Oren's Birth Story

I woke up to contractions very early on Saturday, August 22nd. The contractions were 8-10 minutes apart and would be consistent for a few hours and then stop. Walking would increase the duration and frequency of the contractions, but the contractions would stop when I stopped walking.

I called my midwife around noon and asked her for advice. I told her that I was uncomfortable and tired of being pregnant so she said to go to the hospital, get checked in and she'd break my water. I had really wanted to go into labor this time around completely on my own, but it was difficult to put my life on hold in the hope that I'd go into labor.

Our great nurse, Ann, checked us in, placed my saline lock and started prepping the room for labor and delivery. We walked the halls a bit and my midwife came in and broke my water at 1:45 pm. I dilated immediately to 4 cm and we went back to walking the halls. I quickly realized that all of the somewhat painful contractions I had been having paled in comparison to what I started to experience.

We went back to the birthing room and I sat on a birth ball. I was able to manage my contractions very well while sitting on the ball and it provided some much needed rest for my tired legs. I labored on the ball most of the time and when my contractions started increasing in intensity, around 4 pm, I had Laura, my midwife, check me. 6 cm. My initial thought was "you've got to be kidding me". My body had been working so hard and the contractions were so intense that I was really hoping for a higher number.

So I changed positions. I knelt on the back of the elevated bed with my arms on top of pillows. Mathew and Laura were wonderful at rubbing my back and keeping me calm and focused. I was amazed at how vocal I was this time around. I gave every contraction a sound and apologized for being so annoying. I also labored with my eyes closed. I asked Laura if she thought I was in transition since my contractions were so close and so very painful. I didn't know it at the time, but only 3o minutes had passed from the time she checked me to when I started pushing. Funny because it seemed like an eternity.

I got into position to push and remember telling Laura at some point that I was not going to be able to do it. Her response was "good, that means you're almost done". I pushed for 25 minutes. Oren, like his big brother, was turned the wrong way so pushing was a bit difficult. I think I pushed through a series of maybe four or five contractions. Laura said she had to tug a bit to get him out since he was big. Oren's head and eyes were bruised, but he was perfect in every other way.

Unfortunately, I did have another post partum hemorrhage. My midwife and nurse did a wonderful job controlling the bleeding and all of the drugs that were needed were on hand and used immediately. The saline lock was useless because it popped out while I was pushing so the nurse had to stab me again to get the pitocin going. I had two shots in my legs, a couple of stitches and I was good to go.