The third time I birthed a girl

The birth plan for several weeks had been to send our girls, Bailey and Addie to our family reunion in Central Oregon with my family members. I didn't want to be 3 hours from OHSU hospital, so Robert and I stayed in Salem. Another part of the plan was to go to Portland (where the hospital is) on Friday and stay there for the weekend until the baby decided to come. My brother Mark was kind enough to let us stay at his families house while they were at the family reunion. We found out I was Group B strep positive so it was important to get to the hospital quickly to receive antibiotics before the baby was delivered. 

So everything was going according to plan. 

Let's start this birth story on Friday July 20th. I woke up and gave my body and the baby permission to bring  on labor. Then I started getting ready for the day. I started having contractions around 8:30am and they were consistently coming every 4 to 6 minutes. They weren't painful, just slightly stronger than braxton hicks. We were already packed so we just loaded the car and headed north. I listened to one of my hypno-baby scripts about "birthing time" in hopes that my contractions would get stronger but they didn't. This was just like my labor with Bailey so I honestly thought this could be it. 

I went to a birthday party in the afternoon and the contractions kept coming. We went to my brothers house and around 4pm I called the midwifes and asked them what was up, I'd been having contractions for 8 hours! The midwife asked if the baby had it's back to my left side? . . . Yes it was. She said that in this position the baby will cause me to have false labor until it shifted to a more anterior position. So I spent the rest of the day doing yoga poses and belly lifts to get my baby in position for birth. Finally around 10pm we decided to go to bed. I slept through the contractions and by Saturday morning they were gone. 

We spent Saturday and Sunday roaming Portland, hanging out with friends, going on long hilly walks, having more contractions and doing more yoga poses. 

The weekend came and went with no baby. I was really disappointed.  We had missed the family reunion for no reason. Mark and his family came home from the reunion and I decided to stay at their house one more night. I had my prenatal appointment on Monday morning and didn't want to go back to Salem yet. Robert went to Salem to get our girls. We knew there was a chance that I'd go into labor with Robert an hour away but we decided to chance it.  

Monday morning (July 23rd) was my due date. I went to my prenatal appointment and told the nurses and midwives that I was not happy to be there. My plans had all come together except for the arrival of my baby.  And now Robert was going to start law school in a week and I wanted him to have time with the baby before the craziness began. Luckily all my contractions were doing their job and I was dilated to 3cm and 80% effaced. The midwife was kind enough to gently strip my membranes and said this could possibly help get labor going, but there were no guarantees. 

After my appointment Robert and the girls picked me up and we went to the Portland zoo. I figured another long walk might help to jump start labor. Plus, the zoo is close to the hospital. Alas, labor didn't start so we headed home to Salem. I was able to do some laundry, update facebook and watch some TV before heading to bed. I even sent a message to Kerry, my best girl, on FB saying that I hoped to give her a great birthday present tomorrow by having my baby!

We got to bed late and were exhausted but that was only the beginning. It was now Tuesday July 24th in the early morning hours and for some reason I just couldn't get comfortable. The contractions I'd been having for   the past 4 days were just noticeable but these ones were different. I got out of bed around 1:30 am to walk around the house and eat some food, this was the true test to see if the contractions would go away. I even started to watch The Bachelorette finale on demand but the contractions were getting stronger. I woke Robert up at 3:30am and asked if he'd gotten enough sleep. He replied no but knew what I was getting at. Robert called my mom to have her come over and stay with the girls. We re-packed our bags and were on the road to Portland by 4am. I was a little nervous that Robert's driving was going to drive me bonkers but he did a great job avoiding pot holes and not slamming on the brakes. I listened to my hypno-babies scripts during the drive and we were at the hospital before 5am. I was grateful that we didn't have to drive in Portland traffic!

A quick note about Hypno-babies or Hypno-birth because I know some of you have already mentioned wanting to know more. It's all about hypnotising yourself during labor. You can take classes or just listen to scripts/cd's of people talking with soothing music in the background. I put the scripts on my ipod and listened to a script just about everyday. They teach you how to self-hypnotise yourself and how to relax during contractions. If you relax then you work with your body and labor goes quicker and easier than if you fight the pain. Usually, I'd just fall asleep while listening but they call it hypnotic amnesia. I really enjoyed my "training time" each day and think it really helped with the birth. Plus, it was nice to focus on me and baby #3 for 40-60 minutes a day. 

Back to birthing day. I was a little worried when we arrived at the hospital because my contractions were strong but I could still manage them (talk and walk). Maybe it was the hypno-babies keeping me calm but I was afraid the hospital would send me home. We got to labor and delivery on the 12th floor and the nurse asked "what can we do for you?" I was like "ummh, . . . I'm in labor". I could tell they didn't believe me. The on-call midwife was a little upset because I hadn't called ahead of time, ie: she didn't think I was in true labor either. 

They hooked me up to everything and monitored the baby. After a while the midwife did a vaginal check and I was dilated to a 7!!! She agreed that I was in labor and baby was coming. They started my antibiotics for GBS and we were on our way. I later found out that as the midwife left the room she flashed all the doubtful nurses 7 fingers and they were totally shocked. They couldn't believe I could be so calm and progressed that much. 

The nurses and midwife started preparations immediately since it was clear the baby was coming sooner rather than later. The nurses brought in the inflatable tub and filling it with water. I got situated on a birthing/yoga ball to help get baby into an ideal position. I had the hospital bed up high with pillows and sat on the ball right next to it. I would just lay my head on the pillows and let baby make it's way down. I sat on the ball like this from about 5:45 to 7am. When a contraction would come I would use my hypno-baby techniques and go numb just letting my body do what came naturally. Every now and again the nurse would want to listen to the babies heartbeat while I was having a contraction. So she'd put the handheld doppler on my stomach and search for the heart while I tried to relax through the contraction, this became very uncomfortable but obviously it was needed. 

Robert was great at giving me support and making sure I was drinking enough water. Occasionally he'd try to do something for me but I just asked him to stop. I was in the zone and didn't want to get distracted. He later said he felt useless but I needed him there and he did great. 

At 7am the tub was finally full of warm water and the antibiotics were finished. And as soon as I got into the water I felt calm and buoyant. It was very relaxing to be in the water. I felt most comfortable leaning over the  side of the tub and sitting on top of my knees. Again this let gravity do the work for me. Around 7:10 the contractions started getting really strong and I had to really focus to stay relaxed. During one contraction I felt a pop and said "I think my water just broke", but there was no real way to tell since I was surrounded by water. The midwife checked me to say that the baby was at a +2 stage and was making it's way down the birth canal. To do the vaginal exam she had me lean back and rest on Robert (who had just gotten in the tub), it was so uncomfortable to lean back (pressure everywhere) and as soon as she was done I went back to leaning over the tub. 

Every ten minutes the contractions got stronger & stronger and my aaahhhhh breathing got louder. I had Robert turn off the hypno-baby scripts because it was distracting at that point. The more intense the  contractions got the more my body felt like fight the pain, it was almost impossible to relax my muscles. I started to feel a lot of pressure around 7:50am but I didn't feel "pushy". The midwife said I could push when ever I wanted so I waited a few minutes to build up my strength. By now my contractions were crazy strong. Each one would make my whole body shake and I was now breathing/saying a deep aaaaaahhhhh through the whole one. 

I started pushing at 8am but since everything was underwater I really had no idea what was going on and the midwife wasn't giving me a play by play. I figured I'd pushed the head out due to the amount of pressure I was experiencing but alast it was just the baby crowning. They told me to really push and so I pushed like I'd never pushed before. The midwife wanted me in a better position so she could reach the baby and asked me to move. I thought she was crazy but with some coaching from Robert I was able to move about 4 inches to the right and that sufficient. I pushed some more and felt a huge pop, that was the head. I pushed with all my might one more time and the shoulders were out and the rest of baby followed. It was 8:04, let's just say it was the most intense 4 minutes of my life. 

The midwife caught the baby and instantly gave it to Robert. The baby was born with the amniotic sac over it's head. Robert said it looked like the baby was wearing a bubble mask and before he knew it the midwife pulled it off it's face and threw it into the tub. It's called Caul (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caul) and it's supposed to be good luck. It took Robert a good full minute before he decided to push the ambilical cord aside and see what the gender of our third child was. I was still draped over the tub and trying to muster up the energy to turn around and see our child. He called out "it's a girl, another girl!!!" I wasn't surprised since I'd been mentally preparing for a girl the whole 9 months. And I was delighted to have another girl. 

This is me 2 minutes after birth just seeing my daughter for the first time. I just watched Robert coo over her and wait for my endorphins to kick in so I could hold her without dropping her into the water. She started to poop out the meconium into the water but it was easy to clean her off. 

5 minutes after life and I was cuddling my daughter. We kept her body under water and head above to keep her warm. She was so calm just relaxing in the water and my arms. 

She looks so much like Addison in this picture. 

After about 15 minutes the midwife asked to take the baby out of the water so she could hear her really cry. Once out of the water she started screaming, I loved hearing that sound. It means a healthy baby and that's all we wanted. 

Eventually I got out of the tub and got dry. Baby girl and I had some skin-to-skin time and got to know each other better. 

She weighed in at 8 pounds 3 oz and was 20 1/4 inches long. 

Robert got in some more cuddles and started to make phone calls that we'd had the baby and it was a girl. Only our parents knew that I was in labor because we  didn't want to wake everyone up. We thought we'd call the siblings in the morning to tell them we were in labor but labor only lasted 6.5 hours so they just got the announcement phone call. I'm sure they didn't mind. 

She was born with petechiae (pah-teek-e-ah) all over her forehead. They are blood vessels which got broken or popped since she went through the birth canal so fast. She also had a broken blood vessel in her right eye. Poor thing got really beat up from me pushing so hard. I called her Morgan Freeman for a day because all the red dots reminded me of him. 

Penni Harmon, our midwife, with Robert and Baby Girl. She was the midwife that stripped my membranes the day before I went into labor. Penni was right when she said "I'm on-call on Tuesday. I'll probably see you in labor at the hospital then"

My all natural, hypno/water birth was great and quick. I'd say there were 90 minutes of hard contractions total and I figure you can endure most things for 90 minutes. I knew that my labor was going to be quick because I was in good shape from all my running and also because my delivery with Addison was quick (5 hours). I knew that as long as the baby was in an anterior position that things would move smoothly. Plus the hypno-babies puts you into a really positive mind set. Luckily for me it all fell into place and everyone is healthy. 

 I'm not sure that I would have done the delivery this way if it was my first child. I feel like the first child "paves the way" so to speak. But if you are a strong, determined woman with a high pain tolerance it can be done the first time around. Also, some hospitals will let you labor in the tub but won't let you deliver in the tub. I can't imagine having contractions that strong and having to climb out of the tub and deliver on a hospital bed. So if you are considering a water birth make sure the hospital will let you deliver in there too. 

My recovery from this delivery has been great. I just need to sneak some more sleep in. It was such a good experience for me and Robert that I hope to deliver baby #4 the same way (in a couple of years). 

The proud new parents of a healthy baby girl. Now just to come up with a name . . .