I was prepared for a short labor considering that my other two took between 7 and 5 hours, but William decided to be different, he wanted to surprise me and keep me guessing. Everything started on a Tuesday morning August 21st. (The Thursday before I had been dialated to three centimeters, so I knew something would happen soon). So that Tues. morning my first sign was losing my mucus plug (I took this as a definite sign because with my other two births contractions really picked up after this happened). I waited about an hour before telling anyone because nothing really felt different. I expected more to be happening. Jenny, my sister, was the first to know. She told me that I better call my midwife, partly because she knows how I labor, and partly because she was thinking rationally... there may be other pregnant clients who need her so it would be nice for her to know what's going on so she can plan her day. I called, but there wasn't much to tell. My contractions were very irregular, maybe five an hour at different intervals. This was not encouraging. All she could say was, "Well it sounds like you are in the very early stage." I didn't want to be in the VERY early stage I wanted that baby OUT!
The hours passed. The kids watched a nice "My Little Pony" marathon thanks to Netflix, and I cancelled the kids playdate with my close friend, thinking that this baby would be coming. I called Martin and told him this would probably be the day, and he arranged to come home at lunch. I also called my parents to come pick up Owen and Elijah. And then I just felt silly. I had set everything up and now something exciting was suppose to happen, there should have been sizeable change. Nope. Contractions remained irregular. Timing them was a joke, 15 minutes, then 23, then 7, then 10. Not so promising, especially compared to my previous two textbook labors. So we waited. I bounced on the birthing ball, I wrote down the irritating irregular contractions. I cried a little. We watched 5 or 6 episodes of "Say Yes to the Dress!" (just a good veg-out show about brides choosing these ridiculously over-prized gowns). Finally, I was getting stir-crazy so we thought a little walk down town might help things along.
We put everything in the car, just in case, the bag, packed full of all the little things that I planned and thought about for weeks, and the computer, ya know in case Martin needed to update facebook or something. Note: there are two things you always need to plan for on outings with pregnant women, 1- easily accessible bathrooms, 2- food! After walking around some shops, and a few bathroom breaks, yep I was getting hungry! Forget having the baby, I needed some cheesy garlic bread! We ended up stopping at Papa Murphy's on the way home. Did I eat an entire pizza.. well that memory is sort of cloudy now. I felt a little defeated that we were going home at all. I wanted to go to the Midwife Clinic. Home felt like giving up (not that that is really a possibility when you are in the process of having a baby, it is going to come sooner or later). We watched a few movies and then it started to get dark. but how was I suppose to go to bed? That seemed absurd. I couldn't relax and getting comfortable was simply impossible- not going to happen. Martin went to bed and fell asleep easily. At first I kinda hated him for that, just for a little bit. Then I thought, well at least he'll have some strength for when I need him later.
At this point I was having contractions about every 15 minutes which seemed like an improvement compared to the rest of the day. I was finally able to get some rest after talking to my midwife and her reassurance that the contractions would wake me if they were strong enough and we would know when to come. It seemed so backwards. the whole pregnancy we had been preparing to leave as soon as I knew I was in labor because last time we almost didn't make it in time. I had labored at home, taking my time, and by the time we got there I only had about an hour before I pushed Owen out! So this didn't make sense. This baby was suppose to be extra fast, half the time it took to have the other two, but there I was waiting after hours and hours still wondering. I was used to sleeping on the couch for the back support, so I decided to stick with this plan. The contractions continued to wake me up about every 15 minutes, but I did manage to rest in between.
Midnight had passed. He wasn't going to be born on a Tuesday. In the early hours of the morning, after waking from one of the contractions I noticed it was raining outside. Thank goodness, I thought, relief from the 90 degree weather! And then there was an awesome storm! I love storms, the lightning, the cracks of thunder, the sound of beautiful drops falling all over the earth, and the smell that makes everything seem clean and new again. It may sound crazy, but I sat in "my chair" listening to it and it was like God telling me, "Today's THE DAY!"
After getting some more rest, Martin and I got up together, and took our time around the house. It was strange being home without the boys, who spent the night at Grandma and Papa's. I started timing the contractions around 9am and they were about 10 minutes apart sometimes less. I wanted to get a full hour of writing them down before I updated my midwife and we made a plan for the day. Around 11am Martin and I decided to head out and get in some more walking hoping it would help. I felt much more optimistic now, and the morning was beautiful just like I knew it would be after the rain. We first stopped at Jamba Juice (a pregnancy frequent) And yeah, I got a Large! Then we went to one of our favorite parks, Riverstone, to take a stroll. It has a great walking path all the way around the perimeter of the man-made pond and the playground. My contractions were definitely getting stronger and a bit closer together about 6 or 7 minutes, but not extremely regular or intense.
I was getting hungry again, so we left the park and headed for another favorite spot, "Bakery by the Lake." It turned out I could only eat a few bites of my sandwich, and of course had to pee again. We took it with us to save for later and continued to walk and look at the same shops we had looked at the night before. I had known at the park that things were moving along because I had stop walking when I had a contraction to concentrate and breath through it. This continued on as we browsed through stores that with the boys we are usually in and out in a few minutes. Ironically this was a nice "break." It almost felt like a little date with my husband, only with this annoying pain that kept interrupting us. Looking back I am so thankful that we got to spend all of that extra time together before he was born. It was so unlike the other two births in this way. We didn't have to speed off right away to go have the baby, we took our time enjoying every moment together.
One of my favorite stores to look in is called "Le Pappillion" They have such beautiful things in there, things you will find no where else! The Lady working there heard me telling Martin about my contractions and acted very surprised that we were out and about. "Just don't have the baby in my store!" she joked. Then she wanted to talk on and on, and had to keep looking away to breath through the contractions. they were now five minutes apart. a few other lady shoppers asked me about having contractions, and it really made their day I think to see me about to have a baby. It's funny how those exciting things can be amazing moments to share even with strangers.
I called my midwife shortly after this, there was a slight complication... another mom (a first time "home birth" mom) was at a similar point in her labor as I was. Uh oh. "Do you think you have a couple more hours?" my midwife asked me. I told her, "I think so." only because the labor had been so long and unpredictable that... sure... maybe I had a few more hours, but I really didn't know. Maybe 20 minutes later I knew we needed to head toward the birthing center. She had told me to focus on the intensity, not really how far apart the contractions were. They were getting intense. We stopped to get sparkling cider... which now seems kind of silly, but if felt important. It would be something to celebrate after all. I called my mom and sister while in the car... the big event was going to happen soon!
Contractions 2 minutes apart... when I arrived at the clinic, around 4pm, we soon found out I was at 5 centimeters! I stayed on the birthing ball for about an hour before getting into the big birthing tub. things progressed at a nice gradual pace. I felt relaxed enough to talk easily between contractions for quite a while and then concentrating through them and breathing. My mom met us there and was able to be there for William's birth, which was so important to me. My midwife called in the back-up to deliver the other woman's baby who was having a home birth. I was so grateful for this because I really didn't want anyone else. She arrived just after I had gotten into the tub. As the contractions became more and more intense I needed something to grasp... Martin's hands became my grippers. I squeezed hard. The first few hard ones he was squeezing my hand back, I had to tell him to knock it off when the contraction was over! He decided to eat that left-over sandwich we had saved from lunch and that was a mistake! The smell of his breath after wards was upsetting to me, luckily my midwife had gum!
I remember looking at the clock for the first time around 6:30 and commenting that Owen had been born at 6:33, but in February when it's dark outside at that time. In August the sun was still big and bright, but he wasn't born at 6:30. I also remember thinking, all these people standing around me are just waiting for me to do this amazing thing. At 7:10 it was time to push... finally. It was harder than anything I have ever done, and extremely exhausting. I thought I would never get him out. Both Martin and my midwife knew the right things to say to me. What great encouragers! She told me "You're a strong girl- just one more big push, I know you're a good pusher!" And then, at 7:18pm August 22nd, William Jude White made his first appearance! He was enormous! They put this lump of "baby" of my chest and I was so exhausted from it all I could barely hold him. I had been gripping the sides of the tub to bear down and pushing my toes against the end of the bathtub and now all of my strength was depleted. completely gone. I couldn't even cry.
A few moments later, Martin got to cut the cord! This was important to him, he didn't get to do Owen's because he had been so blue and everything happened so fast that they just did that part for his safety, and I can't remember why he didn't get to do Elijah's. then It was Grandma's turn to hold him for a few minutes while I tried to push out the placenta. I know after a 9lb. 13oz. baby, a placenta should be easy, but the exhaustion must have taken over because I just couldn't do it. I kept trying and nothing was happening. I just wanted to be done with this so could hold my baby and rest, but it took forever. Finally I had to sit over the toilet to be able to do it. Weird, I know.
Then all of the wonderful parts... I got hold my baby! We found out his weight (as above mentioned), his length- 21 and a half inches, his head circumference- 14.5 inches! My midwife also mentioned that in addition to the big head he had his fist next to his ear when he came through the birth canal. Yay me! (he still sleeps like that occasionally, he did it a lot when he was a newborn). Next we got to eat! Thank goodness, I was starving! They made us some kind of chicken and rice with veggies and a salad and cookies and icecream for dessert. Which by the way I am still trying to figure out where the amazing peanut butter cookies came from. They were huge and soft and... perfect!
When I was done eating it was William's turn to try breastfeeding for the first time. He latched on easily, and did great for the next few days. (don't have the time to go into the not so great days and the horrible mastitis bout).
Everyone was gone by about 9:30 or 10-ish, and Martin, William and I had the clinic to ourseleves for the night. Moving was much harder than I remembered it being after giving birth. It took forever to go the bathroom, and then getting comfortable again was quite an ordeal... situating pillows, the waterproof mat beneath me, etc. Martin was an amazing help with everything as I knew he would be.
In the morning, I took a nice herbal bath. We tried putting William in with me for the bath, but he decided it was torture and wailed the two minutes we had him in there, so daddy took him back out. Then it was time for Papa and the big brothers to come and meet new baby William. They brought a balloon and few other things for me. It was a sweet greeting that I will never forget. They both had a sweetness about them, a quiet pureness in seeing him. Owen introduced himself in such an "Owen" way. It was like he was saying remember me? I used to talk to you when you were in mommy's tummy. he said, "It's me big brother Owen." We all had a good time holding and snugling the new member of the family, then it was off to the fair for the big boys and another day of fun with Grandma and Papa. Martin and I stayed a little longer at the clinic. We ordered Jimmy John's for lunch and took it easy.
I'm so glad I found Dayspring Midwifery, and had the chance to experience birth in the way I really wanted to without anyone telling me or being pushy about how I "should" do things. It's my body and my baby okay, I will do this my way!
The labor certainly took longer with William, and threw me off a little, but that is part of his story. He is his own, special and unique, and definitely our last!
Yay for a healthy baby boy! My labors always go about like this one: off and on and slow and inconsistent....and they ARE frustrating! But any labor that ends with a healthy little baby is a good one!
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