Anna's Birth

Short story: Anna was born naturally after about 16 hours of (mostly) easy labor. She started nursing right away, roomed in, and we came home (by choice) thirty-six hours later.

Long story - for those who like birth stories and don't mind details: When I woke up Sunday morning, I noticed that I was having stronger BH contractions than normal. Normally, I just felt like my belly was tense, but that morning I felt like my torso was being elongated. It wasn't painful, just different. It continued this way, even after a shower, with one twenty-second-long contraction every ten minutes or so, so I told Dan about it at breakfast. We decided to go to church but started timing contractions.

We kept timing during Sunday School (which, btw, was on 2 Peter 2:2 and longing for the pure milk of the word as newborn babes!). After SS, we handed John off to our friends who had agreed to take him when the baby was born. I still wasn't sure this was the real thing, but Dan convinced me we could pick him up at evening service if the baby didn't come. Dan called the midwife who suggested we go home. Since John was born after 4.5 hours of labor (2 hours of which was pushing), she thought it was wise to be close to the hospital. (Our church is an hour's drive from the hospital.)

We drove home and the contractions slowed down to about one every 30 minutes. We called the midwife who suggested we take naps, which we did. I spent the rest of the afternoon reading the Chronicles of Narnia and timing contractions, which began picking up again around 4 pm, so we decided not to go to evening service.

The contractions were still light - I could easily read through them and didn't need to try any pain management - so when Dan suggested ordering pizza at 6 pm, I agreed. I ate three slices of five-topping Papa John's pizza with garlic sauce during labor!

We kept reading and timing after dinner (I think I timed the whole day until we went to the hospital so I have quite the record of labor) and around 8 pm the contractions started to increase in intensity; however, laying down was enough to cope with them so I kept reading while laying on my side.

A bit after 10 pm Dan suggested we call the midwife (before she went to sleep!). Contractions were about 45 seconds long and 5 minutes apart and I was concentrating on breathing during them. (These were still incredibly light compared with the types of contractions I had had during my *whole* labor with John.) I wasn't so sure - I thought I was probably only 5 cm dilated and had 12+ hours to go. However, the midwife convinced me that the jacuzzi would be nice and that one is allowed to labor at the hospital. Anyways, who wants to sit in a car while in strong labor? OK - we decided to go.

Labor intensity increased like crazy in the car! My legs started shaking uncontrollably and I got mad at Dan for not perfectly avoiding potholes. I stopped a few times while walking to the way to the elevator to the 3rd floor, but I walked in on my own. (With John, I was either in a wheel chair or on the floor in fetal position.)

Once signed in, the nurse used the U/S to measure the baby's heartrate (great!) and then the midwife checked me - 9 cm dilated! Wow! She told me my leg shaking was due to the baby being so far down that she was pressing on my nerves. I think the surprise of being 9 cm despite my manageable contractions helped me relax. For the next hour or so (? here my recollection of time gets really fuzzy), standing up during contractions was enough to handle them and the apprentice midwife told me that I didn't even appear to be in labor. We joked around between contractions and I asked some questions about the equipment in the room. Contractions were still much lighter than the whole labor with John.

I think the last forty minutes were the hard part. I couldn't stand very well anymore, so I held onto Dan. The leg shaking was worse. Finally, I pushed Anna out in about 10 minutes. (Dan claims it was 10 minutes - it felt like an hour.) Pushing was much more painful than with John but no part of stage 1 was as bad as the whole time with John. I was glad to be somewhere that I could yell. I had told my midwife that I never felt an urge to push with John but was "coached" through it. She told me afterward that she carefully held her tongue so that I would push properly. I found that kneeling was the best way for me to push.

Anna was born at 12:36 am on October 30. I had been praying that I would go into labor on a Sunday or a Wednesday night (when we go to prayer meeting) so that we could drop John off easily and God answered that prayer request! We had prayed there would be no traffic on the way to the hospital, a request that was answered, too. It also appeared that Anna had been paying attention in Sunday School - she began nursing fifteen minutes after birth and has had quite an appetite since!