Our First Son's Birth Story from September 2006
LONG natural birth story...
Bryn’s Birth Story
Our son Bryn was born on September 14, 2006 at 3:55am. He was 19 inches long and 6lbs 10oz. I found out that labor is hard, but so rewarding and worth the effort! My husband and I were instantly in love with our son Bryn and fell easily into the new family life.
The Details:
My estimated due date was Friday, September 15. I had chosen not to have any internal exams prior to being in labor, so I wouldn’t get my hopes up early. On Saturday, September 9, I started to loose my mucous plug – I know that this can happen weeks ahead of labor, but I was still a little relieved that something was happening. However, I was hoping to wait to go into labor anytime after the Willie Nelson concert on Sunday, September 10. :)
On Tuesday, September 12, I left work a little early to meet my husband for a hike. My husband was ready “to get things rolling” so we hiked up and down a mesa. Then we ate spicy food. I was really tired that night and felt a little nauseous, but the 3-4 minute Braxton Hicks contractions that I’d had for over a week still weren’t hurting or getting stronger.
At 3:13am (my husband reminded me of the time) on Wednesday, September 13, I got up to go to the bathroom. As I finished, I started to stand and water started to rush out of me into the toilet. Right away I knew that it was my water breaking – plus my BH contractions instantly starting having a little pinch of pain to them. I was excited, but knew from my Bradley class that I still had a LONG time ahead, so I went back to bed to relax. My DH and I couldn’t sleep, but we did relax for a couple hours. Around 6am we got ready to go for a dog walk to see if we could get the contractions really started. We walked to a local park and I did stairs and hiked uphill and the contractions did get a little stronger. When we got home at 7:30am, we called our families and then our midwife. Since I was group B strep positive, our midwife said to pack and head to the hospital. We slowly showered, packed, and headed to the hospital (stopping to get breakfast bagels on the way). We arrived at the hospital at around 9:30am. At this time my contractions were about 3-4 min apart and only had a little pain – could easily talk and walk during them.
Throughout the day at the hospital, we walked around the halls, did stair steps on a stool, did lunges in the hall, and met with friends. My sister was flying in that day to help with labor and was due to arrive around 4pm. I still didn’t have an internal exam, but I knew labor was progressing because my contractions were getting stronger. By around 4pm, I couldn’t walk very easily during a contraction, but I could still follow conversations going on around me. At 6pm I had my first internal and was 5cm dilated and 90% effaced. At this time the contractions were still about 3-4 min apart, but were lasting about a minute and were stopping me from walking and talking during them. I decided to try out the Jacuzzi tub and found that very relaxing. I didn’t really have any concept of time from around 6pm on. My husband and sister were wonderful coaches – helping me visualize opening and relaxing during contractions. They massaged when needed, brought cool wash cloths to me in the tub, and all around were vital to my labor. I also had two other girlfriends who were such great support to me and my husband.
By about 12am, September 14, I was 10 cm dilated and 100% effaced, but had an anterior “lip” of cervix still there. I hadn’t needed (or wanted) any pain meds thanks to my great labor support group and my birthing classes. However, I stayed with that lip for 2 hours despite my return to the Jacuzzi or standing birthing positions. At this time my quads were really hurting during contractions and my body was slowing my contractions a little to give me a break. This was the hardest part because the contractions were SO strong and yet I didn’t have that urge to push. I had to do a lot of visualization at this point. I kept imagining that my legs hurt because I was climbing the hardest mountain bike hill I have known and as soon as I got to the top, the burning would decrease. I could only be in the Jacuzzi or on my hands and knees during these contractions.
It had been 18 hours since my water broke. After talking with my midwife and husband, we decided to give me a low dose of pitocin to boost that lip away and hopefully give me the urge to push. It only took about 30 min of pitocin contractions for that urge to start – and boy did it feel good to push. I pushed for almost 2 hours (squatting with the bar, standing, at a 45 degree angle in bed, and on my side) until little Bryn came out at 6lbs 10oz and 19in at 3:55am on September 14 – 25 hours since my water broke and about 12 hours since painful contractions started. Bryn was alert and didn’t scream or cry, but just looked up at my face from my chest with his big blue eyes – he made my heart melt in that moment.
I never once thought of giving up or that it was too much for my body, but I really think a lot of my strength came from having my husband, sister, midwife, and friends all surrounding and supporting me! Although I would never want to start labor (induce) with pitocin, I still feel like it was a great decision to help it kick me towards pushing without making me work another 2-3 hours. By 10cm, my contractions were as strong as they could get anyway, so adding pitocin didn’t make them any stronger or less bearable, just closer together. I did have some stitches, but I was out of the hospital the next afternoon (Friday) and walking the dog by Monday. I’ve healed great and out son took to breast feeding like a champ. I count myself lucky that I had a great birth experience.
Micah Keough (pronounced Key-Oh) was born September 2008!!!!
Little Micah Keogh’s Birth Story
In honor of his one-week birthday, I thought I’d let you ladies know how the birth went – at least from my perspective. This is going to be pretty long. I was due September 25th, but Micah decided to arrive September 9th.
Last Tuesday, the 9th, I was awoken right at 1:00am with a lot of pressure in my crotch and then a “pop” sound. Right away, I pretty much knew my water had broken, but I was pretty sleepy, so I it took a moment to realize what had happened. I was only 37wks and 4-5 days, so I really didn’t think it would happen so soon. I got up, went to the bathroom and then tried to go back to bed, but as I went to lay down, my water gushed out, so I knew, I’d be too excited to sleep. I woke up DH and let him know that my water had broken and that I was going to take a shower to relax.
Since my water broke before contractions started with my first son, I had a feeling we were in for a long labor and that I should start getting my labor going. As much as I told myself that all labors are different, I had the mindset that this one would be a marathon-type like my first. As I showered, my contractions started on their own and very quickly. They were probably only 30-seconds long and about 4-5 minutes apart, but I had to focus and breathe through them right away. I got out of the shower and DH had started digging out the infant car seat, infant clothing, and blankets, etc from the basement – we really were not prepared. Then he started packing our son’s overnight bag to go to a friend’s house and my bag for the birthing center.
I rocked on the yoga ball, walked the house, and tried to clean the bathroom (must have been my nesting instinct that saw all the dirt in there). All the while my contractions were about consistent, but I wasn’t really timing them. I called the midwife on call, Nancy, at around 3:30 am and told her my water broke and that I was GBS positive, so I would need antibiotics by around 5 or 6 am. She talked with me for a little while and said to call back in a few hours if my contractions were stronger/longer since they still were only 30-40 seconds long. I agreed and told DH to go back to bed for awhile and that I was going to relax and then take another shower. I relaxed and walked around the house for awhile – mostly b/c I have very tight IT-bands in my quads and that is where I feel a lot of pressure during labor (in addition to my uterus). Walking/squatting and massaging my legs helps me work through that.
By 4:15 or so, my DH had everything packed and was going back to bed to relax for awhile and I was headed to take a candlelit shower. I spent about 15-minutes in the shower and was overwhelmed by how quickly my contractions were coming. I had hoped that the shower would relax me, but instead, I was having 30-40 second contractions every minute. As I look back now, this could have been my “transition stage,” but it’s so hard to tell since it wasn’t textbook. Needless to say, I got out and told DH we probably should head to the birthing center. Then we called our friends and the midwife again. We told the midwife it would take 40-min to get there and so we would see her around 5:15.
Then we headed in the car and luckily, I was able to ride pretty comfortably and relax through my consistent contractions for 30-min. In between contractions I was still relaxed, laughing, and excited – not serious or stressed at all. Due to feeling so good between contractions, I still thought I had until 2pm or so before I’d see our new baby.
We got to the birthing center at 5:30 after a very painful stop at a drive through to get DH coffee/juice/breakfast – it was so potholed that I suggest any woman who wants to go into labor to drive through the Englewood McDonalds to start labor!
At the birthing center I came in smiling and talkative, only got serious during the contractions, which were still not much longer than 40-45 seconds and about 3-min apart. Since my water was broken and I was a happy camper, I declined to be checked right away and instead was looking forward to relaxing in the birthing tub. My girlfriends (Sunnytrees and another non-Nestie) arrived only a few minutes after us to help out. They were very calming and good to have there.
From my arrival at the Center, things speed up in my mind, so I don’t know much about exact times. Probably about 45-min into hanging out at the center, after some initial baby monitoring with the Doppler and chatting with friends and the midwife between contractions, I went in to go to the bathroom and discovered a considerable amount of meconium in my fluids. I came out and showed the midwives and they decided to check me. By then another midwife, Cassie, had arrived to take over for Nancy, but both were still there. Cassie checked me and spent quite awhile fiddling around trying to figure out what was up there – she determined that I was 9-cm to full and since we saw meconium asked if I could start pushing to get things moving along. I agreed and pushed for about 10-15 minutes while standing at the edge of the bed or squatting. I was making some progress, but also quite a bit of meconium was still coming out with each push. The midwives were monitoring the baby most of the pushing and it was doing wonderfully – no decelerations in the heartbeat.
At one point, Cassie was using a mirror to watch me push (standing) and I think started to realize that she wasn’t seeing a head crown, but a bum instead. She had me lay down on the bed with DH and a friend at each foot and her and Nancy right there to check me. When Cassie checked me she had a funny look on her face and then asked Nancy to check also. Then Cassie said, “That’s a butt, isn’t it?” and Nancy replied, “Yep, that’s the butt.” At that point, I’m pretty sure I yelled, “What, the baby is breech – it’s really breech?” They reassured me that it was breech and that I needed to get the baby out as soon as possible. So I just started pushing as best I could with or without contractions. It was tough and quite the ordeal, but in my mind I was just working super hard and not really involved in the worry that the midwives, my DH, and my friends probably felt. I just knew I could push this baby out – especially since the baby still had good heart tones and wasn’t in distress. I’m sure my focus was mostly attributed to the adrenaline pumping through my veins, but also mommy instinct. The baby came out within 10-minutes of discovering that he was breech, but the midwives did give me an episiotomy to help speed the delivery of the feet along. It really did take my whole labor team to help get him out – I had coaches everywhere telling me I could do it and to keep it up and then the midwives were able to get the baby’s head into the right position to push him out backward as if they had assisted in vaginal breech births a hundred times.
When our second son came out, he wasn’t breathing right away, but had good heart tones and was pretty pink (much more so than my first “textbook” labor and delivery with my son Bryn). The baby got a 6 and then a 9 on its apgars (it took some stimulation to get that second 9). Nobody had to say he was a boy – his “goods” appeared pretty much before anything else! He was born at about 6:59am after 24 minutes total of pushing and was 7lbs and 20 1/8 in long – plus he had such a round head (not a vaginal birth conehead at all)!
I delivered the placenta in another 24 minutes and the midwives encouraged me to start some nursing as they looked at my tears. The midwives all checked me out, but decided they would feel better if I saw a perineal repair specialist. At that point, I nursed the baby one more time and then left DH and the baby at the birth center to sleep and I headed to Swedish hospital to meet with the specialist. We were admitted right away and talked with the specialist pretty quickly after – he decided it was a minor 4th-degree tear and needed to be repaired under a local with narcotics or an epidural. I chose the epidural and pretty much had to hold back from crying – it was hard for me to realize that I could give birth naturally twice, but had to have an epidural after. Luckily, I only had to have a very low epidural with no narcotics or sedatives added, just the numbing cocktail and although I didn’t like not having control over my lower legs, it was necessary. I was joking with the anesthesiologist when she asked how much pain I was in 0 to 10 and I replied, “Zero, bet, a bunch of women on this floor would love the epidural at a pain level of zero.” She laughingly replied, “Yeah, I rarely get to give one to someone who isn’t in some pain.” I was repaired quickly by a very funny doctor and my DH and the baby were discharged from the birthing center and spent the afternoon in the hospital with me until I could leave. We left to pick-up our son from our friend’s house and head home a little after 5pm. I was so glad to go home.
I wanted to add that the birthing center does not typically do breech vaginal births – normally, if it was known that the baby was breech (and they do send people for late ultrasound head-checks often), I would have transferred care to one of their supporting OB doctors who try vaginal breech births (usually in the Swedish OR) or have been scheduled for a c-section. I was such a confident second-time mom that I just thought I knew for sure that the head was down, the bum was on the left and the feet were on the right. My midwives say it’s harder to tell with shorter people and second-time moms who get contractions every time you try to feel where the baby is. Their supporting OB, who does the vaginal breech births, told the midwives, “You’re not doing enough births if you don’t miss a breech every so often and get a surprise.” As both my midwives told me, our little guy just knew where and when he wanted to be born and your body just did what it should with no problems. I feel so blessed that my birth was destined to go the way it did and that my body and birthing team were so wonderful!