Sarah & Nathaniel

Birthing Day
So… Sunday morning, around 1 AM, I woke up feeling like I needed to go to the bathroom, but obviously, I didn’t want to get out of bed. Then, I got this feeling like I had peed just a tiny amount, but at the same time, not quite. I thought it might be my water leaking, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up, and with a baby sitting on  my bladder, it very well may have not been the amniotic fluid. Then it happened 2 more times, in a minute or 2, so I got out of bed, went to the bathroom, and asked Nathaniel to bring me some new underwear. So, I got myself all cleaned up, and got some protection in place, in case of a full-on water break, and went back to bed. I had 2 or 3 surges (contractions) between 1 & 2:30 AM, but it was mainly the anxious-excited-ness that kept me awake. When I had laid in bed for an hour and a half, with no sleep, and feeling like none was coming, I decided to get out of bed.
So, basically, I just sat and relaxed all morning. I knew that if I were going to go into labor, it would be best served by relaxing. I didn’t have many (maybe 2 or 3) more surges between 2:30 and 10 AM. Around 10, I started having consistent surges. Yay labor! They started with about 10 to 15 minutes between them, but progressed fairly quickly. With me having made the connection of how I feel while relaxed, I was able to quiet myself and go into relaxation with every surge, despite Jessica’s antics, and sometimes climbing on me. (though that was more difficult) It was great. Nice and easy. Even better than with Jessica, but there I felt like I needed to stay present and talk to people. I avoided that this time. Around noon, the surges were getting close enough together that I had Nathaniel take Jessica over to my mom’s house. He got back and we ate lunch, and by that point, the surges were only 3-4 minutes apart, so it was time to go. I must say though, it was a very good thing that I was paying attention to the timing, and writing down how far apart they were. I would not have had us leave around 1:30 like I did. It was so easy, and I was so comfortable, that I would have thought we had another hour or 2 before needing to leave. (Which would have resulted in an unplanned home birth.) However, seeing how close the surges were (2-3 minutes apart by the time we got out the door) I figured we needed to go. So, we drove to the hospital, and I told them where I was in the labor, and since we hadn’t heard back from the on-call midwife, they started getting us ready for the 20 minutes fetal monitoring strip.
So first, they checked to see of it was really my water leaking. That was slightly annoying. I would think that dilation would be more important to them. If I was dilated past a certain point, it wouldn’t matter if I was leaking or not, if I was just leaking, but not dilated at all, I would have gone home. (plus then they would have called my midwife sooner) They also couldn’t quite figure it out, and they were sounding as though they didn’t believe me on how close together my surges were. Then they finally checked my cervix, and I was 8 cm dilated. (Yeah, I could have told them I was pretty much ready, I’d been feeling him moving since we got to the hospital.) So, then they finally started trying to get in touch with my midwife. Unfortunately, this is where things went downhill. I’d been doing fine with my surges up until they made me lean back in the bed for the fetal monitoring. That made it so Jacob’s head was pressing on more bones, as well as the rectal nerves, which made it so I wanted to push, even though I knew better, and knew he wasn’t ready yet. That alone would have been okay. I know that the 20 minute strip is required, but once it was done, (and all clear, with no problems from either of us) rather than helping/allowing me up out of the bed, they decided that they had to contact the midwife again, and ask her if it was okay for me to get out of bed. So, annoyance, on top of still leaning back, made it very difficult to relax, which made it start getting uncomfortable, and even painful in my back.
They finally all left the room, and I made the decision on my own. I sat up, scooted to the end of the bed, and dropped the foot of the bed, so that I was at least sitting up, and my legs were halfway squatting. That way I still had the monitor on, but it was better than being in that bed. So, better, but not quite enough because my pelvis couldn’t spread, and it was too late. Having gotten to the point I was at, it was extremely difficult to get as relaxed as I had previously been. By the time they came back in and said I could get up, it was too late for that too. My body had re-directed all energy stores to my uterus, and so any changing of positions was not happening on my own. Then my water broke with a midwife still not there yet, but since I’d been feeling him moving down since we got to the hospital, I started breathing him down. (A gentler, more effective type of pushing) Jacob was ready to come, and I wasn’t going to try to force him to wait on a midwife. That just sounds all sorts of painful and liable to cause complications. But the midwife not being there was making me nervous. That plus the non-ideal position, was making it get harder all the time. The relaxing and breathing through the surges was working for my abdomen, but my back was starting to take the brunt of it, and that was not as easy.
The midwife finally walked in, saw me, noticed me breathing him down,  and checked where Jacob was (almost crowning). She could tell that the position I was in was not working for us, and directed the nurses and Nathaniel to help me to lay down on my side.  That instantly helped, especially as I was able to hold 1 leg up and out of the way. It was probably only about 5 intense minutes later that Jacob dove into the world. Delivering him did hurt though, in part because of everything that had just happened with the nurses and worry, and in part because, as I said, he DOVE into the world. He came out with both hands OVER his head, so rather than just pushing a head out, it was a head and 2 arms, all right together. He arrived at 2:35 PM, making a grand total of 4.5 hours of labor. I think I’m okay with that. I just wish we had picked a different insurance option at Nathaniel’s work, so that we could have gone to the AF hospital. The midwifes were great (as was expected) but though the nursing staff was friendly (no complaints there) they weren’t as open/knowledgeable with the natural birthing practices.

We waited until the cord stopped pulsing before clamping/cutting it, so it was really okay however his breathing was. We wanted him to start breathing obviously, but it was okay if he wasn’t screaming, because he was still getting oxygen from the placenta, as it was still attached to me. Babies don’t have to be screaming to be breathing. Well, the nurses seemed to feel that it was necessary to get him screaming, so that he would “pink up”. They had handed him to me, and I was cuddling him and rubbing his back, which would have been enough, but if I didn’t rub him hard enough to make him wail, they would come over and do it themselves. I was NOT pleased, but was in no condition/position to be able to fight it. They also, throughout our stay, kept trying to get us to change our minds on various newborn procedures that aren’t necessary, or at least not that early. Anyway, wish we could have gone to AF, but we didn’t. Continuing on…

     They “let” me hold him for a while, and then started doing the exam stuff on him (in the delivery room, with Nathaniel right there). Yes it did actually feel as though it was them allowing me to hold my baby, when it should not have. Not when he was completely healthy. Anyway, he weighed in at 8 pounds 2 ounces, and 20 inches long. Itty bitty. I know, I know, seeing as “normal” is 6.5-7 lbs, 8 is actually a large baby, but for a McBride/Hiatt baby, he was rather small. Especially considering my previous experience. I mean, he was almost a full pound and a half less than Jessica. That was actually my first reaction upon seeing and holding him when he first came out. My thoughts were, “Woah, he’s tiny.” I just find it hilarious, because everyone else reacts that he is a “good-sized” or “big” baby, but it doesn’t seem that way to me. He was definitely much smaller than we’d anticipated. We thought he’d be bigger than Jessica.