Sunday, June 4, 2017

Amanda's Story Part III: The Arrival of Our Rainbow Baby

Be sure to read Part I and Part II of my story!

At 35 weeks and 5 days pregnant late on a Saturday afternoon I lost my mucus plug in two major portions. I read that it was likely I would have my baby within 48 hours since this wasn't my first pregnancy. Shocked, I called my husband and broke the news to him. Thankfully he was at Target, so I sent him the list of things we needed for our home birth. One of my friends was hanging out with me, and she wandered around the house with me while I frantically threw supplies in my laundry basket. Sometime that night I began having irregular contractions, so I didn't get good sleep.

The next morning we stayed home from church because I was still having contractions, and we didn't know what would happen. For the entire day, I recorded contractions with nothing to report. Sometimes they were 15 minutes apart and other times 4 minutes apart. They also didn't feel very intense. I kept in touch with my midwife but she didn't need to come yet. She called the pharmacy to try ordering medication to ease the contractions so I could rest, but it was too late by the time she called.

I had slept for about two hours Sunday night when I woke up at midnight feeling a lot of fluid coming out. It was mostly blood. Then when I sat on the toilet, a fist-sized clot came out. I had already called my midwife Chanah and she asked me to send a picture of what came out (lovely, huh?) since she didn't live around the corner. After seeing it, she started packing her things and preparing coffee to come down. After hanging up, I felt the baby move several times. Joseph and I thanked God for this but were both shaking furiously. After several minutes of breathing deeply and prayer, we were calmer and started watching TV.

Chanah arrived around 2am and told us there were three possibilities for the blood. She did some tests, felt the bag of water still in tact, and felt the baby's head. Her tests revealed that I just had a lot of bloody show, which is another thing that can happen before labor really begins (but can also occur during labor). However, it's usually not as much as I had. She called the other midwife planning to be at my labor, Rebekah, and began preparing her things for the birth. We were ecstatic and a bit shocked that the baby was already coming! I was 4 cm dilated and 100% effaced!

My contractions continued to be irregular all night though and we were all tired by morning. Joseph did go sleep for several hours while the midwives kept me company. The midwives each took a nap also, but I couldn't sleep. I tried to just rest, but I was the one having contractions, not them! I ate yogurt and some other snacks to keep up my energy. At 9am, Chanah called the pharmacy to try to get the medicine to ease my contractions again. Elijah was picked up by my in-laws and Joseph went to a chiropractic appointment. Rebekah left to get her car smogged, and Chanah went to get the medication for me. Before she left for the medication, I told her, "I think my contractions are coming more regularly now and they feel harder." She left to get the medication anyway.

I took the medication promptly and also took a shower to help me feel more chipper. Nearly an hour later, I was still feeling contractions. Chanah said that I was in active labor then because the medication would have worked if I wasn't. So everyone was called back. Joseph made some lunch when he got home. I ate some eggs. We all watched The Great British Baking Show together for a few hours. With each contraction, I leaned over and breathed calmly through it. As time went on though, I got back labor--terrible pain in my back with every contraction that eased slightly between each one. Chanah had a device that attached to my back to send slight electric shocks to it for easing the pain, and it certainly helped! My back still hurt, but it was much more bearable.

Around 2:45pm I told them I felt like I was ready to push, and we moved to the bedroom. I wanted to be there so I wouldn't have to move far to my bed after the birth. On my knees and leaning over the bed for support, I pushed through 5-6 contractions. To my surprise, I began yelling through each push, like when you're putting all your effort into something. I hadn't made a peep while delivering Elijah. Not long before delivery, I felt that intense "ring of fire" pain! Whoa, there's nothing else like that! And I said, "I feel like I'm gonna poop!" Chanah said, "No, you're gonna have a baby!" With the next contraction, Josiah was born! Joseph and the midwives got to see his little face as he slid right out into Rebekah's waiting arms. Immediately, the midwives prepared a spot for me to sit against the wall on the floor and handed Josiah over to me. He was perfect.

No comments:

Post a Comment