Blake was at work, and our deal was that when Blake was working, I would stay with my mom, just in case I went into labor.
I went to my 39 week appointment on October 5, when I was 39 weeks and 1 day. When the midwife Shannon was checking head position on my lower tummy, it got extremely uncomfortable, and she even mentioned that I was having a contraction while I was there. I had been having painless Braxton Hicks for about a month before, but they really did seem like nothing to worry about, so I just dealt. That evening, I had a LOT of Braxton Hicks, and swore it was from Shannon feeling for the baby's head.
I went to work Friday morning (October 6,) which was a professional development day at the high school. During that day, FIVE co-workers told me that I looked like I had dropped. I shrugged them off, sat through classes until 4, came back to the middle school, and worked on my maternity leave sub plans, as that was my official last day of work. I whittled away until 9 that night, and I felt fine except one hip hurt. I hobbled back and forth from the lounge numerous times, and ended the 11 hour work day.
My parents were staying in Stephenville for a wedding, so I drove from Fort Worth out to Stephenville. Construction on I-35 was at an ALL TIME HORRIBLE MESS, so it took me over almost two hours to get there. I was a grumpy mess as I was at a standstill. I stopped at Popeyes and got some dinner, and headed on out of town. I got to the hotel around 11 and went straight to bed.
Around 4 that morning, I had what I guess was a contraction. I woke up and texted Blake, not even to say I had a contraction (because I truly don't think I know what woke me up,) but just to say hey. I went back to sleep until about 6:30, when I started feeling some paints. I was wondering if they were contractions, so I got out my little contractions timer and started it.
I realized that these totally non-contraction pains were coming at the rate of around 6 minutes. STILL IN DENIAL. I decided to take a shower and go for a walk, in case it wasn't labor and it was just worse Braxton Hicks.
I let Blake know, but told him to go to sleep in case it turned out to be nothing. So he went to sleep, no biggie.
I got in the shower around 7 and the contractions got worse. (In my mind, they were still just random pains.) I sat in there for about 30 minutes, and when I got out, went back to timing my contractions.
2:28
1:52
1:22
2:21
At this point, I always think about movies, TV shows, or things I've read that say, "When contractions are consistently between 5-8 minutes, it's time to go to the hospital." I woke up in labor with contractions 6 minutes apart. It was immediately time for me to go!
I went and woke up my parents with a whisper and gentle prod.
"Mom, I think I'm having some contractions, and I was wondering if you could go for a walk with me?"
The covers shot off of her and she sat straight up. "CONTRACTIONS? Oh my god! Let's go! I don't even need coffee. I'm gonna put on my jogging clothes! Where are my glasses?"
We decided to go on down to breakfast. I tried to grab a snack, but I looked at my parents and said, "I think I need to go back into Fort Worth." HOWEVER, I was STILL in denial. I pretty much though, well, in case this goes into full blown labor, I should probably be close to the birthing center.
As a side note, I knew I wanted to keep this a pretty private affair. So since my dad had driven up from San Antonio, my mom from Dallas, and me from Fort Worth, I knew that I would have to drive my car back. Since I truly didn't think I was in labor, I decided to drive myself, and at least my car would be at the birthing center. (It also had the carseat in it.)
I called the midwife, who said that my contractions needed to be between 2-4 minutes for over an hour. They already had been, but I had to get to Fort Worth either way. So I decided to track my contractions as I drove by myself (and even stopped at the store to pee and stopped at Sonic to get a water) back into Fort Worth.
I got to the birthing center and called Midwife Dana back. Dana had been my favorite since the beginning. She did my very first sonogram and showed us our nugget. She has a great sense of humor, but is very blunt and to the point, which I appreciate. She said to get a hotel, get some breakfast, and try to walk it out since the only sign of labor I had was contractions.
My mom asked if I had called Blake yet. I hadn't. He was almost six hours away, and Mom panicked. I tried to call him, but he didn't pick up the phone, which I didn't expect him to. I had to call his boss, Orville.
"Hello?"
"Heyyyyy Orrrvvvvv... It's Jamie..."
"IS IT TIME?"
"Ummmmmmm can you just like go wake Blake up and tell him to call me?"
Blake called me back a few minutes later, and he hit the road.
Mom got us a hotel, and we went to the room. I ate some Wheat Thins and half an apple and sat on the bed, peeing what felt like every five minutes. We were there about an hour before I started bleeding. When I walked out of the bathroom, only Dad was in there, listening to Mexican music and reading the news or weather on his iPad.
"Hey, Dad, where's Mom?"
"I think she went out to the car."
"Okay, well, I think we need to go to the birthing center."
"Oh, is everything okay?" Not even looking up from his iPad.
"Well, I'm bleeding."
Pause.
"I'm gonna go get your mom."
I called Dana again, and she said to come on and that she was waiting for us.
As we got into the car, I asked my mom for something to sit on since I didn't know how much I would bleed. She pulled her used apron from the rehearsal dinner the night before out from the backseat and threw it on the front seat. Thank goodness, because less than ten minutes later, when we were almost to the birthing center, my water broke. It felt like just a little pop on the inside, but as Mom rounded a corner, it gushed.
"Mom, my water just broke."
"Just hang on, we're almost there."
I'm sure we were a sight to see getting out of the cars and trying to get me in there while I was leaking like a faucet. The apron was dragging behind me as I used it for a diaper, and the midwife was laughing at us.
I got in, took off my pantaloons, and slipped into a Depends. SEXY. She checked how far I was dilated (okay, honestly probably getting checked was the worst pains of the day. It's like, you don't want anyone to touch or disturb your private area, and it feels like they are putting two hands and a foot up inside you to check your cervix. At least to me it did.)
"Okay, halfway there. You're at a 5."
I hoped that was the worse of the two halves.
At this point, a lot of the memories become fuzzy. It's crazy how your brain blacks out and protects you from the pain. I know I bounced on the ball for a while, sat in the shower, and then labored in the tub. The nurse was so awesome, as I know I was a little cranky. I had stopped texting Blake once I got to the birthing center, but Mom was keeping me updated.
Around 2, I got out of the tub and went to the bed. They put the peanut ball between my legs. THAT. THING. WAS. THE. DEVIL. I'm pretty sure I had a contraction that lasted for 14 minutes. That's what it felt like, anyway. After that, I went to the bathroom to pee and felt the urge to push. When I told the nurse, she brought me back in and she checked me again.
"How do you feel about doing some stairs?"
The feelings were not good.
"Well, what am I at?"
"You're almost there."
"Like how much almost there?"
"Like, you're at a 10, but there is a little piece of cervix blocking his head. I need you to do the stairs to lean forward and get him into a better position."
SONOFAB.
I labored on the stairs for about 30-45 minutes. I only made it up and down the stairs twice, but I squatted on the top of the stairs for a while. I had one foot on the top stair and the other a few steps down. It really helped relieve a lot of pressure that way.
I tried to pee again, and I could hear Mom freaking out.
"BLAKE'S HERE! OH MY GOD BLAKE'S HERE OH MY GOD HE MADE IT!"
As I'm sitting on the toilet sucking on a straw of honey, Blake barrels past the bathroom door and does a double take. He just rubbed my shoulder for a few minutes. Some things he said were, "I can cut that honey open a little more for you" (which, no, I was enjoying biting down extremely hard) and "Are you sure you still want four of them?" (which, @&$%#.)
At this point, the nurse was checking the heartbeat between each contraction. It's literally like when you want no one touching or bothering you because you finally are out of the pain of a contraction, they are touching all over you.
Dana wanted to check me again, so as I got on the bed, Blake went into the bathroom to pee (he had been on the road a while) and when he came out, I was pretty much already pushing.
I pushed on the bed/on my back for about 15 minutes. Finally, I told Dana, "I have no push left in me."
"Well, let's do something different. Do you want to try to squat?" (I edited part of this, because it was TMI and you know, you just don't wanna read about it.)
"Yes!" I was so willing to try something different. I squatted next to the bed, and in the next contraction, I could feel that he was about to come out. The nurse continued listening for the heartbeat, but this time, there was silence. I looked at the nurse, who was looking at the midwife, which can never mean good things. The next push, she told me to push his head out. "PUSH EASY! EASY! EASY!"
As a sidenote: when pushing out a baby, you realize there is no different gears for pushing it out. There is one mode: get the baby out and the pain gone.
She had me stop pushing when his head was out, and later, I realized she was checking to see why his heartbeat had stopped. The umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice. In the hospital, when this happens, usually Mom is repositioned. In this instance, she yelled to Blake and the nurse, "Get her on her back!" They got me to my back quickly (threw me to my back could be a better term) and she said "Push him out!" I did, instantly, and he wasn't crying. Dana threw him around like an Italian in a pizza parlor, and he started choking, sputtering, and crying. They threw him up on my chest (ironically, I was wearing Blake's "BABY DADDY" shirt) and we got to love on him for a second before she had us get back up on the bed. I had pulled a muscle in my groin squatting, so I was in a little pain, but I delivered the placenta soon after and got all cleaned up.
I will say this - as soon as he came out, all pain was gone. It was instant relief. I immediately thought, I could do that again! I was sore for a few days after, but I was so glad I didn't have any anesthesia, pitocin, epidural, etc. It was overall a GREAT experience.
My mom and dad and Blake's dad and stepmom came in to see him about an hour later and hung out for a while.
Soon after, we did the weight, length, all that. They did it right on the bed next to me, and Blake got to help out a lot, too! That was such a cool experience.
We got to put his pawprints on the wall, which Mom suggested we should do where my forehead was practically smushed against the wall for the last hour on the staircase.
I got an herbal bath and before we knew it, our four hours was up and we were heading home as a super cute family of three, letting our closest family and friends know, and announcing on Facebook.
(Also, I never posted this picture before, which we took right before we left the birthing center, but it had been a rough day, so I don't feel like I look my best, but this is the reality of it.)
I'm sure I'm missing some parts, but this is pretty much the day as I remember. Lovely loves all around.
Things I liked: sitting on the toilet (getting relief on your back while not getting any pressure on my hoo-ha was AWESOME,) sitting in the shower, sitting on the ball, and laboring in the tub, tubes of honey, having a wee lad to take home/show off from here on out.
Things I didn't like: the peanut ball (they can all go die in hell,) being touched or talked to (which actually wasn't a bad thing, since Blake wasn't there for the majority of the day, soreness and care of myself afterware.
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