Mason's Birth

On Saturday, I remember having the fleeting thought that “today would not be a good day for me to go into labor”. Scott was working some overtime so was gone much of the day and my sister was coming over with her three teenage sons and was going to stay with us. I’d just gotten my new computer and was setting that up, and the house wasn’t nearly as organized as I wanted. It was a brief thought, however, and I didn’t take it seriously because I was still a couple days from my due date and my midwives has assured me just a few days earlier that I had not made any progress; only about 50% effaced and not dilated at all. The day continued uneventfully. Had a few contractions here and there, but none much different than those I’d been having for a couple weeks - not that painful or regular. That evening, everyone congregated at our house for a while. Even my sister in law, who was going to come over and be with the kids during the birth jokingly said “just don’t go into labor this weekend, I have a busy day tomorrow!”. That night we got my sister and her boys camped out downstairs and got to bed around 11pm. Now bear in mind, Scott had been up since 4am that morning because he had had to work. At 2:30am I was having a truly bizarre dream and was awakened by a sharp pain. It hurt, and I knew it was different than the ones I’d been having. It did have a burning edge to it, and was more intense than those I’d experienced previously. I watched the clock and Nick at Nite and realized these were not letting up. They were about 10 minutes apart. They were quite manageable even as I knew they were something different, something that was taking me toward my baby. I got up and walked around; they were still coming. I took a shower; they were still coming. During all this I had woke up Scott and got the pleasure of saying “I think it’s time” lol I guess it was 4:30 when I finally called the midwives; they are an hour away from us so I wanted to just alert them to the possibility that this was the day. I told them I’d call back when things got more intense. By this time, Scott was downstairs cleaning the house and getting things set up and my pool filled. At around 5:30 I went to the bathroom and lost whatever was left of my mucus plug; I was so excited and felt that my “suspicions” of labor were finally confirmed. We were really going to do this! And how doubly exciting that this was happening so naturally. My two previous labors were induced so this was amazing to experience without any intervention or assistance. At this point, I again called the midwives and told them to go ahead and start on up when they got a chance; not to hurry by any means but to come on up. My previous labors were 7 and 4 hours, and what with the inductions we didn’t know exactly how my body would naturally labor. I called my mom and sister in law, and woke my sister and her boys. My mom and sil arrived and we had the boys taken over to spend the morning with my brother. I hadn’t anticipated so many people at the birth. I had told my mom she could come, but I knew she was nervous about the whole thing so I assumed she wouldn’t be there. And of course my sister being here was unexpected. I was okay with them being here, though, as I was determined not to let anyone bring negativity into the experience. My sil and my sister were pretty supportive of the whole homebirthing idea; they just thought I was brave if a little nutty. My mom wasn’t so sure about it on the other hand (even though she and all her siblings were born at home in the mountains of North Carolina). This was the first thing that proved to be different than my visualizations. The contractions at this point were very manageable. I knew they were the real thing, but I was surprised at how they weren’t all that painful. I was told this might be my experience, as normal contractions are usually easier than induced contractions. As they got tougher, I walked and used hip rolling, and some reverse breathing, to get through them and it worked great. The midwives arrived around 7am. I was still talking and was getting through the contractions with no problem. This continued until around 9:30 or so when I finally decided to get into the pool. It just looked too warm and comfy! The water was wonderful. I just rode through the contractions for a while until my curiosity got the best of me around 10 when I asked to be checked, just to see what was going on. I had to have a contraction on dry land in order for Kelly to check me fully. I was worried that the contraction would be quite painful; I thought it was the water that was making my previous contractions so easy. That was not the case. The dry land contraction was pretty easy, and I was excited to find out I was 100% effaced with a bulging bag of waters and at 7 cm already! I knew I could do this now. Only three cm to go!! I got back into the pool and rode out the next few contractions. During one of these, my water broke. I will say once the water broke and Mason’s head came down on my cervix the contractions did get intense. But by that time I was almost there. A couple more contractions, then the urge to push hit me. Now, in my previous labors the pushing was a release, it felt great and I pushed for 30 minutes the first time and 10 minutes the second time, both bigger than average babies. This time the pushing urge was different; it felt good, but it was also just a touch more painful than I recall. As I found out later, there was reason for that. I was in the pool when the first pushy urges hit me. I tried pushing there, but I couldn’t keep my rear down in the pool. I wanted to come up off the pool to push. That wouldn’t work. I tried hands and knees in the pool. I wasn’t relaxing well enough and he wasn’t coming down that much. I got out of the pool and tried a supported squat - this worked well for pushing but was tiring, for both Scott and I! I tried lying down and pushing - I knew this was really not the ideal position for pushing, but it did do the trick for us for a while. I think the difference, for us anyway, was that lying back enabled me to fully relax my bottom, which I wasn’t doing well in the other positions. After a few pushes lying down, he still needed to come down further. I then tried another variation on the squat; I leaned back on a beanbag chair with Scott supporting me from the couch behind me. Quick tip, never use your kids favorite beanbag chair to give birth in unless you want to have to purchase a replacement lol! Pushing was still difficult and I had to fully focus on relaxing to get him coming down. I remember the midwives telling me to get angry and push him out. I kept trying and finally felt the ring of fire. I finally know what that feels like! It seems like everything just happened at once then; his head was out and the rest of him came flowing out. He was put on my chest and I couldn’t believe how beautiful he was/is! I was so happy to finally see him. It’s funny, but I was so much more emotional at home than I was in the hospital. I felt more free to just feel what I wanted to feel. Everyone seemed to appear in the room at once to see him and they all commented on how huge he was. I couldn’t really even guess how big he was. When they finally weighed him, he was 11lbs 8oz AND he had come out posterior. He wasn’t in that position during labor, so we think he must have turned over during those last couple of very intense contractions; I also feel that was why pushing was so different this time and why it took so long to get him to come out. I had only torn once, along my old episiotomy scar, and it was only a first degree that didn’t require stitches. Now the swelling and soreness that come with an 11.5 lb baby was pretty intense, but now at a week postpartum I’m feeling much better. We had some bonding time and we nursed for the first time; then I had a nice shower while the midwives cleaned up the mess. All in all, everything went wonderfully. It was amazing to just “be” in the experience, not to feel like I had a timetable to birth in or that I was being watched or monitored. It was truly the birth I had wanted.