Daley Ponderings

Wednesday, June 28. 2:30am. My water broke! That was different. I woke Jon up with the news and he called the midwife while I went up to go to the bathroom and to wake up my parents. The midwife said it could be a long time before labor gets going after water breaking, but that we could come up when we wanted to. I'd rather labor there than have the baby on the road, so we made preparations to leave. No hurry, so Jon and Mom made the phone calls and I rested. By the time we left, I was having mild contractions about ten minutes apart.
More amniotic fluid leaked out whenever I stood up. They lined the car seat with a blue pad and I sat on a diaper too. Jon brought Jonathan down to the car. He wondered why he had to wake up so early, but Daddy told him the baby was coming, and he might have been awake enough to understand.

We all got in the borrowed minivan. Dad drove, Mom was navigator, I sat in the middle seat, Jonathan and Jon in the back. We left about 3:25. Dad drove fast, riding behind other cars and trucks when possible, to use them as "deer catchers," slowing down in the many foggy spots. The places where they were repaving the highway were all smooth - no bumpy roads!

I could talk between contractions just fine. By the end of the ride, I added low humming during the contractions. I used my little bucket bathroom once, and changed the pads under me at that time, since they were full of the leaking amniotic fluid.

We arrived at the birth clinic about 4:45. I settled down into a big armchair, chatted with our midwife a little, then tried to get some rest. Jon slept on a bed in my room, our midwife slept on a bed in another room, and Jonathan played in the lobby/living room with Grandma and Dad-o.

More water leaked out. Contractions were sporadic, sometimes five, sometimes 15 minutes apart, getting stronger in intensity. For the most part, the baby was taking it easy, resting for the hard part, I assume. He did move often enough to keep anyone from worry.

The sun rose into a beautiful day. We all took a short walk outside, breathing deeply the cool and fresh air. It reminded me of a Maggie P. morning. We watched a couple of horse and buggies drive by - Jonathan really liked those.

Back inside, I had a "doozy" of a contraction at about 8:00. At 9:00, our midwife did a check. My cervix was "thick", which I think means not effaced, and about seven centimeters dilated. That exam was no fun. Baby's heartbeat and my blood pressure were good.

Jonathan was running back and forth, playing with Grandma and Dad-o, inside, outside, puzzles, books, stickers, cars, Frisbee, squirt guns, eating snacks.

It was a very different labor from my first two, which had gotten intense right away. We did a lot of waiting around for hours, and many times I just didn't know what to do with myself. I tried sitting, I tried walking. Labor just kind of puttered along.

I decided to go ahead and start writing the birth story. I expected the words to just flow as they usually do when I write, but it all came out in stray thoughts and parts of sentences. Maybe later I'll post that version just for amusement. Here's a note worthy of including. "Prayers answered so far: smooth road, know when [I'm] in labor, make it [to the center] in time, no deer, go [into labor] before prenatal appointment."

I took a nap from 11:30 - 12:00. Then we had a lunch of tuna sandwiches and potato salad.

Contractions had slowed down, so our midwife asked me if I wanted to take some herbal "get labor going" medicine. I told her I'd rather try letting Jonathan nurse before taking medicine. So at 1:30, Jonathan happily started nursing and very nearly immediately fell asleep. I had three contractions 5 minutes apart while he nursed, then Jon moved him to the bed. That nursing did the trick. Contractions gradually and steadily increased in intensity and frequency from then on.

I took some walks outside, walked a lot inside, leaned on the table, rocking or moaning through a contraction. Our midwife was napping and had said I could wake her for a check anytime. About 4:00 I had two hard ones close together and decided that I'd rather she check then than when it was worse. I was fully dilated with an anterior cervical lip and the baby was at +2 station.

I was on my hands and knees on the bed and the contractions got worse and worse. I had the whimpery feeling as I had in transition for the previous births, but kept telling myself I really could do it. Jon also was telling me I could. I was getting hot, so he put cold washcloths on me, then took off my shirt and bra. He pressed on my lower back, washed my face, whispered in my ear. Everything I needed.

I still never got the irresistible pushing urge, but I did have some pushy feelings. I wanted to relax during contractions, not clench my muscles. Mom said it was a relief to push for her, but it was not like that for me.

I was on hands/elbows and knees for a while, then turned around in a sitting squat with lots of pillows at my back. I got up to squat on my feet a couple of times, but it was too hard to sustain.

I had no concept of time, which was good because I would have been discouraged if I had known how long it was taking.

Our midwife reached in to guide the lip away. The head moved down and then the lip was gone. It was hard pushing and nothing seemed to be happening. Our midwife wondered if I was fearful. I prayed that I would not be. Mom thinks it wasn't fear, but just those huge shoulders trying to get past the cervix.

I pushed with direction, then rested in between. It was really hard going.

Grammy had arrived (driving from New Hampshire as soon as she heard I was in labor), and Jonathan was sometimes in to watch me but mostly out to play with her and Dad-o.

Finally the head was moving down. The baby was kicking and moving like crazy. Our midwife said she didn't need to check the heartbeat because she could see the vigorous movement. Mom held my left leg; my right rested on the midwife's shoulder. Jon was to my right.

Our midwife was massaging, stretching, directing, encouraging. They called Jonathan back in. The head crowned! I hurt like crazy and made very loud sounds. Finally! The head was out. But... the rest of the body was not following. I wanted to rest as I had before between pushing spurts, but I knew I couldn't. So I kept pushing and yelling.

Our midwife worked at the shoulders, briefly apologizing to Jon that he couldn't do the catching. A piece of cord was draped over one shoulder and she slipped it off and over his head. She asked for my legs to be wider open. The groin ligament in my left leg went "pop" with the push. (Jon heard it and hoped it was not the baby making that sound.) Finally his shoulders and chest were out and the rest of the body quickly followed. I could feel his little feet last and reached over to take him. Our midwife announced that we had a boy.

What joy! My baby in my arms. What relief! He was finally out.

6:02 p.m. 15 1/2 hours from water breaking to baby born. I'm so glad I was unaware of the time during pushing. I was surprised that it was that late.

Immediately after coming out, the baby was blue-grey and squashed. Our midwife only used the nose suctioner twice. He made a few gurgles and then broke into loud, vigorous, and long cries. He pinked up fast and his head started unmolding right away (though he still had one crease for a day). His one-minute Apgar was 10.

He had plenty of vernix on his shoulders, arms, back, and bottom. It was quite natural to rub it in all over. It was thicker than I imagined, not like lotion. More like cream cheese. I rubbed him and kissed him and exclaimed over him, wondered over him, told him how much I love him, how it was worth all that pain and work.

The placenta was big enough to really feel as I pushed it out. I looked at it more than I had the others. Jonathan was quite interested in seeing the placenta. He did change his mind about cutting the cord, and didn't like the crying, so went back out to play. So Jon got to cut the cord.

Grammy and Dad-o came in to see the baby, but I wasn't paying attention and didn't notice them there.

He wasn't too interested in the breast the first hour, but he was looking all around, alert and taking in the world. He has dark hair, less than an inch long. After our bonding time, which was precious, amazing, glorious, it was measuring time.

10 pounds 3 ounces! His chest was as big as his head - 15 inches, so that means his shoulders were bigger - no wonder that was hard. 22.5 inches long. He was the 2,120th baby that our midwife had assisted into the world.

When he decided to nurse, his latch was good right away. He had several nursing sessions while we were still at the birth center.

Our midwife made me dinner, and Jon and Dad went to Subway to get some for everyone else. We didn't leave till 9:30, so arrived home at 11:00. What a long, hard, glorious, joyful day!

Additional prayers answered: safe, natural delivery and healthy baby! Thank you everyone for your prayers.

Jon had been looking up girls' names all throughout labor and was surprised at the midwife's announcement of a boy. We tossed around, looked up, prayed about names. A few were more interesting than others, but still weren't quite right. We had consistently been using "Hezekiah" as a middle name (it means "God gives strength" which I felt appropriate for my labor and a good reminder to him throughout his life), but none of the first names were fitting.

When I woke to nurse him early Friday morning, "Noah" popped into my head. When Jon stirred, I woke him up and made the suggestion. He liked the idea and looked it up. Noah means "rest" or "comfort." Also the Biblical Noah was a righteous man, perfect among his generations.

Jon gave his fatherly blessing and our third son officially became Noah Hezekiah Daley.