7:00am, October 22, 2017:
We decided to continue with the status quo.
At 8:00am, the midwife and nurses changed shifts and our second midwife seemed a little more down to business in terms of getting the baby born. The first midwife was very friendly, and the second midwife seemed a little more official.
I went back in the tub for awhile because it was nice to relax and apparently my labor was still progressing even though my contractions were so far apart. I also tried to squat a lot in the tub.
For the next few hours I went in and out of the tub, and squatted a lot both in and out of the tub. I had been doing lots of squatting thanks to my Bradley training, so it was very comfortable to just relax and squat for long periods of time.
Eventually I felt like I wanted to push a little at the climax of the contraction. I told the nurse and midwife, that it was not the uncontrollable "urge to push" that I knew from other labors, but I felt like I was getting there.
They checked my progress again, and I was about nine cm dilated, but the baby was still really high, so we made the decision to break my water. I really wanted to not have the intervention of their breaking my water this time around (they broke my water with the twins as well), but the midwife felt that the baby was up so high, that she wasn't really putting any pressure on the bag of water, and my contractions were so far apart that the labor could continue a really long time if I didn't let them break the water.
When my water broke, my contractions finally were more regular -- every 4 minutes or so and I started to try to push a little bit with the contractions.
I tried pushing for several contractions, and the midwife was sort of fiddling around, and things were not going well. I heard someone say something about maybe a shoulder being stuck, I heard something about the head not being in the right position, and then I heard something about there still being a cervical lip.
I had a cervical lip with Tracey and it became a pretty big complication, so I suggested that I take a break from pushing and get in another position (take a knee -- with one knee up, one knee down) to try to get rid of the lip. The nurses and midwife thought this was a great idea.
From my perspective, I took a knee on the bed, and turned toward Hubby so he was helping me to balance, and I just looked at him and told him I didn't think I could do this. The times I had tried to push were really painful, and I was scared by the comments I was hearing about maybe the head being in the wrong position or a possible shoulder being stuck. He told me how great I was doing and how he knew I could do it.
I didn't see this, but Hubby said that when I took the knee, that all the medical staff in the room relaxed and took off their gloves, and were ready to take a few minutes to breathe before I'd go back to pushing. They recognized that Hubby and I were having a private moment and they just backed off a bit.
As Hubby was talking -- during the 10 seconds that he and I had our private conversation, I had a contraction, during which I had to push... and I pushed the baby's head out.
When I pushed, I used Hubby for support and stood up from my "take a knee" position, and so I was literally standing on the bed, birthing the baby.
Hubby said the medical staff scrambled like crazy to get their gloves back on and get in position to catch the baby -- and since I was in a standing position, I really did need someone to at least guide the baby safely onto the bed so she didn't just fall from so high.
Another push, and she was born, safely on the bed, as I stood over her.
I remember looking down at her, and thinking to myself,
"what in the world just happened here?"
At 8:00am, the midwife and nurses changed shifts and our second midwife seemed a little more down to business in terms of getting the baby born. The first midwife was very friendly, and the second midwife seemed a little more official.
I went back in the tub for awhile because it was nice to relax and apparently my labor was still progressing even though my contractions were so far apart. I also tried to squat a lot in the tub.
For the next few hours I went in and out of the tub, and squatted a lot both in and out of the tub. I had been doing lots of squatting thanks to my Bradley training, so it was very comfortable to just relax and squat for long periods of time.
Eventually I felt like I wanted to push a little at the climax of the contraction. I told the nurse and midwife, that it was not the uncontrollable "urge to push" that I knew from other labors, but I felt like I was getting there.
They checked my progress again, and I was about nine cm dilated, but the baby was still really high, so we made the decision to break my water. I really wanted to not have the intervention of their breaking my water this time around (they broke my water with the twins as well), but the midwife felt that the baby was up so high, that she wasn't really putting any pressure on the bag of water, and my contractions were so far apart that the labor could continue a really long time if I didn't let them break the water.
When my water broke, my contractions finally were more regular -- every 4 minutes or so and I started to try to push a little bit with the contractions.
I tried pushing for several contractions, and the midwife was sort of fiddling around, and things were not going well. I heard someone say something about maybe a shoulder being stuck, I heard something about the head not being in the right position, and then I heard something about there still being a cervical lip.
I had a cervical lip with Tracey and it became a pretty big complication, so I suggested that I take a break from pushing and get in another position (take a knee -- with one knee up, one knee down) to try to get rid of the lip. The nurses and midwife thought this was a great idea.
From my perspective, I took a knee on the bed, and turned toward Hubby so he was helping me to balance, and I just looked at him and told him I didn't think I could do this. The times I had tried to push were really painful, and I was scared by the comments I was hearing about maybe the head being in the wrong position or a possible shoulder being stuck. He told me how great I was doing and how he knew I could do it.
I didn't see this, but Hubby said that when I took the knee, that all the medical staff in the room relaxed and took off their gloves, and were ready to take a few minutes to breathe before I'd go back to pushing. They recognized that Hubby and I were having a private moment and they just backed off a bit.
As Hubby was talking -- during the 10 seconds that he and I had our private conversation, I had a contraction, during which I had to push... and I pushed the baby's head out.
When I pushed, I used Hubby for support and stood up from my "take a knee" position, and so I was literally standing on the bed, birthing the baby.
Hubby said the medical staff scrambled like crazy to get their gloves back on and get in position to catch the baby -- and since I was in a standing position, I really did need someone to at least guide the baby safely onto the bed so she didn't just fall from so high.
Another push, and she was born, safely on the bed, as I stood over her.
I remember looking down at her, and thinking to myself,
"what in the world just happened here?"
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