Many have commented on how "easy" and "nice" it must have been to have such a short labor. And if 2 1/2 hours of intense labor is "nice," then I guess they are right. I gotta admit though, I've really had to spend some quality time contemplating this birth experience to find peace. When I try to tell the story with details, I still notice my heart starts racing, my breathing becomes rapid, I feel tense and anxious. So it's taking me some time to actually want to write the story. At the same time, I'm sure doing so will help.
I'll preface this with-- baby Samson and I are both doing well. As far as all things physically concerned, we are perfectly healthy and the delivery, while exciting (?), was actually smooth and perfect. No complications.
Brad and I had been praying and trying every old wives tale we knew to encourage our little boy (who was officially due Jan 9) to come in December. The biggest reasons were so Brad would be on holiday vacation from work and could stay home for a few days to help out without using all his vacation days at the beginning of the year, Brad's mom would be on winter break (she's a teacher) and could help out, we had already met our high deductible for insurance for 2013, etc. The hospital and my OB wouldn't consider an induction for those reasons before Jan 2, and I really hate pitocin and didn't want to be medically induced anyway. I had been taking evening primrose oil and drinking mother's milk tea for a couple weeks. At my 38 week appointment (Friday. Dec 27), the OB checked me and informed me I was 3 cm and 50% effaced. This was disheartening because I was that far along with my previous 2 girls at 37 weeks, and they were born 1 day late (being induced) and 1 day early (spontaneous). I was pretty convinced my little boy would be born after his due date at this point. I may have cried on my way home from my appointment that day, but by the time I got home had prayed and felt peace about the situation. Everything would work out, even if I didn't know HOW. We went to Brad's family's that evening for his cousin's wedding reception and 10 year high school reunion and had fun.
Saturday, Dec 28 we came back home and worked on cleaning the house from Christmas and making our list of things to finish before Samson was born, and sorting baby clothes we'd received from friends. that evening we decided that I would try castor oil. I had spent HOURS researching it, asking friends, reading personal stories of those who had tried it and contemplating the pros/cons. I had decided that I wouldn't even try it if I wasn't already AT LEAST 3cm and 50% effaced (funny, that's exactly what I was...); my body had to be already preparing and ready for labor to consider taking it. And I even mentally prepared myself for what many people said castor oil does-- cleans you out. a lot. I took 1 1/2 Tbsp at 3pm on Saturday, Dec 28. And waited for my date with the bathroom... and waited... and waited. Took a relaxing bath... By 12:30am, I went to bed with nothing happening.
Sunday, Dec 29 I woke up to get ready for church and thought I was having contractions. Brad recommended I time them, even though I told him they didn't feel strong, consistant, or regular, and I had no other signs of labor starting (this may be TMI for some... no loss of mucus plug, no bloody show, no water breaking, etc.). They were coming roughly 8-6 minutes apart. So we went to church and decided that if they got closer, stronger, or I had any other signs of labor, I'd call the dr. At church, if I was up and walking contractions were every 6 minutes; if I was sitting they could vary between 12-24 minutes. And they were seriously mild. Half the time I sat there wondering if I was having a contraction, or if I just had gas. A couple were stronger and distracted me (while conducting music in Primary I'd have to stop singing but I could keep conducting... the kids didn't notice, but one of the teachers did). We went home and I tried climbing stairs for a while-- contractions got to be 4 minutes apart, and then just got tired and decided to take a nap around 4pm. When I woke up, all contractions had stopped and nothing could seem to get them started again. Brad and I knew that I'd have to go into labor by the 29th to have a December baby, and well, the day was almost over. After dinner Brad somehow had talked me into trying castor oil again... something along the lines of "it didn't do anything last time so what can it hurt" and "this is the last chance; the worst that could happen is you spend some time on the toilet and don't get a baby, which you had already psyched yourself up for anyway, so what's the difference" and "it could still work... maybe." So at 7:30pm I took 2 Tbsp castor oil and waited for another date with the bathroom. We ate some of our Christmas candy, talked, planned to start our "baby prep" list in the morning. Around midnight I took an hour-long relaxing bath with essential oils. At 1am, it seemed the castor oil decided to do it's job of cleaning out my bowels. Not terrible, not pleasant, just a fact. By 1:30am I was in bed reading and hoping for contractions/waiting to see if I needed a 2nd bathroom date. I fell asleep around 2:30am after a very uneventful hour of reading.
Monday Dec 30 I woke up shortly after 4am. Not unusual... I wake up middle of the night all the time. I felt uncomfortable so I moved around. Got uncomfortable, so I moved some more. After 8-10 minutes of tossing and turning, I get up to go to the bathroom. Come back to bed and think, "are these contractions?" (remember, I'm in a sleep fog after only 1 1/2 hours of sleep...) so i try to time them, but I'm dozing off in between and keep forgetting when I had the last one until they start getting strong and I want Brad to start applying counter pressure to my back. At 4:45am I start trying to wake up Brad to rub my back; he whines about me poking him until I tell him I'm having contractions. He quickly perks up at that point and asks how often. "I don't know... every few minutes, I guess." So he grabs pen and paper to start timing. We realize by 5am that it's every 2 minutes, and they are getting pretty strong. CRUD.
Brad frantically begins throwing together the hospital bag (it had been packed, but we unpacked it on friday for spending the night at his parents' house and planned to repack that day) and a bag for the girls to stay with friends while I had the baby. He wakes the girls while I go potty before we leaving. I notice that I finally lose the mucus plug and have "bloody show" and I think-- "hey, I really might have a baby today... this means it's real labor!" (somehow strong contractions every 2 minutes didn't clue me in??? i must have been tired!) As I stood up, my water broke. (Seriously... how lucky is that?! no mess!) By 6am, everything and the girls are in the car ready to go; I'm laying on the floor of the bedroom crying and wanting Brad with me to support me through contractions but I know he can't. He's busy trying to get us to the hospital.
Brad finds me and we start downstairs to the car, at which point I tell Brad, "I don't think we'll make it to Canton. We need to go to Alliance." He says ok. We were going to drop the girls at a friend's house, but next contraction as we are pulling out of the driveway, I announce, "I think I need to push..." Brad FLOORS the gas and we start speeding to the nearest hospital (about 1.5 miles away) and calming repeating, "don't push! we're almost there." We squeal into the ER bay; Brad runs in yelling, "My wife needs to push!" and a nurse runs out with a wheelchair and rushes me to labor & delivery. The L&D nurses are madly prepping a room as I get wheeled in and they begin reminding me, "don't push, the dr is on his way. try not to push. you're doing great. keep breathing." I started crying and wondering where Brad was and wanting to push and trying not to. I just wanted Brad by my side so badly. One of the nurses let me hold her hand and was really great... but she wasn't Brad, who was about to miss the birth of his son and I felt alone and vulnerable.
Brad runs in 5 minutes later. (After I was whisked away, he parked the car and brought the girls up with him, who were missing their shoes and it was snowing. He left them in the hallway outside my door with a nurse.) He's finally holding my hand and everything seems better, though my body is starting to push and I can't stop it anymore. The dr walks in a couple minutes later, and I'm finally encouraged to push. Samson is born 2 pushes/1 contraction later at 6:30am on Monday, December 30, 2013. He weighed 7 lbs 13 oz, and was 20 inches long. His APGAR scores were 9 both times. A perfectly healthy little boy!
