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| First of all, the obligatory baby tax. 2 weeks old and freshly bathed. |
I suppose I should start off with some background information for this birth story. I have a history of having macrosomic babies (over 8 lbs 13 oz) and quick deliveries. The active labour for Edgar was only 3 hours long, and the active labour for Arthur was 3 hours and 42 minutes. Because I had set a "trend" of big babies and short labours, we operated under the assumption that this would be the case again for this pregnancy and I mentally prepared myself for such.
By some miracle, I had obtained the same midwife who caught both Edgar and Arthur. As before, we'll call her "N" for privacy and simplicity's sake. Because she was present for both prior courses of care, she knew my history well. Because both large babies and fast (or, precipitous) labours carry risks for hemorrhage, in addition to a few risks new to this pregnancy (very low ferritin for me and a marginal cord insertion on baby's placenta) we discussed and decided that I would deliver in hospital this time, and that I would not be allowed to carry into 40 weeks. If we got to that point, we'd induce...
38+3 Weeks (a Thursday)
By this point, I was ready to be done with pregnancy. I felt huge and was measuring 2 weeks ahead on fundal height. That's normal for me. We were staying in a rental basement suite from 37 weeks onward until delivery because we needed to be close to the hospital. Edgar and Arthur were not behaving well at this time, and Cyrus, Cyrus' mom, and I were running on very little energy to try to wrangle them in a basement suite that was not as toddler-friendly as we're used to living in.
N offered early on to start membrane sweeps as early as I felt comfortable this time along, in an effort to kick-start labour sooner than later. I consented to one at my 38+3 week appointment. I was only a fingertip dilated, and nothing substantial came from that particular membrane sweep.
39+3 Weeks (another Thursday)
This was farther than I thought I would make it this time around. I'd had cramping, but no real contractions that I could pinpoint as productive. At my appointment, N asked how I was feeling about everything. I was honest with her. I told her I was getting worried, as we were running out of time to start labour before 40 weeks and that I was ready to be done with pregnancy. To my surprise, N offered to do another sweep, give me castor oil to take, and if possible she'd break my waters. Basically, she was offering me a non-pharmacological induction.
While I was ready for it, I had to decline because Cyrus had something at work that absolutely needed to be done within the next 24 to 48 hours (or else things would explode or something to that effect). So, N offered to meet us at the midwifery clinic either the next day or Saturday if I didn't change my mind.
The next day ended up arriving with a dump of snow that made meeting up not work out, so N offered to meet us Saturday morning at 10:00 AM. I'm not going to lie... I cried a bit about rescheduling because I was so mentally prepared to have my baby that day.
39+5 Weeks (Saturday, and our 5th wedding anniversary)
Cyrus and I left the boys with his mom for the day and met N at the midwifery clinic. I was first hooked up for an NST to obtain a baseline on how baby was doing prior to any interventions. Turns out I was already having very mild barely-there tightenings that weren't quite contractions every 8 minutes or so. Nothing productive, but baby was doing great. N did the membrane sweep portion. I was about 2 cm dilated at this point, and while N could feel the amniotic sac, it was not bulging enough to break.
I left the clinic with castor oil and instructions on making a "castor oil smoothie". I did this same smoothie to get contractions going with Edgar... I had previously vowed I'd never do it again because it tasted so nasty... and yet here I was...
Cyrus and I drove to Superstore to get ingredients. Even just walking around, I was having the start of contractions that made me stop walking every few minutes. Cyrus joked that maybe we wouldn't need the castor oil after all. I didn't want to take the chance of these contractions petering off, so we bought our ingredients and a blender bottle and made our way back to the van. I chugged the vile drink at about 12:15 PM and we decided to go to Ikea to walk around some more. Maybe we'd get things moving?
At Ikea, we soon realized that it was a bad idea to get trapped in there should my contractions really get going. I had a frozen yogurt and then we made our way to Chinook Mall. We walked around for a little bit, and then N called me at 1:30 PM to check in on how I was doing. I told her that I was having contractions, and she said to walk around another 30 to 40 minutes and then call her back. I had 3 intense contractions in those 30 minutes.
These were not the contractions I was used to having with both boys. I was having the dreaded "back labour". After the first 2 of those 3, I told Cyrus we needed to head back to the van ASAP.
Once in the van, we started making our way back to the midwifery clinic while I called N. She told me to standby and she'd call the hospital to get a room set aside for me. She called me back and told us to head right to the hospital and check in, and then she'd meet us there. We arrived at the hospital at about 2:45PM. The admitting staff were not very nice, and even laughed at me when I couldn't answer my address in the middle of a contraction (seriously, what is their problem?!).
We got settled into the room and N arrived about 5 minutes later. I got into a hospital gown and situated on the bed. N checked me again and I was 4 to 5 cm dilated with bulging waters. N broke my waters... and boy, was there a lot of water! It just kept on coming! It was like my belly deflated. N held my cervix for a while to allow plenty of the hindwaters to drain and to make sure that the cord didn't prolapse. Then, I was hooked up for external monitoring for about 30 minutes.
It became clear right away that things were picking up. I started having what are called "double peak" contractions. That's 4 to 10 minutes of rest between contractions, and then 2 back-to-back, intense contractions with only 30 seconds between them. Cyrus was amused by the monitoring device and kept on telling me when I broke my "high score" for contraction intensity. Thankfully that ended quickly and I was allowed to get off of the bed and walk around. N called the backup midwife to head over just in case things really picked up, and set up the cart of medical instruments and whatnot that would be necessary for delivery.
And I walked. And bounced on a yoga ball. And sat. And the double peak back labour contractions started to wear me down. I was not ready for this kind of labour. I was mentally prepared for a labour like Edgar or Arthur's; short and relatively easy. This was not the case.
Cyrus and N pushed me to keep moving. I walked back and forth between the bed and the door to the room countless times at their insistence. At 5:00 PM, N checked me again. I was still only 5 cm. She let out more of the hindwaters while checking me, and this really hurt. I even told N near the end of that check to stop because it hurt so bad.
At this point, I was feeling a lot of pressure, but because I wasn't dilated to 10 cm I wasn't able to push to relieve that pressure. Feeling worn down, I asked to use the shower. I turned up the shower to as hot as I could manage and directed it right at my lower back. I spent quite a while in that shower, doubled over and just trying to breathe and vocalize through contractions. It was getting harder and harder to keep my face relaxed, and I was losing my nerve.
At 6:30 PM, N did kind of an informal check. I was still just 6 to 7 cm dilated. I felt crushed. I sat on the toilet, feeling like I needed to have a bowel movement. I told Cyrus over and over that I felt like I couldn't do it. I couldn't do another 3+ hours of this labour. I started crying. Cyrus and N helped me up and got me to walk to the room door and then back to the bed, where I laboured over the back of the bed while Cyrus applied pressure to my tailbone.
I felt like I needed to have a bowel movement again, so Cyrus helped me back over to the washroom. By this point, I felt broken. The double peak back contractions were wearing me down in a way I'd never felt before. I was crying and ready to ask for all the meds. That was actually my plan once I'd finished going to the washroom; get back to the bed and then ask for something so I could sleep. I just wanted to curl up in a ball and either sleep or die so that the contractions would stop. I told Cyrus and N that I couldn't do it. They reminded me several times that I had done it before and I could do it again.
And then I thought I needed to poop. I pushed.
NOPE. NOT POOP. THAT'S BABY.
My body was pushing.
N sternly told me to stop and helped Cyrus to quickly walk me back to the bed before my body could push again. I got up on the bed and had another contraction as N and the other midwife rushed to get ready.
Instantly, as Cyrus told me later on, baby's head was out. There was no in-between. Cyrus and I yelled to N and the other midwife at the same time.
Everyone was yelling at me to stop, the midwives were getting their gloves on, and by golly I panted like you wouldn't believe in order to try to stop! I called out that I couldn't, but I did manage to stop. N rushed over and checked to make sure there was no cord around baby's neck. N directed me to push when I had my next contraction...
... 2 minutes later, the other midwife said I could go ahead and try testing pushing gently without waiting further for the next contraction. I pushed lightly, and out rocketed my baby girl at 7:30 PM!
From that first surprise urge to push to my baby girl arriving earthside was less than 5 minutes.
I went from feeling defeated to holding my baby girl in 5 minutes.
From "I can't do it!" to "I did it!" in 5 minutes.
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| The "I did it!" moment. |
It was 4 hours and 1 minute total of labour, my longest and most difficult of the 3, and she was my smallest baby. Go figure!
While her labour was nothing like what I expected, it was exactly what Cyrus and I needed. Cyrus, who was more an observer for my other two labours, was my support and strength when I needed it most. This labour pushed me to my breaking point, then Rosemary's speedy arrival brought me crashing into reality and happiness once again, and it brought Cyrus and I closer than ever before. That being said, I am so glad to never need to go through labour ever again!
Now that Rosemary is here, our family is complete. We are content with our family of 5, and are looking forward to the next stage of life.
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