Sunday July 22nd

I suppose the birth story should start on Sunday. We were 41 weeks, 4 days pregnant and trying our hardest to get baby out. We did nipple stimulation, sex, walking, sex… and then a couple drops of blood and some contractions! I was so excited, they were getting regular and strong… and a couple storms blew through, ramping them up more.

And then I went to bed, at woke up at 1am and still contracting… I was excited! I thought “Woo hoo, I won’t make it to my 42 weeks appointment now!” I was right. But not in a good way.

Monday July 23rd

5am Monday morning I woke up and the contractions were still going but nowhere near enough to call the midwife to me. Defeated, I decided I must go to my 42 week appointment. I asked my husband to see if he could accompany me in case the contractions got stronger and luckily they allowed him to. We piled the kids into the van and headed out. About 15 miles from home, our van started acting weird. Slowly, it was dying. We finally made it into a parking lot as it died completely. My husband called USAA to see about towing (luckily it was covered!) and I called my midwife to let her know we wouldn’t be making it and my neighbor to ask her to come pick the kids and myself up.

My contractions got stronger. It was hot out, we were in a broke down van in a gravel parking lot in the middle of a military base, with all three of our kids in the van, and my contractions got stronger. I was starting to get scared!

Luckily, my neighbor showed up just before the tow truck and got the kids and I home. I started to try rehydrating from the ordeal (100+F heat index is nothing to scoff at when you are almost 42 weeks along!) and my husband and the tow truck showed up shortly after with the van. Spoke with my midwife and she asked me to go get my blood pressure checked as we had had issues with it the week before and that’s all she was worried about.

So again, we piled the kids into a vehicle, this time my husbands little car with no AC. They all fit, safe and snug, but it’s nowhere near as roomy or comfortable as my van. We headed to Walgreens, then Wal-mart when we found out Wal-greens didn’t have a cuff.

At Wal-mart, my blood pressure came back scary high. Something like 144/94. Twice, even after sitting and relaxing. My van being broken down wasn’t stressing me out anymore as we knew our warranty would cover fixing it… so I called my midwife and informed her. She asked me to get in to see her back up OB as soon as I could and to take hospital bags just in case.

I started to freak out that this meant no hope for my home birth.

I had my neighbor take the big kids for the evening while we went, hoping for the best. After a hassle getting a referral to get in, I finally got in to see the doctor. My pee came back fine, my blood pressure was 122/80 so not worrisome. The doctor checked me and my cervix was high, closed and posterior, so even though I was still having contractions, we knew I wasn’t actively in labor yet.

He decided there was probably nothing to worry about, but sent me up to the hospital for an NST and some blood work just to be safe.

Both came back clear and during the NST they figured out it was leaning back causing my blood pressure to skyrocket. If I was leaning forward or on my side, it was a very nice 111/70. They sent me home, where I passed out and slept off a headache I had gotten from dehydration through the day. I went to bed at 7pm and apart from a couple potty breaks, did not get up until 7am on Tuesday.

Tuesday July 24th

Woke up and the contractions I had been having were gone. Not a single one. Yet somehow, I was fine with that. I was 41 weeks, 6 days pregnant and just did not even care anymore. I think in large part to the fact that the day before had finally calmed my nerves about my blood pressure and my fear that I would need a hospital transfer while in labor and end up with a c-section, now I knew this probably wasn’t going to be an issue at all provided I try not to lean back too much when I finally went into labor.

Unfortunately, I also knew if I was pregnant the next morning, the baby would come anyway as I was scheduled for an induction at 5am.

I started my day as usual, got the toddler up, let the big two wake up on their own, wandered around the house doing basic housework.

9am I took a standard potty break, but when I wiped, I saw what I had been hoping to see for so long but hadn’t been seeing. Bloody show.

I got so excited! I knew this meant labor was started, even if I wasn’t feeling anything.

About 11:30am I made myself some lunch. My contractions had started but weren’t too strong yet. I could completely miss that I was having one if I was busy in the middle of it. I started up a pot of water and made some hard boiled eggs for a labor snack. Also sent my husband a text and let him know what I was feeling and that it was getting uncomfortable. Asked him to finish up what he needed to and come home because by the time he got here it would be hard to deal with the kids through the stronger contractions.

At noon, I painted my nails and my daughters’ nails trying to distract myself. An hour later, my husband got home from work and started calling everyone he knows to let them know what was going on. We unpacked our hospital bag except the emergency stuff and started setting up the house for the birth.

1:30pm, I was questioning whether or not I was actually in labor between contractions, but the moment one hit, I knew I really was. This is a really familiar feeling for me in early labor. Contractions were about 40 seconds long and 10 minutes apart. I knew it was still going to be a while. I called the midwife to let her know I was in early labor and found out she was in court for the day! However, if things happened too fast, she did have a backup ready for me.

2:30pm I realized I was only 2 hours away from being the most pregnant I had ever been and knew there was no way I was having baby before that point. At this point, contractions were strong enough I couldn’t handle walking through them, but they didn’t stop me from doing anything else.

3pm They started to get stronger suddenly, I had to change position to get comfortable. I also suddenly got very hungry and started eating some of my hard boiled eggs.

5:30pm Not much progress. Starting to get discouraged. Sometimes it seemed like the contractions were getting further apart and less strong (when in reality by this point they were about 7 minutes apart and 45 seconds long).

6:30pm Sat outside watching a storm roll in, then ran inside and watched it blow through. Tons of wind and rain. Contractions were very irregular in strength, some I was already moaning through and others I barely noticed. The inconsistency was worrying me, as well as the fact that I’d been in early labor for hours with very little progress.

8pm Sent the kids to the neighbors house for the night. Still questioning if baby was finally coming or not, but didn’t want to risk having to transfer them in the middle of the night, just easier to have them sleep over there the whole time.

8:30pm Call the midwife. She says call back in an hour unless I progress faster. Pee myself, question if it was pee or my water breaking. (Correctly) decide it was just pee and go about getting things ready for labor to ramp up.

10pm Everything suddenly ramped up in the past hour. Moaning to music through contractions. Midwife and photographer are on the way. Contractions are about 3 minutes apart and a minute long at this point, but nowhere near transition strength.

11pm Midwife arrives. 4-5cm dilated, bulging water, 80% effaced, 0 station. She calls her helpers and sets up in my livingroom while I continue to ride through contractions in my bedroom. Suddenly feeling way better knowing stuff IS happening since the day before my cervix was still closed.

Wednesday July 25

1:30am Feel like I am nearing transition. Midwife’s helpers are starting to ready things for the birth, showing I am probably right.

2:20am 0 station, 7cm dilated. Feel a bit discouraged. At this point, I stop being able to keep track in between contractions because I’m focusing on relaxing in between. Try to find a comfortable position and can’t. Lay down, sit up, lean over, lay down another way, get up and go sit on the toilet, decide to take a shower. It feels good but I don’t want to stay in too long, go back to my bed and lay down.

Hubby lays behind me. We turn off my labor playlist and I focus on humming down a scale through contractions, relaxing my forehead, hands and legs, keeping my jaw relaxed, picturing my uterus opening. I put my hubby on “leg duty”. He rubbed my leg telling me “Relax your leg… that’s good… it’s almost over” every single contraction. This became so repetitive that he fell asleep and continued doing it on time each contraction. At this point I am exhausted and pass out between contractions, which isn’t very long between them.

Transition starts, I sit on my ball, I don’t like it. I lay on my bed, I don’t like it. I lean back against my husband, it’s the most comfortable position I can find… he continues with leg duty and emotional support.

I hit the “I can’t do this” stage… I become very vocal about how I cannot handle any more, about how the baby needs to get out so I can sleep, about how each contraction feels like the baby is about to come.

Midwife finally comes in and checks me, almost fully effaced except a very small lip. Told me if I felt like I needed to push, it would be okay. Gave my a suggestion of holding my knees and pulling up while pushing.

Next contraction, my water burst all over my bed. It had meconium in it, but not a lot. Nowhere near enough that we were worried about it.

4:25am – Next contraction, I push. Baby comes flying out in one push. I grab her and pull her up to my chest, staring at her face and saying to my husband “Who is it?! Who is it?!” “It’s a GIRL!”

She was covered in thick vernix. Definitely did not look like a 42 week baby.

She pouted a bunch, then started crying.

We noticed her curly blond hair and were amazed, all of my others had brunette hair at birth!

Her eyes were swollen shut and around her neck was very swollen, too. This wasn’t an issue and the swelling had disappeared by the next day.

She latched on great and started sucking like a pro.

The placenta was very easily delivered in just one push as well. It had some calcification but that is to be expected.

I was checked and found to have no tears, not even tiny little ones. It was as if I had not just pushed a baby through there.

Midwife clamped the cord and my husband cut it. Husband helped them to weigh and measure the baby, then he got to hold our daughter while I got up to get cleaned up and for them to take off the top sheet from our bed since it was covered in amniotic fluid.

Once they were all done cleaning up and answering the few questions we had, the midwife and her team took off, husband made me a huge bowl on scrambled eggs, we called a few very important people and then we passed out as a family after a very long night.

Final details

Labor 9am July 24 – 4:25am July 25, transition lasted about an hour.

Baby was out in one push. No tears or damage at all.

Head: 14in

Chest: 14.5in

Length: 19.5in

Weight: 8lb 12oz

Welcome to our family, Roxanne Marjorie!