On Tuesday, April 10th, I was 5 days overdue and VERY anxious for you to come!  (That’s probably the biggest understatement of the century!)  I had my membranes stripped the Tuesday before, and nothing had happened.  My next appointment was originally scheduled for Thursday, but the day before I had called the clinic to change my appointment to Tuesday and have my membranes stripped again.  I was desperate to get labor started!  Part of it was because I would need to have lots of tests done on Wednesday and Thursday since you would be a week overdue, but mostly I just wanted to hold you in my arms and tell you I loved you and finally see what you look like!

I went into the clinic at 8:30 AM.  Melissa saw me (she had also seen me the Tuesday before) and to my disappointment told me that I hadn’t dilated any more…I was still only 1cm.  However, I had gone from 70% effaced to about 85%!  There was still a glimmer of hope!  She stripped my membranes again, and I was on my way.  I picked dad up from school and we came home, and then he went to work.  I had felt some cramping on the way home, and decided to wait and see if any contractions would come before I went to work.  Sure enough, by 10 AM I was having mild contractions!  By noon, the contractions were coming pretty regularly, so I decided to time them.  I couldn’t believe it when I realized they were 5 to 6 minutes apart!  I called dad, my mom, dad’s mom, and aunt Kerynne to let them know I was having contractions.  Then I called the midwife on call, Claudia Killebrew.  She told me it may still be a false alarm since I had had my membranes stripped, and to call back when the contractions were 2 to 3 minutes apart.  So, I continued to walk around the house, cleaning and organizing things in between contractions while I waited.  I started using some of my hypnobirthing techniques, but I was too excited to focus on that for long.  I was so ready for you to come!

By around 5 PM the contractions were 3 minutes apart, lasting 30 to 45 seconds.  They were intense enough that I had to stop and breathe/moan my way through them.  I called dad and told him to come home and bring some dinner.  Then I called Claudia, and she told me that I could come up to the clinic so she could check my progress.  Since the clinic was right next to American Fork Hospital where we were having you, I wanted to finish packing and bring everything in the car.  By the time dad got home, we ate dinner, and got the car packed, Claudia had to leave the clinic and go over to the hospital for another delivery.  So…we had to go to labor and delivery to get checked.  I was still not quite to 2cm dilated!  However, I was 90% effaced, so the contractions were doing something!  They monitored your heartbeat for an hour, and then gave me some morphene and told me to go home and get some sleep.  That was so nice!  I slept for about three hours and woke up around 11 PM feeling intense contractions again.  I moaned through each one and tried to relax as much as I could.  Dad drew me a hot bath and that helped for a little while.  My mom (your grandma Stapley) flew in from Arizona and got here about 1:30 AM.  She was getting ready for bed, but could hear how intense my contractions sounded and suggested to dad that we go back to the hospital, which we did.  We arrived around 3 AM.  How excited we were to find out that I was now 4cm dilated and could be admitted!  They gave us a beautiful room, one of the largest on the floor.  Dad and grandma helped me get settled in, and we were so excited to finally meet you!

The next hours until you were born were a blur for me, but I remember being very tired in between each contraction, and just moaning through the pain when each surge came.  I tried to use hypnobirthing, and the relaxation did help me get through what would otherwise have been extremely difficult and painful!  I wanted to ask for drugs a few times, but dad and grandma helped me through those hard times so I was able to bring you into the world without any possibly harmful effects.  Dad helped with the pain by putting pressure on my hips while I sat on a big ball.  I got in the tub for a while, then out again.  Claudia checked me around 5:30 or 6 AM and I was at 7cm…almost there!  I got in the tub again and while I enjoyed the warm water and jet blowers, I started to feel the urge to push you out!  During one intense contraction, I heard and felt a loud POP and realized my water had broken!  Dad and Claudia helped me out of the tub, and Claudia checked me again.  I was almost fully dilated…just a small lip of the cervix remained.  On the next contraction, Claudia pushed it out of the way, and I was ready to push you out!  I pushed for about 20 minutes…the hardest 20 minutes of my life!!  Dad and Claudia kept saying “she’s almost here” and it seemed to take forever!  Dad helped me a lot and Claudia told him what to do to help you come out.  It was so neat when we could finally see your head coming out!  Dad was crying, he was so happy!  I was so relieved when you were born and they placed you on my chest.  I felt overwhelmed with happiness and joy!  There you were, my perfect daughter I had carried for almost 10 months!  You were 8 lbs. 3 oz and 21 inches long.  You had a sweet little voice that whined at first and then cried a little.  But because I hadn’t taken any drugs, you were very alert and calm and looked up at me with big, beautiful eyes.  Dad and I hugged and kissed each other and you and we were so very happy!  We are still happy that you are ours and we love you very very much!

I couldn’t believe my ears when they announced his weight…9 pounds 13 ounces!! I had birthed a nearly 10 pound baby naturally! The next thing I thought was, “oh no…what’s the damage to my perineum!” I looked at Roberta as she was examining me and she informed me that I did not need stitches…I only had a minor laceration that would heal on its own. Incredible. I was relieved, to say the least.

Everett was doing fine, so they finally handed him to me all wrapped up. I wanted skin-to-skin contact to I tried to unwrap him and while that was going on, I delivered the placenta. It was finally over! They wanted me to nurse Everett right away because his blood sugar levels were low. I finally got him unwrapped and on my chest and was even able to get him to nurse a bit. This is when everything went downhill.

The cramping started as he was nursing, and as soon as he was done my nurse came to push on my uterus. Out gushed lots of fun stuff and she kept pushing and pushing to get it all out. I was in so much pain and begging her to stop, but she couldn’t! After the gushing stopped, she took it all and weighed it, and I had lost about 350ccs of fluid & clots. I guess this is a lot because they were a little worried about me after that & gave me a shot to help the uterus contract. Well, as you can imagine, that started 2 hours of excruciating pain. 4 ibuprofen, 2 percocet, and 1 shot of demorol later, I could finally relax and feed Everett again. I am being completely honest when I say that was the most painful thing I had ever experienced…way worse than labor…and I actually asked Nathan if they could knock me out!

My blood pressure shot up during the pain and they were worried that I might be having post-partum pre-eclampsia (toxemia) which is rare but does happen from time to time. Luckily, as soon as the pain went down, so did my blood pressure. Finally, around 3 or so in the afternoon, Everett and I were doing well enough to be moved to our recovery room. I was able to get up and go to the bathroom, and felt so much better in the recovery bed. They kept the pain meds coming and I wasn’t in too much pain after that. My recovery has actually been faster since then…my bleeding is lighter, sitting down isn’t painful at all, and I’m looking forward to a fast recovery. This birth was a bit more traumatic than Kaisa’s (mostly because of the meconium issues & the post-partum pain) but I still feel that it went extremely well and that my choice to birth Everett naturally paid off. I have a feeling that if I’d had an epidural, the pushing would have been completely ineffective and I would have been whisked off for a c-section at the first signs of fetal distress. Thanks again to the Hypnobirthing method for another wonderful birth!

Natha, Kaisa, Everett & I

Baby Everett

Happy Mom & Baby

Roberta said I was dilated 9.5 cm and to push if I wanted to. The problem was, I wasn’t really feeling the urge that strongly, and when I pushed it didn’t feel right. The pressure was not in my bottom where it should be. A couple of surges later I was fully dilated but I still wasn’t feeling right. She had me turn on my side; the baby probably needed to turn a bit more and that’s why things didn’t feel quite right. I was pushing all on my own, I felt, with almost no help from my body. I could feel him coming down though, and that was encouraging me to keep pushing even though it was extremely difficult and quite painful. Pretty soon I could feel him coming over the tailbone and I knew it was close. As he was crowning, Roberta had me reach down and feel his head. Almost there!

I started to sense and urgency that they really wanted this baby out. I later learned that his heart rate was dropping a bit and one of the nurses was even talking c-section. I’m glad I didn’t hear that at the time! Roberta was wonderful, she kept encouraging me to push without freaking me out. I was a little worried about my perineum at this point, but I was more worried about the baby, so I gave it literally everything I had, and pretty soon his head was out. Moments later, I had delivered him and I heard him cry. This is the most wonderful feeling in the world! Nathan was right there with me the whole time, and since we couldn’t yet hold our baby, we held each other and kissed.

I went to bed Sunday night with no signs of labor. Shortly after lying down, I started to feel him move like crazy and he was putting a lot of pressure on my cervix. I was uncomfortable enough that I couldn’t fall asleep, so I lay there for well over an hour wondering if this could mean something. I kept getting up to go to the bathroom to check for bloody show or any signs, but nothing.

I finally drifted off to sleep and awoke to a strong surge around 3am. I was able to fall back asleep but awoke again shortly to another strong surge. From that point on, I wasn’t able to sleep the rest of the night. I started timing the surges on Nathan’s iphone application (iContraction) and they were coming anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes apart and lasting around 45 to 60 seconds. I was told to wait until they were 5 minutes apart and 60 seconds long for one hour before calling the midwife, so I just tried to stay as relaxed as possible while I waited it out.

Around 6am I started to lose focus. I wasn’t staying relaxed through the surges and was freaking out a little, not knowing if I should call the midwife yet. I really wanted to wait until 8am because the next midwife on call would take over at that time, and I didn’t want to bother whoever was on call for the last 2 hours of their shift. I woke Nathan up and he gave me some encouragement, which helped a lot. I had been playing my CD since the surges started and finally at this point decided to draw a hot bath. I stayed in the tub for an hour and it was absolutely wonderful. Instant relief and relaxation came and I was able to focus again.

I decided to get out and eat breakfast. As I was sitting at the table on my birth ball eating, the surges were getting strong enough that I needed hip presses from Nathan. I was losing focus again since I was trying to finish packing for the hospital and make arrangements for Kaisa. Finally, 8am came and I called Roberta who was on call for the day. I explained everything that had been going on and she said to go ahead and get to the hospital to be checked. I was relieved but nervous at the same time…I did NOT want to get sent home and I really had no idea how far I could have progressed.

After taking Kaisa to the neighbor’s and getting everything together, we finally got to the hospital around 8:45 or so. To my joy they were not busy at all and the “natural birth room” with the tub was open for me. The nurse checked me and I was 6cm dilated and 100% effaced! This was the most wonderful news yet. I could stay and I was very close to having my baby.

As soon as I got changed and into the bed for monitoring, I got my groove back. I was a lot more aware of what I needed and wanted this time around. I had them drop the bed into a sitting position and Nathan did knee presses through each surge while I listened to my CD. In between surges the nurse asked all of those ridiculous questions but I remained calm and relaxed.

As soon as monitoring was over, Roberta drew me a hot bath and I spent the next hour or so in the tub, relaxing and breathing deeply through each surge. Nathan was feeding me ice chips and juice. His mom arrived at this point and commented how nice it looked to be having a baby here. I admit that in between surges I felt completely comfortable and even pampered! The surges were coming in spurts…two or three close together and then a 5 minute break. They started to get very intense and I felt them in my back, so Roberta suggested I move out of the tub and into another position because the baby may be a little posterior.

After another little while of sitting on the birth ball, then hands and knees, surges getting stronger and stronger, Roberta suggested I go to the bathroom. While sitting on the toilet I started to feel a very weak urge to push. They got me back into the bed and encouraged me to start pushing through surges if that’s what I felt like doing. My bag of waters was still intact and Roberta seemed pretty nervous about it popping everywhere and asked if she could break it…I said sure. At first she said it was clear, but as I continued pushing she saw greenish chunks and at that point told me that baby wouldn’t be able to come to my chest. They called in the respiratory people from the NICU just in case. I was pretty upset about this but there wasn’t much I could do at that point.