Here's a rough draft of the story of Claire's birth. Mostly put here for my own future reference, but I know I'm always curious about people's birth experiences.
I woke up at 2:30 am on February 23rd (Claire’s due date) to a short but strong cramping in my back. I made note of the time and went back to sleep. I woke up again at 3:00 to the same feeling. At that point I allowed myself to wonder if this might be the start of something, which got a little adrenaline going. I tried to doze as the sensation came back around 3:30, 4:00, and 4:30. But sleep was difficult so I spent some time in the dark Googling back labor on my iPod. The contractions became irregular at that point, with anywhere from 5 to 25 minutes between them.
Jeff got up just before 7:00 to get ready for his residency program’s in-service exam. He had been hoping for an on-time delivery to get him out of this exam. I let him know that I had been having irregular contractions since 2:30. He didn’t that was serious enough to not go. I made sure he took his pager with him just in case things progressed quickly. My mom was here though, having just flown in from Atlanta the night before.
I got up shortly after him and turned on the TV. Contractions continued to be highly irregular and all in my back. I managed to nap from about 8 to 9 or 9:30. The rest of the morning was much of the same. I made sure to really enjoy a shower, thinking it might be a while before my next opportunity.
I decided we should go out for lunch, in case it would be the last opportunity to do so for at least a few days. So we headed out to Lombard to go to Rock Bottom. My mom, Jeff, and I had a nice relaxed lunch. Contractions came every once in a while, with me pressing my fists into my back to help relieve the discomfort. We took a quick swing into Motherhood to pick up some nursing tops. The clerk was quite surprised when she asked the due date to hear it was that day. I refrained from telling her that I might very well be in labor. On the way home we stopped at the grocery store to pick up some much needed food supplies. After that, I was ready to get home.
My mom worked on making some spaghetti for dinner. The contractions seemed to be getting a little closer together but still irregular. It was getting to the point where I needed to move to get through them. Mostly standing up and leaning over or pulling on a chair back or counter top. Swaying side to side and squatting helped some as well. I was able to get through dinner but had to get up every few minutes as a contraction came. After dinner the intensity of the contractions seemed to ratchet up another notch. We tried heat and racquet balls as pressure on my back. I ended up in the bedroom at some point. I sat one for some time with one leg off the bed, one leg on and leaning the front of my body on some pillows propped against the headboard. As a contraction came, I would push my body into the pillow, straightening the leg pushing on the floor. No amount of relaxation techniques or trying to “relax into” the contraction was working for me. I couldn’t help but tense up against the pain. At some point I felt like it was too much and had a little crying jag. Eventually my mom came in and was able to do counter pressure on my back during every contraction with heat on my back when not contracting. That was the only way I was able to make it through.
The timing of contractions continued to be irregular, anywhere from 2.5-7 minutes, messing up the whole idea of when to call the doctor. And I didn't want to go in too early and hear all this pain had not equaled any progress. Finally around 10:30 the average time between contractions was around 3 minutes for at least an hour. And although I had considered trying to go med free I was ready to consider some drugs! We called the midwife and I believed I used the phrase "it feels like someone is trying to rip my spine out" when she asked if I wanted to come in or keep laboring at home. So I told her that yes I was ready to come in.
We arrived at the hospital around 11:30 pm on the 23rd. I was elated to hear that I had made it to 6cm dilated. The staff thought I was doing so well that they questioned me a couple of times if I really wanted an epidural. I was so tired and in enough pain to know that I didn't want at least another few hours of this. But the epidural was no picnic and took 2 tries to do. It allowed me to get some rest though. We all tried to get some sleep. Jeff stretched on the oh-so-comfortable flip out chair and my mom tried to get comfortable in a couple plastic chairs.
However, I was physically shaking a lot off and on which it difficult to sleep. Also the baby's heart rate would drop, so every once in a while the midwife and nurse would rush in to have me turn over. So complete rest was impossible.
This continued until sometime after 5 am on the 24th when the baby's heartbeat dropped really low and people rushed in. The baby was really low, ready to be delivered but I couldn't feel anything. No contractions, no urge to push. Exactly what I had feared with an epidural. But they were going to have me try anyway. I didn't really realize the extent of concern at the time for the amount of distress the baby was in. So they have me try to push and also call in the OB on call with a vacuum to get the baby out. At some point during ineffective pushing I realize that if this baby doesn't come out soon I might be rushed in for a c-section. (Jeff later confirmed that if the baby hadn't been ready to be delivered at that moment they would likely have taken me in for an emergency c-section). So I give it all I've got even though I can't feel anything . And the doctor is doing his part as well, yanking on the vacuum. Out comes her head, with the umbilical cord wrapped 3 times around her neck! I hear someone state this and my heart sinks. Once she is out she is whisked to the side to be evaluated. A little suctioning of fluid and a few tense moments and then she lets out a hearty cry. Everything looks good for her. As the midwife works to sew me up, my battle wounds continue to bleed, perplexing/concerning the staff. Various things are tried and finally the midwife takes out all the stitches and starts over, finding part of a tear she had missed the first time. Apparently this works to get everything under control.
So the birth was everything I didn't want it to be. But Claire Catherine arrived healthy at 5:38 am February 24th, weighing 6 lbs 3 oz and 19 inches long. And that's what counts.
