I had contractions off and on for hours at a time for a week and a half. They tricked me a couple times and almost sent us to labor & delivery but then they’d fizzle out and I’d be disappointed. So when my 39 week + 5 day routine appointment rolled around (May 2nd), I asked my OB to please strip my membranes in hopes of jumpstarting things. I proceeded to have spotting and cramping after that appointment and tried to walk as much as I could throughout the day. By that evening, I was having strong, though irregular, contractions and felt like this could be it. But I was apprehensive to get my hopes up, given the false alarms I already had! I gave my mom a heads up (she would be staying with Cam and Belley while I went to the hospital), then Jake and I watched the Bruins game and went to bed. I continued to have strong contractions through the night, some of which woke me and reinforced my notion that this could be it. I was up at 7am, had my bloody show and knew this was it. I started timing the contractions at 7:30 and called my mom to come over. By 9:15 I called my doctor’s office and they told me to head in the labor & delivery to be checked out.
They checked me at triage and I was 70% effaced and 4cm dilated- this was truly it! I was admitted around 10:30am, had an IV started, and saw the doctor. We chatted a bit about what I hoped for my birth experience and she told me that I could be intermittently monitored, giving me some freedom to move.
So I began walking the halls with Jake. This is when the hours start to blur together for me, haha. After a bit of walking, the doctor came to check me again only to find that I was still 4cm. At this point I opted to have my waters broken in hopes of speeding up my labor. That was around 4pm.
Contractions got intense fast after they broke my water. I walked as much as I could then switched to bouncing on a birthing ball. I was really having to focus in and breathe through every contraction at this point. I opted to have another unmedicated birth so I was tapping into all of my pain coping techniques at this point. What helped most was focusing on breathing in deeply through my nose then breathing down through my mouth. After maybe an hour or so on the birthing ball, I was checked again and 100% effaced and 8cm dilated! I kept laboring through and soon started feeling the urge to push. The nurse checked me at that point and said I seemed to be 10cm and went to get the doctor. That was probably shortly after 7pm.
The room and bed were prepped and I started pushing. I was in a lot of pain but it felt good to be able to funnel that energy into pushing. This is when things got really hard. I was doing great pushing, according to the doctor and nurse. But they had me changing positions frequently and it felt like I was pushing for awhile. I kept thinking “if I’m doing so great pushing why isn’t baby born yet?” It was frustrating and discouraging for me. Finally the doctor told me that baby was posterior and presenting with the widest part of the head. Due to these factors, baby was getting stuck in my pelvis. Each push was moving baby’s head into the bone rather than over it. I continued to push, changing positions in hopes of getting baby to rotate. When the different positions didn’t do the trick, the doctor tried to manually turn baby. It was super painful and unsuccessful so we were back to the drawing board. The doctor asked if she could use the vacuum to help assist baby over the pelvic ridge. It was also at this point that the doctor more fully explained what was going on and said that if the vacuum didn’t work I would need a c-section. I remember looking at Jake and crying, saying I didn’t want a c-section. I was so upset. They called in the on-call staff and opened the OR. At one point an anesthesiologist came in to introduce himself and I was given a consent form to sign.
The doctor agreed that as long as baby’s heart rate stayed strong and I had the energy, I could continue to push. So that’s what I did. After a few pushes the doctor tried to apply the vacuum to assist baby. But that was unsuccessful as well. Baby’s positioning made it impossible for the doctor to apply the vacuum in a spot that was far enough away from the face to be safe. At this point, I cried again and asked to keep pushing. The doctor suggested a 15 minute break to regain some strength. I struggled through contractions without pushing but tried to rest and regain some energy.
When it was time to go back to pushing, the doctor asked a nurse to bring a smaller vacuum unit (apparently called a kiwi). She told me that she was going to try this and see if she could get it safely placed on baby. Much to our delight, it worked! She was able to attach the kiwi vacuum to baby’s head and assist my next few pushes. I remember praying and pushing with all my strength. Over and over. Praying and pushing. The nurses and Jacob seemed to be getting excited over my progress and that was encouraging. Then I finally felt the ring of fire- baby was crowning! I asked to touch baby’s head and that gave me so much motivation to continue pushing. At this point the doctor said she needed to do an episiotomy. Jake knew my birth plan and promptly told her that I’d rather tear than be cut (I was so proud of him sticking up for me). But the doctor told us that if I tore it would do far more damage than the cut she wanted to make. I was so anxious to get baby out that I told her to just do what she needed to do to get baby out. She numbed me but I still felt the cut. That was the only time I screamed during my labor. It wasn’t much longer after that and baby’s head was out! I think I gave one more push to get the shoulders out and next thing I knew baby was on my chest! Actually, because of my pushing position, I got to see baby emerge and that was super awesome! After 2hrs and 45min of excruciating pain while pushing, baby was born at 10:07pm!
Nurses tended to baby on my chest while we enjoyed skin-to-skin and doctor tended to me. Then I realized Jake hadn’t announced the gender and I asked “what is it?!” Before lifting baby’s leg to check myself. I was completely shocked to see we had a girl! (I honestly thought it was a boy). I remember saying “it’s a girl!! That’s a girl, right?! Jake! Jake! It’s a GIRL!!” And nearly crying. Jake was already crying at this point as we both stared at our new baby girl! It was such an exciting, emotional, surreal moment!
We had been undecided on a girls name throughout my pregnancy and walked into the hospital saying “it’s going to be a boy, but if it is a girl let’s name her Ava.” As I held our sweet baby girl I looked at her and told Jake that she wasn’t an Ava. I thought Amelia (which means work/hard working) was more fitting for her! I definitely had to work hard to birth her and she worked hard as well keeping her heart rate steady and allowing me to push for so long. Our sweet Amelia Grace!
