I was pretty uncomfortable for the last three weeks and was having fairly regular intervals of contractions that would mainly just feel like a tightening of my uterus and would always stop. On Monday, 11/16, I felt really sick to my stomach all day but didn’t feel too many contractions. Tuesday and Wednesday continued the seemingly random intervals of contractions where every once in awhile one would catch me off guard and make me notice that they were occurring. Not painful, but I would barely notice I was having the other contractions unless I had my hand on my belly.
On Thursday, 11/19, the contractions were the same as they had been the previous two days although it seemed more frequent that I would feel one. I had them timed for about every 10 minutes. We had decided to move the hospital bags to the car just to avoid doing that later, so I loaded up the car and went to pick up Jony for our 39 week appointment at 11:15am. At the appointment, the Nurse Practioner had me lay on my back, as usual, to listen to the heartbeat and perform measurements. This happened to be during one of my contractions that lasted a seemingly long time. She seemed concerned by the length (it was about 1.5 minutes) but also very concerned that his heart rate slowed down a little in the middle of it. She performed an internal where she said I was at 6cm, almost 90% effaced, and a bit lower than 0 station. She asked if we would go to the hospital to make sure everything was okay due to his heart rate, but she also said that I would probably have a baby- I was in active labor.
Not believing that I was really in labor, we walked to the hospital to perform a Non-Stress test, where they listened to his heartbeat for an extended amount of time. They told me during that I was actually taking a Stress test, as I was having contractions about two minutes apart. They kept trying to convince me that I was in active labor, but I still denied it. I wasn’t feeling any pain! Jeffrey and I were monitored for a very boring almost two hours- his heart rate was perfect, so we passed! Our nurse, Janey, is also a midwife and former Bradley coach, so she loved me and was very focused on making sure we got what we wanted/needed. She performed an internal and said that I was measuring at 5cm by her standards but agreed that I was 90% effaced and that he was very, very low. She advised to not go home, and Dr. Guilliams agreed when he came to check on me. As a compromise, they let Jony go get me some lunch since that had been our plan after the appointment. I was then admitted into Labor and Delivery at about 2:30pm.
All the nurses kept coming to see me- the crazy woman who didn’t believe she was in labor and was only just beginning to tell when she was having a contraction. Jony and I walked the halls and returned every hour for some fetal monitoring. I started feeling slightly uncomfortable about 6pm and had progressed to 6cm. Both the nurse and Dr. Guilliams suggested that I allow them to break my water since that’s all we were waiting for. Basically, it was completely hanging out but just hadn’t broken yet. We weighed our options and were reassured that we would not have to worry about the 24 hours time-clock and that it would progress my labor quickly to help with my energy level. They broke my water bag at about 6:45pm, which was a crazy feeling. I had a lot! Things picked up immediately, and I was thrown right into transition. The contractions started getting more and more intense, and I started feeling the need to throw up. I labored on the toilet for awhile when I started getting the urge to push. I was pissed off when they told me I was only at 8cm. That’s my most vivid emotion that I remember. When I moved back to the bed, I promptly threw up an unknown amount of times. It was actually a relief to finally be over the feeling of needing to. The contractions were very painful at this time, and Jony was working intensely with me to keep me breathing. I was both leaning on him or on the bed and rocking my hips to get myself through each one. In between, I let myself rest. Around 8:30pm, I started shaking uncontrollably and the urge to push was so severe that my body was doing it on its own. This was the most painful part and the only time that I thought that I wouldn’t make it. It seemed like it took forever for them to get the room situated for pushing, and each contraction was extremely hard to work through when my body would push- something I was trying so hard not to do. Thankfully, I was in 2nd stage labor so there was a longer break in between contractions. About 9:15pm, I was all set to push. I was SO much happier. The pain was pretty much gone that I had been enduring since I was allowing my body to do what it wanted to do. That’s not to say that it felt like a rainbow, though. I was getting three to four good pushes with each contraction. The worst part for me was in between at the end when his head was just waiting there- intense pressure. I’d just lay there and wait for the next contraction. It was such an amazing feeling of release and emotions when I felt his head come out, followed by his body. They laid him on my chest, and I just held him in awe of what Jony (who was an amazing coach, especially during pushing) and I had just done. I had a 2nd degree tear which was repaired after the afterbirth, which just slid out and created this awesome feeling of emptiness in my uterus. I did use local anesthesia for the repair. All in all, it was an incredible experience. I would wish anyone to be able to go through it and look forward to doing it again with our subsequent children.
Jeffrey Axfield was born at 9:37pm on November 19th at 7lb 12.8oz and 20 inches long. He scored 9/9 on his APGAR tests and has been in perfect health, as well as taking to breastfeeding as though it were second nature.
