Fast forward to Monday the 6th...ursssz
I had a midwife visit that afternoon. Jason and the gentlemen came with me as my parents had left earlier that day bound for AZ and I was without a chauffeur. After much consideration and prayer I decided to ask the midwife to sweep my membranes. At the appointment I sat for a non-stress test. Baby girl was crazy active and had a heart rate in the 180's for a good part of it. Little stinker! In the end, she passed with flying colors. Colette, my midwife, came in and we talked about the game plan for the week. Since Monday marked 41w3d of pregnancy, we had to get real and talk about all of my 'break glass in case of emergency' scenarios. Membranes that day was step #1, a castor oil milkshake on Tuesday was step #2, a second membrane sweep on Wednesday, and if none of that got the ball rolling, I was scheduled for a cesarean for Thursday. My heart sank as they handed me the scheduling slip for the c-section, but I was at peace with whatever birth God had in store for us.
We left the office feeling optimistic that this membrane stripping business was the key and that we should just go find some place to walk around and have dinner in case labor did start and we would go back to the hospital. Our first stop ended up being Target of all places. We putzed around there for probably an hour, bought a couple things and decided to go get dinner. At this point, I was cramping and contracting, but there was no consistent pattern in sight. So what's another old wives tale for induction? Spicy food...Mexican!!! It was tasty (no El Porton of Yakima, WA but still good). After dinner we found a city park and just ran around. And after all of this...no change in labor patterns. Feeling somewhat defeated, we started thelong trek home.
On our drive, we discussed the logistics of the next few days. Jason was only granted a limited number of days off and we wanted to save them for after she was born. So we called a few people and made tentative plans for the next three days. Honestly, that was the stuff that stressed me out more than anything. How was I going to get to the hospital? How was Jason going to get there if he had to go from work? Who would watch the boys during our hospital stay? What if we have an extended hospital stay? And the list goes on... We said many prayers that night asking for peace that God had everything under control and that when it was time, everything would fall into place.
I went to sleep Monday night contracting, but determined to get as much sleep as possible. If I was able to fall back asleep after a contraction, then it wasn't go time. That night, I woke up probably once every hour or two, but was able to go back to sleep. But at 5:00 am, I couldn't go back to sleep. At about 5:20 I got up and got in the shower. Jason came into the bathroom surprised to see me up and I calmly told him that I didn't think he was going to be going to work that day. After my shower I began timing the contractions. At first they were holding strong at three minutes apart. They were peaking by now but I was still able to talk through them. But the fact that they were stronger and that close together made us pull the trigger and pack up for the hospital.
We left the house at 6:30. I texted our pastor and asked if we could drop the boys off at their place. His response, "Yup!" God bless that family! We got to their place around 7:00. By then I had to work through contractions. I decided since we had another 40 minutes to go, I should get out of the car and stretch. Wow that was hard! The contractions had much more intensity than when we left the house. After a 10 minute child hand off, we were back out the door and on the road. In our haste, Jason forgot to leave the bag with the boys clothes. We found out a few days later that other friends with toddler boys generously let our gents borrow clothes. Amazing friends we have.
At 7:15 I texted my siblings, "Thundercats are go!"
We got to Tacoma just after 8:00 am. We sat in the ER waiting room for about 15 minutes. Thankfully it was a very quiet morning so I was able to focus on the contractions rather than being distracted by others in pain waiting to be seen. The nurse came and got us and we headed up to Labor & Delivery. They put us in a room. I curled up on the bed and really started to feel miserable. Kathleen was our nurse that morning. She checked my vitals and hooked up the monitors to check the baby and left. At 9 am she came back in and checked me. I was a small 5 cm and 70% effaced! I was stoked. There was no way I was going to be sent home! Or so I thought... Kathleen called my OB who asked that I walk for an hour and see if I made any progress before I was admitted. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Did she not notice how I was vocalizing and really working through the contractions?! Grr...
Kathleen unhooked the monitors and Jason and I began the craziest two hours of our lives. We walked around the room for a bit and then ventured out to the halls for a bit. The whole time contracting regularly and hard. We went back to our room and that's about when I started going internal. My eyes were closed pretty much from then until baby girl was born. I opened them for a few moments here and there, but after this point it was mostly voices I remember.
Contractions intensified during that hour of walking and back labor began. But in that moment I remembered the blessed double hip squeeze we had practiced in our birthing class. Jason was a rock star and provided that hip pressure during every. single. contraction. Without him I would have completely fallen apart from the pain. But he was right there. He was my rock. He reminded me to relax muscles, made sure I stayed hydrated and was constantly telling me how awesome I was doing. He is my absolute favorite person!
Before long I was bent over a ledge with my head up against a wall swaying my hips from side to side when I felt like things had changed. I nearly lost control at every contraction and in my mind was contemplating asking for an epidural. I never said it out loud though. I thought if I don't say it out loud, then I don't really need it. My prayers asking for strength and endurance also intensified at that point. I asked Jason to get the nurse. This was at 9:50. Kathleen came back in. I somehow made it back to the bed and she checked me. In a rather shocked voice she said, "Oh! You're at 8 cm and almost completely thinned out!" She hastily started working and communicating with her team that I needed to get to a delivery room. She asked if I could walk. My thought was are you crazy? I wanted her to let me stay on that bed and just roll the whole thing somewhere. It quickly became clear that that wasn't an option. "Can you sit in a wheel chair?" she asked. Somehow I did. As we hastily made our way through the halls, Kathleen said that Dr. Ho wasn't there yet and she wasn't sure she'd make it in time for the birth. Honestly, I could have cared less who was there as long as I had Jason and got this over with.
We got to the delivery room. No baby in the hallway! Between contractions I got on the bed. I didn't lay on my back but rather assumed the down on all fours position and refused to move. Kathleen was great! She got the monitors all hooked up all the while working alongside Jason encouraging me and coaching me through the waves of pain. Her voice was so calming. Something in her tone actually reminded me of my cousin, Jessica, who happens to be an L&D nurse in MN. After a handful of contractions, Kathleen checked me. I was fully effaced and just shy of fully dilated. She said with one more good contraction I should be complete and asked if I'd be willing to try a different position using a birthing stool to try and help the baby get in a better position and relieve that awful back labor. The birthing stool was a simple wooden step stool. Nothing fancy. I put my foot on the bottom step and lunged as much as I could handle. After only two or three contractions like this I felt the ring of fire. I simply said, "It burns! It burns!" It was time to push. It all happened so fast, my Dr. wasn't there yet. The OB on call was standing by just in case. I opened my eyes momentarily and noticed the on call OB sitting in a chair to the side.
They helped me back into bed. I was miserable. I curled up into a ball and just wanted to quit and be done with this. No luck...By now I was feeling the urge to push. That's a crazy sensation! It's like every muscle you never knew existed down there turned on and without your consent started pushing. Everyone in the room told me I needed to pull my legs back. I honestly thought they were all mad! I kept trying to convince them saying, "I can't." Thankfully they all knew better and helped support me so that I could. Jason was on my left, and Kathleen was on my right. As to everyone else in the room...yeah my eyes were closed so I think there were at least three or four others present. At some point Dr. Ho finally arrived...not sure exactly when...
Feeling your baby descend through the birth canal is such a bizarre sensation unlike any I'd ever experienced. When I had the boys, I had an epidural. It took me four hours to push out T and I felt nothing like what I experienced this time. With each contraction I could feel her head making its way down. It was the most intense pain I've endured. I screamed a few times and was surprised because I didn't know I could scream that high/loud anymore. They all coached me to redirect that energy into pushing. With a new resolve that her being born was truly up to me I did just that. I wanted to make every contraction count!
The baby's heart rate dropped a few times so they had me rotate from side to side. Thankfully she recovered each time I adjusted position. With probably 5-6 contractions she was almost crowning. They asked if they could break my water. I agreed. Anything to get it over with! Someone said there was some meconium. When I heard that I knew the clock was ticking before a c-section was mentioned. Next I heard Dr. Ho make a comment on this being a big baby. Not what you say to a woman giving birth! Annoyed. She asked if she could do an episiotomy and use the vacuum. In my desperation to be done I agreed. She made a small cut and used the vacuum more to re-position baby's head than to pull. It did the trick! In one contraction she came shooting out. I was told later that baby girl had her hand up by her face. As soon as her head came out her arm shot out next. Someone called the time of birth: 10:46 am.
I did it!!!
My beautiful baby girl was placed on my chest and quickly started crying. Man can she scream! Because of the meconium in the water, they needed to do a full check up right away. Dr. Ho asked Jason if he wanted to cut the cord. He declined. That's just not his thing. I looked up at him and there were tears in his eyes. So much emotion.
A few more contractions and the placenta was delivered. The Dr. then started pushing on my abdomen to help the uterus contract. That HURT! It kind of surprised me. At about the same time, my baby girl was returned to my chest. She was perfect. I couldn't believe what had just happened. The room cleared out quickly after I was stitched up. Kathleen remained to do all her paperwork and post delivery protocol and another nurse, Jennifer, took the reigns as our primary nurse. She was wonderful as well.
The next hour and a half was spent in the delivery room resting, recovering and falling head over heels in love with our daughter. She started nursing at 11:18 and continued to do so for the next 50 minutes. It was amazing. Once she was done nursing, Jennifer asked if she could weigh and measure her. She weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and was 20.5" long. Her head was 13.5" around. She was not a big baby after all.
We made it to our room in the maternity ward at 2 pm and spent the rest of the day peacefully enjoying our baby. It was weird only having one baby. We had to take turns holding her. There were a few minor hiccups that kept us at the hospital longer than we had hoped, but we were discharged at 4:00 pm on Wednesday, Oct 8th. Jason and I were so ready to go get our boys and go home.
It was a whirlwind adventure, but I wouldn't change a thing. For nine months I had prepared for an unassisted VBAC. You couldn't get more unassisted if you tried! I wasn't even given an IV. Nothing. Kathleen finally admitted me to the hospital after our baby was born. Crazy! Her birth was an absolute gift from God.
Our baby girl is 11 days old today and has already cemented her place in our family. She's a miracle. We are so thankful God gave us this beautiful surprise. She's an absolute joy.
