The reason I began this blog was to create a place that contained not only first hand experiences of this doula but also to put information out there regarding pregnancy, labor, birth and all the fun stuff that comes after. However, I've been absent from this blog for far long enough! Currently, I'm 36 weeks pregnant and looking forward to a planned home birth. I'm excited to be able to outline our birth story and to get to share it with all of you. I hope it goes as well as I imagine it going. This will be my third delivery experience.
I'll try to be brief in explaining my last two experiences now so everyone has an understanding of what knowledge I'm bringing into this one.
We first got pregnant in May of 2008. EDD was Dec. 29th, 2008, however on December 1st (36 weeks on the dot) I went to see my DO due to extreme discomfort and a concern about the baby's activity levels. He couldn't detect a heart-tone with his dopler or fetoscope so I was sent to get an Ultrasound, but heartbreakingly, there was no heart beat. Our baby had died sometime in the previous few days (we figured this out after delivery due to the condition of her skin, hair, etc.). We were directed to a local hospital and the path that we'd go down depended upon if my body went into labor on its own or if we'd have to be induced. Also, the baby at the time was laying semi-transverse so unless it dropped into place before labor we'd be looking into surgery. Definitely NOT the path we wanted since it was a previously planned home birth.
Fortunately, as they were performing another ultrasound to determine positioning, my water broke spontaneously and our baby's head dropped into place. Labor began. And boy did it hurt! At the onset of labor my cervix was dilated to 2 cm. Within 2 hours I was to a 6, and 3 1/2 hours later I was pushing. Intense is the only way to describe this birth story. I did opt for a Stadol (sp?) drug after about 2 hours to provide some mental relaxation relief between contraction. Don't confuse this for a pain reliever though, I felt it all. Pushing was short, maybe 15 minutes and at 11:37PM our daughter Madison Elizabeth was born at 5 lbs. 3 oz. and 19 inches long. Good sized baby for 36 weeks. No cause was ever determined and we opted out of an autopsy. My husband and I have both come to a place of understanding and gratitude towards this experience. She was a blessing in our lives, even if it was only for 9 months.
Life can throw you for a whirlwind though and lo-and-behold 6 weeks later we were pregnant again. The pregnancy was uneventful just as the first, however, at 33 weeks I started to have these very strange abdominal cramps that just felt like I had to fart. It took a bit but I noticed they lasted somewhere between 30 seconds and 1 minute and came about every 2 minutes. Strange... I thought. But went about my day since they didn't seem anything like the contractions I had experienced before. Slowly throughout the day though they did get a little more intense and stayed consistent.
PLEASE NOTE: if you experience something like this...you're in labor. It may stop on its own or it may continue, but it's early labor all the same.
Anyways, by the time I got in touch with my midwife (since again, this was a planned home birth) and got the definite instruction to go to the hospital to see if it was labor, it was somewhere around 10PM. I walked into the ER and got up to L&D around 11:30PM. My husband, by the way, was a 6 hour car ride away at a Chiropractic conference. He had been updated by me all day long but didn't end up leaving and heading home until 1:30AM when I was finally checked and told that yes, this was pre-term labor and no, they didn't think they'd be able to stop it. My cervix was at 3 cm dilated and my bag of waters was bulging. I was given medications to try to stop/slow the contraction and ultimately this dragged my labor out for another 12 hours. But honestly, I didn't mind. My contractions stayed mild and at 5 cm they ended up sending me (and baby of course) by helicopter to another hospital 2 hours away (45 minutes by air) since our baby would need a Level 3 NICU. My husband in the meantime had gotten back home and was able to see me for about 10 minutes before the air-transport team got me strapped to a board. Then he was off again, stopping at home to grab some things and then driving the final 2 hours to the next hospital. Poor man.
Once at Rochester Mayo (that's where we got sent), labor was allowed to progress on its own without anymore interruptions. My husband walked into my room shortly after I got there (he may have broken some speeding laws...) and we got settled into our rhythm and routine through contractions. It took another three hours for the contractions to get to a point where I was having a hard time with them and another two of hard contractions to reach 8.5 cm dilated. And although there was that initial fear of my water breaking, it was still in tact! After being asked what felt like 100 times, I finally agreed to allow for an artificial rupturing of membranes. It only took 30 minutes to reach 10 cm and only another 15 minutes to push our son out. He was born crying (a very good sign for a 33 week preemie) weighing in at 4 lbs. 5 oz. and 17.5 inches long. Again, I was able to have a natural delivery and was excited about that even with the circumstances being what they were. Keller Resop is now a very healthy and active 19 month old. He has certainly been keeping this mamma busy throughout this pregnancy!
So to sum it up, I am thrilled to be at 36 weeks with an active and healthy little one inside. We have officially been given thumbs-up that if we were to go into labor, a home delivery would be just fine! I can't even begin to explain how over the moon I am about that.
I hope this didn't wear you out reading such a long post, but going into this next delivery I thought some background was necessary. I'll be posting throughout these next few weeks regarding topics that usually come up around this time for pregnant women and hopefully all of you gain some insight into the OPTIONS you have.
Thanks for reading! Until next time...
