The Birth Story

I can't believe I'm also four weeks postpartum. I am going to write the birth story for myself and also because I have always enjoyed reading other people's birth stories. But please feel free to skip this - in the big picture my daughter's birth was quite uneventful. There were of course a few surprising parts: I thought my water had broken in the morning (it hadn't), I wasn't sure if I was having any contractions (I was), I rang up $900 worth of diagnostic tests before being admitted to the hospital (whoops), and as ever my body refused to follow general protocol and my contractions did not follow any particular pattern ...

On Monday I went in for acupuncture for labor induction, then spent the full day at school (home at 8/9 pm). In retrospect, I wonder if I might have known something was going on because it was that evening that I called my husband and told him in no uncertain terms that I was going to need more pampering at the end of my pregnancy and would he please bring me sour cream and onion potato chips (which he luckily delivered with roses).

I woke up at 5 am on Tuesday morning to pee and when I went to the bathroom I realized that I was starting to drip fluid. I was pretty sure my water had broken and I panicked because I didn't have any contractions. I woke JD up and he very sleepily reminded me to 'get some rest' and 'go back to bed' because 'first labors average 24 hours.' But I really couldn't sleep and I didn't feel well lying down, so I spent the next 2 hours sitting on the couch reading blogs (thank you to all you frequent blog-posters) and rocking back and forth. It really felt like I had pulled a back muscle and there was some pain, but no pattern and nothing as clear as a contraction.

At 7 am I called my midwife (actually not the one who had followed me during the pregnancy but someone covering for her) who assured me my water hadn't broken if I was just dripping a bit, and told me to relax and stay at home as long as possible. The plan was to labor at home for at least 12 hours and then go to the hospital, especially in case there were any complications which would require me to deliver in the regular L and D and thus abstain from food (I really couldn't even imagine being in labor for 24 hours without eating). I told her that sounded reasonable, but I just thought I should check that it was fine to skip my NST, biophysical profile, and GD check-up that morning. I was completely not thrilled when she told me to go in to the hospital for my regular appointments. She told me it was a good idea to have all the regular tests done because of my GD, and that would allow me to labor at home longer. So I woke JD up, told him there was no way I was going in alone, and we hopped in a cab downtown. Since I fully expected to be home by noon and spend the day at home, I brought only a school book with me to keep me busy in the waiting room.

The cab ride took about 20 minutes in the morning traffic, and the back pain was getting worse so I made JD give me a massage. The cab driver told us about his wife's deliveries and offered to flag down a cop car to speed up our travel. I was feeling plenty well enough to converse politely with him about his children and to assure him that I was just going in for a check-up and then home until 'my real labor started.'

In the hospital elevator, I bumped into my midwife. She basically tried to duck and avoid us but the elevator just wasn't that crowded. I asked if she could just check me and send me home, but she admonished me to go to my appointments. I also introduced JD to her.

As expected, the waiting room at the hospital was packed. The receptionist kept telling me to 'sit down' and I kept snapping at her that I felt better standing. And the poor 12 and 20-week pregnant women in for their NT and anatomy scans who stared at me rocking in the corner against the wall and snapping at the receptionist that I 'wasn't in labor but didn't feel well and would really like to get out of there.' I really hope they didn't head into their appointments thinking that the 3rd trimester might consist of such continuous discomfort.

The ultrasound was a challenge because my back pain was much worse lying down and they had to do a full biophysical profile. They also estimated the baby's size at 6 lbs, a good pound lower than the previous week's scan and smaller than expected. The very old doctor (cane in hand) who read the ultrasound told me in no uncertain terms that I needed to go to L and D to be triaged in case I was in labor. I stood my ground and refused to step foot near L and D (the goal was to deliver in a birthing center in the same hospital) and told him to page my midwife and fight it out with her. He paged her and then sent me off for the NST.

The midwife huffed into the NST room about a half hour later (there were 3 other women in the same room) and huffed and puffed a bit about the ultrasound doctor not knowing how slow first labors were and paging her out of a meeting, but agreed to check me under the circumstances ... which is how I landed up lying on my back on the stretcher used to transport emergencies from the NST room down the hall to L and D ... in front of a huge window with a fabulous view of another office building and no shade on it in a room with three other women ... when my midwife accidentally broke my water while checking how dilated I was. And gave me the incredibly fabulous news that I was already at 5 cm and should walk across the hall (literally less than 20 feet from the NST room) and be admitted immediately.

Of course, since I had only a book with me JD was immediately dispatched home to get our hospital bag, including my pre-registration for the hospital and permission slip to use the birthing center despite being high-risk. The midwife returned to her meeting, our doula was a full hour away, and the hospital nurse decided to ignore me since I didn't have my 'permission slip' to be there yet, so I spent the first hour in the hospital completely alone wandering around the room and having another 20 minutes of continuous monitoring as per hospital protocol (even though I had just finished a NST which is the same as continuous monitoring). And it was then and there that I realized that this must be the elusive and much maligned back labor.

JD, the doula and the midwife all arrived at the birthing center by about 11:30 am and I spent the next 2-3 hours wandering the halls, napping and sitting on a birth ball. My contractions apparently had no regular pattern and did not appear to be getting more intense. Our doula was fabulous, as was JD. I basically wanted counter-pressure on my back continuously, but otherwise nothing much helped with the pain except avoiding lying down. Despite the lack of patterns in the contractions, when I was checked at 2 pm I was at 8/9 cm and allowed to hop in the jacuzzi. I have to admit it was a bit odd to be sitting fully nude in a jacuzzi with an audience of four (the three mentioned above plus the hospital nurse) sitting around the bathtub on birthing balls watching me. But oh well, such is the weirdness of labor.

I got out of the jacuzzi to pee and realized I didn't want to deal with climbing back in, so I wandered the halls a bit during transition. The midwife was a bit concerned that my contractions were not very strong so she asked me to lie down for a bit (which sometimes makes them stronger, apparently) which was very painful. I am sure she was also trying to get the baby to turn, but nobody mentioned 'back labor' once until I was through with the delivery. I got through that by negotiating that I would stay on my side for 10 minutes on each side, and no longer.

When JD and I realized that the labor was going much, much faster than expected he bet me that we couldn't beat his superwoman (marathon-running-while-pregnant) friend who was in labor for 12 hours. And it looked like we stood a chance until I got to the pushing part. Because I still had back labor and had pulled a muscle in my leg (in addition to sciatica pain) I could no longer tell when the contractions were starting and I spent about an hour trying to push rather haphazardly, largely during breaks in the contractions. When the midwife and doula finally figured that out, they started telling me when to push which helped tremendously.

The one thing which was exactly as described in our birthing class was the moment that TS came out. She just tumbled out, and was immediately set on my stomach; I think I was in a good deal of shock that I was done with labor. JD had stated in no uncertain terms that he would not cut the cord, so the midwife offered -me- the scizzors. I was completely taken aback, but logically refused to participate, so she cut the cord herself. TS was covered in vernix, rather slippery, and very alert. She also had a large red birthmark on her forehead (I'll admit - I actually wondered why with all my screening no one had warned me about this), a birthmark on the back of her head, a dark blue Mongolian spot on her but, and a distinct conehead after 3 hours of pushing. She was totally adorable and very snuggly from the start. I had a few stitches and a little pit, and started working on breastfeeding. The fabulous thing about being in a birthing center was that the baby was never removed from the room - she was weighed and measured next to me, her one state-mandated shot was given while she was latched on, and we declined to have her bathed.

JD, who was fabulous the entire delivery, broke down completely after TS was out and the midwife and doula had to take him out of the room.

And after a couple of hours of snuggling, we set a swaddled TS safely down into her bassinet so we could go to sleep, where she started to scream immediately. And that was the end of her sleeping alone - the room had a queen-sized bed, and TS, JD and I all snuggled into it and went to sleep. I, of course, woke up every 2 hours to snack and failing to wake JD at 6:55 am (the hospital cafeteria did not open till 7 am) I had to personally sneak out of the locked ward (for the baby's safety obviously) and take myself to the cafeteria where I purchased OJ and chocolate cake for breakfast at 7:01 am (don't worry - I sent JD back for more breakfast when he got up).

TS was born around 6 pm, and we were discharged around noon the next day and home in time to order the sushi lunch special delivery. In all, 13 hours of back labor was not nearly as bad as expected and I was quite proud in retrospect to realize that I never even asked for pain meds while in labor. Of course, least you think that I am bragging, I will fully admit to asking for ibuprofen when the baby latched on. Since I had not felt any contractions in my belly during labor, feeling my uterus contract while she sucked was super-painful and I was way too tired to cope. Which also makes me deeply relieved that my labor was so quick, and more than a bit terrified that if the baby had not been facing the wrong way it could have been much, much quicker.