"Dysfunctional labor." "Lazy uterus." "Unproductive contractions." These are a just a few of the themes that seemed to characterize not only my first birth experience, but also my second. Well-meaning friends, family members and even my midwife promised me a very different subsequent birth than I experienced. "It'll be half the time!" "The baby will just fall out!" "You probably won't even need or have time for pain meds!" At least now I can say definitively that long, difficult labors really are what my body does. And yes, I probably would have died in childbirth in an earlier century. Thank goodness for modern medicine! All of this has caused me to ask the question: was I meant to birth babies? Maybe it just means that I was meant to be born in this century and not earlier ones...
Recalling Aiden's birth story is a little like recalling my own; some of the details are a little hazy. Throughout eighteen hours of labor, there were moments of unadulterated joy peppered with moments of intense fear, pain and worry. In the end, we have been blessed with another heavenly treasure, Aiden Elijah Charles, our miracle boy. He was born on March 18, 2012 at 2:04pm and was 8 lbs. and 22 1/2 inches long. What a looker!
Let's start at the beginning...my due date, March 12th.
There is no denying that this pregnancy was different than the last. My body seemed to have this been-there-done-that attitude. All of the typical pregnancy symptoms revealed themselves earlier and more intensely than before. This gave me hope that I was getting much of the hard work of labor out of the way prior to the big day. When I started having regular, intense contractions on the evening of Monday, March 12, I was confident that I would give birth before my midwife, Danielle, left for Mexico that Saturday. I had met with her earlier in the day and she told me everything looked great and more importantly, ready. I was dilated to about 1 cm and all of the signs pointed to an imminent delivery. Baby Aiden was locked and loaded.
Two hours came and went, as did the contractions. I chalked it up to pre-labor and decided that Aiden would probably be here within a day or two. On Tuesday, I started losing my plug- another hopeful sign. This continued over the next three days along with a slew of emotional ups and downs accompanying several "this might be it" moments. On Thursday, I had five hours of regular, very intense contractions lasting over a minute and three to four minutes apart. I thought FOR SURE this was it. I called Danielle around 2am that night and she agreed that this was probably the rill dill, but told me to take a warm bath just to wait it out a little longer at home. I did as I was told and noticed that my contractions got much easier to bare. I crawled into bed afterwards to assess my contractions. Imagine my surprise when I realized I had been able to fall asleep after such a build up! Any woman who has done this before knows that if you are able to fall asleep...it ain't happenin'.
Understandably, I was in a bit of a sour mood when I woke up in the morning. I was supposed to have Aiden by now! What happened? Danielle would be leaving the next day and I just had to get this going! Friday evening, I adopted the determination of Rocky and decided to try a few tricks to get things moving. I put on my hiking shoes (that were just a little more snug than usual), put on Adele's 21 album on my iPhone and set out on the streets of Pineridge. I would not return until I was in labor.
I trudged those mountain hills for over 2 miles, pushing through a considerable amount of aches and pains in the process. It was more exercise than I had gotten in weeks! In fact, I was worried I wouldn't make it back home a few times...which must've been what Wes thought when I didn't return for over an hour. I took a potty-break at Kristin Harman's house to commiserate. She was 38 weeks pregnant and more than ready to get her fifth child here (a 10-pounder, I might add). When Wes showed up at the Harman's house, I realized I probably should have informed someone of my whereabouts. Wes was sure I was on the side of the road somewhere alone giving birth. If only...
An hour later, the contractions started. Another five or so hours and a huge adrenaline rush. Another warm bath. Another disappointment. I texted my midwife a status update and she told me that unless I was ready to have the baby that night, she would not be delivering Aiden. She added, "It's not too late for castor oil!" No thanks...
I became at peace with the fact that I would not have the midwife I had been seeing every month at checkups for almost the past year. I'm the one doing the tough part anyway, right? Any OBGYN with half a brain can catch a baby. I made some calls to friends who had seen the other two OBs in the practice and they all confirmed that I had nothing to worry about. Dr. Faulk and Dr. Sabella were both excellent. Great!
The next day was St. Patrick's Day. Despite feeling pretty miserable at five days past my due date, I was no longer in a rush. I had no clock to beat. Aiden would come when he was ready. I spent the day soaking in Liam's cuteness and wondering if I would have time to soak in his cuteness after his brother was born. I wore a green maternity t-shirt. I made my traditional Corned Beef and Cabbage and invited our dear friends, the Kimbles over to share it, hoping that a little of Lauren's history of a 4-hour natural childbirth juju would rub off on me. When contractions started yet again after dinner, I thought little of them. Lauren and I got schooled by the guys in Jeopardy, but I at least had the excuse of being in labor. And little did I know that labor it was...
Disregard the back fat and chins, people. They're only temporary.
The same build-up happened as other days that week, but this time things kept building. Contractions got so intense that I had no time for a bath. There was no doubt that this was the real thing. We called my parents around 10:30pm and warned them that we would probably need them to come over soon. Fifteen minutes later, we called them back and told them to get in the car. We were at Park City Medical Center just before midnight.
Tiffany was our first nurse (of many). I liked her until she gave me an excruciating exam and told me that I was barely 1cm dilated. After that, she became "the nurse that hurt me and gave me bad news." Not again. I had been in labor for 4 hours already... PLEASE NOT AGAIN! I was mentally prepared for many things, but not another 26 hour labor...Tiffany told us that if I showed no signs of progress in the next hour, they would release us to go home. Please let us go home!
Katelynn was the second nurse to check my status. Easiest exam ever. She also was the one who placed my I.V. for antibiotics and got the vein on the first try after some creative thinking (she wrapped a warm towel around my forearm to dilate the veins). This has never been done before! Usually, I look like Frankenstein after nurses get ahold of me with needles. Katelynn gets a gold star. She told us that since my cervix had come forward a bit in an hour, we would not be able to leave. I was in for the long haul...But hey, at least I was progressing.
Because I was fine with either on-call OB, I asked casually which of the two would be delivering my baby. I was not at all prepared for the answer. "Well, actually, both are on vacation as well. You will have Dr. Melissa Brown from IMC. We've never met her, so we really can't tell you anything more. Sorry!"
You. Have. Got. To be. Kidding.
The circumstances of my second labor seemed so absurd, it was almost laughable. I tried to keep a level head and be at peace with the things that were beyond my control. Aiden would be coming soon, whether I liked it or not. He would be born at this hospital by this random doctor. It was a done deal. At least I wasn't giving birth on the side of the road. We did a quick Google search for Dr. Brown, read some great reviews, watched a YouTube interview video of her and decided things would be okay.
I dilated to 5cm in the next three hours. Despite unbelievable pain, I was actually elated that things seemed to be moving along! I became energized and recommitted to the task. I was optimistic that maybe this labor would be half the time of Liam's. I asked for pain relief eight hours into labor, knowing I might have several more hours of intense pain to go and I was already exhausted. My anesthesiologist, Dr. William Shakespeare (I'm not kidding), arrived soon after to place the epidural.
This became the turning point of my labor. Things started to go downhill quickly. It has taken me so long to get up the nerve to write Part II of Aiden's birth story because I still haven't quite recovered from the trauma of it all...
To be continued...
