The Second time around, my view of natural labor had changed. I still did not want an epidural, but it also included not being induced, not being tied to an IV, not having constant fetal monitoring, not having my water broken and being as comfortable as possible and birthing in my own way. I had Also researched other methods of pain management. A water birth at home was my ideal thought, however DH was not quite ready for such a move. So we created a detailed birth plan to create our ideal family oriented, since we wanted our daughter in the room with us, hospital supervised birth. We wanted to be on our own for the most part, with them as a safety net.
My first contraction woke me out of my sleep at 3:20am. It felt like a serious stomach cramping, and like I needed to go to the bathroom. I went back to sleep. Ten minutes later, I was awake again with another one. I noted the time and went back to sleep. I must have been exhausted, because I never fall asleep that fast. At 3:41am, I woke up again and thought, wow, this is pretty consistent. I better get up. I woke DH up and we started to time them while sitting in bed. I was nervous now, because it finally hit me. "Ah Lord, I have to push another kid out". LOL. Like I didn't know it was going to come to that.
I figured we better get serious when DH started to doze of again and I knew we had to get our toddler up and ready too. I was not convinced we were on our way to the hospital yet, because I was expecting the same signs as I had with Marissa (Will be discussing that in another post ). The contractions were bad, but I felt like I was handling them pretty well. Well enough that I insisted we make the bed before we leave. I had to stop a couple times in the process to do my slow deep breathing, but it was getting done. Once I had a contraction within two min of the last, I knew we needed to get to the car. Thankfully I could still move with little issue while not having a contraction. I had an awesome Little coach in DD1 :-) She kept breathing with me through the contractions and telling me I was doing a good job.
We arrived at the hospital at 7am. We finally made it inside to labor and delivery around 7:20, I know that because they were doing a shift change. I kept steady with my breathing. I would be lie if I said it was just a lot of pressure, these contractions were hurting, but breathing was helping me get through it. Full slow deep breaths. I was at 6cm by the time I was checked me at 7:45 for them to tell me, "yup you're in labor", and have me admitted. I had a few choice words, but I refrained. We were moved to our room a little after 8 am and I was in pain! Thankfully we had an awesome nurse that tried to make me smile, by complimenting my original labor "out fit" and how well I was handling the pain. At this point I was just so thankful for my DH, because it was so bad I needed him to keep me in check. There was no way breathing was going to get me through this! I was convinced! My contractions were coming so fast and so hard. He again reminded me to breath. Focus and breath. I clenched my teeth and I followed his breathing, again, and again, and again. I had to shift from holding his hand to holding the bed frame because I didn't want to hurt him, but I kept breathing with him.
Our AMAZING midwives arrived and stood aside and just kept encouraging us. At one point I could feel one of them massaging my legs while I had my eyes closed and another place a cold towel on my head as I held DH's hand in between a contraction. I had a delicious ice cold Gatorade someplace in there too. I was in so much pain, they decided to check me again at 8:50am, and I was at 8 cm. No wonder I felt like I was loosing it. I was progressing really fast. I couldn't sit still. I started to try to get out of bed and change position. They helped me get on all fours and adjusted the bed so that I could rest my head in between contractions. Breathing was all I had been doing, and all that I could do. Next think I knew I called for our midwives and they had stepped out. I felt her coming. Breathing was not helping now because all I wanted to do was push, but they were not there yet. My husband pressed the call button and they were there in seconds, but our surprise baby was already on the way (we didn't know we were having a girl). She had crowned and I had to push. They were not ready, but my water broke and out came her little head at the same time. They didn't even have time to get their gloves on to catch her. Again, needing to push was the best relief. She was out in less than a minute after crowning. Because she came out so fast again, I needed stitches, and I STILL wasn't ready for that. It hurt like a *****!!
What I learned after having both our girls is that the only thing I need to get through this is a great coach that would be an advocate for me. I needed my husband and his ability to focus when I could not. I could not have gotten through the natural labor of our daughters without him.
We unknowingly used a combination of Lamaze and the Bradley Method to deliver both our girls. If there is another :-) I would love to also have the opportunity to have a water birth at home.
