Now that he's a week old, I figured I should get this written down before it completely goes by the wayside! ***Be warned, this is a birth story, so skip it if you don't want to know the details! First here's a picture of our newly born little guy in his first cloth diaper and cover :)
Russell Lane Gump
9 lb 9 oz
21 1/2 inches
6:01 pm
And how his presence here came about. . . (the unabridged version ;) )
The evening of Tuesday the 25th, I had some crampiness and my lower back was achy. Since the lower backache was a new symptom, I was hopeful it meant something!! I had some contractions through the night, but nothing significant. Wednesday morning I was having Braxton Hicks contractions (not painful) every 15 minutes or so. These continued for a few hours, but since I've had sooo many "practice" contractions throughout the pregnancy, I didn't get my hopes up too much.
I went to my checkup at the birthing center at 9:30 and was told I was 4 cm dilated. My midwife Leslie noted that since I was carrying Russell so far out in front, he was sort of tilted and possibly not putting good pressure on my cervix. She suggested I get a belly support band, or use some kind of blanket or scarf to hold my big ole belly closer in to my body. Leslie thought this would help turn him more straight up and down and help encourage labor to start. Boy was she right! Here's a crummy photobooth picture of my makeshift belly band around 12:30 on Wednesday.
I immediately started feeling more pressure and started having some contractions a little closer together within an hour, more like every 10-12 minutes instead of 15. This was probably around 1:30 pm. If I rested, they slowed down, and if I walked around the house doing chores they would pick up. My mom said she would head over to be here for Palmer in case this was really labor. By the time she arrived and I had been bustling around the house for another 45 minutes, I had couple contractions that were between 5 and 8 minutes apart. Eek! I called Tyler to come home from work since he's about 45 minutes away in Richardson, and called our birth photographer Kelsey to let her know this could be it.
Sure enough, the contractions started to hurt around 2:30. Sometime within the next hour, Tyler arrived home, and I had a couple that were painful enough that I couldn't speak. We called the birthing center and they advised us to wait to come in til the contractions were more regularly 5 minutes apart. The confusing part of the next hour was that if I was laying down on the bed, they were sometimes as spaced as 8 minutes, but if I tried to stand and walk from one place to another, they would hit as often as 2 or 3 minutes!
At this point the contractions were seriously painful and during them, I said a little mantra that I read earlier in the day to myself to help cope. "This pain is good, this pain is necessary, this pain is temporary". It's a challenge to relax when something hurts that bad! I found the mantra helped to remind me though that without the pain, the baby would never be born! At this time, my mom and Tyler were hustling to get Palmer's stuff together for Mother's Day Out the following day and his overnight stuff to stay at my parents'. I was obviously little help at this point! Palmer was fussy, I was bossy and snippy, and it was a little hectic! We made another phone call to the birthing center to say we were on our way soon. They said ok, but forewarned me I may be sent back home if I wasn't truly in active labor. TRUST ME, I AM! I wanted to say :)
It seemed like forever after my mom and Palmer left before Tyler and I got things together enough to leave for the birthing center (about 4:45 pm). I was trying to tell him what I needed him to pack, while laying in bed as still as possible to try and buy a little extra time between contractions. I had a contraction at the kitchen counter putting my flip flops on, at the garbage can in the garage, and at the passenger door to the car. I demanded that Tyler call the birthing center again to tell them I wanted to get in the warm tub when I got there, but then demanded he not waste time calling, we needed to GO! I continued to have contractions on the drive to Allen which. was. miserable. I kneeled on the front seat of the car/ stood on the floor board, rocking back and forth holding onto the headrest. I got little rest between contractions at this point- (possibly due to stress??) and told Tyler it was getting really bad and that I needed some encouraging words. He did a great job getting us to ABC safely!
I contracted several times in the parking lot, walkway, and lobby of the birthing center, making Tyler drop everything to push on my lower back. For some reason this warm pressure on my back helped the pain a lot! They checked me in an exam room, found I was now 7 cm dilated, and said you're staying! This was now 5:14 pm, I am told. I somehow made it up the stairs and into the claw foot tub they had been filling for me. (They have a much larger jacuzzi sized tub, but it takes 45 minutes to fill. . . and we didn't have 45 minutes!) I labored for 35 minutes or so in the tub, trying to focus on relaxing my body. I tried sitting and kneeling in a few different positions, but let's face it, labor hurts no matter what position you're in! The warm water truly did help and I would recommend laboring in a tub to anyone considering a natural birth.
I stayed pretty calm through this "transition" period (that's what they call the 7-10 cm part of labor) with a few panicked outbursts of "I can't do this" or "I need help, someone help me" when I felt a little out of control. Tyler, my midwife Leslie, and the birth assistant were excellent support to calm me down and get me focused back on the goal. Toward the beginning I would open my eyes between contractions and talk a little or have a drink, but there was soon no time/energy for any of that. Kelsey arrived to take pictures sometime in this period- she would have been there sooner as a doula/labor support too, but my labor went a lot faster than anyone anticipated! The pain was bad, but the mental challenge was the hardest part since I was having very little downtime between contractions. I wondered how much longer it could go on and there were a few times I doubted I could do much more, but I kept reminding myself that no one there could help me, even if they wanted to, and it was up to me to get through it.
What they say is true, when you think you're at your breaking point in labor and you want more than anything to turn back, that means it's almost over! The Bradley method calls it the "self doubt" signpost, or something like that. I remember Leslie asking me if I wanted to get out of the tub to deliver in the bed. I could not in any way imagine climbing out of that tub, so I declined, and Russell ended up being an unplanned water baby! When I felt like I needed to push, Leslie said to go ahead, and that was such a relief. Pushing gave me something active to DO, instead of just letting the contractions happen TO me (which is how laboring seems). My water broke at some point at the beginning of pushing. I pushed for about ten minutes, at first sitting in the tub, then on my hands and knees. It was the most intense thing I've ever experienced- much different than pushing with an epidural, obviously. I screamed pretty loudly I believe, haha. The birth assistant told me to hold in that energy I used to scream and use it for pushing instead, which helped me focus everything toward getting him OUT!
The relief I felt when he was born was indescribable. Immediately, all the pain goes away and you get a huge rush of endorphins and adrenaline. I was shaking and in disbelief that I did it, it was over, and he was here! Russell didn't cry right away as is common with babies born in water since it is a gentle transition to being outside the womb. As soon as I gathered myself enough to process what was going on and rested back in the tub, he was placed on my chest and we stayed that way for a while while they covered him with warm blankets and a hat. Tyler cut the cord after it stopped pulsing and we just chilled out for a little bit, soaking up the excitement and happiness. After only 46 minutes of being at the birthing center, Russell was here! He's obviously not the patient type :)
Obviously there's a lot more to tell about how GREAT the rest of our experience was at the birthing center, but I think this post is long enough already!! I'll post more pictures soon of the grandparents and Palmer coming to visit us in the hours immediately following his birth.
If you want to see a sneak peek of some of the pictures Kelsey took at ABC, check out this link! I'll be getting all the pictures from her in a few weeks :)
http://bumpbirthbaby.net/2012/09/26/the-birth-of-russell/
Relaxing after delivery!
