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If you missed it, go back and read Part I.
This has been quite the work in progress. It took me forever to decide how much info to include in this story. This is kinda personal stuff here :). I haven't been brave enough to hit the "publish" button.
My goal in writing about our homebirth is to be informative... and of course to document our birth story. Our culture doesn’t really know much about birth because we tend to schedule it, induce it, and drug it. I won’t spare you very many details, but hopefully it will still be in good taste. Enjoy
This has been quite the work in progress. It took me forever to decide how much info to include in this story. This is kinda personal stuff here :). I haven't been brave enough to hit the "publish" button.
My goal in writing about our homebirth is to be informative... and of course to document our birth story. Our culture doesn’t really know much about birth because we tend to schedule it, induce it, and drug it. I won’t spare you very many details, but hopefully it will still be in good taste. Enjoy
Labor.
Ok, where do we technically start? If we’re going to be real technical, scientific, and informative about it things started “happening” on Thursday (Dec. 8th). My actual “due date” was Monday, December 5th. The first sign that labor would be immanent [brace yourself] was losing my “mucous plug” [there, I said it] around 10:45am on Thursday. (Everybody squirms- sorry! We're just jumping right in.) I did get kind of nervous when I saw it. I had been trying really hard to busy myself so I wouldn't be anxious about being “over due.” It was working b/c somehow this came as a real shock to me that I was actually really about to go into labor. Previously, I was starting to think I might be pregnant forever.
Friday (Dec. 9th) morning when I woke up I was beginning to have what the textbooks call “bloodyshow.” Yes, another awesome name to gross everyone out (sorry, all in the name of science here... the mood lightens in a minute, I promise.) Basically I was spotting a little… as if about to start a period. I felt like I was going to start my period. I was pretty crampy all morning. My friend Melissa told me that those were early contractions. Oh. I was pretty excited. I would probably have a baby sometime in the next 24 hours. WOW!
I then realized that Christmas was in 2 weeks and I hadn’t bought Corey a single thing. Oops. I called my friend Amy to see if she would drive me around to do some Christmas shopping. We shopped in the early afternoon. I was having small contractions at this point. I could walk and talk through them though, and no one around me knew that I was in “labor.” We visited Target, The Christian Bookstore, and Guitar Center.
When we arrived back at my apartment (sometime around 2:00-3:00) Melissa came over and the three of us worked on wrapping all of Corey’s gifts. We were pretty giddy about meeting baby Granderson soon.
When Cor got home we all decided it would be good for the two of us to go on awalk. So Corey and I had one more “walking club” at Wilson Park. I think we may have walked 2-3 laps. I’ll admit contractions were picking up a little at this point. Occasionally we’d pause during one. We marveled at the fact that it was going to be a full moon that night. In fact, I kept getting texts from everyone saying that I would probably go into labor that night b/c of it… little did they know. A random civilian drove past us and yelled, "You haven't had that baby yet?!" ;) Marissa I think that was you! (I love your sense of humor.)
When we arrived back at home I decided that I would like to go out for one more meal as ‘marrieds without kids’. – I know you’re freaking out that I’m doing all of this while in “labor,” but I didn’t want to sit around and count contractions at this point. I knew we had a long ways to go, so I might as well live it up before I had to really concentrate on what was going on.- We tried Noodles first, but the line was out the door. (I also felt pretty claustrophobic most of my pregnancy so I didn’t feel like being in the middle of such a crowded place.) We opted for Panera instead. Ahhh… my last bowl of creamy tomato soup while being pregnant. (I lived on this stuff.) Contractions were getting stronger throughout our meal. In fact, I had to stop eating and close my eyes during them. (I was probably making other Panera patrons nervous.) The car ride home was pretty uncomfortable as well.
Back at home I decided that I was still up for more distraction. I knew I would be locked in our apartment for hours during labor and days/weeks after baby was born, so I wanted to spend as much time as possible away from home while I still could. We walked over the Gresham’s apartment and visited while watching The Christmas Story. Contractions were definitely real at this point. We finally started timing them. They were about 4-5 minutes apart.
At 11:00pm I was no longer feeling all that hot. We walked back home and decided to prep the place for the birth. (filling up the birth pool, putting a plastic sheet on the bed in case my water broke, setting out towels and blankets to wrap baby in, setting out all of the ingredients for the post-birth herbal sitz bath, etc.) After we finished we debated about at what point should we ask the midwife to come? (I had been calling her throughout the day to tell her about my progress.) She lived 45 minutes away and I didn’t want to ask her to come too soon, but I also didn’t want her to be too late either. Contractions were definitely getting more serious. We finally decided to go ahead and call her and see if she thought maybe she should go ahead and come. (She is an incredible woman of God and very sensitive to the Holy Spirit. I totally trusted if she thought she should wait and come later.) She said that she would go ahead and come. We felt pretty relieved. We had also asked Melissa to join us for all of the birthing festivities, so we went ahead and called her as well.
Our midwife arrived sometime between 1:00-1:30am. We were all sitting around our living area. (excitement in the air) Nancy asked if I wanted to be checked to see how much I was dilated. I really wanted to know, but then again I REALLY didn’t. I was worried that if I was only dilated to a 2 that I would be really discouraged. I decided that we had to know something though, so I let her check me. Aaaaaand I was only dilated 1 centimeter. One. OMGee. I felt like a big doofus asking everyone to go ahead and come when the party had barely even started. Our midwife said that the good news was I was 100% effaced. She said that I had already done a lot of work.
Science Lesson: Let me break this down for those unfamiliar with the terminology: Dilating refers to the cervix (a.k.a. doorway to the uterus…. Uterus being the place where the wee-babe’s been hanging out.) The cervix dilates to 10 centimeters (this is what all the work in labor is about) at which point you can push the wee-babe out of the uterus into the birth canal. (and everyone freaks out b/c I said birth canal.) Checking to see how far you are dilated can kind of give you an idea where you’re at in the process. Labor is all about dilating to the full 10cm. Effaced- for 9 months the cervix has been working really hard to keep that babe inside. It takes a little effort for the cervix to soften or "thin" in order for it to dilate.
Let’s be honest. I was pretty discouraged at this news. A little scared. I had a loooong way to go. This was only the beginning. We all decided to go ahead and try to get some sleep while we could. Yea right. I couldn’t sleep. Contractions were getting REAL uncomfortable at this point. Uncomfortable being the understatement of the year. I was trying to relax through them as I laid in bed, but my lower back was doing a number. Whew! My lower back would be so tense during and after a contraction that I would have to get Corey to rub it in order to be able to relax again. And then another contraction would hit. Oh boy. Laying in bed was not working. We decided to get out of bed and try having me sit in a different position.
We moved to the couch where I tried to prop myself up with pillows. I tried getting on my knees on the couch and leaning over onto the back of it. I tried sitting and leaning on an exercise ball. Nothing. I was beginning to feel miserable. This was no good. Obviously this is going to be an all night ordeal and how am I going to make it when things get even tougher if I'm already being a pansy at 1 cm?
Melissa suggested that I go ahead and get in the birthing pool. (which is a bad name for it, because you don't necessarily HAVE to give birth in it... mine was a labor hot tub.) I was hesitant b/c I had planned on using the birthing pool when I was like 8 cm and dying. I’m dying at 1 cm. This is not good. We wouldn’t have any big guns to pullout in the end when I needed it. Melissa said that I could get in and out of the pool throughout the night to change things up a bit. Wonderful! Ok… let’s try it. This is why I asked Melissa to join us. She's so smart.
Corey and Melissa worked to get the water warm. They had to turn up our hot water heater to the hottest setting. (In case you are wondering, you use a garden hose with an attachment that connects to the faucet in your sink to fill up the pool.) We also boiled several pots of water to add to the pool. Finally the temp. was warm enough for me to get in and BOY DID IT FEEL GOOD! It was instant relief. I wondered what took me so long to try this. YA'LL. If you plan to labor at home before going to the hospital- GET YOURSELF A POOL! Borrow one. The pool was better than a bathtub b/c #1. the water came up to like my armpit #2 it was a blow up pool so everything about it was soft and cushiony.
**read if you want to know more about the pool**
Some people are still curious, so I will describe the pool a little more. It is oval in shape. The walls of the pool come up about mid-thigh high when standing on the outside of it. It's a pretty good size to float around in. We put the pool in the center of our baby nursery and there was just enough room to walk all the way around it with the crib, dresser, and rocker also in the room. I chose to labor in the nursery because: a) I could close a door if needed b) I didn't feel like I was out in the open in my living room c) I was reminded what I was laboring for- a baby! d) I was only 4 steps from the pool to the bathroom.
**pick back up with the story**
I labored in the pool the rest of the night. The mood was calm and peaceful. Corey, Melissa, and our midwife sat around the perimeter of the room in chairs or the rocker. We talked in between contractions and I enjoyed having them there with me. Everyone would respectfully pause conversation as I had a contraction. There was an attitude of prayer throughout the whole night. It's not like we would have to kick-off a new prayer each time... someone would just add a line as we were constantly in communication with God. I have never felt so peaceful. My biggest fear leading up to labor was that I would be afraid, but I wasn't.
Our midwife is a very special woman. There are very few people that I know who are that close in their relationship with the Lord. She is someone who listens and hears from God. This is one of the reasons I felt like I was in such good hands. I chose to ask her to be our midwife after someone recommended her, saying that she "radiated the love of Jesus." For an event like this, I wanted to be sure and surround myself with all the Jesus I could.
I don't really remember much about the time through the night. I just took it one contraction at a time... every 4-5 minutes. Something that REALLY helped me was the clock in our nursery that had a minute and seconds hand. Being an artist, I am a very visual person. It helped that I could see the clock and watch the second hand as a contraction would rise for about 30-40 seconds and then fall. I could visualize how long I would need to endure the contraction and know about when it would peak and begin to subside. (Contractions last about a minute.) Labor is actually a great design. You are in pain for a minute, and then you have a few minutes to have a break before the next hard minute.
The pain of a contraction is a little different than I imagined. It's also incredibly hard to describe. I always figured that your entire abdomen would be in intense pain. Not so. (or at least in my case) Instead, your abdomen just gets really hard... like a muscle feels when flexed. The pain part is deep down inside and central.... at the floor of your pelvis. It's a pressure pain. Not sharp, or searing, or burning. It's more of a bone type of pain. (I'm going off of the experience of dislocating my elbow.) You slowly feel the pressure building, and building, and then it pushes you until your eyes about bug out of your head and you wanna yell, "OK! THAT'S ENOUGH ALREADY! BACK OFF! UNCLE! YOWLLL! I NEED ANOTHER BREAK!" ...it gets to that point and then slowly fades. I feel like I was able to understand the pain because we took a birthing class (The Bradley Method- I HIGHLY recommend it) and I knew that the pain was all of the pressure on my cervix in an attempt to slowly help it stretch to 10cm. Labor takes forever because nature kindly gives you so many breaks in between really difficult, hard 60 seconds of work. Plus, anything being stretched to 10cm that was previously corked up pretty tight needs to be stretched slowly and with care.
Ok. That brings us to the end of active labor. I'll stop here before we get to "transition" and the actual delivering of the baby part. We'll make that Part 3. (sorry to drag this out.) I'm sure your reader needs a break. Let's be honest, there aren't many pretty pictures relating to this topic that I can add to help break up all the text. Join us again for part 3... coming soon, or at least eventually
