Julius' Birth Story

At about 1:00 am on 5/30, I woke up due to contractions I was feeling. I decided to go use the bathroom and see if that would help. By the time I got back into bed, D had come in the room to go to sleep. I told him what was happening, and we decided to time them. After timing them for about an hour, they were about 6-7 mins apart, and about 1.5 mins long. But they weren’t anything that took my focus, so at around 2am we put on my Hypnobirthing relaxation playlist (which I used every night to go to sleep for the last 6 mo) and I went to sleep.

We woke up later that morning at 8:30 am. I didn’t notice anything at first and thought that what happened earlier that morning was just another teaser. But a few minutes after waking up, I felt a couple more contrx like I had felt earlier. And then the intensity of the contrx picked up. I noticed that it was no longer comfortable to lay in bed, and I needed to dedicate some attention to getting through the contrx. We got out of bed and moved into the bathroom where we started timing them again. For a while they were coming every 3.5 mins for about 40-60 mins. We were so confused about the timing of the contrx (even though we were using an app on my phone). The contrx didn’t have the pattern that we were looking for, so I think we both doubted a little that I was actually in labor. D took a shower to get ready in case things continued to progress the way they were, and I continued to work through the contrx. When he finished, I took a shower (just in case).

We moved to the kitchen to make something to eat. By this time (around 9:30 am), I really did not feel like eating, but I knew that if I was seriously in labor I would need something in my stomach. Luckily, the day before I bought a few cups of instant miso soup, and D made me one of those, which worked perfectly because there was very little to chew (it was mostly broth) and wasn’t very heavy at all. While we ate, I continued to work through contrx (mostly by bouncing on our exercise ball), which seemed to be coming between 6-9 mins now for about 45 -60 secs.

I went to use the bathroom, and got my first indication that I might actually be in real labor – bloody show. But I had heard of women seeing bloody show days before they actually went into labor, so I wasn’t really convinced that we were going to meet baby that day. I let D know, and after we worked through a couple more contrx, we decided to call our midwife to let her know what was going on, and get her take on things. D handled the phone call, while I went to walk around on our back patio (I really didn’t want to hear the conversation because I was afraid that she would tell us that nothing was happening, and I was already concerned that if these contrx got any worse I wouldn’t be able to handle having my natural birth).

Since the birthing clinic that we were going to is 50-60 mins away from our house, we decided it would be best (and our midwife agreed) to head over there (even if it wasn’t the “real deal”) and just hang out. Worse case scenario – we drive home later that day with no baby. But we wanted to err on the side of caution. Good thing we did! D ran around the house grabbing last min items (the majority of the stuff was already in my car), and then we set off.

We arrived at the clinic at around 11:45 am. The drive over to the clinic was uncomfortable, but not too terrible. I still had to focus to get through my contrx. When we pulled up to the clinic, D immediately grabbed my exercise ball, and we went inside to wait for our midwife. When she walked in, she said “wow, you look serious!” Which actually made me feel better that someone else (besides D and I) thought something was happening. We talked a bit about what was going on (in between contrx); she monitored a couple of my contrx; then asked if she could check me. As she checked me, it sounded as if she was a bit in shock. She asked me, “what did you expect to be?” And at that time I really just hoped that I was more than 1cm dilated. She said that I was 6 maybe 7 cm, which I was in complete shock since the contrx hadn’t been THAT bad up until this point.

She left us alone again, and I continued to work through contrx. She came back a little while after and asked if we wanted her to fill up the birth tub, which I wanted to use, and since it would take about 45 mins to get it completely filled she wanted to see if we wanted her to start the process. We said “yes”, so off she went to fill the tub. Eventually, the tub was filled enough for me to get in, so I did. The water was great, but I was having a really hard time finding a comfortable position to ride out the contrx. Sitting back was not good, and kneeling put pressure on my ankle (that is still recovering from surgery that I had last yr). So after a couple of contrx in the tub, I gave up, and got out, got dressed and headed back to my exercise ball.

A few more contrx later, I noticed (and so did my m/w) that they were feeling a bit more intense. She asked if I was feeling the need to push at all, and I said no. She actually asked a few more times over the course of the next couple if I was getting any urge to push. And I didn’t understand why she kept asking me that because I was so sure that when the baby was ready to get pushed out, I would know. I mean everyone talks about feeling as though they have to use the bathroom, and I just wasn’t feeling like that at all…yet! She asked if she could check me, and when she did she found that I was complete and told me that I could push whenever I wanted too – baby was ready to be born. And again I was in complete shock!!!

Now the fun *really* began!!!! Let me just say that the whole time I was in labor my lower back was hurting, but now as I started pushing baby out, it really started hurting like a b***h! I had no clue what to expect when it came to pushing since I thought my body would just let me know when I had to push, so this was totally unexpected. And at this point, I lost all focus of time. And all the techniques I had taught myself in order to keep my composure during labor really went out the window. I was just focused on getting his little butt out because I was in so much pain. D said that the whole pushing part lasted from 30 mins to an hr. But again, all I know is that I was just trying to find a comfortable position in which to push, and I was letting the pain get the best of me, unfortunately. But finally, at 3:52 pm on 5/30, Julius Luciano was born. My water didn’t even break, they had to break it when his head was out.

And from what I understand, when he came out, he had his little hand up by the side of his face, and after the water had broken, his cord slipped down around his neck, but luckily they moved quickly and were able to get him untangled without any problems – I didn’t even know what had happened until after everything was done. Immediately afterward, they cleaned him off, I sat back, and they put him on my chest. I hadn’t had much to eat/drink during the whole labor, so I wasn’t feeling the greatest, so D held him while I rested. but after i got something to drink/eat (my midwife had someone in her family bring me some KFC - grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, and cole slaw the best after labor meal in the world!!!). and some time to rest, i felt much much better. we spent the rest of the night at the birth clinic, and then the next day (memorial day) around 8am, the 3 of us went home together to start our lives as a family!!! :)