On October 30th (My "due" date), I had been having contractions all evening long and decided to call my mom just in case and she called everyone else to give them a heads up. I was really upset that she called anyone as I figured they would go away and I would disappoint everyone...Again! What can I say, pregnancy hormones are absolutely ridiculous! My Dad and Carrey decided to come over and spend the night at my house (they were watching Elizabeth) just in case it turned into something. I went to bed when they got to my house and just as I feared the contractions stopped.
At 1 am on Halloween I woke to a big contraction, I got up and went to the bathroom and went back to bed. Contractions woke me about every 1/2 hour until 4 am when I couldn't sleep through them any longer. Jimmy was still sleeping so I went to the bathroom to call my mom, I told her I thought they were progressing and that I was going to get into the shower to see if they stalled again. After a quick shower I called her back in tears (silly hormones) and told her it was time!
I went to wake Jimmy and call the Midwife, Natalie was on call and we walked through the symptoms and she agreed it was time to come in. Jimmy called my Dad to come back to the house (they had left when Jimmy came home) and my Mom called everyone else. Jimmy and I grabbed our bags, said bye to Lizzy and headed to Midcoast Hospital. The ride there was awful and I quickly remembered how much I hated sitting while in labor!
We got to the hospital (at about 5:30 am) where they checked me and to my disappointment I was still only 3cm Dilated and 95 % effaced (same as my last regular apt), so they asked me to walk around before admitting me. I was so afraid they were going to send me home! Mom and Bill arrived shortly after I got checked and started walking the halls with me, after a few "laps" Amber arrived to take pictures.
They checked me again and while I hadn't made much progress my water...well...it sprung a leak ;) They made the final decision to admit me and we went to get comfortable in a room.
Natalie went off shift at 7am and Suzanne came in....labor was going pretty slow at this point with small contractions coming 10 minutes or so apart so I decided to get out of bed and walk around for a bit. They came a bit stronger and when checked at about 9am I was 5 cm dilated, Julie came in about this time as well. Megan's Annabelle was sick and she couldn't make it, but she was there in spirit!
Around 10 am the contractions started coming faster and harder and while the ball was working well to relieve the pain I decided to get into the tub. It was a great relaxing time and with Jimmy and I in the room I went into transition (7 cm dilated), I relaxed into it and it felt wonderful being in the tub. At this point time had no meaning and I have no idea how much time I spent in the tub, I was very focused on my body and my baby and was just riding contraction after contraction. The tub stopped being helpful and I decided to get out to eat lunch.
I settled onto the Ball (My favorite place!) and had a drink and something to eat while my Dad brought Lizzy in to visit. Carrey, Brianna, Brittany, and Chip were also there and we visited for a while. Labor progressed slowly from there like my body was giving me a little break before the hard part came.
By 4pm I was in the final stages of labor and while I had expected to get the urge to push, I didn't. I knew that I was done and asked Suzanne (Who had been by my side for hours at this point) to check me and see if I was right. I was indeed at 10cm with a lip, basically just a tiny bit of cervix that wouldn't dilate and was causing the baby to be held up and why I didn't fell the urge to push. She "moved" the lip aside and I did a few practice pushes (still having no urge to push) and knew something was wrong.
Suzanne told me that she thought the baby might have been sunny side up (facing the wrong way). She put her hand up inside me to try to help the baby down. This was excruciating and I started to panic, Suzanne stopped what she was doing and told me to settle down, relax, and breath! Some might say it was rude but its what I needed to focus and get my baby out safely. While Her hand was feeling around for the baby she realized that she was not sunny side up but that my stubborn kiddo was trying to come out with her hand and arm above her head.
Suzanne managed to move her arm down so her head could fit through my cervix (again excruciating pain) and told me to push as hard as I could to get her out. I did and as she was crowning Suzanne reached in and helped pull Madeline out, This is where she noticed that my crazy kid had moved her arm back up by her head so in one hard push and a pull from my midwife....Madeline was finally born!
Suzanne told me to open my eyes and look at my baby...I had not even realized at the time that she had been born as my neither regions was still on fire! Because of baby's head, baby's arm and my midwifes hand, I had been stretched double what my child's head was! I was so happy she was finally there! She was born after 16 hours and 4 weeks of on again/off again labor! My first thought when I saw here was that she looked just like Lizzy!
Because of the brief trauma at the very end, I did end up receiving pitocin after delivery to stop a hemorrhage. Suzanne told me at my 2 week apt that it was a close call on whether I would need an emergency c-section because Maddie had gotten herself good and stuck :P! I recovered quickly and was up and walking around within 30 minutes of delivery!
My midwife was amazing at every turn, as was my WONDERFUL support team!
Jimmy, Mom, Julie, and Amber were there to witness the birth and Dad, Carrey, Bill, Brittney, Brianna, Charlie and of course Lizzy filed in as soon as Maddie made her appearance!
I was incredibly happy to have labor start and continue on its own and I couldn't have asked for a more amazing and perfect natural labor! While pushing her out was not what I expected (or what anybody expected for that matter) I will always have a funny story about how my baby girl did things her own way right from the start!
Stats!
Madeline Eva- Grace Babine
October 31, 2012
8 lbs 2 oz 20 1/4 inches 5:25 pm
16 hours of true labor and 15 minutes of pushing
Side note: It been two months and I was very focused on my body not the clock so the time of events may not be entirely accurate :)
Picture credit goes too Amber Martin and Bonnie Shippen! You guys are amazing!!
