Louise Adele: The Birth

Oh the irony that is my life.

I woke up on Thursday August 26th feeling exceptionally confident. Only one more day to get through until full term day. I decided to seize the moment (and burst of energy) and spent the morning cleaning the house with my mom and Ainsley. After breakfast my mom got Ainsley ready to go on a few errands. Feeling a bit wiped from all of the moving around I opted to relax on the couch while they were out. The mild contractions that I had been feeling throughout the morning did not subside with my halt in activity and intake of mass amounts of water, as per usual. Still, I wasn't too concerned.

Around 11 I called Ian. Something was feeling different. The contractions were SO frequent, still rather mild, but relatively regular. Ian prompted me to call the midwives. I did and Amy (the midwife on call and fellow Ole grad) asked me to come in and get checked. Around 12:30 Ian and I showed up at the midwives and discovered that I was 3-4 centimeters dilated, entering active labor. "you have got to be kidding me!" was all I could think. ONE DAY before the baby was considered full term and I go into labor. ONE DAY!!!

I of course was still in denial. After so long and so many false labors, no way this was the real deal. After monitoring me and the baby (who sounded great!) Amy found that I was having regular strong contractions ever 2-3 minutes. They just apparently didn't feel that strong to me.

As I was coping well and just 3-4 Amy sent us home to wait until things progressed a little. After about an hour at home filled with nervous packing and repacking of bags we headed to the hospital. I was at 6cm. We headed to the ABC (alternative birthing center) room where I expected things to move pretty fast. (side note - even though Louise was technically one day premature, we fudged the numbers so I could use the abc room and tub) After over 4 hours of labor I was only at 7. Every once in a while I'd have a real good contraction that I'd have to breath through, but for the most part it was still very manageable. I decided it was time for some pain.

As I was having back labor walking was the most painful/uncomfortable so I paced the room and even squatted into the contractions trying to get my water to break because I knew this would speed things along. When nothing was happening Amy broke my water and almost instantaneously the contractions intensified 1000 fold.

I had to grip Ian's hand and lean into him while standing and swaying to get through them. After about 2 or 3 of these I was starting to feel the baby move down=TREMENDOUS pressure and knew I needed to get into the tub soon.

I LOVE the tub. While the contractions themselves were horrific I was able to move so easily from side to side and around if need be to cope with them and in between contractions I could just float and let my body completely relax.

After a handful of these transitional contractions I felt the urge to push. On the first push she crowned, on the second her head was out, on the third her body. Amy lifted her up onto my chest and Ian and I reveled in the beauty of our sweet baby girl.

My water was broken at 7:40pm and Louise greeted the world at 8:15. Yes. I went from a 7 +1 station to giving birth in just over a half hour. Needless to say the poor child was in complete shock and rather severely bruised on her head from descending so quickly. She came out with such force that I truly thought she was ripping through me.

Ian went with her to the warming station where she cried a bit and opened her eyes. I was in quite a bit of pain still as the placenta hadn't separated and I was still having (much more mild) contractions. I got out of the tub with Amy's help and got onto the bed where I delivered the placenta and held Louise. Everything had gone so smoothly and well, until Louise got her first bath...