The Cathcart Family: Sara, Chris, Autumn and Mia
Baby Mia finally made her appearance!!! After about a week of on-again/off-again contractions, it ended in true labor!
On Friday, November 3 2006, (10 days past my due date), my boss told me to work from home, and it was a good thing he did. At about 12:50pm my husband, Chris and older daughter, Autumn, were lying down for a nap. I decided to stay up and watch TV and finish some tasks around the house that I’d been working on. When I sat down, after having contractions for a little while, I thought, “What the heck, I should start timing these,” as the crampy feelings weren’t going away. I got my watch with the second hand, a pen and a piece of paper.
During a bout of “false labor” once before, I was advised to take a warm bath to relieve the Braxton Hicks contractions and it worked like a charm…so that’s where I went this time. During the first half-hour, the contractions were 4-6 minutes apart and for the next half hour, they were 2-3 minutes apart, with some coming every minute. They weren’t lasting that long, but I figured I’d call the midwife anyway.
After speaking with the answering service, Nancy called me back. I was so excited that she was on-call that day, since she had been one of my favorite midwives from the start. Her call came less than 10 minutes later, but in that time, I’d awoken my husband, phoned two of our babysitter back-ups and packed my stuff. Nancy thought we ought to head for The Birth Center. I was concerned that the contractions were not only getting more powerful, but that this was happening all too quickly. This was my second labor and delivery and my first lasted almost 48 hours. I thought this would be faster - say, 24 hours!
The sitter arrived and off we went. My contractions were crazy…I couldn’t even get my shoes on (and I had no time to prep and bake the veggie lasagna I was hoping to bring along with me.) The car ride was terrible. We only live 30 minutes from The Birth Center, but that was at least 10 contractions. I couldn’t get comfortable. I tried setting the seat all the way back, I tried sitting up - I tried just about everything. The only thing that gave me some comfort seemed to be opening up the window to let the 40 degree air hit my face and squeezing the life out of my husband’s hand. I was a Hypnobabies student, so I tried to have one of the CD’s on for the ride, and of course this was the day the CD player decided to take a turn for the worst. I got about one good paragraph out of the CD that played repeatedly.
We arrived at TBC around 3pm. Chris dragged his shoe-less wife in the front doors and we were met there by Nancy and June. They had the tub ready, the room prepped. I made my way in, swore I had to use the bathroom, but realized it was a false alarm, and that my baby was just moving down the way she should, putting pressure on all my organs.
I got onto the bed to be checked and as soon as I sat down, my water broke. Much to our surprise, I was already at 8cm!!! Knowing I had a few hours of this ahead of me was daunting, so I requested something to take the edge off of the pain. I was given a little bit of Stadol and something to calm my nerves. Unfortunately, all this did was make me so tired I was unable to open my eyes.
I was taking it one contraction at a time, and as soon as I felt each one approach, I braced myself. I pictured them coming and going like tidal waves - if I just sailed over them, it seemed to help. Hypnobabies was playing in the background and every now and then, I made it something to focus on. I tried everything available to me. In the Jacuzzi, out of the Jacuzzi; on the birthing stool, off of the birthing stool; rocking/walking/being stationary. I found sitting and lying down were the worst. I enjoyed having my husband there to bite or pinch every time a contraction took my breath away. I appreciated Nancy and June gently taking me through the contractions one by one and encouraging me with all sorts of reassuring words. I remember yelling at one point and wishing I didn’t have to, because everyone else was so calm. I love that I could, though, because ultimately labor is very hard work and the contractions can be very intense.
By this time, the baby’s shoulder had lodged itself into my belly just below my hip. With each contraction, the pain got worse until, just as Nancy had promised, she moved far enough down that it just went away.
I pushed for about 30 minutes. I remember asking Nancy at one point just how close I was because this felt like an eternity and she said, “In 3 more pushes, you’ll have this baby.” Again, she was exactly right! I used the birthing ball to prop myself up and squatted my sweet Mia into the world, all 8lbs and 13oz of her. My legs were numb when she emerged; I was so tired. Nancy handed her to me and all I wanted to do was breathe. I was so excited to see and hold her when it was over. What an accomplishment! There was no 3 rd degree tear or anything that required any mending when all was said and done. This made recovery a lot easier than I had remembered from my first delivery. Chris cut the cord and we slept. It was awesome, to say the least.
Having gone to The Birth Center, I was able to avoid the things that bothered me so much in my first (hospital) delivery. I didn’t have an IV to worry about, I didn’t have monitors to try and keep on my belly, and I could actually feel how to effectively push. In addition, I didn’t have anyone counting for me, telling me to push, yelling in my face, etc. I was allowed to do what felt right at the time and birth my baby the way nature had intended. These were all quite different from my first birth.
