Noah's Arrival - Part 1

Never pictured having a water birth until that moment!

I first noticed the contractions Sunday night when some reflux woke me up coughing. I had a contraction while still in that half-awake, half-asleep state and it was not comfortable and woke me up all the way I decided to use the bathroom since I was awake and ended up having like 2 more contractions in the process (it takes so long to do anything at 40 weeks pregnant). Joey was asleep but Dan was watching TV so I stayed up for a bit with him to see what happened. I kept having random, uncomfortable contractions but nothing I couldn’t talk through or sit through, and they didn’t really get any more regular or intense, so after an hour or so I went back to bed. Managed to sleep pretty well considering the contractions, woke up once or twice but overall I got some decent sleep. Monday morning I get up with Joey and let Dan sleep. I make us some breakfast, while still having random, uncomfortable contractions. Some of them are getting intense, while others are just like “meh, here I am”. Dan calls work and says he’s not going to be in at all this week and I let my mom know that she’s probably going to get Joey from us some time later.

Daddy finally gets to hold his new baby!

Mid-afternoon, Dan takes Joey outside to play so I can get a few things done around the house (mostly baby-related!) and lie down for an attempted nap. I lie down with my iPod and try to listen to my relaxation tracks which usually knock me right out, but every time I’m close to falling asleep, a really intense contraction hits that forces me to get up and move through it. For the next hour or so, these intense contractions come every fifteen minutes. Eventually, I decide to get up and see if moving around and eating dinner to anything (either make them stop or get stronger) and since the timing worked out well with her getting off work, I asked my mom to come get Joey. From there the whole thing is a blur! I had started timing the contractions when I went to lie down for my nap, they started were regular but far apart. Around 3:30 they started getting closer together, but only closer by a minute or two (15, then 13, then 11 minutes apart, etc), that was still enough for me to ask my mom to come get Joey since it seemed like things were progressing well. She came and got him a little after 4:30, at which point the contractions had started to come less than 7 minutes apart. I tracked for another half hour, then called the midwives because they didn’t go back up to more than 7 minutes apart and this was baby #2 so things could go much faster. Plus the contractions were VERY intense, even more so than I remembered having with Joey. David, the midwife on duty, said I better head on down to the birth center because it sounded like I was ready! Dan and I got our last minute stuff together and hit the road!

Happy family getting ready to go home!

I had at least 5 major contractions in the car on our way there, all very intense like the others. I remember telling Dan that if I was only dilated to 4cm when we got there, then we were going to the hospital and I was getting an epidural! We arrive around 6 and as soon as I walk in I ask David (my extremely awesome, male midwife) when I can get in the tub. He says that he needs to check me first but he can start the tub and get it filled while we do that. We head into my room and I get onto the wonderfully normal bed (not hospital bed) for my check. 7cm, holy cow! I was exceptionally happy to hear that, with Joey I was only 4cm after more than an hour of regular contractions. The crazy intense contractions I was having this time were certainly doing their job! The nurse comes up to help with the tub and make sure everything is in place, meanwhile I change into my bathing suit (which consisted of a normal bathing suit top and an old knit skirt I didn’t care about, I didn’t know how long I was going to be in the tub but I’m not one to just walk around without anything on at all).

Buckled and checked!

The tub is finally ready and I’m excited to get in! The water is warm and there are a few jets to circulate the water and they feel good on my sore back. I ended up getting in the tub around 6:15 (I could see the clock in my room from my position in the tub). I have one contraction that’s not so bad, but I quickly realize the water only takes a small edge off the pain and it’s mostly just keeping me relaxed between contractions. The next contraction I was sitting where I could apply counter-pressure on myself and that felt better than nothing. When that contraction subsided, I sat up and showed Dan how to apply counter-pressure on both sides, we didn’t have long to wait before another intense contraction came. I looked up after it was over and saw David and the nurse had come back into the room, I had apparently made enough noise for them to realize that it wasn’t going be long before I was pushing. David checked me again and I was at 9.5cm!! He said that if I felt like it I could start pushing with the next contraction! I asked if I had to get out of the tub and he said I could push wherever I wanted, yay! The next couple of contractions I push but they’re not intense like some of the other ones so I save my strength. Then the big contractions hit and I start pushing for real, and it HURTS! The contractions aren’t right on top of each other like I had been afraid of, so I am able to catch my breath in between, but they all stayed intense so when they came they came HARD. I was able to deliver his head in the next couple pushes, though to keep from tearing and delivering too fast I had to stop pushing so hard and wait through a contraction or two which was not easy. When his head finally came out there was sweet relief from most of the pain, and his body came out easily and within minutes he was up on my chest wailing away!

Family of Four finally together.