When did you realize you were really in labor?
Three days before my due date, I woke up about 4 am having contractions. This was my first pregnancy, and I hadn’t had any Braxton Hicks contractions, so I really had no idea if this was the “real thing” or not. But when I went to the bathroom, I had my bloody show. I was officially in labor! I knew that this phase could go on for several hours, so I decided to go back to bed and try and sleep as much as I could. The contractions were about 8-10 minutes apart for the next few hours. I’d doze between contractions, they were not too intense, but they were powerful enough that I would wake up and have to breathe through them.
At 8 am my husband woke up. After getting out of bed and walking around the house for a few minutes, my contractions slowed in timing and intensity. We went to a couple of stores and walked around, and as long as I was standing or walking, I didn’t really have contractions. But if I sat or laid down, they would start up again. We spent the entire day wondering when labor would begin progressing faster. I called and spoke with our doula, and she said that things could go on this way for hours to days. About 10 pm, we went to bed. I had been having a little bit of bleeding, so I put a big pad for overnight protection. I had a couple of contractions, then a BIG one at 11:30 pm. I felt a huge pop, and thought my water had broken. As soon as I stood up out of bed, there was a huge gush of fluid! Thank goodness I had worn a think pad. I went into the bathroom and started timing contractions. They were incredibly intense and 3-4 minutes apart! I had planned to labor at home as much as possible, and I had especially wanted to labor in my tub. I filled the tub with water, but as soon as I sat down, the pain of the contraction became unbearable. I didn’t even sit in the water for 60 seconds. The only way I felt any relief from the pain of the contraction was to stand and sway side to side.
I had planned to labor for at least one hour before waking my husband, because I knew it’d be a long night for both of us. But after 30 minutes, the contractions were still coming 4 minutes apart, and were very intense. We had a 20 minute car ride to the hospital, and I started calculating in my head the number of contractions I’d have in the car. Considering that sitting made the pain worse, I wanted to get that part of labor over with. We called our doctor, and our doula, and we all agreed to meet at the hospital.
While my husband packed the car with our last minute things, I stood under the ceiling fan. The car ride was NO FUN at all. During the ride, I kept telling my husband, “I can’t do this! I want an epidural as soon as we get to the hospital!”
Upon arrival, our doula met us at the entrance and walked me to the labor and delivery ward. I kept telling her that I wanted an epidural. She, in all her wisdom, knew that I had lost control a little bit in the car. She simply said, “Let’s wait until you get into a room and then we will talk about it.”
The hospital was VERY full that night, in fact, we got the last room on the floor! They first admitted me to triage, as they wanted to make sure I really was in labor. They could tell from my behavior that I was, but they wanted to confirm that my water broke and see how much I was dilated. At my last doctor’s appointment three days prior, I had been 2.5 centimeters dilated and 70% effaced. When the nurse checked me in triage, about 1:30 am, I was 5 cm dilated and 90% effaced. So down the hall to my room I went.
As the nurse scrambled to ready to room, I stood and swayed while my husband and my doula rubbed my back. I still insisted on an epidural. My doula said, “Why don’t we wait one hour to see how fast you progress?” I agreed to thirty minutes.
I’m so thankful for her wisdom and knowing my wishes beforehand. I labored about 30 minutes before the nurse was ready for me to get in bed. In that time, I had regained a bit of control over my fear. I realized that if I took deep breaths during my contractions, and I counted them, by the eighth breath, they were fading. So all I did was wait for the contraction, take deep breaths and count in my head. I had heard other women talk about how they went to an internal place during labor, and that’s exactly what happened to me. My husband jokes that I “slept” through labor, because I had my eyes closed and did my breathing without making any noise or talking at all. Part of the reason I quit asking for an epidural is because I’d lose my focus when I’d talk!
About 45 minutes after first arriving at the hospital, I laid down in the hospital bed. I instantly started feeling the urge to push. My doctor hadn’t even arrived yet! The nurse said, “Hold on! Let me check you again…” I was at 8 cm dilated and fully effaced. I knew at that point I could do it. I had heard that transition was the hardest part, but I was already feeling the urge to push so I had to fight that. It took a bit of focus from the pain.
Thirty minutes after the nurse checking, I was no longer able to hold back the urge to push. She checked me again, I only had a tiny lip left. She told me at that point that I could start “practice” pushes. It did take a while to get the hang of it.
The doctor arrived after about 10 minutes of pushing. He was so positive and encouraging. The early pushing stage felt like the longest part of the entire labor, except for the car ride. The pushing was hard work, but my doula, my husband and my sister held my legs for me and coached me through them.
I also definitely had the ring of fire. When the head stared crowning, it was INTENSE pain. The doctor made me stop pushing and held a warm washcloth to my perineum, which felt AMAZING. One of the few times I spoke during labor was to ask him, after the next contraction, to use a washcloth again.
I pushed the baby’s head almost out, and the doctor said, “Okay, rest until the next one to finish pushing out the head,” but I was so ready for his head to be out I did one more big push and the head was out! Then with one more contraction, the rest of him was born. I didn’t really feel him come all the way out. Honestly I think I was still feeling the relief of the head being delivered. For that reason, my doula had to say, “Look down, Natalie! Your baby is here!” At 4:52 am, I finally opened my eyes and they passed my beautiful boy to me. The euphoric feeling that came over me is something that I can’t describe, but will remember vividly for the rest of my life. Instantly all the pain was gone and the world was absolutely perfect. They put him on my chest and I held him for over an hour. He nursed and looked at me and it was the most magical moments of my life.
I had a second degree tear, and after our son was born, the doctor numbed me with a local anesthetic and stitched me up. I was definitely aware that it was happening, and although not painful exactly, it was definitely uncomfortable. I forgot about the placenta, and was surprised when the urge to push came over me again. But it was out in two pushes and wasn’t painful.
As this was my first child, and I hadn’t been around many newborns, I didn’t realize that our son was a big baby until my doula said, “Wow – he’s so big!” When they finally weighed him, we were all shocked to read that he weighed 9 lbs. 14 oz! Just shy of ten pounds!