Last pregnancy, I went with the first health care provider I could find. This time I wanted a little more from the experience. I was blessed to find 2 (of 4) midwives in the city. From about 4 months onward, I swam 3 or more times a week during my pregnancy. I loved the feel of the water and I imagined being able to labor and/or give birth in water, which was a possibility because my hospital had a "laboring" tub (which had occasionally been a "birthing" tub, although not strictly allowed, according to one of the midwives).
On my EDD, I thought labor was coming on in the middle of teaching a piano lesson. I convinced everyone, including my midwife, Noel, that it was the real thing (she slept in her jeans). But all the action stopped after 7 hours or so. And I was disappointed.
I had felt okay about going past my due date, that is, until I went past my due date. My mom came a day after it, and I started to feel silly, like I was wasting her time, when I knew my grandpa needed her at home. We went around trying to put me into labor: eating eggplant parmesan, walking, etc. We even went to Keeneland. On Saturday night (EDD+3), Mom rubbed the "put you into labor" pressure points on my feet. I had started worrying that I was doing something wrong because baby hadn't arrived, and I hadn't realize how anxious I had let myself get. Later that night, my WONDERFUL husband helped me release my fears and do some deep relaxation. And within an hour, I was in labor. I was exhilarated! I sent my mom and Devin to bed, and I listened to my birth music, sleeping in between contractions on the couch, rocking on my hands and knees during them. Throughout the night, contractions got closer together, although I felt like they were still short in duration, so I figured I would have a while to go. I was worried about going to the hospital too early. At 7 am, I woke Devin up to excitedly tell him I had "bloody show." (I don't think he shared my excitement in this.) He proceeded to make yummy scrambled eggs (it was Easter Sunday, after all) and we gave Joann her Easter basket in between contractions. My mom and Joann took the car to church. Devin helped me through some hypnobirthing scripts and I got relaxed enough to lie still during contractions (instead of the hands-and-knees rocking thing). He had to convince me it was time to go to the hospital because I had worried about going too soon. I had him give me a priesthood blessing first, in which he blessed me that I would feel loved and support by those who love me. Later, I found out that a sister giving a talk mentioned that we were at the hospital over the pulpit, so we had our whole ward family thinking of us at that time!
Our neighbors drove us to St. Joe East in the pouring rain. I was grateful the drive was only two contractions long! I had a contraction coming on as I neared the front desk, and I had to say "hold on" to the girl behind it. She, apparently, did not believe I was in labor, and she did cause a hold up for me ("You're not in the system." Great.) Then Noel appeared and whisked me away to a room. She helped me get settled, told the nurse to fill up the tub, and then said, "I'll be right back." Since I was not in the system, I didn't get checked at this point, and I figured I had hours left. Apparently, so did Noel, because she left to discharge another patient!
About then I started to sweat buckets and feel really out of control. As Devin helped me into my hospital gown, I was utterly bamboozled by an incredible need to bear down, which I did, and the pressure broke my water. I thought, "Oh no. I broke my water," as if it was the wrong thing to do! "I want to push!" I said. When I begged them to "tell me how to do this," they just said I was doing a good job. (Unaccountably frustrating in the moment.) Noel was being paged repeatedly, and a nurse convinced me to get on the bed and checked me, saying something about "just a little lip." At this point, I did not understand much of anything, except occasionally, Devin's urges to keep breathing. Let me take a break in the story to say how incredible he was throughout all this! He was calm; he helped me focus and breathe, he stood up for me. Wow. What a support.
Noel finally came and helped me get into my preferred position: hands and knees. I was convinced there was a long time to go, and I was getting worried because I was not in control of myself! Little did I know Aurora was nearly crowning. And as she did, I suddenly knew what was going on, and I was able to (kinda) chill out for a second. (This is what Noel later referred to as me being "a rockstar.")
Seconds later, beautiful, perfect Aurora Lucille was born. My awesome, experienced midwife handed her to me (up through my knees) and I held her tight to me. For a moment I was "far away" where I had gone in my mind to work through the pressure of giving birth. As I looked at my baby, I felt like I was traveling fast back to where she was, back to the present. And I was slightly confused for a minute, thinking, "Is this my baby?" My first words were, "She's hairy!" Well, she was hairy. (I
know I'm not the only one to say something awkward after her baby is born.) I couldn't believe all her dark hair! She wanted me to hold her tight; she'd yell if I tried to shift her, and I didn't want to let her go for a second! I did eventually let them dry her off a little, and Devin told me while they were doing that, one of the nurses was cooing over her, "Oooh so alert! No drugs!" I really got some supportive nurses. They joked about how I went too fast to get in the tub. (I sure would have liked to hop in there right afterward because I was still so hot.)
And then, they all left us alone for nearly an hour. It was HEAVEN. I didn't know you could feel that good after having a baby. I felt so "there" and connected to myself, my husband, and my baby. I also didn't know I would be thirsty enough to drink gallons of any liquid I could get my hands on. And hungry enough to . . . well, eat a lot. I think they expected me to be in the L&D room longer than I was . . . my lunch took a while to find me. I ate two Powerbars while I waited. I loved that I could walk, and that I could go with Rory to the nursery.
My whole labor was about 11 and a half hours. The check-in time on my bracelet was 10:50 am, and Rory was born at 11:30am. Devin said that next time I'm not allowed to breathe through contractions until we get to the hospital.
On Saturday, I did my first triathlon! I thought up the title to this post during the race, I needed to keep my mind off of the task at hand. It was definitely a lot of work, but from a field of about 250, I finished 8th in the swim (400m). It went down hill from there. The weather was rainy and windy, which made the bike ride (15 miles) a pain. The run (5k) was hard too just because I was so tired after the ride, but I finished in under an hour and a half which was my goal, and as the picture shows, I was still smiling at the end!
