My Unanticipated High-speed Angel
September 4, 2007
By Terri Williams
I had my regular weekly appointment with the midwife at about 5:00 pm and everything was great. She said the baby had dropped and my blood pressure and urine were good too. She had to do the strep B test and since she would be in the area I asked her to check me. I had been having bad back aches that I could time for about a week. Well it turns out I was 90% effaced and 2 cm dilated. She said the baby was plastered on my cervix and wasn't budging. We all joked that the baby might come earlier then expected and made a guess of September 13th.
I went home and at about 8:00 pm I noticed that I was having regular contractions every 10 minutes or so. They were noticeable but I could still talk through them. I didn't tell Dave because I figured it was a false alarm. At 9pm my water broke! It had meconium in it so I called the midwife right away. She said as long as it doesn't look like pea soup and the texture is very watery then we are fine. It was like water so all was good. She said to get some rest and call when the contractions are five minutes apart lasting 1 minute. She told me to get some rest to save my energy for the big day.
Well Dave and I were totally unprepared and didn't even have a stop watch J. I knew the contractions were coming pretty steady though. I don't know why we don't have any darn clocks in the house. We needed a hose for the birth tub too so we decided to go to Wal-Mart before heading to bed. On the way to Wal-Mart I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes lasting 50 seconds. I could still talk through them and just kept thinking oh my gosh this is going to be so hard if it starts out this intense. I called my midwife and she just told me to relax and that labor can start out a little intense but die down quickly.
We got what we needed and headed home. I lost all sense of time right about now. I wanted to get in the shower and that lasted maybe 10 minutes. Dave kept saying "lets just lay down and try to sleep". I was so angry because there was no way I was sleeping! These contractions were intense and about 2 minutes apart by now!
I think around 10:30 I needed to sit on the toilet backwards. Dave told me I was having contractions every 2 minutes and they were lasting 90 seconds. I was in denial big time and I think at this point my saying was "this is going too fast. This is not normal. This is going too fast". I said "Call the midwife right now". I was vocalizing through the contractions so loud and couldn't hold back. It was so intense. The weird thing was I didn't think I was in labor J. It only hurt way down low and I was always told that it would start at the top of your uterus and contract down. Dave kept saying "I think your in transition" and I was laughing at him because I didn't even think I was in labor. So Dave called the midwife and told her she needs to come right away because I am freaking out. I remember at this point thinking that she would come over and I would only be 3cm dilated. I thought: "Ok if this is what labor is like I can't do this. Props to all the natural birthers out there but oh my gosh this is so hard and I want the drugs".
Next thing I know I feel the contractions doubling. There is no break and the energy was just so strong. I started crying and told Dave that I wasn't getting a break. I was way gone in labor land. My body was pushing. I couldn't control it but didn't tell Dave because the midwife wasn't there.
Dave said that I should go on the exercise ball because it will calm me down. I tried it for maybe 3 seconds and then hopped on the bed on all fours. I just did what my body was telling me to do. At this point I was clearly pushing and the midwife just arrived. She walked in and said "wow this is serious!". She told me she could hear my pushes and they were just what I needed to do. She finally got all set up and just told me to listen to my body. I did and my body pushed so hard. I had no control. Even at this point I was saying "this is to fast, I don't think I can do it". The midwife was like "ummm you are going to have your baby out in 10 minutes so just push". The ring of fire was intense as most people say. I absolutely hated this. The 5 minutes of that burning was by far the worst but then it was all over and he slid right out. I remember probably asking every 5 seconds for 10 minutes or so...."is he out yet? how much longer? is he out yet?" Then finally the midwife said YES HE'S OUT!!!
I flipped over and the midwife put him on my chest. He was crying and just so gorgeous.
I got all cleaned up....hopped in the shower then tried breastfeeding.
I didn't have any tears at all but the hemorrhoids are really bad. I hope they go down in the next few days. The labor was 2 hours and 50 minutes from start to finish and if I had to guess I would say 15 minutes of pushing.
Linkin Alexander was born at home on September 4th at 11:50PM. He was 8lbs 0oz and 20" long. His birth was attended by my midwife.