Fair warning- this is pretty PG, I think but if you don't want to know, now would be the time to click away. 😁 And if you are squeamish there are two pictures at the end you may or may not appreciate.
A few weeks before I was due, someone made the offhand
comment that ‘you’ve had a difficult pregnancy’ and I was slightly taken aback. I mean, I complain a lot about nausea and all
of the other woes that come with the territory, but I don’t have to give myself
shots of blood thinner twice a day (poor Michelle) and I’ve never been on bed rest or had any real complications (other than covid). It’s actually fairly incredible to have had 5
such uncomplicated pregnancies and deliveries…. The statistics are not so kind. It has gotten harder every time though. I’m older (my chart says “advanced maternal
age” now… woot woot), I’m more tired, it puts more stress on my body, there are
more things and people to take care of… and also I dislike pregnancy
excessively which doesn’t help. 😆
My energy levels the final few weeks were so. low. I got the bare minimum done, but it hurt to walk,
it hurt to move, and I was so tired all of the time.
Oh, and then there were blizzards. TWO big snowstorms with almost a foot of snow
predicted right before and after my due date.
I have no real desire to home birth, and Bob really doesn’t want to
deliver a baby so it seemed like we did a lot of praying about timing.
The Sunday before he was born I felt weird so I was debating
if I should attempt church or not, then my eyes randomly went blurry, first the
right, then the left. When you google ‘blurry
eyes in pregnancy’ you discover that you are either dying or it’s a common
hormonal effect…. So we all stayed home because I didn’t want to be alone just
in case I was actually dying. (I’m terrible, I know, and some of my nurse
friends were quite worried. But once again, I had no other symptoms of Pre-E
and I had zero desire to call the doctor and ask because they will always send
you to the ER on the weekend and I’m tired of medical bills.) Anyway,
I slept some more and woke up feeling normal again.
The rest of the week I was just tired. I went to the doctor on Wednesday, and saw my
favorite midwife. I was worried that
since I’m now medically old, plus the whole covid thing that they would be
super uptight the closer I got to term.
And it was the exact opposite. They were so laid back it was weird! And
Ashley was recommending things like eating dates and drinking raspberry leaf tea….
You can tell she used to do home births (in WA state).
Thursday was a snow day for the girls and it would have been
very difficult to make it to the hospital without 4-wheel drive… we boiled our
first sap run and I spent a lot of time on the couch. School was cancelled
again for Friday…
I woke up at 5:15, because ow, that hurts. :P I tried to go back to sleep but 5 minutes
later I was awake again and decided I better wake Bob up and start making phone
calls. Since I have a history of
precipitous labor we don’t wait around.
I had also tested positive for group B strep, which is not a big deal usually,
but if they don’t get you two doses of antibiotics, they make you stay at the
hospital longer to observe the baby. Two
doses, 4 hours apart, which was iffy given my history so we left for the
hospital asap. Perrin has impeccable timing- no school, clear roads….
All the way in I could still talk through contractions- and
sing. Breathing control and encouragement….
O God, our help in ages past,
Our hope for years to come,
Our shelter from the stormy blast,
And our eternal home.
When we got to the hospital Ashley was on call, yay!, I was
already at 5cm, woot, and they gave me the first dose of antibiotics. Jessica made it safely in on the snowy roads,
and we got all settled in. Labor this
time was more slow and steady which is both good and bad. I was so ready to be done, and it was hard
mentally to have to work through contractions at a slower pace than the last
two times. And at the same time, crazy
fast labor is insane and also not fun.
:P They had me up and moving and trying
all kinds of different things to get comfortable, but nothing really
helped. I mean, I still wouldn’t
describe it as being truly painful, but I was more uncomfortable and the
pressure was awful. I had a harder time
staying focused and not giving in to fear.
Labor time is weird… it felt like it was taking forever (have I
mentioned how completely OVER being pregnant I was??) but it had only been an
hour or two when I started feeling pressure to push.
Again, it was not the easy involuntary pushing like the last
two… it was hard work and I didn’t feel like I was making much progress and the
pressure was awful because my water hadn’t broken; everybody else in the room was
excited about the possibility of an en caul birth. Not so much me, but
whatever. 😊 We tried several positions and ended up semi-seated…
and then my water finally broke at 10:20.
All over the floor, soaked Jessica’s pants, barely missed the midwife. Haha. The relief from the pressure was
wonderful, until I remembered a split second later that I still had to move
baby down and out… ugh. I was tired and so sick of it all. Such a wonderful attitude, I know… One of my
favorite memories, though, is as I was in and out of labor-land, seeing the
midwife, doula, and nurse down at my feet just… observing. Letting nature take its
course and my body do what it’s designed to do.
I’m getting crunchy in my old age and in my head, a perfect
birth would include being able to sing my baby earthside… but, reality. Ha.
I tried with a few contractions. There
wasn’t anything remotely musical about it, and I’m not sure if it was even recognizable
as words but…. I tried.
A mighty Fortress is our God,
A Bulwark never failing;
Our Helper He amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing:
After his head was born, my midwife said, ‘and now we’ll
wait a little for the shoulders,’ but I was so over it and I wasn’t waiting.
any. more. I remember thinking, stitches have never bothered me, I am
DONE. Ashley: ‘Oh, I guess we aren’t
waiting.’ So he was born very shortly
thereafter at 10:33am after 5 hours and 15 minutes of labor. It felt like longer. Ha.
My big request this time was to see the placenta! Bob: Why?!
It’s very organ-y. Haha. Because I’ve grown 5 of them and never seen one and I
just want to?? It was really cool
because Ashley basically gave me an anatomy lesson while she was examining it;
pointing out all the parts and different features. AND his cord had a true knot in it, which is
pretty rare and was pretty cool looking.
Thankfully it was a loose knot... my great grandma used to say that a pregnant woman has one foot in the grave, but really, so do babies.
This is the side the baby sees.... so cool!
Oh, and we did not have time to get the 2nd dose of antibiotics, not that anyone was
surprised.
Blessings.
