My birth story: transferred from the birthing center to the hospital

Henry Bishop Ray Curtis, our second baby!!!
Born November 16th at 2:39pm via c-section.

9 lbs 12 oz    23 inches

 I went in to labor around 10:30 at night, and half an hour later my contractions were getting much closer together so I decided to give my doula a call and have her come over. After she had been at the house for a while, we decided it was time to get to the birthing center because my contractions were growing in intensity and closer together. So we got in the truck and called the midwife and had her come meet us at the birthing center and told her to have the tub ready before we got there so I could get in it as soon as we got there. She checked me first before I could get in the tub, and I was only 4 cm, which was odd because I thought for sure I was further along. 

So I got in the tub which felt soooo good, helped me through a lot of contractions. I was in there for about 35 or so minutes when I decided I wanted to get out and walk around because my contractions were making me really hot and sweaty. We walked for about 20 minutes, and I asked the midwife to check me again, I was already 7 cm! From 7 cm it took a little longer, kind of like it would for a first time mom. Brandon got in the shower with me and stood behind me to apply counter-pressure to my lower back with his fists and/or tennis balls through each contraction, and the hot water would run on my tummy. It also helped to sway back and forth. We did this for a pretty long time, about an hour and a half. Again, the hot water started to make me hot and nauseous, so we got out.

We tried walking again, and that seemed to help ease the pain. I labored out of the water for quite a while at this point, and the midwife decided she wanted to check me again. If I hadn't made any progress, she was going to break my water. Well, I hadn't made any progress from 7 cm at all, so she broke my water. Then things REALLY picked up. I spent the next two hours in the shower with brandon again, and on the birthing ball in the shower. I got out of the shower and labored standing up again, then after a while I got back in to the tub and laid on my right side. That hurt sooooo much. I kept falling asleep in between contractions. I rolled over and labored on my left side for a long time, again sleeping in between. Then I got nauseous (surprise) and decided I wanted to try laying on the bed, it's a queen size bed so brandon laid next to me and held my hand. That was the most painful thing to do, but I had to rest somehow, someway. The whole time I was laboring, I just did deep moaning and groaning, and it helped a lot. I could feel the baby move down the more I moaned. Really big breathes, too. At this point, it was shift change for the midwives, and one of my favorites were coming on duty. Also, the owner of the birthing center for the last 25 years came in to check on me herself. I was at 9cm by 8 am... but the midwives decided baby's head was mal-positioned and we had to do a lot of (painful) things to get his head to turn. We used all kinds of methods and it was starting to help, then by 10 am I was fully dilated and started to feel the urge to push. They had two other midwives come in there, handed me this rope thing that looks like a water ski thing, and a midwife held the other end, and I pulled against her with all my might during each push. I pushed on the bed for an hour, and then we tried the birthing stool for me to push, and brandon sat behind me on the bed to support my upper body. It felt really good to push in this position, and the midwives still were trying to get his head straight because it was preventing him from coming down. By the time I was pushing for 2 and a half hours, the midwives decided he wasn't going to come easy, and they might not be able to move his head, which is very rare, like one in a thousand births there, hehe. So one of the midwives loaded me up in to brandon's truck, and we drove to the hospital and got checked-in.

We thought the baby's head would stay low enough to deliver with a vacuum or even forceps. Well somehow his head slipped really high in to my pelvis on the drive, so they couldn't use them. The entire ride there and the entire time I was at the hospital, I kept pushing and pushing, I couldn't stop myself, it felt soooo good to just push, like a huge relief. So they prepped me for a c-section and got him out pretty fast.  No one acted all panicky or anything, it was all laid-back and everyone acted cool and calm, i appreciated that.  I did all of the labor, but I couldn't get his head all the way through. He had his head bent at an angel, where his cheek was against his shoulder, so I was trying to push his head out sideways. Which would have been bad, for obvious reasons. But I had a beautiful labor, just how I wanted it! Although it ended in a nasty c-section, I wouldn't have traded this experience for the world! Natural labor is so empowering and I had the HUGEST rush of hormones when he was born, that I can still feel when i nurse him. It's like total euphoria :) So that's it! That's Henry's birth story!