Birthing Henry

We're so excited to begin sharing some of the birth stories of our followers.  This first story is one of two from a fierce mama!  Thank you, Rachel, for sharing your precious memories with us!


Wednesday April 27th, 2011

Expecting Henry

I had my cervix rimmed this morning. I spend the day running errands and every time I was sitting in the car I would have some contractions, but when I got home they stopped. I wanted to clean the house, but I wanted to wait until John was home in case it sped things up in the labour department. It did. And I didn't get very much cleaning done at all.

8:00 pm: I started to have contractions again, but more consistently.

10:00 pm: We decided to go to bed, in case this was the real deal.

10:45 pm: It was pretty obvious that I wasn't going to get any sleep. We decided to start timing my contractions. The weird thing was that all my contractions were back contractions...which are just lower back pain that comes and goes. I wasn't expecting that. My contractions were about 8 and a half minutes apart, lasting about 2 minutes each. They were bearable but very uncomfortable

11:00 pm: I got in the bath to ease my contractions. John shaved and had a shower in the guest room (A few months ago I requested that John be clean shaven for the birth. I didn't want him looking like a hobo and I was so glad he agreed!)

12:30 pm: My contractions were now about 5.5 minutes apart and getting stronger. My doctor told me to come to the hospital when my contractions were 5 minutes apart. We decided to just go since we live about 45 minutes from the hospital. I showered, blow dried my hair and got ready to go. I remember telling John that I couldn't believe I wanted a natural labour because there was NO way I could do it if this was only the beginning. In the car I threw up SO many times. Luckily we had a reusable grocery bag in there (we threw it out after).

1:30 am: We arrived at the hospital. Laboring in the car was horrible. It wasn't busy at all in the Labour and Delivery Ward. They took us into triage and I changed into a hospital gown. I was in SO much pain at this point, but since it was back pain I'm pretty sure no one there believed me. The nurse left me to labour laying on the bed, which is not ideal at all. John rubbed my back the entire time because it was the only thing that made me feel a bit better.

2:30 am: They checked me and told me that I wasn't dilated AT ALL. I have trouble believing this, since in order to have my cervix rimmed as was done the previous morning, I needed to be dilated at least 1 cm. The nurse gave me a birth ball and left me to labour again for 2 hours. John continued to rub my back. I threw up many more times. I can't believe how much I threw up in total.

4:30 am: A doctor from my clinic came to check me. He said I was only dilated 2 cm. I don't know but 2 cm in 2 hours seems right on track. However, he told me I was progressing too slowly and that we should go home and GET SOME SLEEP. Because I bet all laboring ladies get a good nights sleep right in the middle of labour. We told him we lived out of town, but he was sure that going home was the best idea for us. We were not happy at all.

5:00 am: We arrived home. I forced John to get into bed and take a nap. I decided to have another bath, since laying down was the worse position for me. I slept in between my contractions but stayed in the bath until 8:00am. When I had a contraction, I would vocalize my way through it. Apparently I was really loud and my brother (who came over to watch our dog) was up all night in the guest room. John however slept right through it.

8:00 am-9:00 am: I got out of the bath and tried some other positions. They didn't work at all and I soon missed the bath. I woke John up vocalizing my way through the contractions on the floor beside the bed. This entire time I had been timing my contractions on John's iPhone and when he got up and looked at them, he was shocked to see that they were 2.5 minutes apart. I had no idea how far apart they were until he told me. I decided to get back into the bath. Since my clinic was now open John called them and asked what to do since we didn't want to be sent home from the hospital again. They told him that first babies are slow and we should probably wait it out at home. When John told me that, I made him call them back because I felt like I was dying. I couldn't last much longer. I think I actually said I wanted them to cut the baby out of me because I couldn't do this anymore. The pain was crazy! The nurse asked to speak with me and when she realized how much pain I was in, she told us to go back to the hospital.

9:30 am: John snapped into action to get us back to the hospital. I however did not want to get out of the bath. While John was trying to get me out of the bath, my water broke. At the time I didn't know it was my water breaking, I just knew something was happening. John had to basically dress me since I couldn't really function at all. Then, I felt the urge to push. What an odd feeling. Your body just pushes and you can't really stop it.

10:00 am: Before I know it John has loaded me into the car and off we go, in a BLIZZARD to the hospital. I was scared that I was going to have the baby in the car. There was so much traffic because of the weather. It felt like we would never get there. The entire time I was chanting "don't push, don't push don't push!"

11:00 am: We arrived at the hospital and there was a traffic jam. We couldn't get to a parking lot, we couldn't even get to the main entrance. John finally just drove into the Ambulance bay and parked. He grabbed me and we ran into the hospital. I didn't want a wheel chair because sitting was impossible. We needed to get to the 5th floor and there was a line for the elevators. A LINE. Luckily a lady at the front saw how much pain I was in and let us go in first.

We get onto the floor and I needed to lean against the wall and breath through a contraction. John went up to the desk to tell the nurses about me, and then he had to go back and move his truck. A nurse came and took me into triage. I was panicking. I told her I was Strep B positive and had the urge to push but I hadn't had any antibiotics yet! She tried to get me into a hospital  gown but the effort to change into one was too much. She got me onto the bed and I took my PJ pants off and almost immediately she told me I was 10 cm and +2 station and yelled for someone to get me some penicillin (for the group B strep, you're supposed to get 2 doses, the first 4 hours before delivery). But I'm allergic to penicillin so I started freaking out about that. All the while they are wheeling me into a delivery room. Before I know it I'm on a new bed, no pants on, still with my PJ shirt on, they are yelling about antibiotics and trying to get an IV in me. John was still moving the truck and I was worried he was going to miss the entire thing! But he showed up pretty quickly after.

Hello Henry!

He walks in and see my legs up and he almost passes out. He gets to the stool beside my bed and keeps it together. Pushing was so great. After not pushing for 1 hour, it felt so good to push. With each push I tried to push gently, so I wouldn't tear. John thought they had given me an epidural because I was so peaceful. I fell asleep between each contraction. I pushed gently for 45 minutes. Henry was born at 11:48am. The cord was wrapped around his neck and he had a bowel movement while I pushed him out. Just to be safe they rushed him to the warmer and suctioned him out. Then he finally cried. I made John go over and watch as they examined him. He was perfectly healthy!

Brand new Henry!