Beautiful Waterbirth

[Astrldec]

I sang Happy Birthday to my dear daughter the other day on her 10 month birthday. And thoughht why not share the story here. She is such a beautiful joy to have in our lives and I can't believe it's 10 whole months since she arrived!!

Sunday evening/night
Perhaps the reason I went into labour on Monday was because I was talking to the full moon on Sunday night...and then again perhaps it was just time. Either way I really didn't feel/think that I would be in labour within 24 hours anytime on Sunday. Sure I had an incredible urge to get in supplies for several meals...but our fridge was getting rather bare anyway so it was only natural. Also, I maybe should have taken a little hint from the fact that I was obsessing over the fact that the carpets hadn't been vacuumed in several weeks.....(still haven't and who CARES!?) Lol...anyway, either way even though Matt's Mum called from Ohio at 10:30pm to wish me all the best and check up on how I was going I still didn't feel any different. That said I could tell that my body was getting ready to go into labour but it wasn't anything dramatic just little things like my belly drooping a teeny-tiny bit lower than usual, slight lower back ache and an achy abdomen kinda like that premenstrual achyness you can sometimes get before a period...but not very strong and not enough to make you think anything of.


0-5cms
Throughout the night I slept reasonably well but had to get up more than once to go to the bathroom which was a little odd. I woke up at 4:45am with a mild menstrual cramp feeling which made me think, “Hmm...” and when it happened again 9 minutes later and then another way 8 minutes after that I started to sit up and take notice.


Matt's alarm went off at 6am and I greeted him with the news that I'd been getting crampy feelings off and on since 4:45. And we both kinda went, “Wow! This might be it!” We just started the day (it was Queens Birhday long weekend) and hoped to enjoy a few movies that we'd hired out on Saturday. We started off with When a Man Loves a Woman...I cried. (Stupid hormones.) Decided it was a beautiful day and we should get out and go for a walk...and who knows that might help speed things up! So we walked down to our local GJ's and had a coffee and some lunch. Walked home....”cramps” still coming irregularly but slightly stronger than earlier. Still made me think it might be just some practice labour.


On our way home from GJ's we had a SMS from the husband of the other girl that was due on the 12th from church saying that they were in active labour and did we have any action!


Decided to have a rest when we got home while I could still relax etc. Also started to get some bloody show around this time. After the rest when I got up the “cramps” started to get much stronger and I mentally had to change gear from “maybe” to “most likely this is the REAL DEAL!” YIKES! I had a little melt down and cried on Matt's shoulder from the sheer overwhelmedness of that realisation but soon got back down to business.


This is when I started to have to concentrate more on breathing and pelvic rocking throughout the contractions. And this is also when the wheat packs started to irritate my skin/back during contractions as they seemed too hot and made the contraction more intense. That was weird because I had been expecting to be addicted to heat packs but instead I just wanted nothing or just Matt's hand on my back. We started to pack up the last minute things that needed to go into the labour and postnatal bags. I also started to read through the affirmation and Bible Verse cards I'd printed up. I really think that having the phrases like “I can do this.” “My body is designed to do this.” “Each contraction is my uterus doing the job it's supposed to.” running around in my head were what kept me focused and coping.


Matt was such an awesome labour coach. In between contractions he'd place his hand on my back, hip, abdomen and I'd breathe in and out focusing on relaxing the area he had his hand on. It really really helped me to concentrate on relaxing all the inner muscles etc in between contractions. He would also give me a back rub/massage every so often which was lovely and helped me relax even more. I started to lose my appetite around 5pm and so Matt made sure I kept up my water intake by offering me a drink of water in between most contractions. And around this time my contractions had intensified quite a bit but were still only around 45seconds in length and 5 minutes apart. We called the midwives just to check in and let them know that it looked like we'd be coming in that night sometime and just to see what they thought. As I suspected they said to continue labouring at home until the contractions were 3-4 minutes apart and 60seconds long.


By this time we were both getting rather tired so another nap was in order. Matt slept through a few contractions and I just rested. When he woke up we realised that they had slowed down a bit! Doh! I didn't feel like moving but Matt put on the Beatles Red Album and “asked me to dance” so we danced for quite a while and that got the contractions cracking again. It was funny because I didn't think I'd ever want very loud/energetic music during labour but the Beatles really were the only music I wanted/enjoyed at any point during the whole day. And they had enough drive to them that I could keep moving.


8:30pm the contractions were coming every 3-5 minutes but still varying in length from 45-60 seconds. Matt rang the midwife to check in and see what they thought. Stephanie asked how I was feeling about them all and if I was feeling like I was reaching the end of coping (which I was) then we'd meet at the hospital around 9:15.


Poor Matt...we drove up to the hospital and he tried to pull into the carpark but it was closed!! (They close at 9pm!) and he had to reverse out of the curved driveway (he hates reversing at the best of times) and then when he did find another place to park it was a 90* REVERSE angle carpark! Lol...he did very well though and then we made the slow walk up to the hospital stopping ever few minutes for me to lean against a fence here and a water pump there.


Once we got up to the birth centre Stephanie checked my blood pressure, Shelby's heartrate and then did an internal which revealed that I was completely effaced and 5cm dilated and the bag of waters was bulging nicely. After that I felt happy.


5-8cms
Up to this point I'd been terrified of having all these contractions and yet still only be 2-3cm dilated with a long long way to go. The only thing I wasn't terribly happy about was that Stephanie said the baby was half posterior...all this leaning forward during labour hadn't done much yet but she was pretty confident the baby would spin. I spent the next few hours mostly labouring on a “nest” of beanbags Stephanie set up on the floor for me just at the end of the bed. That was mostly comfortable. I hated moving to go to the toilet but I kept going anyway I just needed Matt to be there so I could lean forward onto him during a contraction. It's interesting but the only way a contraction was ever “not too bad” was when I was leaning forward.


Transition & Second Stage


Anyway, after one such trip to the bathroom as I was standing up there was this huge pop and gush. YAY! I was both excited and nervous about what this meant about the contractions intensifying. I think I was trying to guage where I was at by what my Mum had told me about how she always knew she was in transition by the fact that she threw up then....so I was thinking I still had a long way to go since I didn't feel in the least bit queasy! Funnily enough I never did throw up. Once my waters broke I was pretty sure the contractions would ramp up so I begged Stephanie to let me get into the water tub. She did another internal and I was at 8cm!! This was around 1am. So, the tub got filled up and Matt helped me move from the bed to the bathroom...it took us about 5 min to walk a very very short distance. Matt tells me now that even if he hadn't been told I was at 8cm he'd have known I was in transition by the pure fact that I just wasn't moving fast. Lol... Getting into the tub was both heavenly and not quite as good as I'd expected. It took me a few contractions to find a comfortable position and the water wasn't quite as warm as I'd expected but it was warm enough at 37*C (body temp). It was at this point that my contractions started to really get full on as they were the pushy contractions and I had to fight my body not to bear down. It was awhile before Stephanie said, “OK you can push on the next two contractions but if I don't see anything after that we'll have to reassess things.” Thankfully I must have been fully dilated because Shelby's head started to be visible during those two pushes. I pushed for around 1-1 ½ hours. Towards the end when she was just about crowning I got a bit frustrated because my contractions weren't quite long enough to get 4 pushes in so Shelby's head would move down and then move back up. (However, she WAS coming out facedown so that was a wonderful wonderful answer to prayer!!!) It took quite a while and a lot of effort to finally get her head to crown and stay there!! I swear that the water was a great buffer with the crowning because it didn't sting/burn near as much as I expected although it wasn't exactly the most pleasant feeling in the world either! Lol...During the crowning the other thing that I couldn't believe was how much hair she had!! I kept reaching down to touch it because I was just so shocked and had to get told after her head was born to stop touching it incase she got stimulated too much and tried to take a breath!


After another 2-3 contractions and good strong pushes Shelby's shoulders and body were born quite quickly. As the shoulders were born was about the only time the midwife really strongly encouraged me to push. I think that was one of the worst moments as my legs were cramping up from pushing against the side of the tub and my body would run out of steam from all the effort it had taken to get her head out.


Third Stage


YAY! She was here!! Matt got to “catch” her as she slithered out and he handed her up to me straight away...although he said all he wanted to do was have a good look at her. I felt so good almost straight away. Especially when I realised that no more contractions were following! Lol....of course within 10 minutes I started to get cramps as the placenta broke away from the uterine wall but that wasn't bad at all! I just sat there cuddling her in the water and it was lovely to feel the warm towel Stephanie wrapped around Shelby to keep her warm on my skin. Once the cord stopped pulsing Matt got to cut it after Stephanie clamped it. Actually, quick back up. For about 60 seconds we had no idea whether Shelby was a boy or a girl. Our instincts had told us it was a boy and so after a minute we finally checked to see what we had. I couldn't see from the angle I was at so Matt did the honours and then turned to me without the biggest look of shock and said, “Rachel, meet Shelby!” Lol...I boggled at him and then turned to Shelby and started calling her Bubba Girl which I kept calling her for about a week....kinda in shock I think. I call her Princess more often now than Bubba Girl...or Matt's nickname for her which is Shelby Jones. It has a funny ring to it.


Anyway, all in all I am THRILLED with how the birth went. I managed to give birth without doctor intervention, in water, without any injections (not even the synto shot to deliver the placenta as we had a physiological 3rd stage), only two internals, and no stitches. I did have a couple of grazes one internal as Shelby yanked her hand out before her tummy as she was being born but it didn't need a stitch at all. YAY! I would do it all again.

[~jane~]

Beautiful story, thank you for sharing!

[pj'smum]

Beautiful story, you did an awesome job! Thanks so much for sharing.

Catherine

[~Harmony~]

Oh how awesome Congratulations (belatedly) and thanks very much for sharing!

[mammadyl]

Thanks for sharing your little one's birth story with us. Hope you are thoroughly enjoying being a Mum

[Hailstorm]

What a fantastic story! Matt sounds truly amazing! You did such a wonderful job
No matter how many birth stories I read every single time I am amazed and bewildeed at the strength of the female body and what it can do

[bunty]

What a great story! Happy 10 months earthside Shelby .

[jperezmt]

Amazing story!