Jack's story
On Saturday I cleaned the house like a mad woman finishing the last of my to do list. I was still loosing bits and pieces of my plug at that point so I knew I was close. I went grocery shopping and met my mom at the store to pick out a rug for his nursery. I have never felt such a urge to get certain things done and I knew it was the ultimate race against the clock. I was having more frequent (painless) contractions at this point and my mom was the one who said she thought this was the start of my labor. I started bleeding like a period so called the doctor to just check in and was told to come in to get checked in triage. They did an exam and I was 1 cm dilated. Everything checked out OK, and the bleeding was me starting to dilate. They did a test that showed that my water had broken, but it was such a small pin hole that the bag was still full and his head pressing on my cervix was probably preventing me from realizing that I was leaking fluids. The doctor wanted to admit me, but the midwife said if I wanted to go home she would be OK with that. So we did. Labor picked up a bit overnight, but mild, and it was nice to sleep in my own bed. I checked in with the midwife every few hours during the day but they were still OK with me being home as long as I felt OK. We watched TV, went for a few walks in the neighborhood, and I baked him a birthday cake. The rushes (contractions) were picking up but still 5-7 minutes apart and I could easily walk and talk through them, but they finally asked me to come in at 4pm since my water had technically broken the night before. I was 4 cm when I got there so they finished breaking my water to try to speed up my labor. My nurse was awesome and so was my wife. They let me wear my own night gown I had bought specifically for the occasion and my yoga pants. My wife and I walked up and down the hallways, I spent a good amount of time in the shower (that was my favorite), I sat on a birthing ball while my wife rubbed my back, I listened to my hypnobirthing CD, walked some more, tried to sleep, and rocked some more on the ball. It actually was very manageable from a comfort perspective. For a few of the stronger ones, we would kiss through them and it made it all tolerable. She was my rock. They put me on the monitor every now and then to check him out but then let me do my thing. It was wonderful not being confined to the bed. Later that night the midwife came and was concerned that I wasnt having the rushes stacked on top of each other. She didn't want to keep checking to see how dilated I was because of the risk of infection with the broken water but she assumed I had not made a ton of progress by how inconsistent the rushes were- sometimes every 2-3 minutes sometimes every 5-7 minutes. She wanted to start pitocin because we were coming up on 24 hours of broken waters and she wanted him closer to being born. Shortly after the pitocin was started, it got hard and I was starting to reach my threshold. I asked for an epidural. They still assumed I had a long way to go so gave me a dose of nubain to take the edge off, which did nothing. They checked to see where I was and I was already 9 cm! So i was making progress that whole time! So instead of setting up for an epidural, she set up for delivery. I had spent a decent amount of time sitting on the toilet during the labor, it was just more comfortable than anywhere else, so she asked if I wanted to try to give birth on a birthing stool so I could stay sitting up. It was exactly what I needed. My wife sat on a stool behind me so i could lean on her, the lights were off, and 20 minutes of pushing and out he came. The NICU team was in the back of the room to make sure he was OK because nobody thought he would have been born so soon after the dose of nubain. But he was fine. He recognized both of our voices right away, he was looking for us-especially me. The look in his eyes the first time he heard my voice, I will never forget. He knew me. My wife held him while the nurse helped me to take a shower and within the hour after he was born I walked right out to my new room in the post partum unit.
The whole experience was surreal. It was beautiful and positive and I I would do it all over again in a heartbeat to have him. Yes, it was painful but it was manageable and I feel so blessed that I had such a positive birthing experience. I love him so much! I think that hypnobirthing CD and all the reading I did on positive natural birth stories put me in the right frame of mind going into it, kept me calm and relaxed and gave me some ideas on how to cope when it got hard (kissing for example). I also just got lucky that the staff working that night were amazing and willing to work with me to help give me the experience that I wanted. More than anything, my wife was my rock. I couldn't have stayed as calm as I did if it weren't for her. So that's the story of how Jack got here. I have nothing bad to say about giving birth. Its hard work and requires lots of yoga breathing, but absolutely worth it and even just a few days out I can honestly say I wouldn't be afraid to do it again.
