Ethan's Birth Story

This story is kinda hard for me to write. I have read so many birth stories and heard so many that I am very used to all the things that happen that should not necessarily be talked about (aka the gore)! So here is Ethan's Birth Story written without too much gore!

Monday, February 18, 2013 - 6 Days over due.
Went to my midwife appointment. Everything was great and they did a sweep to try and bring on labor.
That afternoon I bought McDonalds:) then that evening I was so tired we ate Tim Hortons... oh such nutrition.

Tuesday, February 19, 2013 - 1 week overdue.
4am-7am on - Woke up with severe pain in my lower back & pelvis and had really bad indigestion (darn you timmy's and McD's!)   Made several trips to the bathroom! I really didn't sleep much just kinda dozed through the pain.

7am - Got out of bed when Ben's alarm went off and BAM felt a contraction! So I started timing them! My instructions from my midwives were to count them and once they are 4 minutes apart, 1 minute long and stay like that for 1 hour constantly to call them. I was not able to sit at all, my pelvis was constantly in pain. The contractions were pretty bad but I was amazed at how easily I was able to get above the pain and ride out the contraction.

8am - Ben starts leaving for work... and I say... "hmm not a good idea hun" Ben replies "I'll just come back around noon." "Umm no you better not, I think this is gonna be fast..."

9am - Time flew by and when 9am arrived my contractions had been 4-1-1!! So first I called my mom to tell her.. then she got mad at me and told me to call my midwives immediately!

10:30am - My midwife, Elise, arrived. She was shocked to see I was almost 7cm already! (I think she had taken her time as she thought I was still in the early stages:))

10:45ish (time starts getting mixed up here) -  After running around to get everything ready to head to the hospital and going bathroom and changing etc we head to the hospital... Now this was horrible. In the car was the first time I had to actually sit and boy did it hurt! It was harder to get above the contractions as I had such horrible permanent pain! and of course there was lots of traffic as it was rush hour and we were heading through the city!!

11:15ish - Finally arrived at the hospital, people staring at me as I tried to control a contraction as we waited for the elevators. Our room was great!! We had a bath tub meaning if I wanted I could have a water birth!! I was unsure though...The bath was soo soothing, I had a hot shower and let it hit my back which lessened the pain a lot, then I had a nice hot bath. In the bath is when I started to feel the urge to push. But I was only 9 1/2cm so Elise said not to do anything yet.

1pm?? maybe... - The urge to push kept getting stronger so I got out of the bath and just stood by the bed. Finally my water breaks! By this time the contractions are getting harder to control.

2pm - Finally they tell me to get on the bed and start pushing... oh boy... it was so painful to be on my back but pushing was so much better than the contractions... it felt like I was finally doing something! Not just enduring! They would check Ethan's heart rate after every contraction/pushing. After who knows how long, they had a hard time finding his heart rate. They couldn't tell if it was mine or his... so they tried to hook me up and compare... that didn't work... so they tried a monitor on my stomach... that didn't work... so finally they inserted a Fetal Monitor and found that his heart rate was not going back up after each contraction. So my midwives called for an OB to come assist.

My OB was Dr Brain! Really great lady:) She came in and found he was sunny side up (which my midwives had thought, hence all my back labor!) Which means his face was looking the wrong way. SO she decided to try and manually turn him... Oh boy, no drugs and that... now that is painful! She felt so bad as usually women have epidurals so they don't feel as much! Well Ethan stubbornly would not turn... so Dr Brain turned to the vacuum... she tried to give me a "stint" which blocks some of the nerves... but it didn't work... so I had the happy pleasure of feeling IT ALL!! She successfully turned him and then he moved a bit and decided to be stubborn AGAIN and would not come any farther...

This is when time speeds up like crazy! Ben is told that things are gonna get crazy and a lot of people and gonna come in the room and yup that happened... I was almost 100% oblivious to it all. Dr Brain called for an OR to be prepped and bam people poured in and my bed started rolling down the hallway (and bumpy!! they hit every wall!!) I was trying so hard not to think about having a C-section... I just kept pushing as hard as I could...

Then I saw Ben in scrubs and realized this c-section is gonna happen! Oh dear! The anesthesiologist came and told me he was gonna knock me out etc... then Dr Brain said "He is so close, he is almost there. I am going to try forceps" and I said "YES PLEASE". Then the anesthesiologist piped in and said "Let me know if you want any drugs" To which I was way too preoccupied! After what I think was a few minutes and lot of people cheering me on in the OR Ethan was born at 2:47pm! Phew did it feel good to be done! They let me hold Ethan for a minute, Ben cut the cord, then the nurses took him.  Ethans cries were so soft at first then after a minute I heard a real cry:)

A few hours later I remember just thinking... "YES IT'S DONE!!! and I have my precious bundle!"

Overall looking back on how the day went and how I prepared for it, I am very thankful I read all that I did. One of the worries I had was that I would read too much and be over prepared! With that in mind I read two books, both written by midwives. Ina May's Guide To Childbirth by Ina May Gaskin and Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent. I loved both of them! Baby Catcher is more of a story book telling her experiences of catching babies (as midwives call delivering a baby:)). Ina May's book is a whole wack of women writing their child's birth stories as well as Ina May writing about how the body and labour work. That was such a helpful section for me.

I also loved hearing everyone who recently had babies birth stories. I was fascinated by the variety of stories. Some easy some hard and some in the middle! I was a little nervous that my fascination would make me over think labour and make it really hard but in reality it helped me! When things started to spiral out of control during my labour I was able to stay in control of my emotions and just keep on pushing and going with the flow.

I also got some great advice from my sister, who has had 3 children all with different labours (the last one drug free), and my friend in Scotland, Stephanie who just had her first baby in early January and also did it drug free, about how to relax and control contractions. Their advice lined up perfectly with what Ina May talks about. Thank you ladies for your advice, I really believe it is what got me through this labour drug free!