The birth of Eowyn Elise

imberain's Journal

The birth of Eowyn Elise
Aug 1, 2009 at 7:13 PM
By
- imberain
Message Friend Invite
Comments (4) Total Views (175) Everyone can see this journal post.

June 26^th, Friday night I was having some contractions, but they were irregular and about 15 to 20 minutes apart, the same type of contractions I had been having for weeks, so I thought nothing of it. We stayed up kind of late, and it was about midnight when we went to bed. I was sound asleep when I felt a gush of warmth spread across my thighs and my bed. I turned to look at the clock. It was 2:46 a.m. Less than three hours of sleep, and it was time to birth a baby! I woke up Ben and told him my water just broke. He asked if I was sure, and I told him either my water broke or I just peed all over myself. He turned the lights on and I sat up. At this point amniotic fluid just poured out of me. I knew I had excess fluid, so I had tried to prepare myself for this, but it was so much more than I had imagined! I soaked the two extra large chux pads that were on my bed, the two sheets, and the thick mattress pad. At this point I was sitting on the bed in water up to my hips. Ben hopped up and went into a little cleaning frenzy. I asked Ben to give me my phone and I called my midwife. The amniotic fluid was clear, and I hadn‘t had any contractions for about 15 minutes, so I told her not to come and that I would call her when the contractions got close together. I called my friend Kenna who was also attending the birth and she said she would be on her way. I also called my nine year old son’s grandmother because he was spending the night over there, and he wanted to be with us for the birth.

I got on the computer and posted to cafemom and myspace and finally started having some contractions. I had just opened up the contraction master program to start timing them when I had a sudden and intense urge to go to the bathroom. I was sitting on a chux pad, so I picked it up and wrapped it between my legs like a diaper and hurried to the potty where I forcefully emptied my bowels for about 15 minutes. I was relieved that I wouldn’t have to worry about pooping while I pushed, but by that time I had had several contractions. Every time I would have one I would call to Ben and ask how long it had been. I had three contractions in a row that were about 4 minutes apart, so I told him to call the midwife and start filling the birthing pool. This is where we ran into a little problem. The pool was already inflated, but the liner was not on it. Ben couldn’t get the liner on. Turns out we had over-inflated the pool a little bit, but we didn’t figure that out until the midwife arrived.

When I finally was able to get off the toilet, we turned on my hypnobabies birthing time CD. I wandered around a little and tried to get comfortable, but it was impossible. I felt really tense about all the fluid and I just couldn’t get comfortable. I kept expecting it to stop, or at least slow down to a trickle, but it just kept on coming! I decided that I would be most comfortable in the shower since I wouldn’t have to worry about water going everywhere. The shower was nice but I didn’t stay in for too long because I was worried about using all the hot water. By the time I got out everyone had arrived and they had gotten the liner on the pool. I was chilled when I got out of the shower, so I went and turned the temperature on our thermostat to something like 80 degrees. I had intended to give birth in a warm, dark environment anyway, so as the temperature rose, everyone else just had to suffer.

The birth pool took a long time to fill and the water was too hot for me to get into it while it was filling. I guess that in the past they have run into a problem with people running out of hot water and it not being warm enough, so they had advised to fill it with hot water only until the hot water ran out and to add cold water till it was the right temperature. While they were filling the tub I stood in the bathroom over a chux pad. I was swaying my hips and rocking back and forth with each contraction. Every time I would have a contraction it seemed like about a cup of fluid would gush out of me. Kenna was with me and she was rubbing my lower back and sacrum with lavender massage oil. She was using some acupressure points that we had looked up online just a few days prior. It felt so good. At some point around this time my son arrived. I kept asking if I could get into the birth tub yet, and they kept telling me it was still too hot. I was trying to just go with the flow and not be a clock watcher, but the contractions seemed to be getting pretty intense and were coming with increasing frequency, and I really wanted to get into that water.

Finally the tub was almost full so we ran straight cold water into it and Kenna and Ben grabbed some big pots and took some of the hot water out. I sat on the bed for a minute so my midwife could listen to the baby. Just then I got slammed with a massive contraction. I could not get up off the bed, and I just had to sit there and bear it, knowing that the pool was finally ready and just a few steps away! As soon as it passed my midwife and her assistant helped me into the pool. It was sooo sweet to just melt into the water and I was able to relax through a couple of contractions.

At this point I really hoped that I would be able to relax, stop worrying about the amniotic fluid going all over the place, and get back into my hypnosis, but that just wasn’t meant to be. After those first few contractions I started to feel sick. I puked up the little bit of Gatorade that I had sipped on early in labor. My midwifeand her assistant were sitting in the other room, Ben and Kenna were the only ones with me. Soon I started moaning a little bit. I tried to keep it low and under control. Kenna was in and out, she kept checking on my son. At one point I heard the midwife tell her they didn’t think it would be much longer. This must have been based on the puking and the intensifying moans, because I never had any vaginal exams. I was lying in the tub on my side with my legs just floating out in the water and my upper body propped up on the side. I was trying so hard not to tense up and fight my body, but it was starting to really hurt. Ben and Kenna were massaging my arms and shoulders which were up out of the water.

I was starting to feel pushy, but I just couldn’t believe it was time to push yet, so I tried to relax through it. I was starting to think there was no way I could handle it if it stayed so intense for much longer. I had a contraction that was so strong it bent me up double in the water, it was like my whole body contracted and pushed whether I thought it was time or not. I decided that it must be time to push and to stop questioning what my body was telling me.

At some point the midwife had come in. She checked the baby’s heartbeat one more time. I rolled over onto my knees and starting to push gently with the next contraction. I could feel her moving down through the birth canal. My noises got pretty intense at this point and my son got a little upset. He started crying and stepped out for a minute. Kenna went with him and soon they came back in. She told me later he said he was “just so emotional!” Ben was right outside of the pool by my head and I was holding his hand as I pushed. I was talking to the baby as I pushed, I kept saying” Come on baby, come on baby” and soon I could feel her. I was holding one hand against my labia and clitoris as I pushed, massaging and providing counter-pressure, which really helped with the pain. When I felt her head it was so strange. I had not felt the head with my first birth, and I forgot for a second that her scalp would be all wrinkled up with the force of squeezing through, and her head was covered with hair. All that hair felt so weird, like seaweed or something very alien. I was a little freaked out and I said to the midwife, “Can you feel her head?” because I wanted to make sure everything was okay, but she misheard me and thought I said “I can feel her head”. Just at that moment I realized what I was feeling, so I didn’t bother to repeat myself. Her head went back up and I said so. My midwife reassured me that was okay, that it happened, but it was disappointing after all that hard work. It was only a few more pushes though before her head came out most of the way. I was trying to stay calm as everyone told me she was almost here, because I was not having a contraction or any urge to push. I asked if everything was okay because it felt like time had stopped, but it must have only been a few seconds in reality. My midwife said everything was fine and that my body was just stretching, so I waited till I felt another contraction and the pushed again. Her head came the rest of the way out and with the next contraction her shoulders were out. I turned over onto my back and they handed me my beautiful baby girl.

Someone said the time of birth, 5:53 a.m. The entire labor from the time my water broke was 3 hours and 8 minutes. Unbelievable! We just sat in the water and I stared into her eyes. After awhile I needed to push the placenta out, so I handed her to Ben. The placenta came out in a few good pushes and I got out of the tub. I climbed into bed and started nursing her. Everyone was busy emptying the birth pool and cleaning up during this time. Ben and I just sat and adored her. Later they weighed her, she was 9 lbs and 8 oz. and 22 and ¾ inches long.

Add A Comment