Nathan's birth story

Nathan was born on Sunday, March 22nd at 9:29am weighing 7 pounds 2 ounces and measuring 21 inches long.

I wrote a very long version of the birth story that I decided not to publish. It doesn't have anything I'm not willing to share but it is very long. And this is a very short story. But I do regret not writing more about the birth of Neil because my memory has faded with time and there's a lot I've forgotten. So I'm shortening it to here and if anyone is interested let me know and I'll email you the longer version. And seriously, it's long. Over 3 pages in MS Word.

Neil's birth story is linked in the baby tab at the top of the page. I will be adding Nathan's posts at some point to that tab as well.

Saturday night I started to feel somewhat gassy. I know that can be a sign but I'd been having other signs including sporadic contractions that woke me almost every night. I decided to just take Benadryl because if I went to work Monday (because I didn't have the baby) I would need as much sleep as I could get.

3:30am, Sunday morning, I woke up. I can't pinpoint anything specific waking me but I was having contractions. I wasn't completely sure if they were real. I didn't start actually timing them but I was watching the clock and they weren't consistent time wise at all. I couldn't fall back asleep so I lay there questioning things. Also, I had trouble at times distinguishing between baby movement and contractions so I put my hand on my stomach and could feel it tightening and said yep more contractions.

Around 6am I decided I better start timing them with my contraction timer application on my phone. I was shocked to find out they were pretty consistently averaging 7 minutes apart. Usually I think they start more around 10 minutes apart or even longer when it's consistent. By the way, this is the point that the midwife marked labor as officially starting because they were strong enough to trigger me timing them and I confirmed that they were consistent.

I decided to wait to call the midwife until 7am, figuring, eh we have a lot of time regardless. I also questioned if I was timing them right; could they really already be 7 minutes apart? They didn't feel that strong to me- I could feel them mostly in the lower front and that was it. When I called she said she was on her way over and I questioned her, surprised at that. I said I could talk through them and they weren't bad. So she said she'd wait an hour and check in at 8am. (She was a 45 minute drive away.) But I was supposed to call if things progressed between then and 8am.

Sure enough, I hung up the phone and the contractions started measuring 4 minutes apart. At this point Dave was running around getting things ready for the home birth- we had a list of things to do to get ready. I also realized we needed to double make the bed with two sets of sheets and a waterproof liner in between. AND we needed to get that tub up; I really really wanted to labor in the tub and possibly even have a water birth if it worked out. Dave also made scrambled eggs for Neil and me which I ate while having contractions and trying to keep things normal for Neil. As I made our bed, too, I had to pause when I'd have a contraction (big sign there that I should have read oops) and that happened several times as I was working. I was also pulling out what I wanted to wear in the tub, what I wanted to wear after, trying to pick up a little bit...

Anyway, I also realized in the middle of all of this that I better call the midwife. I really questioned is this right? It can't be 4 minutes between contractions now, I must really be screwing up the timing. I even asked Dave if I was talking through them and insisted I was. But as soon as the midwife answered and I said 4 minutes she said on my way without a second thought. I was pretty surprised.

Shortly after this, the contractions were coming 2 minutes apart. Again, I was so surprised and didn't understand. Was this really happening? Why were they so fast? This didn't make any sense. I thought early labor is supposed to take a long time.

The midwife arrived shortly after 8 and told me not to worry about timing the contractions anymore on the timer. So I put the phone down at that point and just started dealing with things. I had not yet admitted to poor Dave how much I was feeling them or how fast they were coming so he was being a good sport and working on the tub.

The midwife kind of irritated me because she was telling me to move my hips with the contractions instead of tensing up and try to relax to let nature take its course. I didn't really know her well and for anyone who knows me I hate being told what to do, especially by someone I don't know very well and am not comfortable with. I ended up walking away so I could deal with contractions without people watching. Oh and I forgot to mention that we had a doula in training come to watch Neil; I called her and she arrived to take care of Neil for us. She was amazing and although she is still in training just as a person I would highly recommend her to anyone. I was surprised I was comfortable with her even though I didn't really know her either.

So I wasn't really feeling great about having multiple people in my house watching me in this private moment, dealing with contractions, especially since Dave was on his own doing other things to get ready. We had two midwives (the other one showed up shortly before the birth), the doula, Dave, Neil, and me. I guess it's not that many but to me it felt like it, especially getting direction on how to handle the contractions. No, I'm not stubborn.

I wandered into the bathrooms both upstairs and downstairs for some privacy and I have to admit at that point followed the midwife's advice. I leaned at one point against the window pane in the nursery and just let myself relax, rocking back and forth and wow did it feel so much better to handle the contraction when I relaxed.

At one point, around 9:20 (according to the midwife), I went into the downstairs bathroom. I sat on the toilet for the contraction because it felt better. That contraction I felt this huge urge to push and as I stood up when the contraction was pretty much done there was a huge gush. I started yelling for Dave, in a panic. He was still working on the tub and where he was couldn't hear me. But the midwife (and main one) who got there first did hear me and came into the bathroom to see what was up. When she saw me she said immediately you need to get upstairs NOW you are having that baby now. I don't know what she saw to know that but she did say when the water breaks late, naturally, you're usually pretty far dilated and I was feeling the urge to push. She didn't even check me. I said I didn't think I could get up the stairs and she said I had to. So I waited one more contraction out in the bathroom and then I literally ran up the stairs, shedding clothes (soaked clothes or I wouldn't have been doing that) as I ran up the stairs. The midwife told me later that she has never seen a pregnant woman run up the stairs that fast.

I ran into our bedroom, and heard Dave say something about still getting the tub ready. The midwife said no you need to get in here NOW she is having the baby now, there is no time for the tub at this point. (Bummer, right?!)

I automatically went to my side of the bed but they asked me to go to the other side. I was at the point I couldn't even get in bed so I stood. I felt another contraction and from last time I remembered hating pushing but also recognized I  was stuck. That baby was coming out and I had to push, and it would be over that much faster if I could just push hard. So I did. The first push I felt a lot of pressure. Then the midwife (she reminded me later and this helped a lot) told me that the baby was crowning and would be out in one or two more pushes. Between that and just wanting this to be over, I pushed the next contraction really hard and sure enough, the head came out! I have to say I was in huge shock. I didn't in my wildest dreams ever imagine any of labor not to mention pushing would go THIS fast. Then one final push and the rest of the baby came out and I was just looking down thinking "WHAT?! That's a baby?! Right there? Now???"

So I would not say labor was fun by any means, or easy by any means but it was much easier than labor with Neil. It was also very different; I didn't feel any of the back pain I did with Neil. I will post when Nathan is about a week old to talk about differences in recovery, etc. I've been trying to write that down as well this time. I just have a hard time getting on the computer- I'm only supposed to go up/down stairs once a day and I'm spending the day downstairs while the computer is upstairs.

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