Aubrey’s Birth Story

38 weeks and ready to pop…that’s how I felt at least. I was SO ready to see my baby girl and was ready to have energy again to chase Cooper and play with him as usual. Since I had never really learned what real contractions felt like with Cooper’s delivery, I had no clue what I was “waiting” for to be able to make “The Call” to the midwives. I knew that I didn’t want my water to break (for many reasons, the main one being that I was GBS Positive), and so I WANTED the breath taking, stop you in your tracks, back killing contractions.

Starting on August 14th (Friday) I was laying in bed and my back hurt; not my lower back, but the middle of my back. Since it wasn’t my lower back I dismissed it for being achy and went on with the night. Sure I was having contractions, but I assumed they were Braxton Hicks contractions since I really had no pain with them at all. Any pain I had I would dismiss telling myself that this was not true labor and REAL PAIN would much worse. I woke up Saturday morning feeling fine; well I wasn’t having any more contractions….I was cranky, irritable, and swollen though. Again on Saturday night I felt contractions as I lay in bed, but nothing stuck to a pattern and they were just pains, not unbearable. I told myself that if I couldn’t sleep through them then we would call the midwife. Low and behold….I fell asleep and woke up at 7 on Sunday morning! 

Fast forward to Sunday night, 10 o’clock. I was in the shower and noticed that I couldn’t really “control” the leak. After verifying that this was not urine, I assumed that it was amniotic fluid. My plan all along had been to have my doula come to the house if my water broke without a pattern of contractions so that we could get me into labor. Well…my anxiety and curiosity got the best of me and I was full force on wanting to delivery Aubrey. I called the Midwife Office and found out that my favorite MW was on call….YAY!!! I talked with her for a bit and we both decided that I should come on in to see what was going on. We took our time, stopped and got a milk shake, some cash, and just enjoyed the midnight drive. We practically were skipping into the L&D floor, laughing, and talking as if this was a common thing in our lives.

My Midwife did a double take at me and we agreed that I was not the typical “in labor” type of Mom-To-Be coming in the doors. We got all situated and set up to see what was going on. My Midwife checked to see if my bag of waters had broken and it was determined that it had not. I was so BUMMED! I couldn’t believe that I was about to be sent home. She decided to see if I was dilated just to see if we could figure anything else out. Low and behold I was pushing 5 centimeters AND apparently what I thought was Braxton Hicks contractions were REAL contractions that apparently really bother most people….just not me!! YIPPEE….I’m admitted .

The hours started ticking by and there was not a lot of progression. We walked, did stimulation, massages, slept (since we hadn’t slept at all) and nothing was doing the trick. My contractions were still doing nothing to me except tightening up my belly. When the next Midwife came in she pretty much laid it out in black and white terms for me. No real progression for a few hours, stuck at 7 centimeters, 90% effaced, 0 station means 3 possibilities; Break the bag of waters, Pitocin (NO NO NO), or continue waiting for labor to kick in. We decided to go the route of breaking my bag of waters AFTER I had 2 hours of walking then stimulation, walking then stimulation. That finally started to kick things into gear. I had 4 or 5 contractions that I had to slow my walking down for and not talk too much.

At 2:45 pm on August 17th my Midwife broke my bag of waters. While she was explaining to me that it could take up to 2 hours for me to kick into a good pattern of contractions, I had to stop her because a MAJOR contraction was hitting me hard. I got off the bed because that was NOT helping the pain. I made it to the bathroom where I sat on the toilet while my doula got the shower ready. The shower was HEAVEN. We had planned to go walk or whatever…but that was not needed. The only thing I wanted was the shower. My contractions were in full force then. I remember even feeling Aubrey flip into the ideal birthing position while in the shower. I finally thought in my head that I COULD NOT take anymore (typical transition thought). I NEEDED meds if I was still not progressing. I knew though that there was no way I was going to get my Midwife back in 30 minutes after breaking my water just to check me….so I did what most pain struck laboring moms would do…I yelled that I felt PRESSURE and was going to push! I wasn’t sure if that was the true feeling…but it got everyone’s attention!  After checking me I was at 9 almost 10 centimeters. Again though, I couldn’t stay on the bed…so I stood by the bed waiting for the magical feeling of knowing that THIS WAS IT!

When that time finally came I was so happy. I thought to myself, “Sweet, pushing is the easiest part”. Which in all fairness it is….it’s the home stretch of your entire laboring process. ALTHOUGH….when people describe this as a “ring of fire” type feeling…they aren’t kidding. I was told to push with my contractions, which I had been nervous about before because I couldn’t imagine how you would know when to push…but I knew! So I started pushing and very quickly stopped pushing. My thoughts… “Who does this? I am putting myself through this pain!” After a very assertive “quick” pep talk from my Midwife though I knew there was no turning back. I had wanted an all natural birth and I wanted to truly “Labor” as it was intended. 4 pushes later and Aubrey Elaine Smith was born at 3:44 pm on August 17th.

Looking back I’ve been able to evaluate the entire process. Would I have an all natural childbirth again? Yes. I’ve now had both types of childbirth, one with an epidural and the other with NO MEDS at all! I’ve experience the difference in both mom and baby from both as well. Aubrey was latching and nursing like a champ from the beginning, her coloring was so healthy looking, and she was so aware. Cooper was a healthy baby when he was born also, although even the 40 minutes of an epidural that I had with him before delivering had effects on him.

I was up walking around that same day….actually only 2 hours later I was walking around, carrying Cooper, and feeling fine. In all honesty I feel so healthy and ready to get back to normal life that I KNOW that natural childbirth is the way to go.