Sophie Marie's Birth Story

I felt my first contraction at 4:00pm on Saturday. I was laying on the couch waiting for Travis to get home from work. It felt like relatively mild menstrual cramps. Since I hadn't felt any cramps in several months and since I was past my due date, I figured this might be the start of labor. For the next five hours or so, I felt these contractions off and on. Nothing major. I didn't even tell Travis I was feeling them until closer to 9:00pm. Around that time I noticed that I was starting to lose my mucous plug. At that point we decided to go for a walk around the apartment complex a couple times. The walking made the contractions come a little bit closer together, but they weren't intense or anything. I wasn't sure about the mucous plug and I didn't want to go to sleep worrying, so I called Amy (our midwife) and asked if it was normal and told her that I was feeling mild contractions. She said it was normal, recommended taking a warm shower, going to bed, and hoping to hear from me soon. I took a shower and laid in bed for a few contractions until I realized that I wouldn't be getting any sleep that night. Laying down during the contractions hurt!  And they were getting relatively closer together.

So I moved to the rocker in the living room and told Travis to go back to sleep. Why should he have to suffer, too? Thus began the transformation of Travis from husband to saint. He refused to go to bed without me. He laid on the couch and I sat next to him on the rocker. He held my hand the entire night. I laid back in the rocker and each time a contraction came, I leaned forward. Travis squeezed my hand over and over and kept telling me to breath and relax. We didn't start timing contractions at this time, but they were probably 7-15 minutes apart. Around 6:00am they were definitely stronger, longer, and closer together. For thirty minutes, Travis timed them--3 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute. And they were very intense. Travis called Amy and asked her if it was a good time to head over. She said yes, so we were on our way.

It took Travis a few minutes to load up the car. Then he came back to help me down the stairs. We had to stop a couple times on the way to the car to work through contractions. Travis SPED to the birth center. And I was okay with it. The contractions were so intense and so close together that I knew for sure Travis would be delivering the baby in the car. And then we got to the birth center.

Amy was there and the room was ready for us. We went straight in and I changed to my long t-shirt. Amy checked me and I was a "stretchy 3 centimeters". What?! I immediately apologized to Amy for coming too early. She said it was fine, and really, I was in so much pain I didn't care too much. We made it through a couple contractions, then Amy suggested we do a rotation (two contractions laying on my right side, two on hands and knees, two on the left side, and two on my back). Twice. I DID NOT want to lay down. But I completely trusted Amy, so we went ahead. Poor Travis. He was doing everything absolutely right, but he couldn't take the pain away. Anyway, before we made it through the second rotation, Amy asked if I wanted to get in the water. I almost cried with joy! By the way my contractions were going, Amy knew I had progressed enough to get in the water.

I got in the water and completely relaxed. Amy said some people call it hydra-dural (instead of epidural). It felt really good and relaxed the contractions a lot. It relaxed me so much that after about 30 minutes or so we thought the water was slowing things down. And right when we thought that, the contractions got incredible. I don't remember much after this. Travis talks about transition and how bad it was. I have no recollection. I think that is a blessing. He said after that I got really quiet and still for about 10 minutes. I remember hearing Travis and the midwives whispering. And then came a contraction. I jumped out of the water as much as I could and cried, "Oh push!". Amy was ready with her gloves (she knew it was coming). I pushed in the water for about 20 minutes. My water broke during that time. Amy noticed a cervical lip that came only when I pushed, so she suggested I get out of the water and go to the bed so she could work with it. I didn't want to get out of the water, but again, I trusted Amy.

We went to the bed and I continued to push for another 2 hours. Amy kept telling me that I was making progress with every push. The baby was getting closer and closer. My pelvis was getting tighter and more uncomfortable. Everyone was so encouraging. But I felt like I wasn't doing enough. With each push I looked at Amy to see what she would say, always hoping she would say it was over. Every other push I looked at Travis and cried. Amy had the head in view for a while and finally asked if I wanted to see my baby's hair. I saw her beautiful black hair and how close her head was to coming out. That really encouraged me and helped with the next pushes. Finally in one push, the head came out and the rest of the body! The baby was crying before she even made it all the way out! Her shoulder got stuck on my perineum and tore it a little (that stubborn perineum!). I didn't feel it. Another blessing.

Not one second after the baby was out, she was on my tummy! I was crying again, but this time with pure joy!! She was absolutely perfect. She cried for a little bit and Jaime (the secondary midwife) checked a few things while she lay on my tummy. Then Jaime helped me get her started nursing. This was one part I was really nervous about. But guess what--this baby is a natural sucker! She latched right on without a problem. More tears of joy. We spent the next hour enjoying our little baby girl. No one took her from me. I'm sure other stuff was going on in the room, but I didn't notice. Megan was there at the birth center waiting in the living room--listening to everything. She came in and partook of the joy. We found out later that she weighed 7 lbs, 14 oz and was 21 1/4 inches long. Everything looked good. Perfect, in fact. So after I got my stitches, they said we could go home. We got at the birth center around 7:00am, I had Sophie at 11:21am, and we left at 5:00pm (after Travis' family came to visit).

So it was over. And it was just beginning. It is day 6 now and we couldn't be happier.

I love being a mom.