Micah's Natural Birth Diary

I had a lot of false labor with this pregnancy. A lot of contractions that seemed promising, and then fizzled to nothing.

Once I went over due, I was so torn between the desire to meet Micah as soon as possible via induction, and wanting to let nature run its course so that I'd have the natural labor I'd wanted the whole time. Little did I know...

My last episode of false labor had been Tuesday, November 3rd after taking EPO (Evening Primrose Oil.) When that fizzled, I consulted my Bradley labor book for encouragement. One story was of a woman who had "false labor" from 2pm to 10pm every day for 4 days and then on the 5th day, she had her baby in 2 hours. This encouraged me because I started to realize that every contraction is a good contraction. Even though it doesn't seem like it, they're working. And the more "easy work" I did in the beginning, the shorter the hard work would be at the end.

So by Wednesday, I was at peace and I decided not to intervene. So I did not take EPO again and just let things progress on their own.

Thursday the 5th, my friend Cara invited me to go bowling with her and her brother. I had woken up feeling really crummy that day and was anxious to get Christian (my son) and myself out of the house.

The new renovated bowling alley/rec center is really nice on base. We were there from about 1:30 to 3pm and I'd been having "light and tight" contractions about every 10 minutes while we bowled.

I got home, put Christian down for his nap. Laid down for a bit, watched some TV.

Still feeling "light and tight" but I really didn't think anything of them. Matt didn't get home until 7pm and I actually said "I'm sorry I couldn't go into labor today so you could get home earlier."

Christian went to sleep around 8:45pm and I got this sudden urge to hibernate. I grabbed a drink and a Nutri-Grain bar, kissed Matt, and went up to bed at 9pm to watch TV.

9:15pm first real contraction. Then 9:25...9:35....9:45.

I don't remember what I was watching, but I kept laughing through the contractions.

At 9:58, I called my mom and said I was definitely in labor. She asked if I'd told Matt yet, and I said no. I knew it was still early and I could've had 6 or 7 more hours of "early labor" and I didn't want to excite him.

But when I got my next strong contraction at 10:08 I knew I needed his help. I sent out a mass text at 10:11pm (I love having an electronic record of my labor because things can get so fuzzy) and went downstairs at 10:13pm to tell Matt I was in labor.

I grabbed my strawberry-kiwi Gatorade and Matt asked what he should do. I told him I was probably still in early labor, so he should make some coffee and just wait until I needed him.

Then I had a STRONG contraction on the stairs and said "never mind, come upstairs now because I need you to massage my back."

So it's about 10:15pm and I've sailed through signpost 1 (talking, smiling, excited) in 1 hour and I'm definitely in signpost 2 (serious, needing to concentrate).

We get upstairs and I immediately have him turn out the lights. Contractions are 5 minutes apart now. I'm on my side, needing to deliberately breathe and relax through each one.

Matt is pushing my lower back with his fists and I'm just repeating "relax, relax" to myself. I puked. Thank goodness for that strawberry-kiwi Gatorade. It definitely made that a bit easier. I remember wondering if I might've been in transition at that point because that was when I started throwing up with Christian... but it felt too early and I was in denial.

About 15 minutes later, I had to get off the bed, but I was at a loss of what position I should be in. Nothing felt tolerable. I bet I looked ridiculous wandering around the bedroom squatting, leaning, swaying, kneeling. I probably tried 5 different positions and the only one that "worked" was to lean against the wall and have Matt press into my back while I swayed my hips.

We started timing contractions at 11:10pm and at 11:42 I wanted to get in the bathtub.

We folded 3 huge bath towels and made an L-shaped lazy boy recliner out of the bathtub. It was actually really nice. Quite plush.

I kept pouring water over my belly using the little plastic kidney-shaped pan that I use to rinse Christian's hair during his bath-time. The warm sensation helped me get through each contraction.

My pattern was weird. Every 3 minutes I'd get a HARD contraction that was about 45 seconds long. Then I'd get 1 minute of rest (those were some of the best minutes of my LIFE!!) and then another HARD contraction that was 30 seconds long. Recycle, rinse and repeat. After a while, I was just in this zen state where I couldn't focus on anything. I just shut my eyes and kept compulsively pouring water on my belly through the contractions. It was weird.

Then I asked Matt to get me a really cold washcloth and I held it over my face with one hand while I poured water with the other. Not only did it block out bathroom light, but the contrast of the cold on my face to the warmth of the rest of my body was a good distraction from the pain. But the pain was still amazing, ridiculously brutal.

Ok, so, got in the tub at 11:42 and got out at 12:20.

I actually said "I don't know what to do now" and I really didn't. I was at a total loss at that point. I started to fear each contraction and turned into a little kid. I kept saying "no, no, no" like I could somehow stop them from coming! I was literally whining through each one. I was definitely at signpost 3 (self-doubt and wanting to give up.) In fact, at 12:35 I threw in the towel. I told Matt to call the hospital and say we were on our way. I fully intended to get there and get my epidural because I couldn't take any more pain. Stick a fork in me, I was done.

After an annoying conversation with the nurse who insisted on talking to me while I was having a HORRIBLE contraction, I told Matt to call Cara to come sit at the house. And then it started... Are you ready? Here we go.

Cara was called at 12:46, I put on my nightgown (bought especially for this occasion), grabbed my robe, had a mind-numbing contraction at 12:48 as I was leaving the bedroom. As soon as it was over, I rushed downstairs and searched frantically for my fuzzy slippers because I wanted to get to the car before another contraction. Too late. Had the worst contraction EVER at 12:50. Screamed. (I have no clue how Christian slept through that.)

My water broke in the entryway of our house. Then my body started pushing. I had no control. I said "Oh my gosh, I'm pushing" and started crying.

Matt kinda freaked for a second, but he was much calmer than I was.

He found my other slipper - I was very concerned about my slippers for some reason - and we tried to get to the car. I had to stop and push again beside the car. Screamed again. Woke the neighbors. Said "we aren't going to make it." Matt hoisted me up into the passenger side and I literally had this moment where I would've rather laid down on the cold, wet driveway than to sit in the seat.

I knew we wouldn't make it to the hospital and I did NOT want to push sitting up. But oh well. Matt tucked the robe under me. He said "Call 911?" I said "yes" (actually I probably screamed some not-so-nice things at that point and I don't curse, so you can imagine...) He called 911 at 12:52. Barely got our home address across to the dispatcher when his phone died.

Seriously?

Isn't that just like a cliche TV moment? (more not-so-nice things came out of my mouth at that point.)

According to my phone records, he called 911 again from my phone at 12:56. I'm pushing and absolutely cannot stop for the world. I had no clue it would feel like that. Nothing could've prepared me for that sensation.

I'm crying and saying "I don't want to have a baby in the caaaaaaaaarrrrrrr" but the head was already right there. I screamed at him to recline the seat and I put my feet on the dashboard. Micah's head came out at about 1:02 and he was officially born into his daddy's hands at 1:05 according to the dispatcher. All 7lbs 14oz and 20.5 inches of him.

The ambulance came into our driveway as I was bringing him up to my chest. They didn't move me from the car to the ambulance for about 5 minutes which was nice. I got to bond with him and attempted nursing but he wasn't latching at that point.

As I was being put in the ambulance, Cara got to the house.

Micah was about 10 minutes old when they had Matt cut the cord. yay! I got the delayed cord cutting that I had wanted.

From there, it was just normal.

We arrived at the naval hospital, they admitted us. They did take Micah away from me for about an hour because I needed some stitches and Micah was breathing too fast. But they just observed him under the heat lights in my room, so that was ok.

Funny little tidbit: due to the fact that he was not born in the hospital, he was considered "contaminated" and could not be put in the nursery. So all procedures had to be done in my room (no stealing him from me!) AND I was required to have a private room. So there is a little perk to birthing your baby in your car!

His breathing settled once I was able to nurse him. And neither of us were any worse for wear. The next 36 hours were just standard hospital stuff. They usually only keep the babies for 24 hours, but because he was born at 1am, we didn't actually check out until about 12pm today (the 7th).

As for the car?

You wouldn't even know a baby was born in it. Matt went home and cleaned it up. He said that aside from some uh..stuff..on the seat (leather seats clean right up!) there were no stains. I'm so glad I grabbed my robe! Unfortunately, we had to throw it away. It could not be salvaged. Matt always hated that robe anyway...

So Micah and I are doing well. His discharge weight was the same as his birth weight! He didn't lose any weight due to his voracious appetite. I guess he took his time deciding when to be born, but once he made up his mind, there was NO stopping this boy!

I wouldn't say that "hard labor" started until about 11pm, so really the whole thing went down in 2 hours.

He was definitely worth the wait and the pain.