An Intense Entrance

Around 10:30pm April 24th, 4 days before my due date, I was getting off the phone with my mother. The conversation was a lot of “I’m going to go over due” & “Nothings happening this baby will never come out”. I had been sitting at 4cm & 80% effaced with a bulging bag of waters for weeks, but I knew that didn’t really tell us anything. At my last appointment I had my membranes stripped, this was 3 days ago & they had told me if it didn’t work in 24 hours it hadn’t worked. 2 days before I had walked the 8 miles with my fiance to my aunts house hoping to coax the baby out, & at 38 weeks I had started inserting an evening primrose oil capsule to try & soften my cervix.

After hanging up with my mom I went to the bathroom & when I stood to pull up my shorts “POP!” my water broke all over my aunts bathroom floor. I was thinking I had wet myself at first, but the loud pop & the amount of fluid on the floor, I soon realized what it was. I poked my head out the door & told my aunt I needed a towel & explained what had happened. She didn’t believe me until she came to the door, then she ran to get a towel & called for my fiance who was downstairs playing madden with my cousin. He came laughing up the stairs thinking we were kidding. When he realized it was actually go time he became a panicked mess. I had to call my mom back & tell her I was a liar.

We drove across town to labor at our apartment for a while before heading into the birthing center, I called the doula on the way but she was attending a birth about 45 minutes away & they had just finished up. She was now heading our direction. I had imagined my water would break although my Certified Nurse Midwife (CNM), friends, family, & nurses all told me it would never happen, & in my imagination I was a complete wreck & Tucker was calm. In reality it was the opposite. I should have been driving us. We made it to the apartment & he starts frantically stripping our bed & throwing our sheets into the washer. I asked him what in the world he was doing “Well the bed needs to be clean if the baby will be sleeping with us”. Honey, we didn’t buy a $300 pack n play/bassinet combo for nothing (okay well maybe it ended up that we did cosleep & never really have used that thing, for now it’s good cloth diaper storage). He was too cute. I labored in the shower & on the toilet for a while at our apartment but after about an hour I felt we couldn’t wait any longer & we headed in.

At the birthing center we got checked in & I can’t believe they expected me to talk & sign things when I was trying to HAVE A BABY! You’d think they’d understand. We got to our room & the nurse checked us on the monitors real quick. Looking good. She asked if I wanted an epidural & I said that I wanted to try to do it all naturally to that she responded “Oh I’ve never seen a natural birth before”. Awesome. My doula showed up almost as soon as we had made it to our room. My aunt & cousins wife showed up soon after. We all took a quick walk down to the nursery but the contractions were too close together & too intense to do it again so we went back to the room.

I labored on the toilet some more & then in the jet showers for a while with Tucker providing counter pressure for my back labor. My aunt & cousins wife went & waited down the hall. I hit transition getting out of the shower & told Tuck I wanted the epidural, that I needed something for the pain. I don’t recall what he said exactly, something along the lines of if I really felt that’s what I wanted it was fine, but when we came out of the bathroom the thought of pain medication had slipped my mind. I never asked for it again. My doula asked the nurse for a birthing ball which I loved. I rocked in Tuckers arms on the ball, passing out between contractions (something I thought only would happen with drugs so I was scared something was going wrong with me), leaning forward onto the bed during them, Tuck continued to give counter pressure that the doula showed him.

The CNM came in & determined it was about time to push. I was told to climb up into the bed, she checked for dilation & determined I had a slight lip which the CNM proceeded to stretch out to complete dilation. They checked me with monitors again, still great.

Pushing started, about 10 minutes & she was crowning. During the pushing I wanted to squat but I couldn’t vocalize what I wanted & I was unable to sit up and get in that position either. They coached me to push & I did so involuntarily, my body was just doing it, but I was crying & shaking my head no to Tucker, I wanted to move! On my back being forced to hold my legs behind the knees and pull them up, I moaned & grunted deeply. My doula offered for me to touch the head & I said “I just want it out!”, that’s the ring of fire right there. After her head came out she got stuck sideways at the shoulders (she had been posterior, the reason for the back labor). I was told to stop pushing but it’s nearly impossible, she came out with a couple more contractions anyways & I tore a little bit front & back. The CNM announced it was a girl & she was placed on my belly. She didn’t cry immediately so after a few moments of silence that seemed to stretch forever they patted her on the butt & she started in. Loud & healthy set of lungs. Tucker cut the cord & I pulled her up against my bare chest & she latched on.

The nurse stabbed me with a shot of Pitocin not telling me what it was until afterwards. It was unnecessary as my daughter was latched & the placenta came out right away. The CNM stitched up my 2 tears. They checked apghars, weighed her & bathed her, she loved her bath & went from screaming to sleeping right away.

Our beautiful baby girl Annelyse Jean was 7 pounds 4.6 ounces 18.5 inches long and entered this world after less than 4 hours of natural back labor at 2:14A.M, 04/25/09.