Baby Love Birth Center

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Amelia Paige

Posted by Baby Love Birth Center on Thursday, 30 August 2012 in Birth Stories

On Wednesday, August 22, 2012 I woke up around 10am. The last few nights I had a hard time sleeping due to my hips being sore and waking up to go to the bathroom so often. This night I finally got some great rest and I am so thankful for it.

While laying in bed that morning I started to feel some cramps and what I thought were braxton hicks. Nothing to be concerned about since I knew it was just one of the things that prepares my body for the big event. My mom invited me to lunch and I told her at noon that I started timing my braxton hicks since they were coming so often. They were 2-3 minutes apart lasting for about a minute. I thought this just had to be braxtons since nobody starts labor at this rate. My mom even said it probably was pre-labor or false labor since they didn't start at the typical 10-15 minutes apart. Plus they really were not painful. So I just continued to watch TV. My mom arrived at my house to pick me up for lunch at about 12:30pm and I told her they were getting stronger. They still just felt like period cramps with my stomach tightening like a braxton hicks, but not painful enough to convince me that I was in labor. Since I wasn't feeling up to going out, my mom and I just went through the drive thru at McDonald's so I could get a smoothie and something to eat. When we got back to my house she convinced me to text Bryan to have him come home and skip the meeting he had after school. He had guessed she would come the following day. So we kept joking that maybe this meant he would be right. My mom then left around 1:30pm and Bryan got home about 2:30pm. When he got home I was bouncing on my yoga ball listening to the playlist of music I made for myself during labor. At this point I had to stop during a contraction and breath. I could still talk through them, but I had to focus a little more. We were not too concerned so I kept bouncing while Bryan made something to eat.

At about 4:00 Bryan called a client of mine to cancel my consultation I had scheduled that night. I thought about calling them myself, but since my contractions were so close together I would probably not sound the way I should when talking to a client. My mom came to pick up the dog so he didn't annoy me and she called the birth center to give them a heads up that I may be coming in sometime in the future. They didn't seem too concerned since I was still barely convinced myself that this was the real thing. I could still talk through the contractions. I just closed my eyes and bounced on my ball.

I texted my doula Crystal and we decided it would be nice for her to come over even if this wasn't real labor. She arrived at my house about 5:30pm. She came and sat on the edge of my bed while I was still on my yoga ball. She watched me go through some contractions and said to me that this may be false labor, but that we should do some things to see if we could get things moving. So the three of us headed outside to do some walking. We walked two blocks in my neighborhood. During a contraction I would hold on to Bryan and sway my hips. A few times Crystal had me try walking through a contraction. Some were not as intense as others so I could do it. At this point I started to feel more convinced that this was the real deal. Since the contractions were not intense for that long (maybe 30 min at this point) I thought I had a long night ahead of me. At about 6:15pm Crystal called the birth center when we got back home. She told them my contractions were about 2-4 minutes apart lasting for only about 30 seconds. The midwife said she would like to see me have contractions that lasted for 2 minutes long. So she suggested I take a bath and try to relax some more. Bryan started the tub and we all laughed at our funny tub that is oddly sunk into the ground at our house. I got in the tub and could not get comfortable. I felt my belly was just too big to fit into the water like I wanted. A few minutes later I had a contraction that gave me the urge to push. It wasn't an intense feeling, so I told Bryan and Crystal I had the urge but didn't know if it was real. Crystal looked at Bryan in a panic and told him to immediately call the birth center and tell them we were coming. She helped me out of the tub and I dried off real quick so that I could make it back to my yoga ball before the next contraction hit. I kept telling them I really hope Samantha (my midwife) doesn't send me home because I am only like 3 cm dilated or something similar. I was so worried I would drive all the way there and be too early.

Bryan helped me in the car and we started on our way. I had about 4-5 of the most intense contractions yet in the car. Since I had a slight urge to push I had sooo much pressure down below. It hurt to sit so I kept raising myself off the seat with the handle above the door. At this point I couldn't calm myself and I was pretty much screaming. Bryan kept calm and drove as smoothly as possible even though I got mad at him for every little bump in the road. I look back now and feel bad and can't believe how he managed next to me.

We arrived at the birth center at about 7:00pm and we went straight back to the Angel Room suite that we chose to deliver in. Samantha had already started the tub for me. She asked me if I wanted to be checked and I said yes. As she was checking me I was just waiting for the bad news. She looked up at me and smiled saying you're 9 cm dilated! I was in shock! I looked at Bryan and was so excited to know that I was already almost done. The tub wasn't full yet but I asked to get in right away. I believe I had one more contraction in the tub and then started feeling a extreme urge to push.

The contractions were very different now. Not necessarily painful. They now took over my body making me push so hard that I couldn't fight back. Bryan put his bathing suit on and hoped in the tub to support me. I grabbed onto the handle above my head and started to groan with each push that took over me.

I laugh now because I remember hearing Bryan push right along with me. It encouraged me to know he was doing everything he could to support me. My doula stayed with me the entire time leaning over the tub massaging my legs. Samantha would come in every once and a while to check on me and listen to the baby's heartbeat. No one ever told me what to do, how to push or when to push. They just let my body do what it was made to do. This is one of the many reasons I chose to birth at Baby Love Birth Center, rather than a hospital. My water even broke on its own about a half hour into pushing and it looked like a balloon burst in the water.

I pushed for about an hour and a half until Amelia was born at 8:35pm. Once the cord stopped pulsating, Bryan cut it. The placenta came about 15 minutes later and we thought it was pretty cool to see in person. I was in complete shock that I had just had a baby!!!! I had finally convinced myself I was in labor only about 3-4 hours ago and she was already in my arms! Since she was born in such a calm atmosphere and in the warm water which was familiar to her she was very calm. She only cried a little bit to get the stuff out of her mouth, but since there were no drugs of any kind in our systems she was wide awake and looking around. We couldn't get over her chunky cheeks, I was so in love.

My parents arrived and came to see Amelia shortly after she was born. My mom got emotional which then made me even more emotional. Samantha waited until we were ready for her to take Amelia to be dried and weighed. I got out of the tub and into bed. Amelia was then shown off to the rest of the family in the waiting room outside my door. Bryan brought her back to me and my mom told me that I just had a baby that was 8lbs 14oz! I was in shock and couldn't believe I had such a big baby. Later the family came into my room with cake to sing happy birthday to Amelia.