Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth.
Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them. - Psalm 127:4-5

Sunday, April 15, 2012

41 weeks, 2 days!

 Bennett's Birth Story.

It was Sunday morning, March 11th, ten days after my supposed due date.  5:30AM rolled around, and I woke up to mild back pain. Scott was still at work, as he usually walks in the door an hour later. A week earlier, I was woken up by somewhat of the same discomfort, so I didn’t expect today to be the day.. But it was! I lay in bed and felt the waves of back labor rise and fall. Scott got home and slipped into bed, and I wondered if I should let him sleep or clue him in. Within a half hour of him drifting off to sleep, I couldn’t wait any longer to tell him; unfortunately, this was the only half hour of sleep Scott got for two days. I wasn’t doing too hot myself, as I had only gotten three of hours of sleep before it all began. Scott was calm and collected when I told him I was in labor. Although I could sense his excitement, he took his position as labor coach and started helping me time the contractions and breathe my way through them. The odd thing was, the contractions never wrapped around towards my abdomen.. This was the start of hideous back labor that never went away.

By 8:30AM, we had been walking around the upstairs and the contractions weren’t subsiding: they were approximately 3 ½ - 4 minutes apart and lasting a full minute. The only thing I could do was stand and labor through each contraction. Scott insisted we call Loretta our doula and have her come over and help. It was a Sunday morning though, and I didn’t want her to miss church! Scott reminded me how silly I was being, and Loretta was there by 9AM. We snapped some photos, and the contractions grew more intense. We had called our midwife Christine and let her know what was going on. Three days earlier she had said I wasn’t anywhere near labor, and it’d probably be another week.. But Bennett had other plans in mind.

At 11:30AM my contractions were somewhere between 2 and 3 minutes apart and lasting a full minute and a half. Loretta said it was time to pack the car and head to the birth center. The half-hour ride there was extremely difficult, as I labored in the backseat of the car on all fours. Through tears, I called my dad on the way and let him know Bennett was coming soon!

The three of us arrived at the birth center at noon, and Christine met us immediately for an intake exam. Bennett’s heartbeat was great, and she checked me for dilation and effacement. To her total surprise, I was already 5cm dilated! We all headed into the bedroom where Christine and Loretta started to set up the birthing pool. I labored hard for the next three hours, working intently to breathe deeply and relax in the warm water. Scott was an amazing coach, as I held his arms and labored on the side of the pool.

By 3pm I had progressed to 9.5cm! We were all shocked, and expected Bennett to arrive almost immediately. Although I didn’t have the urge, Christine suggested I try pushing while in the water. Most unfortunately, my back labor made it almost impossible; each contraction and push felt like my back muscles were tearing. I tried pushing for a while, but nothing seemed to progress - it seems that the half a centimeter was complicating Bennett’s descent. I stepped out of the pool, and then tried pushing again on the bed lying on my side, but the pain was unbearable. As a team, we all decided it was best for me to stop pushing and allow the contractions to work on getting Bennett to descend. Christine had the sneaking suspicion that he was mal-positioned in the womb. The next handful of hours almost brought me to my breaking point. I remained in transition at 9.5cm dilated from 3pm to 8pm – five unbelievable hours! The labor was incredibly intense, and I struggled to stay on top of the contractions. There were a lot of tears, both mine and Scott’s. Since the back labor made it impossible to sit or lay down, I stayed standing almost the entire time outside of the birthing pool. Loretta suggested we try the yoga ball, but nothing relieved the pain. Christine had an idea or two up her sleeve to help with the back labor, but nothing seemed to work. She gave me two Tylenol hoping to take the edge off. Once that proved to be comically ineffective, she injected four shots of sterile water into the small of my back which also disappointingly accomplished nothing. I feared that Bennett wouldn’t descend and I’d have to head to the hospital for a C-section. At 8pm I had had it: It was time to push with all my might, despite the intense back pain.

For the third time, I returned to the birthing tub and pushed for two more hours. Eventually I made it to 10 centimeters, but still no Bennett. I’ve never known such frustration and exhaustion in all my life! I was convinced Bennett was stuck and wouldn’t be entering the world the way we had all hoped. One more time we all got back on the bed and I pushed until almost 11pm. On all fours gripping the headboard, I pushed with all my might. At 10:42pm, after seventeen hours of labor, Bennett slipped out on the bed in a pool of gook. Still attached to his umbilical cord, Christine and Scott lifted Bennett up onto my chest and I met my beautiful son for the first time.



The rest is history.

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