Here it is! The official birth story! And I think it took me longer to write than it did to have Elizabeth! :)
I had thought my body was preparing to go into labor the evening of December 5th and early morning of December 6th. Late on the night of the 5th I experienced some diarrhea and was just feeling off. I let our midwife, Tierney, know and then went to bed. I woke up at 4am on December 6th and started leaking a little bit of fluid around 4:15. I was also experiencing shivering, but wasn't cold at all, and figured it was probably due to changing hormones. I was having contractions here and there, but was only aware of them if I put my hand on my abdomen and felt that it was tight. I let Tierney know this as well and agreed to let her know if and when contractions really started. We went back to bed. When we woke up later that morning I was no longer leaking fluid, but still felt off. I spoke with Tierney mid-morning and she felt that the baby was ready but that my body wasn't cooperating due to stress and pressure to have the baby because Matt was supposed to return to work December 10th. She told me she would come by the house in the afternoon and check on me to see what was going on.
The rest of that day I felt off. Mentally I felt that I was prepared if Matt had to go back to work. I had confidence in the fact that if he was away all I had to do was call Tierney and she would come to me - I didn't have to go anywhere. Of course I wanted Matt there, but I knew I would do okay even if he wasn't. I had also been getting lots of phone calls from well-meaning family members "just checking in", and while that irritated me quite a bit I felt like that irritation was the only affect. I had a lot of outside pressure to have the baby, but I knew that she would come when it was time, that due dates are arbitrary. I was disappointed to think that as mentally ready as I felt, my body wasn't doing what it needed to do because of things that were going on around me. Tierney was going to do my first (and what would be my only) cervical check when she came by that afternoon. I was concerned that if my body wasn't doing its part to keep labor going that my cervix may not be ripening and dilating yet either.
Tierney arrived and checked me out around 3:00 the afternoon of December 6th. She checked me and let me know that I was dilated 3-4 centimeters, but that she was able to stretch me to about 5 centimeters, and my cervix was 70-80% effaced. It was such a relief to know for sure that my body had already done so much of the work. She performed a cervical massage as well, which involved her monitoring the baby's position on the cervix internally while palpating my belly in various places externally in an effort to coax the baby to move her head into a position where it would apply the best possible pressure to the cervix. She left me with a blue cohosh tincture to take sublingually every 15 minutes for 2 hours. The herbal tincture would help to enhance labor and further soften my cervix if my body was ready for that. I began taking the tincture at 3:45PM, and took it every 15 minutes until 5:45.
I had been having pretty frequent stronger contractions after the cervical massage, but they were only uncomfortable, not painful, and they slowly spaced themselves out and became weaker. I laid down in bed that evening to knit and watch a TV show on my computer, and the contractions began again. I texted Tierney at 10:14PM to let her know that I had been contracting every 5-7 minutes and that they had only been uncomfortable but were starting to get a little stronger. At 10:31 I texted again to tell her that they were definitely hurting. I laid down to rest for a little while and the contractions continued to become more intense. I sent Matt (who was downstairs) a text at 10:47 to tell him I thought it was time. He came upstairs and we began to get ready for the birth - Matt opening our birth box and getting all of our birth supplies out and ready, and me getting into my gown and concentrating on my contractions. At 11:01PM I let Tierney know that I thought it was time for her to come, and she was on her way within minutes. At one point Matt timed a couple of contractions that were around a minute and a half apart.
During contractions I was the most comfortable leaning over the bed and swaying from side to side. I also tried laboring on the toilet through a couple contractions, and on the birthing ball, but they didn't work quite as well for me. Matt put water in the tub for me and I got in as soon as it was ready. Unfortunately there was only enough hot water to put 6 or 7 inches of water in the tub, but it worked, and the water was very much a relief. During contractions I found it helped me to rhythmically splash water onto my lower abdomen as it wasn't quite as deep as I would have liked it and keeping the water circulating in that way made it feel slightly warmer to me. Almost as soon as I got in the tub the contractions changed - I felt like I had more time in between (we didn't actually time them) and I was beginning to feel pressure, but did what I could to avoid pushing as Tierney hadn't arrived. I told Matt to unlock the front door and text to let her know she could just come in when she arrived, and she responded that she was 5 miles away.
Tierney arrived and I continued to labor as I had through a few more contractions: sitting with my back against the side of the tub in a slightly reclined position, and Tierney checked the fetal heart rate with the doppler before the start of another contraction. I then decided to try sitting up in the middle of the tub and really began to feel a strong urge to push. Between contractions I got up on my knees and supported myself on the side of the tub with my forearms. I really began to push with the next contraction, concentrating on keeping a relaxed face (as I had previously read that keeping face and jaw relaxed helped to reduce the likelihood of a tear). My water broke during a push and everything felt much, much more intense after that. It's all a blur to me. I lost the calm composure I had had throughout the labor, and Tierney was telling me "you're okay, you're okay" and I was able to calm down slightly and respond "I know, I know". The baby was out quickly, Tierney called the time 12:17, and I couldn't believe how much time had passed (the last recollection I had of time was when I texted for her to come at 11:00). She was born with a nuchal hand (hand beside her head) and a nuchal cord (cord around her neck). Tierney had me raise up slightly and handed the baby off to me through my legs. (Matt informed me later that Tierney ended up doing quite the acrobatic routine while catching the baby as the faucet for the tub was built into the corner of the room and the faucet is right in the middle of the only open side. She had to lean over quiet a long way while working around that faucet.)
I leaned back against the side of the tub, new baby in my arms covered with a towel. Tierney told me that she had arrived at our house around 11:45PM, that I had started to push at 12:13, that my membranes had ruptured at 12:15, and that the baby had been born at 12:17AM. I pulled the towel back slightly to see the baby and noticed that there was absolutely no blood on her, and asked if that meant I hadn't torn - I knew it was a good sign. Tierney said she had completely forgotten to check the sex of the baby, so I did, and she was a girl just as we had expected.
I remained in the tub until it was time to deliver the placenta. I gave a little push and it was out. Tierney had Matt hold the red plastic bowel we had for the placenta and he carried the bowl and baby out to our bedroom. There was a little bit of a tense moment after Matt had said something (I didn't hear what) in the bedroom that had made Tierney rush out of the bathroom saying "What? What's happening?" Matt had apparently almost spilled the bowel containing the placenta.
Tierney helped me out of the tub and into my night gown. I got into bed and laid there having skin-to-skin time for a long while with our new baby girl. She wasn't ready to nurse on our first attempt, but we tried again shortly thereafter and she quickly latched and started feeding. When it was time to do the newborn exam Tierney clipped the cord with the usual plastic umbilical clip (no clamping required since all the cord and placental blood had had plenty of time to pass into the baby) and Matt cut the cord at 1:40 AM. She had remained attached to her placenta for almost an hour and a half after birth! Tierney weighed her, measured head circumference and length, and checked to make sure everything was as it should be - she was perfect. Matt got to hold the baby while I was checked. Not only had I not torn, but according to Tierney it "didn't even look like [I had had] a baby" - no swelling to speak of, and only a very slight abrasion as if I had scrapped my knee; no repair necessary. Tierney grabbed the hand mirror because she said I had to see for myself.
I texted Tierney the next morning to thank her and let her know how we were doing. She told me that our birth was "honestly the gentlest, calmest birth she had seen in a very long time." I already felt great about it, but that feedback somehow made me feel even better about our home birth when I didn't think I could have. Everything had gone perfectly (except Matt almost dumping the placenta!). I was able to do just what I wanted to do. I wasn't forced to follow any policies or procedures. My baby wasn't whisked away for suctioning or exams immediately following birth, and when she did the newborn check it was right beside me on my bed. I wasn't given anything to "help" my body do what it already did well enough on its own, and the same for our baby. Nothing was done against my wishes or plans - I didn't even bother to write a birth plan because Tierney had told me about how she typically did things following a birth, and it was exactly what I wanted and what we got.
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