More contractions, more baths, more back rubs. That was the sum total of the afternoon and early evening. Some other friends had been following the twitter feed and brought us some dinner and stayed to chat. That was interesting and fun, but it was nice to be distracted. I sat on the birth ball and rocked while we talked, then laid on the couch for awhile.
When they left we went upstairs and tucked ourselves back into bed. Contractions had stayed about five minutes apart. Kevin finally fell asleep, which was what I wanted, he does so poorly with lack of sleep and I really felt okay alone. So I contracted and drifted for a couple of hours and then there was a change around 3 a.m. I got up and took a bath. On my way to the bathroom, I had the thought, “What if I went to the bathroom and the baby was coming out?”
Kevin woke up and started helping me to be comfortable. He put on some nice music and rubbed my back while I sat on the ball. I told him about my earlier thought, thinking he’d find it funny. Not so much… He got really upset. He said he would be angry if the baby came and I hadn’t called anyone to help. So we decided to call the midwife again, but not anyone else.
Kevin helped her carry her things upstairs. We chatted between contractions. She listened to the baby. Everyone was fine. Kevin and the midwife got things ready, like making the bed, getting baby stuff together. I then realized I hadn’t finished making the baby hat I wanted to make, it was nearly done. So, Kevin brought it to me and I quickly finished the hat for the baby.
The contractions were painful but I was doing okay with their support. I wasn’t ready to wake everyone up and have them come. In my mind, I had thought I’d call all the doulas at 7 a.m. As we were sitting there talking and contracting, actually having a good time, my water broke at 6:28 a.m. I laughed. We decided to call people then, because it might not be too long.
Having never pushed for a very long time, I was concerned about not being able to wait until everyone got there. I sat on the ball and leaned backwards to take the pressure off, hoping it would buy me sometime.
Nicole and Angela got here and when they heard I was ready to push and just waiting they couldn’t believe it. I was sitting on the birth ball, laughing and talking. Eve probably knew better but didn’t say anything. Nicole called Amy on her way to say “Hurry up we’re waiting for you!” I felt badly about that but still chuckled, poor Amy.
Amy arrived, the kids were on the bed, everyone was here. I got off the ball and sat on a birth stool that the midwife had brought. After a few pushes, that felt weird, I had her check me, maybe I wasn’t quite dilated. She confirmed I was dilated, but said that I had a forebag of waters. So I pushed and contracted for about 30 minutes. It finally broke. “Here we go!” I thought. Nope, after pushing for a few more minutes and nothing, I had her check me again. I was now 9 centimeters. ARGH! I was not very happy about that.
So I had to wait through some contractions and try not to push. Finally I had just a lip of cervix and she was able to hold it back until the head came down past it. Now I was ready!
I had a bit of a lull and I laid back against the wall and closed my eyes. I started thinking about my previous births, this birth, my relationship with Kevin and how close labor made me feel to him. I start to cry, not loudly just tearful. He was very sweet and right there. He wiped my tears and held me close. I told him why I was crying, oblivious to everyone else in the room (all 12 of them).
Contractions finally picked back up and I was pushing again. I got caught looking at a clock so Amy went to stand in front of it. She eventually put something over it so I wouldn’t get time obsessed. Angela was entertaining the kids on my bed. She was emptying the contents of her purse. The hilarious part was that she had given one of the kids a Sharpie. During Ada’s birth Clara had written on my bedroom wall with a Sharpie and we had just that week found a way to remove it. So it was kind of funny.
The midwife checked me again because I asked her to, she told me, “You’ve got some pushing to do to get past that pubic bone.” What? How could that be? What was even worse was I caught this movement she makes when something is wrong or puzzling her. I started to wonder what was up.
I pushed and pushed. Everyone was encouraging me. I’d hear different people tell me positive reminders or make suggestions. I was just dumbfounded to still be pushing. I had a friend far away I knew had been following me, I thought about her and I silently asked for her help too. Finally I moved to my stool I typically used. That didn’t help either.
I tried standing. I tried hands and knees with counter pressure. I tried leaning over the birth ball. Nothing was really working, I couldn’t feel the baby moving down. What was worse was the baby’s head was in a spot where I have a lot of scar tissue and the pain of the baby head being there and the baby moving it back and forth were what was really painful.
