My due date was Monday October 21 and I had been on maternity leave for a week. For that week I had been trying to naturally induce because I was so impatient! No worries, my doctor knew what I was doing and actually encouraged it, so I tried everything. I ate spicy food, I walked for a couple miles every day, I tried nipple stimulation with my breast pump, and John and I...well you know ;) haha. But nothing worked! Monday came and went and I was soo impatient!
Tuesday morning I woke up at 8:40 and I thought maybe my water had broken, but I wasn't sure. I knew it didn't gush out like in the movies so I thought maybe this was the start of things. But just to make sure I waited to see if contractions started. At 9:40 my contractions did start, they were about 11 minutes apart and lasted 40 seconds. After an hour of that I called my doctor to ask for an appointment later that day because I wasn't sure if my water had broken and for those of you don't know, when your water breaks you're kind of on a time clock at that point because your risk of infection increases. So I called my doctor, told her what was going on and they wanted to see me around 4:30. Around 12:40 my contractions were about 5 minutes apart but still only lasting 40 seconds. They were getting more intense so I called John at work and told him he needed to come home.
Not long after he came home my doctor's office called and said that my doctor had gotten called in for a delivery and they needed to move up my appointment to 2:15. I thought, "thank God because these are getting really painful!". So just in case, when the time came for my appointment we packed the car and headed down. By now my contractions were 4 minutes apart and 50-55 seconds long. By the time we got to the hospital I was in a bit of pain and told John to call the OB office, cancel my appointment and take me straight to registration. And that's just what we did.
They took me up to labor and delivery, checked my progression and I was 4 cm dilated so they went ahead and admitted me. I was really nervous that they'd just send us home, but I was so relieved when they told us we could stay! They wheeled me into the delivery room and I got the biggest birthing suit in the hospital. It was huge and the view was beautiful, even though I wasn't really in the mood to admire it. For the first little while I labored on the bed, I was so tired and after each contraction I just wanted to lay my head down and rest. I'm not really sure about times at this point because I told John to cover the clock so I wouldn't sit and watch it. But not long after we got into the room I decided to get into the jetted tub and try laboring in there for a little bit. The warm water helped in between the contractions, the jets hurt so I didn't use those, but the contractions were still just as painful. I stayed in there a while and tried to relax, then after probably an hour in the tub I got out and sat on the birthing ball. The birthing ball was awesome. Somehow the swaying motion it provided really helped with the contractions, but after sitting on the ball for a while my back started to hurt and I just wanted to lie down again. So back to the bed I went. I'm not sure what time it was but my nurse asked if I wanted to try a pain reliever...and for the life of me I can't think of the name right now, but my goal was a natural delivery so I was a little weary. She assured me that the drug would only last an hour at the longest, but that it would give me a chance to rest. So I accepted it. That hour was amazing. I still felt the contractions, though they weren't as bad as before, but that rest I was able to get really helped me the rest of the night. After that hour my midwife came in and checked to see how far along I was and I was 7 cm. My birth plan was a water birth and so she asked me if I still wanted to proceed with that. I was honestly on the fence. The contractions were so painful I wanted an epidural, but she and John encouraged me to at least try the birthing pool before making the decision. So I did. The birthing pool to me was a lot like the jetted tub, it felt nice in between the contractions but it didn't help with the actual contractions themselves. By now it was around 11:00 pm (I think I asked what time it was) and I was in a hell of a lot of pain. I was making sounds I'd never heard myself make before in my life. I told John that I couldn't do it anymore, that it wasn't just a moment of weakness, and that I really wanted the epidural. The delivery nurse called in my midwife to check to see how far along I was and I was fully dilated- no epidural for me.
I couldn't find a position that was comfortable enough for me to feel like I could deliver in the birthing pool. So I got back in the bed. My midwife broke my water and encouraged me to start pushing. *Not sure if you caught that part, but that means that my water did not break that morning*. I tried pushing but my body wasn't telling me to push yet so I wasn't doing it right. My midwife told me to wait until my body told me to push but I thought, "No, if pushing is what's going to get this baby out I'm pushing!" So I continued to push incorrectly until my body finally decided it was ready to push. That sounds silly, but pushing isn't something you can practice or be told how to do....your body will do it naturally and if it's not ready, well you'll probably do it wrong. I tried pushing while lying down and then I tried pushing using the bar that they attach to the bed. I think that's what really progressed this stage for me. But then I was exhausted and really needed to lie down, so that's what I did. I kept pushing and pushing but felt like I was getting nowhere. Then my midwife told me that Pierce was stuck behind my pelvic bone. He kept hitting it every time I pushed. Eventually my midwife had to reach in me (talk about painful!) and try to help him come up over my bone. I continued to push, his little head popped out, and then my midwife told me to just hold it there. I thought, "Wtf! I can't hold it here! This hurts!". She was trying to keep me from tearing, which I appreciate now, but at the time I just wanted him out! So I held him there. Then she told me I could push again, but his shoulders were stuck. I don't know how long I pushed with his shoulders being stuck, but I remember yelling, "Can't you just pull him out?!" and then they did.
John was able to catch Pierce and cut his umbilical cord. They immediately placed my baby boy on my chest and little man was ready to eat! But part of his amniotic sac had broken off inside of me and was causing me to hemorrhage. Luckily for me, my midwife was on the ball and immediately started working to get the pieces out. I was holding Pierce this whole time. Though it was painful with them trying to get those pieces out, I was really more focused on the precious little boy laying on my chest. He was born at 1:51 AM on Wednesday October 23rd. He was 7 pounds 4 ounces and 19 inches long. After they got the bleeding under control I was able to nurse and Pierce latched right away! His latch was great and he nursed for an hour right off the bat. The delivery nurse kept commenting on how she had never seen a newborn take to feeding so fast and feed for so long. Luckily he's still a great eater. Some people say their baby came out latching well but struggled the next day or what have you, but nursing is something he does extremely well. We're blessed that way.
But back to my story. Pierce was so calm when he was first born. He cried for a couple seconds when he came out, but he didn't cry at all after that for a while. John bathed him and he didn't cry, he had his shots and he didn't cry...he was such a trooper and so calm. We were finally able to go to our patient room around 5:00 AM. John slept, I did not. I was too consumed with my little man. I couldn't stop watching him, and when he was sleeping I was so paranoid that I stayed awake making sure that he was still breathing. We went home the next day around 6:00 PM .
I don't regret anything about his birth or my experience. I was able to achieve a natural birth which was what I wanted and although it was incredibly painful I'm glad I stuck it out (even if it was because I was too late in asking for the epidural ;)). I will be honest in saying that next time I'll get the epidural, but this time around I'm glad I didn't.
Pierce is the best thing to have happened to me. He's my angel. I never knew what it was like to love so immensely and immediately. Without further ado, here's my baby boy:
Pierce Robert minutes after birth
Pierce Robert 3 weeks old
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