When Daddy Handles Bedtime

This occasionally happens when Daddy handles bedtime...

 

Birth Story Addallee Marigold -- Part 3

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?"

In Charge

When Tracey's in charge, she gives this look to her brother and sister a lot.  In this situation, she called Howard and Caroline over to "circle time" and she insisted that they sit on the back line of the carpet.  Tracey was very upset with me because would not move Addallee's seat precisely in line with the back of the carpet as well.  In my defense, if her seat was flush against the back of the carpet, her little body would have been back behind her siblings -- I positioned the seat so that her body and head were in line for "circle time" with her older siblings.

In this picture, she is making sure Howard and Caroline are fully aware of the expectations because she begins the circle time lesson.

 

One-of-a-Kind

This little girl is definitely one-of-a-kind.  Despite the 64* temperature, Caroline insisted that not only did she need to wear her sweater, it had to be zipped, and her hood had to be up.  She also was determined to kick that soccer ball around the yard while bundled up and wearing her tutu dress.

I absolutely love my one-of-a-kind Caroline.

 

Birth Story Addallee Marigold -- Part 2

A little after midnight, Hubby and I left for the hospital, on exactly my 40 week due date.

Hubby is friends with several Rifle County Police Officers so sent out a few texts to determine who was on duty at the time, and let them know that we were headed to the hospital.  On the drive, we passed several police cars in the median while going well over the speed limit and no one pulled us over for speeding.  I guess news travels fast.

When we got to the hospital, they heard it was my fourth baby, and that the contractions were less than five minutes apart, and they never took me to a triage room, they just admitted me right away.  But when they checked my progress I was not very far along.  If I were a first time mom, they would have sent me back home -- I don't remember exactly but I was maybe 2 or 3 cm dilated and the baby was still really high.  But, they said that they take laboring moms having their fourth babies very seriously and so they wanted me to stay awhile and see what was going to happen.

Once at the hospital, my labor slowed down.  Significantly.

This was a huge disappointment give that the twins were born less than four hours after we got to the hospital, and my good friend had her fourth baby in the car... I was very prepared for a fast labor.  Baby Number Four had her own agenda.

Hubby and I were both exhausted, and my contractions were every eight or so minutes, so we tried to rest in between, but it was frustrating because I kept thinking, I could be resting at home... I'm here to have a baby.

I got in the bathtub because that really helped when I was in labor with Tracey, but my labor slowed even more.  Now my contractions were 12-15 minutes apart.

About 7:00am in the morning the midwife checked my progress again and we were discussing the different options -- would we go home, sweep the membranes, break my water, or just continue with the status quo.  We were all very surprised to learn that I was now 6 cm dilated despite how infrequent the contractions were.  The baby was still really high, which the midwife speculated might be because my previous pregnancy was twins, and my uterus was allowing this one baby plenty of room.  She wasn't being pressed down into the birth canal the way Tracey Ann was.  

 

We decided to continue with the status quo.

Happy Birthday, Trace!

Happy 55th Birthday, Trace!

 

 

 

Birth Story -- Addallee Marigold Part 1

My water broke with Tracey at 38 weeks 5 days, and she was born the next day with about 8 hours of active labor.  I went into labor with the twins at 36 weeks 1 day and they were born about 4 hours later.

 

As a result, I thought I was going to go into labor with Addallee anytime after 36 weeks.  For weeks I would go to bed expecting my water to break, and think about who we would call to watch the kids if I needed to go to the hospital today.  Also, so many people told me how fast labor would go with my third pregnancy, fourth child and so I shouldn't delay getting to the hospital.  Add to that the fact that a bridge in Glenwood Springs was closed during the weeks leading up to my due date, and so we would be dealing with unusual traffic issues and detours to get to the hospital... and one of my closest friends had her baby in the car on the way to the hospital a few months before.  I was on pins and needles for weeks.

Once I made it to 39 weeks, I almost seemed to relax -- this was uncharted territory.  I had never been pregnant that long before, and this baby would come when she was ready.

At 39 weeks 6 days, I started to have some regular contractions during the evening that were making me uncomfortable.  I still did the kids normal bedtime routine with some help from my mom.  I made sure to braid Tracey's hair before bed, just in case we needed to head to the hospital that night.  I got into bed as soon as I could because I was uncomfortable with the contractions, and I knew that laying down would either make them subside, or they would continue, but at least I would be laying down and able to try to relax through them.

Laying in bed, the contractions did not subside.  I began to time them, and they were less than five minutes a part and lasting about 60 seconds in duration.  They were not horribly intense yet, but we had been told not to delay getting to the hospital since it was our fourth child, and so I mentally prepared for our heading out soon.

This was a Saturday, so Hubby hadn't taken a shower that day.  As he was getting ready to climb into bed, I said, he might want to take a shower first.  He asked why, and I said, "In case you have to take me to the hospital."  He asked if I thought there was any reason we should be prepared for that, to which I responded, "Well, maybe.  I've been laying here timing contractions that are 3-5 minutes apart of the last hour, so yeah, you'll probably be taking me soon."  He apparently had no idea that's what I was doing in bed... he just thought I was laying down relaxing.

Once he realized the situation, he was very attentive, and layed with me, rubbing my back during contractions for about twenty minutes to see for himself how frequently they were occurring.  Around 11:00pm, while he took a shower, my mom came to sit with me during contractions, which I thought was really special because she had never actually seen me in labor before or witnessed the relaxation techniques I use to handle the contractions.

A little after midnight, Hubby and I left for the hospital, on exactly my 40 week due date.