A gift of thanksgiving…

Fernanda shared with me that she had been having light contractions off and on for several hours and was kept awake with some pretty strong ones at 3 am. She felt it was likely early labor still, but wanted me to know. As they increased she found that she was able to handle them pretty well as long as she could stay in the shower. She did pick up pretty quickly and appeared to be moving through the early stages of labor with ease. In talking to her she was calm and focused. Being in the shower was so helpful but of course the hot water heater was challenged to keep up. She began  imagining the endless hot water at the hospital. I believe the choice to go to the hospital was perhaps even inspired by this.

As it turned out her timing was pretty good. She arrived at the hospital in early active labor.  She was planning a water birth and had to wait to get in the tub until she was 7cm.  Once they ran through the preliminaries of paperwork and monitoring she was able to get back in the shower where she had already been finding lots of comfort. I felt she was handling things very well. She had found a good vocalization that was working well for her and when it was time for her to get into the tub it brought even greater relief,  her contractions were running very close and getting stronger and stronger. She moved to 9 1/2 cm pretty quickly. It seemed to all of us that baby would be here very soon.

And…the unpredictable way that babies arrive into the world left us through the next hours facing wave after wave of surrender. Fernanda stayed strong and focused, allowing the water and her vocalizations to keep her calm. Her husband and mother both too had to find that place of surrender, trusting, waiting…. Contractions slowed down, exams were showing an anterior lip, just a small one, but enough to keep baby from descending far enough down.

We thought of lots of ways to help her move in the water to open things up. Fernanda moved through different positions, swaying her hips in the water,  listening to her body and moving to help the baby move. It can be frustrating to be so close and yet feel that you are still so far away. After several hours she made the decision to let the midwife break her water, in hopes that would create additional movement and allow her to stay in the water without  additional monitoring. The midwife was hoping to keep her from having to get out of the tub, due to the rules of 4 hour monitoring required. Breaking her water brought on much more intense contractions.

I watched Fernanda constantly dip into her internal well of strength and keep moving, helping her baby labor down, letting the water, movement and voice be her pain relief.  When she felt enough pressure to start a focused pushing she pushed for 2 hours. Concentration and focus seemed to be her greatest gifts. Even when I know she was feeling like she couldn’t go another step I watched her let go a little more and keep her focus.

Fernanda shared with me during her prenatal visit that through out her pregnancy her body just continued to surprise her. She felt strong and healthy and one of her top 5 desires for her birth was that her body continue to surprise  her. I believe that is exactly what happened. She demonstrated a calm and powerful woman, moving and listening to her body with little need of intervention. She trusted her body that it knew just what to do…and of course…it did. Even in the difficult challenging moments, it seemed obvious to me that she remained true to that trust.

We watched the hours tick by in the end. A waiting game that is never easy on anyone…especially mamas. This little guy wanted to be born on Thanksgiving and so…he was…at 1:03 a.m. Of course we were all in grand celebration at his emergence. The gratitude and relief spilling over  everyone as we greeted this little new person into the world. When I left them they were wrapped in a bubble of bliss. I drove a very elated Grandma home for some rest.

A mother’s story

I wanted to let you know that we welcomed our sweet little boy, Nikhil, on Saturday, October 29th (on his due date) at 5:35pm weighing in at 6lbs, 13.7oz and a length of 19.5 inches.

I plan to write the complete birthing story when I get more time but thought I would give you a summary of how it all happened.

I woke up on Saturday morning and spent the morning hanging out with my older son.  Around 1pm, I went to the restroom and noticed what I suspected was my mucous plug so I called Anjli (Intown Midwifery) and she confirmed that it was the mucous plug.  She asked how I was feeling and I told her I felt just fine with no cramping or contractions.  She said that it could be a few hours to a few days before I went into labor but that it’s coming.  After getting off the phone, I went downstairs and had lunch with the family but then I wasn’t feeling well so after lunch (around 2:15pm) I came upstairs to take a nap but instead realized that I was having contractions.  I decided to take a bath thinking that if it wasn’t true labor then things would die down but in the tub, my contractions continued to get stronger.  I told my husband to pack the car because we were probably headed to the hospital in a few hours.  When I got out of the tub, my contractions were only 2.5 minutes apart but they were only lasting 30 seconds.  We called Charlotte and Anjli again and they both agreed that I could either wait a couple more hours or I could go on in.  I decided to go in because I wasn’t sure if I could sit through the 45 minute car ride with even more intense contractions if I waited.  So around 4:15pm we started our journey to AMC.  I continued to breathing deeply with each contraction and yell at my husband between contractions criticizing his driving.  We reached AMC  little after 5 and I opted to go through the main entrance and not the ER because I didn’t want to sit any longer.  After getting into cat/cow position in the lobby to get through a contraction (reminded me of Emily during that exercise when she pushed the baby put), we made our way up to the 7th floor.  When we got into the triage room, I asked the nurse if needed to change into a gown and she said not yet because she wanted to check me to see if we were going to stay or leave so I slipped off my pants only.  Lying down for them to check the fetal heart rate was the hardest thing ever and then when she went to check me, all I could think is that I better be more than 3cm and that 6cm would be ideal because during my prenatal appointment with Charlotte we set 6cm as a goal to reach before asking for the epidural.  Yep, my birthing plan included getting the epidural.  I never wanted to have a completely natural birth, I just wanted to get to a point where the epidural didn’t slow down labor to the point I needed pitocin.  My goal was to avoid pitocin.  Well, it turns out I was completely dilated and the baby was on his way out so the nurse ran out yelling for Anjli.  Anjli came in and I begged for pain medication and she said it was too late.  Being a Pharmacist, I started naming EVERY pain medication I could think of and she looked me in the eyes and said, “you can do this”.  I was screaming, “I can’t do this”, “I need my mommy”, ” Why can’t you give me something” and then somewhere between pushing I came to gripes with the fact that the baby was coming and that’s when I started to think of things we went over in class.  I went into silence and closed my eyes and only listened to Charlotte’s voice (she was my doula) as we did during the yoga nidras in class.  I felt each contraction was a step closer to meeting my baby and within minutes, I was holding my baby.  A few minutes later, Charlotte asked if I wanted to take my shirt off so we could have skin to skin contact…..I then came back to reality and realized I delivered in the triage room and never did change into a hospital gown, I was still wearing the t-shirt I come in with. I did it…not only did I make it past 6cm, I gave birth the way I was meant to all along!!!

As far as my experience at AMC, I couldn’t have asked for anything better.  I remember during the tour I thought that AMC doesn’t look as comfortable and definitely not as nice as Northside.  What I learned is the view makes up for any additional features Northside provides and the nursing staff actually gets to know you during their shift….so my experience was so much better than Northside.  Everyone said the food isn’t the best as AMC so I made sure I just ordered food that I wanted and thought was safe….I ate a lot of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and had family bring in food for other meals.

 For those of you who haven’t taken a Breastfeeding Class, I highly recommend the couple’s class through A Labor of Love.  Also, instead of a boppy, we went with “My Brestfriend Pillow” which was recommended by Teresa and it has made breastfeeding easier.  I did have a 2nd degree tear so the boppy is great to sit on for me:)  As far as other things, Anjli gave me a list of things they suggest for different postpartum symptoms- from herbal remedies for sitz baths to homeopathic medication for soreness and pain relief.