Thane's Birth Story

Warning: LONG & detailed and well, a birth story!
On Tuesday, May 18th, I went to my regularly scheduled 39-week appointment with my midwife. I checked out the same as I'd been the previous two weeks - 3 cm dilated, only 50% effaced, and the baby was still really, really high. I really wanted to give Thane the opportunity to come on his own, BUT I also was concerned about making sure I had child-care for Aubree and Bryce. Kira (one of my wonderful sisters) was coming to stay for a week and I didn't want to miss that window. So we set up an appointment for induction Thursday morning. "I have to warn you," my midwife cautioned, "if he's still so high on Thursday morning, I won't be able to break your water. We'd have to give you Pitocin." I responded, "no way, no how! I'd rather wait."
Wednesday night as I was getting ready for bed, I started having contractions. Nothing too extreme, but I did notice them and when I went to sleep they woke me up on occasion. I had dreams of contractions all night. I even had dreams of telling Mark about my contraction dreams..."I had Harry Potter contraction dreams, I had Twilight contraction dreams..." Very strange.
Thursday morning I continued to have contractions that were fairly regular and starting to actually hurt, so I called and canceled my induction. Kira braided my hair and hair-sprayed it well in anticipation of going into "real" labor. Around 10:30 am I called Mark home from work because I thought the contractions were getting closer together. Of course, as soon as he got home they slowed significantly and I even took a nap. This went on all afternoon. Finally, around 3 pm I decided it was time to go to the hospital. I'd wanted to wait until either my water broke or I was in serious pain, but I knew my midwife would only be at the hospital till 4 pm and I wanted to see her and maybe have her break my water.
Maddeningly, as soon as we got in the car to go to the hospital, my contractions all but stopped. I felt like a fool walking to the registration area and asking for labor and delivery. "Do you think you're in labor?" the admitting clerk asked. "Grrrrr," I thought. I'm sure by looking at me standing calmly and talking with her she thought I was some first time mom who didn't know what real labor was and would soon be sent home.
We finally did make it up to labor and delivery and when my midwife checked me I was 5-6 cm dilated and 100% effaced with a "bulging bag of water." "Yes," she affirmed, "you're definitely in labor."
They took the required preliminary heart-rate measurements of the baby, then had me walk the halls to see if the contractions would start back up. My amazing friend, Juliana, came at that point and she and Mark and I began our pacing of the hallways. The contractions did pick back up and as each flooded over me I found myself questioning, "I wanted to go into labor??? Remind me again why I wanted this?" I even asked Juliana if she wanted to trade with me. "Sure," she answered, "as long as it means I get to keep the baby."
Around 5 pm we headed back to the labor room hoping to move things along by getting my water broken. My midwife had said she would stay as long as she could, but had another engagement at 6 pm. Plus, the same nurse, Donna, I had when I was in labor with Bryce (and who is AWESOME with natural births) finished her shift at 7 pm. They broke my water sometime around 5:25 and in the process confirmed our previous prediction that Thane was Posterior. "Oh no!" I thought, remembering Aubree's (also posterior) birth that nearly ended in a c-section. My midwife suggested I labor on my hands and knees and seemed fairly confident that by so doing, Thane would turn.
I spent a while sitting on the bed trying to get up the courage to stand up and feel the nasty flow of amniotic fluid down my legs. During that time, my midwife brought in the on-call doctor so I could meet her. She seemed great and explained, "I'm only going to be on the second floor, so just give me enough time to run up here to catch him." We all laughed. I was still having contractions every 4-5 minutes and I'd have to stop talking and focus through them (and I didn't enjoy them at all), but when I wasn't in the midst of a contraction, everything was fine.
Sometime between 5:45 and 6 pm, I got down on my knees and draped myself over an exercise ball. The contractions started to come more frequently and got much more intense. As each one came I'd cry, "no, no, noooooo. I don't want to do this!" I remembered (perhaps too well) that this transition period from 6 or 7 cm to 8 cm was terrible. I told Mark and Juliana to have a bowl ready because "I always throw-up during transition." Soon I started shaking and getting a cold sweat and I anticipated another hour or so of the same misery. Mark and Juliana were great, the took turns putting pressure on my lower back or pushing my hips together, which helped (sometimes) to alleviate the pain.
I'd prepped Juliana before-hand that it was important that she force me to try to use the bathroom. "I'll fight you," I warned, "but it's important because it will help move things along." Soon, Juliana tried to convince me to get up and go. "No," I answered, "I can't, I just can't!" "After this next contraction," she prodded. With the next contraction, however, I got a huge surprise. "He's coming!!" I screamed, "call Donna, have her check me! Aauugggghhhhhh!!!!!" I think Mark and Juliana both jumped up, but Donna had heard me and came running into the room. "Okay, Erin," she soothed, "get up on the bed so I can check you." Mark and Juliana both grabbed an arm and helped me stand and start to crawl onto the bed. Mid-crawl, another contraction hit and again I was screaming, "he's coming OUT, he's coming OUT!!!!!!!" The nurse had to pull off my underwear and, sure enough, there was Thane's head. "Breath!," Donna commanded, "blow out the candle, Erin." Okay - I breathed long enough for the doctor to run in yelling, "gloves, I need gloves!" The doctor told me to roll over on my back. "I can't," I answered, but with help I flipped over and one push later, Thane's head was out. After another push, his body came out. I remember Juliana saying, "this is it! Open your eyes, Erin!" It hadn't occurred to me that I could open my eyes. When I complied, I saw my baby being lifted to my arms. It had all happened so fast it seemed totally surreal. The time on the clock was 6:24 pm.
Juliana was there to capture the following moments with her camera.
Thane weighed 9 lbs. 2 oz. (my biggest baby yet) and was 21 inches long. He was born the day before his official due date. Also, apparently being on my hands and knees worked, because he was born in the "proper" anterior position (with no tearing!).
Kira came within the hour and brought Aubree and Bryce to meet their new little brother. Their reactions were priceless! While washing her hands, Aubree proclaimed, "this is the most exciting day EVER!" Later, while holding Thane for the first time, she gushed, "Oh! he's even cuter than I imagined!" Kira informed us that on the drive to the hospital, Bryce had been chanting, "Baby Thane! Kira, Kira - Baby THANE!" When he saw the baby, he immediately dubbed him, "MY baby and asked to hold him. He kept leaning over and kissing Thane's head.
So, that's Thane's climactic birth story. We decided it's probably a good thing I didn't wait till my water broke before going to the hospital. Otherwise, Kira might have been the one to deliver him with help from Nurse Aubree.

Bryce's Birth Story

I need to record my memories of Bryce's birth before the details are permanently lost and/or distorted. Just a couple warnings - first, this is the LONG version (for my own and posterity's sake), second, it might be more information that some might prefer. Just know you've been warned...

Bryce's official due date was April 1, 2008 (yes, April's Fool's Day). However, I was certain he would be a March baby since Aubree was eight days early and plenty big at 8 lbs. 6 oz.. Thursday, March 13th, I went walking with friends and started having fairly strong contractions. I refused to acknowledge them because I really wanted to be able to take Aubree to the Big Sister class at the hospital that Sunday. The contractions slowed, but were off and on all weekend. In fact, at one point on Saturday they were every 5 minutes and Mark and I packed our bags - just in case. I kept telling Bryce, "please, just wait for the weekend to be over, then you can come anytime." Well, he listened - maybe too well.

Monday afternoon (March 17th), I had a doctor's appointment. My doctor, Dr. Ivery, checked and seemed surprised to find I was 4-5 cm dilated. She stripped my membranes and commented that she'd probably see me at the hospital the next day (that's a bad, bad thing for doctor's to say!). Then the waiting game began. From my experience with Aubree I knew that in order for things to progress my water needed to break. Days went by...a week passed. My mom made a comment, "maybe he's just waiting for me to arrive" (her plane tickets were for March 26th). I thought there was no way he would wait that long. Turned out she was right.

Dr. Ivery offered to break my water Wednesday, March 26th, at the hospital. I jumped at the chance! The timing worked out wonderfully. Mark picked up my mom at the airport Wednesday morning. They came home long enough to have a quick lunch then we got in the car, dropped Aubree off at a friend's home, and headed to the hospital. We arrived shortly after noon and filled out the necessary paperwork. I felt a bit strange telling the front desk worker, "I'm here to have a baby," when I obviously wasn't in labor. We got up to the maternity ward and started to get things going. The labor and delivery nurse, Donna, instructed me to change into the "oh so chic" hospital gown, then they would start the IV with pitocin. What?!? "No, no!," I exclaimed, Dr. Ivery is only going to break my water, I'm not getting pitocin!" Donna responded, "do you want to see my orders?" I answered, "if you're going to give me pitocin, I'm going home!" She double checked with Dr. Ivery and we all agreed she would only break my water.

*** Important Side Note *** I planned on having Bryce naturally - no epidural. Originally my reasoning was because when I got to the hospital with Aubree I was already 6 cm dilated. I had heard that many hospitals won't allow mothers who already had vaginal births to get an epidural once they were more than 6-7 cm. dilated. That made me think that there would be a good chance I wouldn't even have an option for an epidural with Bryce, so I'd better prepare myself for a natural birth, just in case. To prepare, I read many, many books about labor and delivery and decided that the risks associated with having an epidural outweighed the benefits. That's part of the reason I was so anti-pitocin. ***

The nurse hooked me up to the fetal monitor for about 20 minutes and I was having NO contractions. Shortly after 1 p.m. Dr. Ivery came in and broke my water. I spent the next three hours walking the halls with my good friend Amy (who is a former labor and delivery nurse) and Mark (my mom took a nap because she had flown all night). The first two hours I hardly felt any contractions. We walked and talked and Amy and Mark even made me do squats at the end of each lap to try to help speed things up. Around 3:30 I started to get contractions every few minutes that made me stop walking. By 4 pm the contractions really hurt and I went back to the room and crawled into bed. The nurse checked and I was 7 cm dilated.

The next couple hours are a bit of a blur. I remember getting on the birthing ball shortly after getting back to the room. That helped relieve the pain a little, but then Bryce must have moved because I had a big gush of water. I went to the bathroom to clean up and that's when things got REALLY intense. I started shaking and sweating and I couldn't move on my own. Mark came and helped me back to bed and I threw up. I realized I was in transition, but that knowledge didn't make the contractions any less painful. There was no break in between each contraction so I tried to deal with them as well as I could. At one point I think I said, "If only I had a break, I could do this!"

Around 5 pm the nurse checked and said I was at 8 cm. I almost cried! Only 1 cm in the past hour! Amy tried to encourage me by saying, "you'll probably have your baby in an hour." That didn't sound encouraging to me. I replied, "you just said the 'h' word." "Hour" might as well have been "week" the way I felt. I began to wonder what was really so bad about an epidural anyway? When the nurse had checked me however, it must have stimulated Bryce because I immediately felt him shift and start moving down (ouch!). Mercifully the contractions became further apart and I had a minute or two between each one to breath and collect myself. That made it SO much easier to bear.

Sometime around 6 pm Dr. Ivery showed up and the hospital room began to fill up with people. To be honest, I didn't notice much of it because my eyes were closed and I was focused on myself. I do recall hearing people chatting casually and thinking that was strange. Dr. Ivery told me I was completely dilated and said I could push when I felt like it. Then she asked, "why didn't you push? What's your concern?" I hadn't felt the "urge" yet. I thought that was slightly amusing.

When I was in the transition phase I was really looking forward to the pushing phase because every book I read described the pushing phase as a relief. With Aubree I pushed for three hours and I was hoping/expecting a much shorter time with Bryce. I thought that pushing for 10-20 minutes would be great. Well, let's just say that the pushing stage was never a relief because I only pushed for about 30 seconds! Once I felt the "urge" and started pushing, Bryce's head popped right out. To say I was surprised would be the understatement of the year! I started yelling (something along the lines of, "AAAAAAOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWW"), but he was out super fast and then I felt total and complete relief.

Dr. Ivery put Bryce on my chest and I looked at this beautiful, perfect son and was completely overwhelmed with gratitude and love. What a tremendous moment! We stayed in the labor room with Bryce for a couple hours and got to hold him and admire him. Aubree even came shortly after he was born and was thrilled to see "her" baby. Bryce weighed 8 lbs. 15 oz!! He was 20 1/4 inches long and his head was 13 1/2 inches.

Overall, real "labor" only lasted less than 2 1/2 intense hours. Not too bad. The best part of not having an epidural was that my recovery was super quick and easy. I could immediately get out of bed and take a shower and I felt energized and powerful.

I am so thankful my mom was able to be there to see her grandson born. I couldn't have had a better support team - Mark, my mom, and Amy were the perfect combination. Dr. Ivery and the nurse made several comments about what a great labor and delivery experience it was for them and even thanked us for allowing them to be a part of it. Of course, the best part is having Bryce!