My first birth is posted here. 21 months after the birth of our first son, we welcomed our second son. He was a vastly different experience than we had the first time around!
The day before T-Rex was born, we had our 39 week appointment with our midwives. When we went in, his heart was doing some funny things, and our loving midwife decided to take another look. We'd been down this road before, but hearing thos erratic beats that late in the game was very distressing. We went to the "Super Big Hospital with Lots of Machines that go 'Ping!'" and had an echo done. When I was laying on the table, I greyed out twice because I was on my back for so long. We took our results back to the midwives and along with a mitral valve prolapse, we were told that I had low amniotic fluid. Combined with the heart defect and higher risk of cord compression because of the low fluid levels, we had officially risked out of our birth center. Before we left, the OB overseeing my now "not-so-low-risk" pregnancy stripped my membranes. We went home and tried not to think about losing out on our midwifery experience...
We went out to dinner at my favorite restaurant, but I couldn't eat. We went to see a movie, but I couldn't get comfortable. I then went to a friend's house to give her a crash course in childbirth (she was due in 3 weeks - just 2 weeks after me!) and I kept pausing. She noticed and asked if I was having contractions, but I brushed it off. As I drove home, I started to wonder if I was really in labor... As a precaution, I called my husband and told him we might wanna think about heading to the hospital. Luckily, our son was already with friends - we thought it best after the chaos of the day to let him hang out with his buddies for a few more hours.
I got home and my husband decided we needed to go to the hospital. THAT was a good call! We got to labor and delivery just shy of midnight. Our midwife met us there and pronounced that I was 5 cm's. I was crestfallen! As much as my contractions hurt and after hours of "pausing" every few minutes, I thought for sure I'd be further along! My midwife assured me it wouldn't be long, and I got into bed and sat still for the monitors as best I could. Our doula showed up as they were hooking my wires up and that made me relax a little.
I labored in bed, but it wasn't long before we knew I had to move. T-Rex's heart rate was all over the place, so I was rolling from one side to the other every couple contractions. At 9 cm's, I asked for pain medication. I felt like my hips were going to shatter and it would just radiate up my spine and I would die. The Nubain helped me relax more between contractions and my midwife broke my water to help me dilate the last lip of cervix.
I started pushing at 2 AM on the morning of July 19th. My doula and my husband were incredibly helpful. Without them, the patience and determination of my midwife, I don't think I could have done it. I pushed for 45 minutes the first time, and yet after an hour, we'd made very little progress. I was beyond exhausted and starting to feel as though I couldn't do this - that where we had avoided the C-section before, we wouldn't this time. Another hour later, he was finally descending. At 4:38 AM, he was born! He weighed 6 pounds and 10 ounces - he was more than a FULL POUND larger than our first baby and his head wasn't perfectly aligned. He had a small bruise on his forehead, but was otherwise perfectly normal and healthy.
His birth taught me that even when we're really well prepared and have the best support team, things can still go differently than we planned or intended... But that doesn't make it a bad birth experience. It took me a while to stop thinking I was a wuss because I accepted the Nubain. When I had time to sit down with them, my husband, midwife, and doula all agreed that the break it gave me was probably what enabled me to push effectively. Without that 30 minutes of rest, I probably would have succumbed to exhaustion and had either a C-section or instrument-assisted delivery. Every thing that happened throughout T-Rex's birth happened for a reason. After that experience, I will never forget that lesson!
Submitted by Heather
