Wednesday, November 26, was the day before Thanksgiving and the last day that I was scheduled to daycare before officially starting my maternity leave. I was in a good mood and feeling positive about everything. I had been having a lot of worries about the pregnancy between the baby's position in utero (face up) and not knowing when she would come. I was able to put those things to the back of my mind (as well as the fact that the girls were still really sick and our TV was broken) and focus on the coming days. I was excited about being done with the last daycare day as a large pregnant lady and looking forward to seeing my family for Thanksgiving. We had some nice family hang out time that night. We read lots of books and we played songs and danced together in the living room. I got my pregnant booty up and danced to a handful of songs with the girls.
Once the day was done, the girls were in bed, and I was in my PJs, I came back downstairs to chat with Matthew. Instead, I laid down on the couch and immediately fell asleep. This was about 9:00. I remember wanting to get up and move at some point but didn't have the energy so I flipped onto my other side and fell back to sleep. Then I woke up later feeling hugely uncomfortable and had to hoist myself up...I contributed this mostly to having a full bladder. Went to the bathroom and when I wiped there was a substantial amount of mucus. I immediately got excited and felt that the baby would come within a week. Wiped again and there was some more but since there was no blood in it, I wasn't feeling like labor was actually impending or that this was my mucus plug. I got myself ready and went up to bed with Matthew. This was a little after midnight. As I tossed and turned, I noticed that I was continuing to have labor-like contractions and so I started timing to see what was up. Between 1:00 and 2:00 I had contractions lasting about 1.5 minutes and 9 minutes apart.
I got out of bed to have a snack and ended up staying up to clean and nest around the house because it was all I could think of doing. I wasn't timing my contractions but they kept coming and getting closer together. I also was having sporadic loose stools.
Around 3:45, I went back to bed and told Matthew we were having the baby today and I tried to get some sleep. Between 4:00 and 5:00 I was actually able to get some sleep between contractions but the contractions were getting quite painful and I needed my balloon visualization to breathe through them. [Balloon Visualization: Breathe in through your nose as long as you can and imagine you are blowing up a balloon in your uterus. Then exhale down through your throat and imagine the balloons flying off. I came back to this visualization over and over again through labor.]
I popped up at 5:00 to go to the bathroom and decided to take a shower and get ready. I had at least 3 significant contractions while in the shower and started timing again after and they were coming about 5.5 minutes apart but were just under a minute. I got into "head to the hospital" mode and quickly got everything ready. Matthew was downstairs doing more tidying. As I was finishing up things upstairs, I noticed my next contraction wasn't coming on. I had a couple super light Braxton's but nothing to time. I sat down on the couch with Matthew and we waited. By the time I got another contraction on the clock it had been 20 minutes. Then they slowed down to an average 13 minutes between, in the 6:00-7:00 timeframe, and I was like wtf.
So around 7:30 on Thanksgiving morning I called the midwife and explained what was going on. We talked through the situation and the various things that could be happening. Those included 1. Potentially only having "irritability" contractions where the uterus is trying to coax the baby into another position and true labor hasn't begun or is first beginning 2. Could just be a sporadic labor pattern due to the baby being face up (this is what I now contribute it to). 3. Labor could stop entirely and pick up in a few days. 4.etc. because I kept asking questions and we were going back and forth. She said ultimately I should do what I am most comfortable with and decide to either come in and get checked or just go along through the day. Her recommendation was that I take a nice warm bath and relax and that would either help the contractions slow down entirely or if they didn't, it meant labor would progress as it was meant to. So I hung out with the fam and did things around the house before getting into that bath around 9:00. The contractions before the bath were sporadically closer like 8,7,7,4,8,5 minutes. However, once I got in the bath I didn't have another contraction for 15 minutes and then not another one until 10 minutes after that. After the bath, I explained to Matthew what was going on and just didn't know what to do in this weird situation. We made a plan that he would shower and we would go over to my parents. If things were still slow, we would stay there for a while and wait it out but if they picked up again we would leave for the hospital.
So while Matthew was gone, contractions continued coming at sporadic intervals but were feeling intense again. I suddenly became very uncomfortable with the situation I was in, things going back and forth and laboring by myself in this pain, not knowing what would happen next. Something clicked and I felt that we needed to get to the hospital ASAP. I yelled to Matthew who had been taking his time showering, shaving, etc. and said please get down here and pack the car, let's go! So we worked to that end and things were frantic for a bit. I was waiting with Cora in the entry at one point and one minute we were smiling and taking pictures and the next I was on my hands and knees working through a contraction.
We drove the kids to my parents, went in for a quick family pic pre-baby and then were off about 10:00. I had sporadic contractions on the way to the hospital and then a whole bunch of them on the walk in, registering, and up to the room.
We must have arrived in our room a bit after 10:30 and I labored sitting on the bed while the nurse did monitoring and questions and Matthew did counter pressure on my back. After that check-in, the midwife came in and asked questions and checked me. I was at a 6.5 and I also asked if the head was still face up at this point. She said the head was in "an awkward position" and the key would be for me to continue trying different laboring positions so the baby would continue to rotate. They put the back of the bed up and had me lean over that so my belly was against the back of the bed and spread my legs apart (so my butt was hanging out) and labored in this position for a while and I could tell the baby was shifting and moving down. The contractions were getting intense with lots of pressure and I just concentrated on my breathing to get through. The midwife rubbed lavender oils on my back which was great and Matthew was there rubbing me as well. I continuously told her how the pressure was increasing during the contractions and then at one point I was through my contraction and the pressure still just sat there. When I told her that she said, “Ok, time to get into the tub”.
When I got into the tub it was the best feeling ever. The water washed away so much tension, although it started to build up again during my next contractions. I labored in the tub either sitting back or leaning over the side. I started getting pretty anxious and was asking them to say when the baby would come out...they just kept saying you are doing great and we don't know, just concentrate on getting through one contraction at a time. Then during a contraction while Matthew was putting pressure on my back my water broke and my body started to split open for the baby. My reaction was to hoist up into a crab position and scream. I screamed for everyone to, please help me and that I can't do this....the midwife just kept leaning over the tub saying well you are doing it, you are doing great, good job, and just let your body do what it needs to do. No one said anything about pushing or anything...so I was like "should I,push?!" And she says "Do whatever your body tells you to". So I just start pushing and continue screaming. Then I stop contracting and the head is sitting there in my crotch...the midwife asked if I wasn't contracting and said I just need to breathe through. So I continue to hold myself up and breath as well as I can....it was the most difficult part of the labor. Then on the next contraction....lots more pushing and screaming and the midwife delivered the head and I was just wishing in my head repeatedly that they would just pull it out. Then the mantras changed from "good job, do what your body says" to "give this all you got". And I pushed my body as far as could and screamed my head off and little Alaina wiggled her way out. They put her on me and I collapsed in the tub with her on top of me and just kept repeating words of relief and gratitude. It took a few moments but then Matthew came to check and saw that it was a girl. Our little Alaina Jane that I cried thinking about and dreaming of before she was even conceived. :)
We love her so much and it feels like she has been a part of our family for much longer than 2 weeks.....and I think that is because she was chosen to be my daughter long ago and has been in my heart for a long time. My baby girl....
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