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After three months of bedrest because of pre-term labor I was allowed to get up and walk around.  My midwife said I could go off bedrest Wednesday evening.  My feet were so swollen (in fact my ankles were bigger than my calves).  I thought getting up and walking around would help the swelling go down.  I hadn’t been able to go shopping for baby things or anything in three months I arranged with my sister, Leeann to go out shopping with her for a few baby things.  After walking around the store for only a few minutes my feet were even more swollen and HURT and were purple.  We met up with my mom and some of my sisters (Rachel, Jackie, and Liz) at Ruby Tuesdays.  I was so glad to be sittign down.  I had been great during my pg not to have any sweets for the most part.  But when I did have sweets it was chocolate tallcake from Rubies with Miranda.  Well, that is what I had again.  And it was good.  When it was time to leave my feet were so swollen and hurt so badly that I could seriously barely walk.  Liz had to help me to my car.  I got home and decided to take it easy even though I was off bedrest.  I only did a little walking here and there over the next few days.  After a bit I could walk for longer without my feet killing me.  Noah and I went for walks.  Miranda and I went for walks.  I would have loved for labor to start, but I also wanted to get a little exercise in since I had been on bedrest for soooo long.

Because I was so swollen and my blood pressure had gone up just a bit at my last appointment the midwife said I could take some castor oil if I wanted too.  She also stripped my membranes.  I had been losing my mucous plug since being off bedrest.  And after the stripping I had some spotting.  But labor didn’t start.  I did try the castor oil in apple juice and that was disgusting.  I did get very crampy, but no labor.  When labor hadn’t started by Sunday I got to go to church for the first time in a long while.  When I got home I made a cup of herbal tea and put some castor oil in that.  And if I stirred it constantly it didn’t get clumpy and although it wasn’t pleasant it was a lot better than the castor oil in apple juice.  *shudder*  I decided I was going to go into labor and that was that.  Well, I went to bed still not in labor.  But I was confident labor was going to start during the night.  I didn’t tell Noah that since I still had yet to have a contraction.  Well, I woke up at 2:30 to go to the bathroom.  And then by 2:45 I felt a contraction.  It didn’t hurt at all, but I knew this was it.  It was different than what I had felt with the irritable uterus.  So I stayed in bathroom (on the toilet) and timed the contractions until about 3.  They were coming every 2-3 minutes.  Still didn’t hurt at all, but that was closer than I had expected my contractions to start at.  While I was contracting I packed up the last few things that hadn’t already been packed…my makeup, shampoo, deoderant…At about 3:15 I plopped on the bed and announced to Noah that I was in labor.  He was very calm.  He could tell that clearly I wasn’t in any pain.   I called the labor and delivery.  When I told them that my contractions were every 2 minutes they told me to come on in even though they weren’t hurting at all.  Noah then got a big look of surprise on his face.  When I told him I was in labor and that I was having contractions about every 2 minutes he thought I had said every 10 minutes.  We went to the hosptial and I remember looking in the clock in my room and seeing it was 3:45.  It had been an hour since the first contraction started.  My contractions had slowed down.  I was totally comfortable and not at all in pain.  The nurse strapped the monitor strip to my abdomen to see what was going on.  It was a few minutes before I started having contractions again, but they did start.  And she checked me.  I was 4-5 cm and the baby’s head was face down.  I thought that was pretty good since the contractions weren’t even in the least uncomfortable.

Mary, one of my midwifes, came to check me at 4:30 or so.  I was at 5-6 and she was very low.  She offered to break my water.  Looking back I wish I hadn’t have allowed that.  Because then the  my contractions become much more intense.  And although they still didn’t hurt it was now uncomfortable.  There was just a little gush and then no trickling at all when I got up.  Her head was so low that apparently it plugged it.  I got on the birthing ball and I remember my mom was in for a while.  We talked for a while.  Then at about 6 Mary came in with Maureen, another of my midwives and a lady I hadn’t met yet, Nancy.  They told me that it was time to change shifts and that my other midwife would be taking over.  Then that midwife asked if it was okay for Nancy to deliver since she was a midwife in training.  She was deliver under the constant supervision of Maureen.  I was checked again and was at 9 with a lip.  They said that I would probably be pushing by 7.  We were so excited.  We called all the friends and family we hadn’t called earlier.  They all came and were in the waiting room to see the baby when she was born.  They told me to let them know when I had the urge to push and then they left again.  Another woman was in labor as well.

Well, by 7 I was still had a lip when the midwifes came back to check on me.  They asked if I would like to push past the lip.  I was like “YEAH!”  They told me that she was so low she would probably crown on the first push, head out second push, and body third push.  That sounded so good.  I still hadn’t been in any pain, but I was ready to hold my baby.  So at 7:15 I pushed past the lip as the midwife pushed it out of the way.  And Belle crowned immediately.  Her head did not come out the next push or the push after that.  I hadn’t been timing my contractions, but I knew they weren’t coming nearly as close as they had been a while ago.  And while I pushed the contractions continued to come less and less often.  After a bit they were only coming about every ten minutes.  And then I couldn’t even tell if I was having any contractions, except my back would hurt some.  And after each set of three my back really hurt for a few minutes.  I actually started falling alseep between each set of three pushes.  I really wasn’t feeling contractions much anymore.  Then  at 9:15 they told me they had called a doctor in.  I asked why and they said because most moms were too tired to keep pushing after two hours.  I informed that that I was not too tired and could push just fine.  I don’t know if they thought I wasn’t pushing hard enough or what.  But I was pushing best I could.  Dr. Hebert came in and I talked with her for a bit.  I had always liked her.  She stayed with us, but in the back round as I tried to deliver without really knowing if I was having any contractions anymore.  Well, by about 10:30 they asked if I wanted an epistomy.  I said no.  After I pushed again then and she stayed at crowned I agreed to an epistomy.  After I had the epistomy they told me to push as hard as I could “Let’s get this baby out!”  Well, I pushed again hard as I could…just like I had been pushing hard as I could every time.  She came flying out with that push.  Literally flying.  Nancy caught her.  It was 10:46.  I was so elated.  My sweet little girl was finally in my tummy and she was so beautiful.  Dh cut the cord and I delivered the placenta.   A lactation consultant was right there and helped me start nursing.  Belle nursed like a champ.  I heard the midwives talking quietly…apparently I would stop bleeding for quite a while.  When I did stop they started sewing my up and I could tell from what they were saying I had torn as well.  After Belle had nursed for quite a while the nurse weighed her on two different scales.  One said 7 pounds 13 ounces and one said 7 pounds 10.5 ounces.  My midwife said we would go with 7 pounds 11 ounces.  And Noah took her out for the family to see.  By then several had to leave to go to work.  When Noah brought her back she wanted to nurse again and I nursed her.  Once I has all stitched up and the blood was cleaned up my mom, dad, Liz (my sister), and Miranda came in.  They onle ones who were still there because the pushing part was 3.5 hours long and that was completely unexpected.

After Belle had nursed for an hour Noah took her and I went to go take a shower, but almost fainted.  So I wasn’t able to take a shower then.  I had lost so much blood I was just barely above the level of needing a transfusion.  And my bottom really, really hurt.  I felt like I could barely walk.  After I was moved into the room I was going to stay in Nancy came in to check on me and tell me a few things.  I had fourth degree tears from the way she came out.  She was acynclitic and they didn’t know it.  When the nurse checked when I got there Belle was face down and at some point she had tried to turn over to be face up, but she had gotten stuck with her head tilted.  Oh yeah, Belle had a hematomia on her head on the side…it was the part that had been crowned for so long.  It went away within hours.

The recovery was painful and yucky, but Belle was soooo worth it.  And overall my labor was pain free, so that was great.  My recovery was more painful than the labor and delivery.  But Belle was perfectly healthy and nursed so well I was just too happy to worry about anything else.

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