It's been a whirlwind since we brought Hailey home. I'll make a separate post about it later, but here's her birth story.
Thursday Early Morning
1:48 am First contraction wakes me up. I am not sure if it's a bowel movement or a contraction. After a painful minute passes, I am now certain it was the latter. I stumble back to bed and 15 minutes later, another one comes along. By 2:30 contractions were lasting 30 seconds and were occurring about 4 minutes apart. We get ready to go to the birthing center and I phone the midwife on call.
The on-call midwife happened to be on maternity leave herself, so another midwife from the north birthing center was filling in for her. I told her about my contractions and as she listened, she told me that I can just stay home a bit longer until contractions were closer to a minute.
I quickly explained to her how I had Nathan in 3 hours and a week ago, I was already pretty ripe at my examination. I was also concerned that baby may have turned breech because my belly was feeling different. She then told me to come on in.
3:00 am We arrived at the birthing center. Experiencing contractions in the car is something that I would not like to do ever again. Luckily, the streets were clear and we arrived at the birthing center in record time. We settled into the birthing room and then went to take a look at the baby through the ultrasound machine. Thankfully she was still head down and very engaged, but she was in the sunny side up position, which explained the painful back labor that I was experiencing.
Contractions ebbed and flowed as I tried to find comfortable positions to ride out the sensations of each contraction. In the end, leaning over the birthing ball worked really well.
The midwife then asked me if I wanted to go into the tub or shower. I remember the shower head on my back felt amazing with Nathan so I asked to use the tub. Before I got in, the midwife checked and found out that I was already about 8 cm dilated. The moment I stepped into the water, I could feel my body relax, however, the contractions still were very intense, if not stronger with each one. Eventually, I started to have an urge to push, and the midwife told me she was ok with it. I tried different positions and worked through a few contractions. I knew things were about to get serious when there was 3 people in the room to help me.
Then there was a good 10 minute break and I was able to relax a bit. I asked if this was normal, and very quickly all 3 midwives responded with nods, and explained how this was the calm before the storm. This was very reassuring to me because I knew that the end was near. At this point, I was already feeling exhausted and the bed looked so inviting, so I got out and plopped on the bed. Immediately a strong contraction came and the urge to push was very certain.
I ended up pushing on my right side with my legs braced against the midwives. At some point I pushed so hard that my bag of waters exploded and projectile splashed one if the midwives. I apologized afterwards and she assured me that it's part of the job and it was a special moment shared between the both of us. After a few more contractions and pushed, the baby crowned and then her head came out. I asked for a mirror and when I saw her reflection and felt her velvety head, I was motivated more than ever to get her out. Three or four contractions later, her shoulders and the rest of her body slid out.
4:58 am I was holding a beautiful baby girl in my arms.
After a few minutes, my placenta was delivered and Steve cut the cord.
11:00 am We loaded Hailey in the carseat for the first time and we headed home.
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