Then There Were Four Part 2

At 4:40 am, I woke up to my first consistent contraction. 10 minutes later I had another. These were different from the Braxton Hicks I had been experiencing for weeks. They were equally as painful but they started in my back rather than in the middle of my torso. Since my doula and midwife both live 40 minutes north of us and rush hour was about to start I decided to give them a heads up.

My doula, Tonya, had just gotten to her workout and since my contractions were somewhat sporadic in timing and length she decided to come after her workout. No big deal, but I knew I'd be needing her help soon.

Elijah woke up around 6:40 and we alerted our dear friends to come get him when they were up for the day so he could play while we labored. Rob and I are both incredibly thankful baby girl came when she did. If she decided to come in the night we were planning to let him keep sleeping. Now after knowing how much we moved around the house and how loud delivery was, there's no way he would have slept through it all in our 1400+ sq. ft. house.

Tonya arrived at 7 as Elijah was leaving with the Bonnoitt's. Y'all. Let me tell you. Doulas are Jedi masters. For real. She actually made labor manageable and somewhat enjoyable. Disclaimer: results not typical BUT if you want to give natural labor a chance, GET A DOULA!!! She's totally worth the money. Snaps for Tonya. You rock sister!!

Two hours after Tonya arrived, my magnificent midwife, Sue, pulled up. Sometime after that my BFF and family photographer, Aliciana, and then the second midwife showed up. Forgive the vagueness but well…I was in labor.

In stark contrast from E's labor, this one was really not bad. Sure contractions hurt in the throws of them, but I don't feel like I ever got "in the zone" like most women do. I was pretty chatty between contractions and even remember Tonya and Sue both telling me not to entertain and instead to focus on laboring. Looking back I laugh because I was really laboring and making progress, it just really wasn't that bad (which I sort of feel like I deserved seeing as I went TWO WEEKS past my due date).

In preparation for labor I read a few encouraging scripts to read or recite during labor. There was one that stuck out to me the most and several times throughout labor I repeated it to myself. "Every new wave of pain brings you closer and closer to meeting your new baby." Each time I repeated this to myself I felt my emotions overtake me. I had waited so long to meet this precious girl and it was finally happening. Truly, every new contraction brought me closer to meeting my newest angel.

At 11 am, we decided it'd be a good idea to have Sue check my dilation progress. As we walked down the hallway to the bedroom, Rob encouraged me not to be disappointed if I wasn't farther along than I hoped. I completely agreed, thinking I was maybe 5 cm dilated. Little did we know that I was actually WAY further along than any of us thought. At 11 am after just 6 hours of laboring, I was already 9 cm dilated and the sack was beginning to bulge. (I apologize for the descriptive post, but c'mon you're reading a post about my labor…it's gonna be descriptive.)

I'm so glad that I didn't tell Sue to hold off on the check like I had considered. Otherwise I may have been giving birth in the hallway on our hardwoods.

After realizing pushing was just around the corner, I got into the birthing pool (blow up pool we rented from the midwife). Things were not chatty for long. Soon it was time to push. And holy schnikies was it time to push. Since I didn't have the epidural this time like I did last time, I realized that I totally romanticized this part of the process. With E, I just felt pressure. With this one, I felt e-ver-y-thin-guh!!! The pressure, the burning, the stretching, the tearing (2 degrees which my midwife was able to stitch up at home). Everything. The water helped a little I think, but it was still quite painful.

After several "I seriously can't do this" statements, more comments on it being the worst bowel movement of my life (trying to keep it light, ya know) and what felt like 3 hours of pushing, my baby girl was born. In the sack.

I don't know if you know this already, and maybe you do, but it is SUPER rare for a baby to be born in the sack (or more scientifically the caul). If the sack doesn't break during labor, most doctors end up breaking them either during labor to hurry things along or just before the mom begins to push. Most midwives, however, don't mess with it. With every push Sue and Tonya kept saying how strong my sack was because it kept bulging and not breaking. I really think that's what made her delivery so painful. I was clearly trying to push out steel. Once I finally heard that they could see her head, I gave it one big push and in one contraction girlfriend was outta there! She never even crowned.

At 12:08 pm, after 6.5 hours of labor and 30-40 min of pushing we welcomed into the world our beautiful daughter, Nora Kathryn Wiggins. After she was delivered, Nora was promptly placed on my chest for bonding while her cord finished pulsing (about 15 minutes). Sue then clamped the cord and Rob cut it. Getting out of the tub, my placenta was still intact. So that was…um…interesting. I delivered the placenta in our bed atop cheap sheets we'd been sleeping on since week 36, a towel, and some large puppy pad looking mats. While I got sewed up, my herbal bath was prepared. When my sutures were finished I soaked in the bath (good for healing) and not long after I got in, Nora joined me. She loved the warm water and almost fell asleep a few times.

Nora is every bit of amazing and we are so grateful to all those who prayed for us during her pregnancy. Her birth was something I'll never forget and was far more than I could have imagined. I am eternally grateful for my birth team: Tonya, Sue, and, of course, Rob. I most definitely could not have had the success I did without each of you. Your encouragement meant and still does mean the world to me. Thank you for trusting my body to do what it was created to do and for believing in me that I really could do it. Rob and I are so incredibly thankful to God for entrusting us a second time with one of his precious children. I pray I never take for granted their wonderfulness.

And now I leave you with some of my favorite photos of the day.

Not sure what's happening here, but I love the excitement in Rob's face

 
This guy was a rock star!!

 Tonya being her Jedi self

 SHE'S HERE!!!

 Herbal Bath with Mama

 Nora Kathryn

8 lbs, 4 oz, 21" long

Then There Were Four Part 1

I'll make this part brief. I'm a horrible blogger, it's been like 7 months since my last post, I apologize, blah, blah, blah! You know the drill.
In the time between this post and my last, we found out we were having a daughter. I went two weeks past my due date (with my second child I might add. um hello body, that's not how it's supposed to go) and I gave birth completely unmedicated at home. Here's part 1 to the story of how I brought my beautiful baby girl into this world.

I was due January 27th and at 34/35 weeks I had already begun dilating. At the advice of my midwife I decided to take it easy so that we could keep baby girl in long enough to ensure that we could still have the birth I was wanting (it's Texas state law that you cannot deliver a baby at home before 37 weeks). At 38 weeks I was dilated 3 cm. After weeks of very strong Braxton Hicks (practice) contractions we thought for sure this little girl was coming early.
40 weeks came. Then 41. Every morning I woke up slightly depressed as I looked down at my still pregnant belly. I cried pretty much every morning when Rob prepared to leave for work. My energy was wiped clean but I still had to be mom to my 2 year old son. It was during this time that I was am so thankful to have had the support of my wonderful husband, midwife, doula, and village of moms. It is quite discouraging to go 2 weeks past your due date, have not one, not two, but three letdown nights of non-progressing contractions.

Between 41 wks, 2 days and 41 wks, 6 days, my midwife striped my membranes 3.5 times, I took rounds of Start Up herbal supplement, blue cohosh, cotton root, and red raspberry leaf tea, got adjusted with a chiro, had two pedicures, and one acupuncture session.

It's hard to be almost 2 weeks late and have 5 (yes 5!!) babies come before your baby who were due after your baby. I decided that if the acupuncture didn't work, I was done trying. I might as well just lay on the couch, watch Friends and eat Joe Joe's.

Monday (41 weeks, 6 days) at 11 am, I had my first acupuncture session. 18 hours later, I woke up to the first consistent contraction.