Emily Kathleen's birth story by Mom

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Emily was “due” August 30^th 2014. Her big brother had arrived at 41 weeks and her big sister at 38 weeks, so I really didn’t know when to expect her.  I’d been having a lot of Braxton hicks contractions (uterine tightening) throughout the pregnancy, as early as 9 weeks however they had become more and more frequent as pregnancy progressed.  I noticed in the last couple of months things like car rides made them more frequent so I decided after 34 weeks or so I wasn’t even going to go as far as Santa Fe or do anything else as I was a little worried about preterm labor both for Emily’s health and because it would mean I’d have to deliver in a hospital.  By 36 weeks I had gathered up all my birth supplies and at 37 I did all the required laundry for the birth, I was feeling more relaxed and ready. I turned 37 weeks on a Saturday, I had an appointment with my midwife, Myriah, the day before where she did a blood test to check iron levels and took a culture to test for group B-strep.  I asked her to show my baby’s position again as I felt like her head was really feeling big down by my pubic bone, she did and then found her heart beat nice and low and sounding perfect.  We spent Saturday at the county fair and lab picnic then Sunday I decided I was up for a trip to Santa Fe so we headed down and stocked up on food and such.  On the drive back I felt like I was getting even more Braxton hicks, so I timed them at 6-20min apart, but they were definitely not “real,” I figured I was just a bit dehydrated from the busy weekend. 

I worked Monday and Tuesday as normal, though I continued to have increased Braxton hicks.  At 3:30pm on Tuesday August 12th Myriah texted me to say my blood work was normal and my group B-strep was negative, which was a huge relief as it meant I wouldn’t have to decide if I wanted antibiotics in labor.  Not too long after that I thought I started to feel a shift in my Braxton hicks, they hadn’t exactly become painful, but there was more to them.  I decided to start timing them at 5pm, just like I had a couple days before, they were still pretty irregular between 5 and 12 min apart and lasting about a minute.  It crossed my mind it might be nice to go home a little early, but then I remembered I had my doula/birth professional meeting that night at 6:30.  I continued to time my contractions through the last bit of work and as I headed over there.  At this point I was starting to wonder if this was something real, but figured I was just tired or something and made sure I was drinking extra water.  At the meeting someone joked it would be funny if I went into labor at the meeting.  We had a good social time and my contractions hadn’t really changed in timing, though the intensity was increasing a little bit.  I headed to the bathroom a little before 8 and texted Robert that I was feeling crampy, he immediately suggested I come home so I texted Myriah and let her know I wasn’t sure if what I was feeling was “just Braxton hicks” anymore and told her I was heading home to lay down.  I went back to the meeting and sat down and immediately felt a little pop and some liquid come out, so I ran back to the bathroom, but nothing continued to come out, so I didn’t know if that was my water breaking or what.  I went back out, told the ladies I wasn’t sure, but maybe my water just broke, put my shoes on and left.  I let my friend Kelly know what was going on since she had planned to come over and take care of the kids while I was in labor.  I drove home and only had 2 contractions on the way, and another in the garage before coming in. 

Once home I headed straight for the bathroom where I had a pretty sizable gush of fluid and the intensity had definitely increased some.  Robert had just finished reading to the kids, so I helped get them in bed and gave them each an extra big hug, I looked at Sarah a little sadly knowing she wasn’t going to be my littlest for much longer.  I called Myriah at 8:59 to give her an update, but told her I didn’t need her yet (she lives about 45min away), she asked me to make sure that Emily was moving between contractions.  At some point I mentioned to Robert I wasn’t sure why I had wanted to go through labor again.  I texted Kelly at 9:43 to tell her contractions were 4 min apart but not too strong yet.  I then called Myriah back at 9:45 to tell her Emily wasn’t moving much and would she mind coming up just to check on her, she said she would be happy to and that she could do just that and leave if I wanted her too, I told her I didn’t think she would need to leave.  So during all this time I guess I was in denial about how quickly things were progressing.  I had planned to birth outside and we had an old mattress we were going to put out there for this purpose.  Robert tried asking me where I wanted it and I just couldn’t make a decision. 

I ended up laboring holding onto Robert outside most of this time, it was mid 70s and clear, really a perfect night.  At 10:06 I had texted Myriah that contractions were 2-2.5min apart (lasting about 1.5min), she called about 10min later and asked if it was ok to call her backup, Tanja, and have her head to our house too.  I was still in denial that birth was close, but we told her that was perfectly fine. At 10:17 I finally told Kelly she could head over whenever and the plan was to wake David up right before the birth since he had been so excited about Emily’s arrival.  We were still outside at this point but my legs were starting to get tired and I felt like the contractions were starting to run in to each other somewhat so I wanted to try something different.  We went inside and I had Robert bring me the yoga ball, I got on my knees in bed and leaned over the ball.  I asked Robert to take a pillow case off a pillow and give it to me since the ball was sticky, he did and handed me the pillow, I told him that no I wanted the pillowcase, so he grabbed another pillow and took off that case, I just internally laughed.  I felt like this position was slightly more painful than standing leaning on Robert, but at least my legs were able to rest and I wasn’t feeling like I wanted to move again.  I was still breathing through contractions and doing ok, though they were really intense at this point.  I heard someone come in the house and asked Robert who it was, he told me Kelly, shortly after Myriah came in.  I asked her to check on Emily right away as I was pretty worried about her, but her heartbeat was strong and I had nothing to worry about. 1.5 contractions after Myriah got there I started to feel the urge to push and told Robert who then translated for me.  Myriah came back in and Robert ran to get David up, who came in and promptly decided to go back to bed, so Kelly grabbed the camera.  I started gently pushing at 10:45, I looked at the clock but wasn’t really able to remember what it said.  I feel like this stage of birth for me is still really intense, but the pain pretty much goes away.  I threw the ball to the side, grabbed Robert’s hand and continued to push on all 4s.  Soon Myriah told me she needed to talk to me for a minute, she told me that the baby was breech and she knew I would deliver without problems, that I was just going to have to push the hardest I’d ever pushed at the end.  Her protocol said that she had to call the paramedics and she was going to have to talk to them in that room because she didn’t want to leave, I told her that was fine.  I didn’t feel surprised or worried by this announcement, I just thought that it made sense, I’d been thinking her bottom up by my ribs was feeling really hard and round lately.  I reached up and sure enough I was able to feel Emily’s butt coming first.  Soon her butt and one leg was out followed another push later by her second leg.  I felt like I took a short break here (apparently just a few breaths) and made one more long, though not particularly hard push and Emily’s torso, arms and head slipped right out at 10:54pm.  Myriah passed her to me between my legs and I grabbed her and asked someone to help me get my shirt off so I could hold her close.  I laid down on the bed and the paramedics and firefighters, all 5 of them, showed up not long after.  They were really respectful and asked for some information and took my blood pressure and pulse ox, but otherwise left Emily and I alone.  The second midwife soon arrived and initially didn’t know why there were flashing lights in our driveway, I’m sure she was a bit worried.  My placenta delivered pretty quickly and it was nice to be able to cuddle and nurse Emily in bed right away.

My recovery has been great, and I’m so proud that I’m able to say I had a natural breech delivery at home!