Born: 5:00am(ish?!), January 24, 2010
Weight: 8lbs, 1 oz
Length: 20 1/2 inches
On January 23rd, I hit the wall. I was over being pregnant and couldn't hold a positive attitude any longer! I was officially 6 days overdue and was trying to take it one day at a time, but at that point, I was done. Officially done. My husband, mom, and sons were well aware of this, unfortunately!
A run-down of the festivities:
7:00pm: I call my friends and get some support over taking castor oil. They tell me I'm not a bad mom for being impatient. Good move, girls.
8:00pm: I enjoy a castor oil cocktail, 2 oz mixed with Odwalla juice. Shortly thereafter, it starts it's course. What? The bottle says 6-12 hrs?
9:00pm: The braxton hicks contractions I had been experiencing all day (and weeks for that matter) were getting slightly more intense, but nothing near what I would define as labor. I go to bed hoping to get some sleep. I slept great until 11pm.
11:00pm: Visit the bathroom for a good hour. Castor oil definitely is working. Contractions are much stronger, somewhat painful. I still didn't know I was in labor, just thought the pain was from the castor oil.
12:ooam: Very intense contractions. Still very cautious whether to decide if I was actually in labor or if it was just my body reacting to the oil. We call the doula to give her a headsup. She assures us that castor oil gives your body a kick start, but definitely doesn't bring labor on that quickly. I'm feeling very foolish at this point to put myself through this if it wasn't even going to be real labor (again, this is what false labor does to one, makes them second guess when they're actually in labor!).
4:00am: I had been sitting in the glider in Scarlett's room for this whole time, trying to ride each "wave" (a crunchy term for contraction) and get some sleep in between. At this point, though, contractions had been about 2-3 minutes apart, only lasting 45-75 seconds each. Although they were intense, I was able to breathe through them and rest. I also was aware that sitting in the glider was not optimal for her position, but it was the only thing that felt comfortable, and in my mind I'm thinking I had about 20 more hours of labor left (what was I thinking?). I wake up Jason and ask him to call the doula--I told him I needed some coaching or encouragement and the poor guy was just speechless...he didn't know whether I was in real labor or not and because of that, had no clue how to react to me. The contractions suddenly were extremely intense, I was shaking, and using my moaning technique that Ina May suggests. I was feeling very wussy at this point as I'm still mentally thinking I'm just at the beginning. Little did I know I was in transition! Out doula suggested (over the phone) that I get out of the chair immediately (because of the chance of turning baby posterior) and lay over my birthing ball. I tried that through three contractions and it was way too intense. I tried to get up on the bed and lay down on my left side, still too intense. This is where I thought I may possibly be in transition as I found myself saying, "I can't do this!" I also called for help and asked Jason to pray. I wasn't getting any breaks between contractions, maybe 15 seconds. Still, as a rookie, though, I have to say I did not truly believe I was very far along. Partially because I hadn't been checked to even know, partially because I'm still thinking the castor oil was giving me false labor! I asked Jason to start a bath for me.
4:30am: The bath felt great... contractions still very close together. My doula arrives and I'm so grateful to have someone to "coach"me or at least help me find my focus. She talked me through two contractions, which was so nice. Between them I apologized for not relaxing as much as I should! The second contraction my body urged me to push. This scared me as I still was thinking I was maybe 2 or 3cm dilated! I thought, "I can't be pushing, I'm not 'open' yet" (sheesh, I think I had read too many birthing stories by then!). My doula suggests we go to the hospital (which was the plan, to leave when I started feeling pushy). At that point I thought I had to use the toilet again. Nope. I just had to push a baby out! This is the conversation that happened while I was on the toilet (with my doula):
M: "Oh my gosh, the baby's coming, she's coming. She's right here!"
D: "Okay, we need to leave right now for the hospital, the car is ready"
M: "No way, she's coming right now, I am NOT getting in a car like this"
D: "Well, I cannot legally deliver that baby for you, I can not do this, please understand".
M: "I take all liability, I understand, this is why Daddy Mock is going to deliver the baby. Now. I'm not going, I'm having this baby. Go get him!"
And that she did. Within 15 minutes, the small team of our doula, my mom, Daddy Mock and I proceeded to throw towels on the carpet, squat, and push out an 8 lb baby girl. Daddy Mock caught her and helped ease her out all by himself! She was in perfect position, had no cord wrapped around her neck and the bag of waters didn't break until she came out. It was unbelievable! My mom was helping me breathe and letting me use her shoulders to lean on, and the doula was on the phone handling play-by-play instructions from her midwife friend on what to do next!
I sat there, leaning against my husband, with our brand new daughter, cord still attached, eyes wide open for nearly 30 minutes. It was everything I have ever wanted and hoped for in a birth, but something I felt completely robbed from due to my breech boys and the c-sections previous.
Scarlett latched on almost immediately, which helped the placenta smoothly come out. My mom (Grammy) was able to cut the cord with the chicken scissors! My in-laws (Gigi and Papa) showed up around that time in shock to hear a baby crying! They had gotten the "hospital call" just a mere 30 minutes before...they had no clue how fast things were going!
Unfortunately there was one slight tear and the doula suggested we go to the hospital for repair. We took our time, though, and sat just the three of us in our bed. Feeding, resting, and talking over the previous crazy event!
A few hours later we headed up to the hospital. Our plan was for me to just get stitched quickly and then discharged within an hour or two. Well, after a lot of fighting, declining, signing, and explaining, we left about 11 hours later. Not my ideal set up, but we were the first family that had ever demanded an early discharge and that caused a lot of drama on the floor!
So this little girl, who had such a crazy beginning in pregnancy gave us an incredibly crazy yet perfect ending. Welcome to the world, little one, we love you!
