After being so upset that I was 5 days overdue
with no signs of
labor and then hearing that my friend's wife had delivered her son
a whole month early that day, Saturday July 31, I went to bed around
midnight. I got about an hour of sleep before a contraction woke
me up around 1:30 am. They continued and seemed pretty regular
and they hurt much more than the Braxton Hicks I'd been having for
months. I let it go a while and then woke my husband Aric up. He
timed the contractions for an hour and they were about 3-4 minutes
apart and 30-45 seconds long. At about 4:00 am I called the
midwife on call at the hospital - it was Pam. She said it sounded
like the real thing and I could come in in about an hour if I wanted,
but that it was probably still sort of early since the contractions
were only lasting 30 seconds. So I called my parents and told
them to make their way down here, praying it was the real thing and I
didn't wake them up at 4:00am to come down here for nothing!
Of course, then I got up to take a shower and get
things cleaned up
around the house and we stopped timing the contractions and by the time
my parents got here at 7:00am they weren't as regular as they
were. And then the long day began.....
We all just sort of hung around Sunday during the
day. I was
having painful contractions all day, but they just weren't regular
like they had been. We took our dogs for a walk around
3:00 pm and when I got back I called the midwife again, and this time
it was Rita Marie. She said since I hadn't slept at all and
that everything would probably kick in later that night, to eat
something, take two Tylenol PM and go to sleep. So I first took a
hot bath, then did what she said. As soon as I closed my eyes,
the first contraction hit and it was worse than the others, three
minutes later another, then three minutes later another and during
that one my water broke. Aric came back into the bedroom and
I was a little hysterical at the time probably because I was so tired
and had just taken two pills which would normally knock me out for
good. My mom said finally it was time to go to the
hospital.
Once we got there, Rita Marie was surprised to see
me so soon and I was
in a lot of pain. When they checked me I was only 3 cm and I wanted to
cry. I had been 1.5 cm the previous Tuesday at my last
appointment, so I was a little discouraged to have only progressed that
far after having contractions all day long. She asked if I wanted
the epidural now, and I reluctantly said yes because I heard that
when they give it before you're at least 5 cm, it can stop or slow
labor altogether. But I had been having bad
contractions all day and I was in no mood to suffer for another
couple of hours. By the time they got all the fluids in me and
got the epidural going I was between 4-5 anyway. It was getting
close to 6:00 pm I think.
Getting the epidural was no picnic with bad contractions every few
minutes but once it kicked in the rest was cake. I just laid
there and tried to rest while seeing the contractions on the screen and
feeling a little pressure every now and again. Luckily,
everything just kept progressing without any other assistance. At
11:00 pm, the nurse checked me again and said I was at 9 cm. I
could definitely feel lots of pressure like the baby was ready to come
out. Rita Marie got there about 10 minutes later and when she
checked me, she said the baby was right there ready to deliver. I
was so tired I told her I didn't think I could possibly push at
all. She said I'd be fine and then she showed me how I would have
to push and showed my mother and my husband how to hold my legs.
She told Aric she would deliver the head and then he could reach down
and deliver her from the shoulders out. He looked a little
stunned, but didn't object!
Three sets of pushes and less than 5 minutes later, Kira was out.
It was so easy I couldn't believe it. I was lucky that she just
moved her way all the way down during labor and I didn't have to
push hardly at all, just like Rita Marie said she was hoping for.
I had no stitches or anything because Rita Marie is such an awesome
midwife and told me that if I listened closely when she told me when
and how long to push that I probably would not tear. I'm so
thankful for that because my recovery was so quick!
I also couldn't believe that Kira was over
8
pounds! Sara, another midwife who had seen me in the office
for my last few visits had said she would be over 8 pounds
by the time I delivered, but she just looked so small I
couldn't believe it. Aric delivered her from the shoulders out
and then my mom cut the cord. It was pretty amazing.
My birth experience was really a great one after the
epidural kicked in
and we appreciate how wonderful everyone was at Potomac Hospital.
Now we are enjoying our month old little wonder. My only regret
is that we were so in shock after the birth, that we forgot to get a
good picture with Rita Marie!
We did get a picture of her with Kira during
our
postpartum visit though. I would highly recommend the Adler
Center to anyone. They are wonderful!
Sincerely,
Jill and Aric Sherwood and Baby Kira
