I'm actually a little unsure of where in the pregnancy timeline to start this story. So much of what took place this week had to do with the course of events over the past month or so, and some of it even farther than that. Let's see if I can briefly give enough back story . . .
My first two sons (you can read Owen's here, and I'll post Levi's on his birthday next month) were pretty standard hospital births. Both were fairly easy pregnancies and deliveries, with little intervention and no drugs beyond the necessary antibiotics for group B strep and the standard pitocin drip for delivering the placenta. A sweet friend from church who happens to be a home-birth midwife had been gently trying to persuade me towards a home birth since before my first was born, and given my track record with easy babies, my husband and I decided to give it a try. We liked the idea of avoiding some of those standard hospital procedures, like the pitocin for placenta, and the resulting necessary hep-lock, and going through triage while in labor (yuck yuck yuck), etc. Even still, we knew it was a gamble: two quick and straightforward births do not guarantee a third!
About a month ago, my blood pressure shot up quite suddenly in conjunction with my normal pregnancy swelling. My BP is usually quite low, so it wasn't actually that high (at first), but so far above my baseline that my midwife, Grace (such a name for such a lady!), began all sorts of natural measures to counteract the rising numbers. I took herbal tinctures I'd never heard of, spent hours in epsom-salt baths, drank endless cups of herbal teas that made me fall asleep at all hours of the day.
It all helped to keep pre-eclampsia at bay (or at least at the edge of the bay), but on Thursday, two days before my due date, things were looking pretty sketchy, physically. Grace opened her figurative bag of natural induction tricks and let loose. I don't feel the need to describe what all we did, but if you ask me in person I might give you an answer. :) My parents came down on Saturday (my due date) to watch Levi and Owen while I worked on starting labor. When Grace came over at lunch time to check in, my blood pressure was still rising, I was having cramps but no contractions, I was totally miserable -- and now I was confined to bed for the rest of the day to prevent any further rise in pressure. And, if I was really lucky, at the end of this miserable day, I'd get to spend hours in labor and deliver a probably-huge baby! Not a terribly pleasing prospect, even with the promise of a baby at the end of it all. Only noon, and I was already discouraged.
Around 7pm, I got in my nightly epsom-salt bath, but the cramps had increased to near-contraction level, including the beginnings of back labor, and I was too uncomfortable to stay in the tub. In the meantime, my parents when out to a sports bar to catch some game or other. I hadn't expected to have them (or my sons) in the house during the birth, but when they returned some hours later, they graciously accepted instructions to stay downstairs unless one of the little boys should wake up during the process. When Grace came back at 8:30pm, she brought her birth bag along "just in case." I was finally in early labor! Isaac finished inflating and filling the birth tub, and I hopped right in, just certain that this labor would be similar to my other two and I'd have a baby in approximately 4-8 hours.
Not so much. At midnight, even I could tell that my contractions, though exceedingly painful in my lower back, were getting me nowhere, and they were slowing down so much that I was literally falling asleep in between. Grace suggested I hop in the shower, stand up for a while to let gravity help things along, but after 15 minutes I was so tired I just wanted to go to sleep and try again later. If I had felt discouraged twelve hours previous, that was nothing compared to my attitude at midnight. So, we all went to bed. Grace and her assistant, Melanie, retired to the guest room while Isaac tried to help keep me relatively comfortable (mostly with counter-pressure on my back during contractions) in our bed.
Read Part Two here.
My first two sons (you can read Owen's here, and I'll post Levi's on his birthday next month) were pretty standard hospital births. Both were fairly easy pregnancies and deliveries, with little intervention and no drugs beyond the necessary antibiotics for group B strep and the standard pitocin drip for delivering the placenta. A sweet friend from church who happens to be a home-birth midwife had been gently trying to persuade me towards a home birth since before my first was born, and given my track record with easy babies, my husband and I decided to give it a try. We liked the idea of avoiding some of those standard hospital procedures, like the pitocin for placenta, and the resulting necessary hep-lock, and going through triage while in labor (yuck yuck yuck), etc. Even still, we knew it was a gamble: two quick and straightforward births do not guarantee a third!
About a month ago, my blood pressure shot up quite suddenly in conjunction with my normal pregnancy swelling. My BP is usually quite low, so it wasn't actually that high (at first), but so far above my baseline that my midwife, Grace (such a name for such a lady!), began all sorts of natural measures to counteract the rising numbers. I took herbal tinctures I'd never heard of, spent hours in epsom-salt baths, drank endless cups of herbal teas that made me fall asleep at all hours of the day.
It all helped to keep pre-eclampsia at bay (or at least at the edge of the bay), but on Thursday, two days before my due date, things were looking pretty sketchy, physically. Grace opened her figurative bag of natural induction tricks and let loose. I don't feel the need to describe what all we did, but if you ask me in person I might give you an answer. :) My parents came down on Saturday (my due date) to watch Levi and Owen while I worked on starting labor. When Grace came over at lunch time to check in, my blood pressure was still rising, I was having cramps but no contractions, I was totally miserable -- and now I was confined to bed for the rest of the day to prevent any further rise in pressure. And, if I was really lucky, at the end of this miserable day, I'd get to spend hours in labor and deliver a probably-huge baby! Not a terribly pleasing prospect, even with the promise of a baby at the end of it all. Only noon, and I was already discouraged.
Around 7pm, I got in my nightly epsom-salt bath, but the cramps had increased to near-contraction level, including the beginnings of back labor, and I was too uncomfortable to stay in the tub. In the meantime, my parents when out to a sports bar to catch some game or other. I hadn't expected to have them (or my sons) in the house during the birth, but when they returned some hours later, they graciously accepted instructions to stay downstairs unless one of the little boys should wake up during the process. When Grace came back at 8:30pm, she brought her birth bag along "just in case." I was finally in early labor! Isaac finished inflating and filling the birth tub, and I hopped right in, just certain that this labor would be similar to my other two and I'd have a baby in approximately 4-8 hours.
How I spent the majority of the night . . . with progressively less smiling, of course.
Not so much. At midnight, even I could tell that my contractions, though exceedingly painful in my lower back, were getting me nowhere, and they were slowing down so much that I was literally falling asleep in between. Grace suggested I hop in the shower, stand up for a while to let gravity help things along, but after 15 minutes I was so tired I just wanted to go to sleep and try again later. If I had felt discouraged twelve hours previous, that was nothing compared to my attitude at midnight. So, we all went to bed. Grace and her assistant, Melanie, retired to the guest room while Isaac tried to help keep me relatively comfortable (mostly with counter-pressure on my back during contractions) in our bed.
Read Part Two here.
Reading this is such a blessing to me! Perhaps I should follow-up with a Grandma's point of view. This past weekend was a great gift in many ways. Love, Mom
ReplyDeleteGreat start to your birth story! I can't wait to read the rest! :)
ReplyDeleteRachel Maher