WhitneyRaf: Charlie's Home Birth

Posted Tuesday, May 05, 2009 4:13 PM

"I am so proud of myself for going all natural. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, but so worth every painful contraction..."

How it all started

I went into labor on April 12, a Sunday night, when I was already at 40 weeks and 3 days. I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions all afternoon, which was a little unusual cause they kept coming one after another. So I kind of had a feeling something was up. My husband and I went for a walk and worked on a puzzle. Soon after, we started timing the contractions and they were all over the place. When I went to the bathroom I noticed there was a little blood, so we called our midwife the tell her that I thought I was in early labor. She told me to get a glass of wine, take a bath, and go to bed -- we were going to need our rest.  

My husband brought up a glass of wine, we toasted to our new baby, and all of a sudden my water broke! It was like out of a movie, too funny. At this point it was 8:30 p.m. so we called the midwife to let her know and I got in the bath. That's when the contractions really started. At 10, I was out of the tub having contractions two minutes apart -- and not having fun. I told my husband that we should call the midwife back, since she wanted us to call her when they were five minutes apart and these were two apart on the dot! Not long after, my midwife came over and checked me, but I was not fully effaced and only 1 cm dilated. Still, she didn't want to leave and stayed because my contractions were so close together. She went to sleep in our spare bedroom and said she would check on us in three hours.

Watching the clock

For the next three hours my husband and I worked on the contractions in our bed with the lights off. All I wanted was for him to rub my back. (My poor hubby, he was so tired he would fall asleep in between contractions!) I thought he was rubbing my back really hard, but later he told me he was just rubbing my back with two fingers! But I literally thought my skin was rubbing off! The midwife came back and checked me, and I was 2 1/2 cm and fully effaced. She told me to get in the tub to slow things down and she would check on me again in another three hours. She also told my husband to get some rest too, so they each went to bed while I stayed in the zone, working on the contractions in the tub.

The contractions may have actually slowed a bit in the tub (I had no concept of time in there) but they definitely began to get stronger. I would ride the wave in my mind, reach the peak, and then come down. Some contractions I thought would never end or I thought they couldn't possibly get any stronger... and then they would! It was so hard, but I kept my focus on one contraction at a time. I knew it was early when I started to hear birds chirping and see the sun come up. My husband came in to check on me and I didn't want him to talk to me or touch me. I told him I couldn't do it anymore and that I wanted drugs. He reassured me and the midwife then came in to check me. But before she even could, it took about 30 minutes just to get from my bathtub to the bed! (Hello, transition!) I was so scared for her to check me, because if she said I was only 3 cm I thought I would die -- I couldn't do it anymore! But she checked me and I was 8 cm, thank God.

Ready for action!

After that, I remained in transition for about 45 minutes, which was the hardest part. But when my midwife checked me again, I was finally good to go to push! Well, except for a little lip of cervix. She pushed it back -- OUCH! And then at last, I got to start pushing! It felt so good to push finally. I pushed while on the bed leaning against my husband, with my mom holding on leg and the assistant holding the other. In total, I pushed for an hour and 45 minutes and surprisingly, I did not feel any pain during the pushing or even when the baby's head came out -- just extreme pressure.

At last, Charlie was born at 9:43 a.m. on April 13 -- same birthday as me and within 14 minutes of each other! I had a second degree tear, needed eight stitches, and I was so sore the first two days after delivery. My whole body was sore from pushing -- my legs, my arms... everything. Even though it took me awhile to recover, I am so proud of myself for going all natural. It was the hardest thing I have ever done, but so worth every painful contraction. We are so blessed.

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