Darren Matthew's Birth Story

This is a LOOOOOOOOOONG post... so grab some ice cream and settle in...

This birth was different from the previous 2. It seems a little strange to me that as the same person and overall ending in the same result can have the middle be so different each time! I had been feeling so big, so uncomfortable and so ready to deliver for SO many days that on Wednesday March 12, mom thought that she would go ahead had check me (I didn’t have a doctor’s appointment for another week and was sure I wasn’t going to make it until then).  I LOVE the benefit of having an L&D nurse for a mom! How cool is that?!?! She did her exam and I was only 3 cm and about 70-75% effaced… so not a whole lot had changed in a week, despite how ‘ripe’ I was feeling. I spent the day walking, contracting, playing with the kids, contracting, napping, contracting, going to the park, contracting… did I mention I was contracting?! Because of this I contacted my midwife who said she would come over to my house that night and check me. So at 5:30 she showed up and I was now a stretchy 4 and 80%... so some progress. She did a little membrane sweep and said that IF the baby is ready to come, BK3 will come. If it’s not, then we just keep waiting. The BIG thing was that we wanted to have a little wiggle room/prior knowledge because of the need for IV antibiotic 4 hours PRIOR to delivery. So if things progress she recommended I call her and head in to the hospital.

The boys finished BBQing chicken and we ate dinner at 6:30. (Let me tell you from personal experience BBQed chicken is NOT the taste you want in your mouth during delivery.) Anyway. I had downloaded this contraction tracker app. On my phone (thanks mom) and it was evident that the contractions were getting closer together… like ever 5-7 minutes… but still only 20-30 seconds long. Per mom, they don’t really get excited until they are about 40 seconds long. Regardless, we thought we should head in. So we did. Mom, Matthew and myself. The entire drive over mom and I were thinking ‘I hope we aren’t jumping the gun’.

we arrived it was 7:15 and were taken to room 7 (the fancy suite-like room). In each room there are monitors up that show the tracing of all the ladies that are currently in labor(so the nurses can see everyone at all times). The second I walked in the room I said quietly to all the other ladies tracings “Race ya’!” (We know how I love a little healthy competition!) I was ‘checked’ by the midwife that was on that evening (MY midwife hadn’t arrived yet but was coming in special JUST for me!) How sweet is she?!?!?! Anyway, I was STILL a 4! Boo! I wasn’t what they really consider in labor… but they admitted me anyway (even though 5 is the magic number) since they wanted me to get my meds. So the IV antibiotics were started at 7:30, ALLLLLLLL the admitting questions were asked, then I was allowed to get up and walk around. So Matthew and I went for a little walk through the hallways. Stopping and leaning on Matthew with some contractions and walking through others.  

At 9:30 I started feeling like things were getting more intense, so my midwife checked me and now I was a 7 and 100% effaced and my water bag was bulging! Sweet! No one was really thinking that I was going to have progressed that much in 2 hours especially since I hadn’t been in ‘labor’. So everyone started bustling about getting things into the room, moving other things out. Contractions continued to increase in frequency and intensity and at 9:58 my desire to push started…but when they checked me I was only an 8. I was instructed to TRY not to push and to really just work through the contractions to buy us a little more time since at this point we had only been there 2 hours total… and we really needed 2 MORE hours for the meds to work)… but we all knew that wasn’t going to happen anymore… but still I was supposed to try. So try I did! Since arriving I had started to have back labor so I couldn’t really lay down, so I was standing and hanging on Matthew (my arms draped around his neck),  pushing my forehead into his chest, while I moaned, rocked, ‘fuffffed’ and tried really really hard not to push. I thought for sure that I was going to crack his sternum with how hard I would press into him (but he said that really I was barely pushing… then again he has huge rugby guys running into him 2-3 times a week, so I guess to him it was nothing).

At 10:13 a HUGE contraction rocked my world and I while I was trying (unsuccessfully) not to push my water broke. Ahhhhhh! Sweet relief! That feeling was heavenly. The burning  pressure diminished (momentarily) and the finish line was now insight. While that huge contraction was still underway I was gently and slowly guided back to the bed… while hands/drapes were slid between my legs (incase the baby came out while I was standing).  Now that I was back on the bed and before another contraction hit my midwife checked me again… but I was only a 9 (not the 10 we were all expecting). So she really didn’t want me to push yet (I guess if you push while a 9 it can actually cause trauma/inflammation which sets you back again because of the swelling). Lord knows I didn’t want that so I gave myself a little pep-talk and during the next contraction ended up grunting/chanting “Don’t push! Don’t push! Don’t push! Don’t push! Don’t push! Don’t push! Don’t puuuuuuuuuuuuuush!” Yep that last one was a push. We all know what that means and there’s really no stopping it! So my midwife asked if I wanted her to help stretch me to a 10… HECK yeah! So she did. And thankfully she did because right then at 10:18 BK3’s heart rate really dropped and they actually couldn’t find it! So the midwife said that I would need to push that baby out, regardless if I was having a contraction or not! So Push I did! I had a mirror and was touching and watching this beautiful head of dark hair getting bigger and bigger with each push I gave. Matthew was great, reminding me to breath and holding one of my legs so that I cold bear down with more force. Moments later I could see a blue head fully emerge and one push later at 10:25 I was pulling this beautiful blue/pink, vernix covered baby out and up onto my chest! (I have amazing pictures if you guys want to see! They are increasable).

The nurses were rubbing his body, to stimulate a cry, sucking his airways and I was kissing this sweet wet head. Matthew was desperately trying to see if we had a new little boy or girl, but my arm was apparently in the way. When I moved it, his face lit up and he said “It’s a boy! We have another little boy!” (Which is what he was wanting, but had been convinced it would be a girl). Very quickly they got the cord clamped and Matthew was rushed over to cut it, then our little man was taken over to the warming station (feet away from me) and assessed and treated more thoroughly.  A minute later he was crying and back on my chest. He quickly pinked-up (aside from the facial bruising due to the quick delivery).  I had a slight tear, so after that was repaired the three of us got to spend a quiet hour bonding together and getting some skin-on-skin time with our newest family member. All the grandparents came after that to visit for a few moments (and watched Matthew give him his first bath) and get weighed and measured. Then it was off to post-partum… for the next 48 hours since I didn’t get the meds in soon enough.

I figured this would be pretty anticlimactic, but there was a little adventure on this wing as well. After getting our son and me all settled in for the night Matthew headed home. Around 4 am I went to get up to pee and noticed that there was what looked to be a large about of blood pooling around me. I paged my nurse who was also a little surprised by this (and her shock grew as we found more and more layer to it). Not to mention that I had virtually no bleeding prior to 4 am. There was enough blood that the nurse actually gathered up all the sheets/blankets/gown/pad and weighted them to determine how much I had lost. 45 minutes later the same thing happened. At this point I was put on some meds and my little man was brought in for nursing/to stimulated contractions/tightening up my uterus. The combo worked well and the bleeding became normalized over the next 6 hours. Whew!

So that was Darren’s birth story. Labor for 2 hours and pushing for 6 minutes and a healthy baby boy at the end of it!

P.S. Yes that is a black eye that Matthew has… and No, I did not give it to him. ;)