Callie's Birth

Callie’s Birth Day

In the days leading up to the big day, I had been trying to figure out if I was feeling contractions or not. In our appointment with Bethany on what would be the day before Callie’s birthday, she told me “you’ll definitely know when you’re having contractions.” This was also when my blood pressure was much too high so I was basically put on bed rest.

The next morning, April 23^rd, I started feeling something that felt like menstrual cramps at about 5am. By 7am they were 15 minutes apart. We called Tara, our doula and told her today was the day! She told me over the phone that 15 minutes apart wasn’t quite considered active labor and to go back to bed and rest if I could. Of course I couldn’t. So I got up and made some oatmeal since I didn’t know how long I would feel like eating. Bill got up too and started getting some things together, like our bribe for the nurses. The contractions started heating up later in the morning. I stayed in bed and Bill had an iphone app to time frequency and duration of contractions. So, there truly is an app for everything! Bill was running in and out of the room. Everytime he was out of the room and could hear me he would run back in so I could grab his hand and breath through each contraction as it came. We were trying different positions to lessen the pain, but nothing was really working, so I stayed in bed and labored there.

Tara came over around 1pm. She was amazing. She had the best positions for us to use. By this point and up until the end I was in the land of back labor. Because of the position of Callie’s head, it was putting all the pressure on my lower back. One of the funniest things about the whole process at home was that Milo never left my side. We labored in the bathroom for several hours. It was a good place. I was seated on the toilet backwards with a bunch of pillows in front of me for me to rest between contractions and to grip with the pain. Bill was there feeding me honey sticks and giving me water while Tara went to work on my back with each contraction reminding me to relax my muscles to allow Callie’s head to move down. Eventually I got into the bathtub and labored there. That was heaven with the warm water and the bubbles. Tara poured water over my belly with each contraction. Then it was time to change it up and speed things up. I got onto my hands and knees over an exercise ball and they turned the shower on. The contractions became agony. I was so tired and just started crying. We moved back onto the toilet and I hit my low point. I cried “I want to go to the hospital.” In my head, I was going to tell Bill that the minute we get to the hospital I want drugs, but I didn’t want to say it in front of Tara. It was at this point that my mom came over to get Milo. I can’t really put into words what it meant to see her there. She gave me a big hug and helped me breath through a few contractions until I asked for Bill to take me to the hospital. Tara told me “Going to the hospital won’t necessarily make it over faster.” They moved me back to bed and I labored there until we left for the hospital. In retrospect, this was the perfect move. I was so exhausted that I was sleeping between contractions, which were now every 3-4 minutes. Apparently at some point Milo and I were both snoring! At long last, Tara said it was time to go. I was so happy! I got dressed and Bill got the things into the car. I was relaxed, it was weird. Probably because I was just so happy we were finally going to the hospital. By this point it was about 8pm. Tara talked to me before we left. She told me to stay focused on the process we had made. She had told me that a good idea was to hold on to the handles in the car with each contraction to lift my butt off the seat and brace my legs against the floor of the car. I probably had 5 or so contractions in the car, but I felt so calm. I didn’t even care that Bill was driving slowly. We got to the hospital and Tara was amazed that I was smiling and talking. We parked and I was able to walk into the hospital. We walked in and of course I had to fill in paperwork. Why do they make women having contractions sign medical paperwork? We got our choice of delivery rooms and got set up. The contractions kept coming and Bethany came in. I was so glad Bethany was the midwife on call that night. We had seen her the most of the three midwives throughout the pregnancy. They hooked me up to a monitor to check the baby and connected me to penicillin because I was positive to Group B Strep. Bethany checked my cervix and I was 7 cm dilated! I was thrilled! I was laboring on top of the hospital bed for a while but the IV was really irritating. I really wanted to rip that sucker out of my arm, which is probably why the nurse put enough tape over it to restrain a wild animal.

Eventually they took out the IV and it was back to the bathroom to labor some more. It was at this point that I asked Bethany to just “take her out of me.” I was just so tired and wanted it to be over. Bethany replied “Oh yes, that’s what we midwives do, we just rip babies out of bellies.” We all laughed. At this point I was really focusing on trying to break my water, but it just wasn’t happening. Bethany gave me the option of keep doing what we’re doing or she could break my bag to speed things up. Guess what my answer was? Faster please! So they took a crochet needle and popped my bag. It was quite a sensation, like warm water running down your legs. Unfortunately, there was meconoium in the bag, so we had to move a little faster.

Finally it was time to waddle back to the bed because our girl was close! They put up the squat bar on the bed. I put all my weight on that bar like my life depended on it. The next day I couldn’t figure out why my arms were so sore and then I remembered. The amazing thing about this part of the process, the pushing part, is that it was so much better than just breathing through contractions. It felt good to be active. But I felt like an animal. It is such a primal experience that your body just totally takes over. The following days I kept remembering sounds I was making and things I was doing and it didn’t seem like it was me! Bethany, Tara and Bill were all with me getting me to push push push with each contraction. It was at this point that I couldn’t even feel contractions anymore, I was just pushing because I wanted her out. Bethany told me she could see the head coming. So it was on to my back while Bill and Tara each held one of my feet so I could push into them. I was pushing so hard and when part of her head was crowning I felt like her whole body was out. My perineum wasn’t stretching enough so Bethany had to cut me. She told me quickly and I remember feeling momentarily upset about it, but then I didn’t care. I was like, “Whatever. Do it!” The urge to push was so strong I was worried she wouldn’t have time to cut me, but she did. Bill looked up at me and told me he could see her and then there was no stopping me. Bill said it was like the whole baby just came out at once. The funny thing is I didn’t feel pain, I could feel some stretching as she came out, but that was it. I always thought I would feel agonizing pain but I guess there are just so many endorphins kicking in that you don’t. I was so relieved when she was out. Tara had told me that there were going to be other nurses coming in. She didn’t want me to freak out if I saw a bunch of new faces. But honestly I didn’t even notice. Not until after she was out. I was like, “Oh look. New people, when did they get here?” After she was out I pushed out the placenta which was definitely an odd sensation.

Then it got scary. I was bleeding, a lot. I could feel it rushing out of me. They immediately got Callie to cry, which wasn’t hard so she could expel the meconium on her own. Then they literally plopped this 8 pound baby on my chest to try to get my uterus to contract and stop the bleeding. Bill said afterwards my eyes were as big as saucers. I don’t remember what I said, but he told me I just kept saying “She’s so beautiful! I can’t believe she’s here!” That is certainly a moment that I want to keep in my mind forever. She opened her eyes and looked at me. In the meantime, Bethany was working furiously to stop the bleeding. They tried to put some pitocin in but my iv wasn’t working. So they put some blood pressure medication in me to stop the bleeding. The nurses kept pushing on my uterus to expel the blood and try to get my uterus to contract. Bethany stitched me up and we got to work trying to breastfeed. But honestly, I was so out of it I wasn’t much help so they got her latched as well as they could. Afterwards they got me cleaned up and it was time to get moved over to our recovery room. In the meantime, Bill went with Callie to the nursery for her vitamin k shot and her first bath. Tara stayed with me and I am so thankful for that. They got me into a wheelchair and we had to wait for one of the nurses to wheel me to our new digs. They were all busy so we were waiting for a while. After a while I started to feel really woozy. Which really shouldn’t have been a surprise since I had lost a lot of blood and had really only eaten a bowl of oatmeal all day. I almost passed out until Tara found some food for me to eat from the nurses. Poor Bill came in and said I looked like a ghost; even my lips were white. I was so thankful when we got to our room where I could pass out.