Isabelle's Birth Story

Finally getting around to it....

My due date was Feb 25th - or maybe 24th or maybe 26th, depending on whose little dial-calendar thing we were looking at or which website or whatever. My periods aren't exactly regular but I was pretty sure of when I ovulated.

So anyway, in the vein of "expect it when you least expect it, Laatsch" (what that idiot said when he threatened my brother in high school), I figured that I would go to term, having done so with my other two kids. So the 24th I had a bunch of crampy contractions, which sometime settled into a pattern and sometimes didn't. I told DH that we would have the baby that day or within the next couple of days. I had a whole day of false labor with DS2, way back 5 years ago, and then had him two days later, so I wasn't holding my breath this time. Anyway, the contractions eased off and I went to bed.

Oh, here's my belly after the baby had dropped. Yikes.




So my due date, Monday the 25th, I had some crampy braxton-hicks and a few minor contractions over the course of the day. I went and picked the kids up from school, and reveled in the joy of telling people I was due that day. I forgot the kids' karate gear and there's not time to go home for it and get back before their class, so we went to DS2's buddy's house. I sat and talked to the buddy's mom, my friend M, and had a minor contraction or two over the course of a couple of hours. I figured I had another day or two. (insert ominous foreshadowing music here - dah-dah-duunnnnn)

Not long after we got home, I had a few more crampy contractions, ate dinner and went to lie down and read a book. I don't remember the details, but it seems that it was a typical evening. DH had been getting the boys to bed more often since I was permanently exhausted (I'm too old for this). At one point, they were both in my room, DS1 was reading "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish" out loud to DS2. I was having uncomfortable contractions fairly spread out. I figured they'd stop, since they weren't anything major. (dah-dah-duunnnnn)

So at about 10:30, I figured I couldn't keep track in my head, so started jotting the times down on the back of a receipt. Ah, about every 8 minutes. Regularly. Hmmmm.... Nah, couldn't possibly be labor. I'm tired and want to sleep.

I turned off the light and turned on my color-change cube so I could keep writing down times, though of course the contractions were going to stop for the night, right?

By about 11:30, the contractions were every 4 or 5 minutes, though every other one was just a twinge, so they didn't really count, right?

I got up again a bit before midnight because I wasn't sleeping anyway and if I got up and moved around, this false labor would stop, right? And I'd get a good night's sleep and have the baby the next day, right? Right? After all, my boys were both born at fairly civilized times - about 7 pm and about 1:30 pm. So this baby would be too, right? (dah-dah-duunnnnn)

So I posted to my blog at 11:54 pm, still saying "maybe" and dithering about waking the kids and sending them to a friend's house or trying to do this quietly.

At about 12:30 I gave in. Contractions - real ones - every 4 minutes. I called the midwife ("MW1"), who had just gone to bed, poor thing, and said that this was it. I rousted DH out of bed (which took some doing), whoi had just gone to bed, poor thing #2. I then realized that I hadn't ask if MW1 was going to call her partner midwife ("MW2"), but was busy remaking the bed with waterproof sheets under the regular ones, making sure all the supplies were gathered together, boiling the scissors, and having contractions every 4 minutes.

I made DH bring in the birthing tub that had been sitting in the garage for a couple of weeks. He hooked up the hoses, but we didn't start to fill it. It was lucky that I didn't, because MW2 arrived and realized that MW1 had said something about leaving the old hoses with the new instructions and we would have used an old empty-ing hose to fill and would have to empty it and sterilize it and start all over. MW1 arrived at about this time.

So anyway, MW2 asked if I wanted her to check my dilation before I got in the tub and I figured yeah why not? because this was probably false labor and my contractions had started coming less often in the hubbub of getting things ready and the midwives arriving. So I was probably going to have to send them home, right? (dah-dah-duunnnnn)

Dilated to 8. Um, probably the real thing.

It was only then, sitting on the edge of the bed with the tub filling that I realized that this gray birthing tub was one of these:



For those of you uninitiated (like me), that's a Rubbermaid livestock trough. I think it was the 150 gallon one. MW1 bought it at the feed store.

Whinny

Awaaaay in a manger

Right. Probably about 2 am by that time. Ah, found the notes in my folder - 2:08 am. So I got the rest of my clothes off and hopped in. Nice, warm water, contractions fairly far apart, chatting with the MWs and DH, a bit giddy, but about ready to take a nap, actually.

The contractions started getting harder, though still fairly far apart. so I had to get on my knees through them and grunt and moan a bit - still conscious of not wanting to wake the boys.

I would have a hard contraction and my head would be spinning and all I wanted to do was fall asleeeeeeep. All of this characterized by my inability to understand what anyone said to me without multiple repetitions.

I have no idea of the passage of time in all this and am relying on the MWs' notes. The MWs would every so often listen to the baby's heartbeat. MW1 took a short nap on my bed.

At 3:11, I felt my waters break. It wasn't the huge balloon feeling that I had with my boys, but I felt it happen. I guess the baby's head plugged the hole right away. At about that time, I just wanted it to be over and complained that I wanted to go to sleep.

At 3:14, I felt the baby start to come down. I wasn't really that I felt like pushing, I just was. From there, it was one long contraction, almost, as she slid right down and there was this really bad, sharp pain in the front of my uterus, down about where it meets the cervix, I am guessing.

At 3:22, I could feel the baby crowning and told them so. MW2 stuck her arm in the pool and said, "oh, there's her head" just as the contraction surged and the head popped out, then a couple seconds (with MW2 saying "don't push!" but I wasn't actively pushing, honest), shoulders, and then whoosh all done.

8 minutes of pushing. New world record, if I do say so myself.

MW2 sort of floated her like a submarine between my legs and I pulled her up out of the water. They don't breathe until they clear the water. Babies are smart. The cord made it harder to get a good hold on her, all slippery with white vernix goop and water and amniotic fluid and some smears of blood. After a couple minutes and a couple APGAR checks (8 and 9), I stood up and they helped me climb out and dry off and waddle to the bed with disposable pads under me.

DH called my mom about them because it was 6:30 in her time zone. I guess I talked to her, too. I have no idea what I said. Then he called his mom because it was afternoon in her time zone. I have even less idea if I talked to her and what I said. I just wanted to go to sleep.

About 20 minutes later, I delivered the placenta and they tied off and cut the cord. Isabelle finally got serious about latching on and nursing.

An hour after the birth, I asked DH to make me some toast. I wasn't really that hungry, I just wanted to go to sleep.

At 4:45, the midwives did all the reflex and heart and everything checks. They had each brought their own scale and the weights didn't match. DH went and found our hand weights and they finally decided on 7 lbs 8 oz.

I heard a kid at the door, but DS2 took off back down the hall and locked his bedroom door. He doesn't remember it. DS1 then came in and saw the baby. He would later insist that that was when she was born because that's when she was crying - he just hadn't heard her earlier. He stayed for a few minutes, then I told him to go back to sleep. I just wanted to go to sleep.



They had the exit hose emptying the tub and it stopped for whatever reason, then it took a few minutes to get it started again. I just wanted to go to sleep.

Here's my gray skin and almost-closed eyes holding the baby burrito:



At 5:20, I got up and took a shower, feeling tired, but otherwise strong. DS1 came back in and I told him that he needed to sleep some more. At 5:30, they pulled out the sheet of postpartum instructions and went over them with us. I just wanted to go to sleep.

So I went to sleep.

I have a hazy recollection of the midwives saying goodbye and talking about how they would get home just in time to get their kids up.

DH got up at 7 to get the boys ready for school. I called the friend who gives them a ride sometimes and got up long enough to wave goodbye and spend a couple of minutes sending a mass email and posting to my blog. Then DH and Isabelle and I all slept until early afternoon.

And here she is when we woke up:


Isabelle Helene, born 2/26/08 at 3:22 AM, weighed 7 lbs 8 oz, 21 inches long.