From the archives: Henry's birth story

I never posted Henry's official birth story.  I wrote it, but I was embarrassed to post it because I didn't get the med-free birth like I thought that I wanted.  In fact, nothing was like I imagined.  I was so naive! Now I couldn't care less that I got the epidural, so I thought that I would share it with you now: 

On Oct 27th I had an OB appointment and they stripped my membranes.  Pretty much immedietely after that I was spotting all day (my "bloody show") and had some mild period-like cramping (I had to put a pad on).  My mom (she flew out a few days earlier) and I walked around all day to help get things going. 

At 9:45 pm, Mark and I were laying in bed and suddenly I felt like something was leaking out of me.  I stood up and warm liquid was running down my leg and I said, "oh my god, I think my water broke!"  I went to the bathroom and the pad was completely drenched, so I stood in the bathtub and called the doula (my birth coach).  She said to call the hospital and so I did.  This was so exciting!  The hospital said to come in and get assessed. 

When we went in they hooked me up to the foetal monitoring thing on my belly and discovered that my contractions were very irregular, like 10-20 minutes apart (they didn't do an internal exam since my water had broken and it prevents infection).  So they sent us home and said to labour at home and come back at 7:30 am.  When we got home, I put my ipod on and listened to my hypnobabies to try to get relaxed and get through the contractions that I was having (they hurt!).  When we went back to the hospital in the morning, my contractions were still only about 10-12 minutes apart (very painful though, but the hypnobirthing was helping keep my centred and relaxed).  They said to go home again and come back when the contractions were 3 minutes apart.  They said that I had until 7 am the next day until they would have to give me drugs to induce me. 

Pretty much straight after we got home, the contractions got way more intense and closer together.  Some people say they have severe back labour, well mine was the opposite, it was severe FRONT labour!  It hurt so bad in my lower belly and it made it nearly impossible to move around and try different positions.  Just standing up would bring on a contraction.  It felt like period cramps times a zillion.  So I laid in the bed on my side with relaxing music playing with my eyes closed.  Every time a contraction came (which were 5 minutes apart and lasting as long as 2-5 minutes at this point), I instinctively did a like a low moaning sound (sounded very yoga-esque, "ooooohmmmmmm" and "hummmmmm").  That really really helped, surprisingly!  Each contraction would build up to a peak and then settle down.  So, it was really really annoying when they lasted for 5 minutes, because that is constant pain with no break! And constant moaning.  Mark rubbed my back and my feet the whole time, but eventually I didn't want to be touched any more.  And eventually the hypnobabies was no longer working and I couldn't bare to listen to it.  I even vomited a few times.     

At about 1 pm (15 hours after my water broke) we went back to the hospital because the pain was just so unbearable.  I could not keep up that moaning for much longer, it was really tiring me out!  They checked me and I was 100% effaced, but only 3 cm dilated! Ugh! This was not how I imagined the birth going!  They allowed me to stay because I wanted to use the gas (nitrous oxide) for some pain relief.  I asked for the epidural, but Mark and my doula said no (because I had told them ahead of time not to let me).

For the next few hours I laboured in the bed on my side, with my eyes closed, breathing in the gas during every contraction, and using the hypnobirthing visualisation techniques (but not those damn CDs which only annoyed me at this point!).  This barely allowed me to get through each contraction.  I could have gotten in the shower, or the giant birthing bathtub in the room, or walked around the giant room, or got on the birthing ball, but I was in WAY too much pain to move.  During this time, Mark took a nap in the empty bathtub.   I begged for the epidural for hours, but everyone kept saying "it's not in your birth plan! That's not what you really want!"  You have no idea how much this frustrated me. 

At 5 pm on Oct 28th, they checked me again and I was 7 cm dilated.  Contractions were really really painful and it felt like they were constant (never any break in between!).  They hooked me up to an IV to give me antibiotics at this point because I had been labouring for so long after my water broke (to prevent infection).  At this point I was FINALLY allowed to get the epidural (after literally HOURS of begging).

The epidural was fantastic.  I will definitely get it again with the next baby.  I was able to have a little rest until 9 pm when they checked me again and I was finally 10 cm dilated!  Pushing begins!  You can only push during a contraction and luckily my contractions had slowed down a bit, so I was able to have a little break in between each push (I kept falling asleep during each break).  It took an hour and a half to get his head out and then the rest of his body just slid right out.  His head was stuck and they had to do a tiny incision, but that enabled him to slide right out.  At 10:30 pm he was born and it was absolutely wonderful and amazing!