, so a keeper. I didn't have to go home. I was very happy about this. I knew 3 cm wasn't a whole lot, but it was way better than when I went in to the hospital with Eliana where I was 2 cm and 50% effaced. So, needless to say, Marco and I were pretty happy about where I was at.

The nurse had me hooked up to the monitors and told me that after 20 minutes of monitoring she would take me off and I could go take a shower if I wanted. I wanted. So into the shower I went around 2:30ish a.m. The shower was wonderful and I felt a lot better after that. I went back to the bed to be monitored once more. (The rules of the hospital were 20 minutes of monitoring, then 30 minutes of freedom, then 20 minutes of monitoring...and so on.)

I had previously planned on walking around, moving, or changing positions during those 30 minutes, but because of my sprained ankle and super sore foot, I was stuck in the bed. I did have a room with a tub, but wasn't allowed in the tub until I was at 6 cm per hospital rules. At this point in time, it was just Marco and I in the room. My contractions were beginning to come closer together and were becoming extremely painful. At this point in time I was very grateful for the breathing I had learned and the relaxation techniques I had learned through some reading of books.

By about 5:00 a.m., I wasn't so sure I could handle the contractions any longer and I needed someone to come in and do something. I was exhausted beyond belief, in tons of pain and was having a hard time relaxing. I asked Marco to please go get someone. He went and did as I asked, about 20 minutes goes by, and no one had come. I was starting to lose it at this point so Marco went out again to ask someone to please come and check on me. More time goes by and still no one had come. After about another 30 minutes of waiting (and me starting to freak out) I asked Marco to give me a blessing. He then went and very assertively told a different nurse that I needed someone to come in and to please get my midwife in there to check on me.

I was really frustrated at the time that it took an hour or more to get someone in to see me, but I now think it was a blessing in disguise. As I said before, I wasn't allowed in the tub until I was 6 cm dilated. When the midwife finally came in and then checked my progress, I was at 6 cm. It was at this point that she informed me of my options. I was seriously in so much pain at this point and was not only physically, but emotionally tired. I had thought about having narcotics to help me get some rest, but when my midwife told me that it would help me sleep but I would wake up right at the height of my contractions and I strongly felt that I shouldn't go this route. I kept getting the feeling that I really needed to get in the tub.

Oh, and my water still had not broken at this time. My midwife informed me that it would make me progress faster if she broke it, but it was up to me. I had the feeling that I shouldn't do that, so I said I just wanted to get into the tub.

It took about 20 minutes to fill up the tub and finally at about 6:30ish a.m. I was in the tub, with jets going. It was glorious. The pressure was finally relieved from my back and I was able to manage my contractions better. I had been in the tub for about 5+ minutes and I yelled at the nurse in my room that I really needed to push. She told me to just breath through it and that it was probably just a pre-urge, but she yelled for my midwife to come in because I was having urges to push.

My midwife comes in and says, you've only been in here for about 5 minutes, and I believe that you feel you need to push. I'll check you, but you were just at 6 cm a few minutes ago. The midwife checks me and low and behold I was at 9cm, almost 10, but my water hadn't broken yet. Things started to move very quickly from there. They had to get me out of the tub and onto the bed to deliver as I wasn't allowed to have her in the tub with my ankle being in the shape it was. They didn't want something to happen and not be able to get me out in time because of my ankle. I was okay with this cautionary measure.

They finally got me to the bed (all the while telling me to breathe through all my urges to push, which is ridiculously hard to do). The midwife broke my water at 6:40 a.m. and at 6:41 a.m. our precious Gabriella Ruth entered the world. All 8 lbs 1 oz, 20.5 inches of her.

So there you have it. My labor/birth story. It was so, so different from my experience with having Eliana and I enjoyed it so much more. Even with all the pain and exhaustion that came with doing it without any medicine.

I'm not ready to have a baby again any time soon, but when someone this sweet is what you get after all that, I really wouldn't mind doing it all over again.