Natlis,it's better than Skittles!: 2016

Brenda's birth story:

39 weeks pregnant, April 13, 2016

This whole pregnancy had been completely unremarkable, I only experienced mild morning sickness, I was still able to workout, I had less aches and pains, and overall felt good as the months progressed. Like any pregnant woman though, the last month was out to kill me. I began to swell, I could not longer work out, and walking, sleeping and moving hurt. At 37 weeks I was just done, but baby was not, so there she stayed. Then, 38 weeks came and just as quickly left as once again baby was just not willing to heed to my pleas to leave her hobbit hole. During these two weeks, I experienced contractions that should have led to labor, but nothing did. I was getting to the point where just rolling me around everywhere, or not moving at all sounded easier.

Finally the day of my 39 week appointment came, my legs were so swollen they looked like tree trunks, my tummy was so large that the muscles had begun to split apart, and we had been informed on Monday earlier that week that the baby was close to 9 lbs via u/s. I walked into my midwife's office close to tears, not thrilled at the aspect of going another week or 2. When the midwife saw me, she said without hesitation that we were inducing that day. I had gained 7 lbs in one week and combined with a slightly elevated blood pressure, she said it looked like I was headed towards preeclampsia, so we needed to deliver now for baby and mines safety. I started crying with thanks and told her how miserable I'd been all week. Yes, I had so wanted to go into labor on my own, but at this point I was just done.

She handed me my induction paperwork and I headed over to Saint Al’s Labor and Delivery (directly across the street). I called my mom and let her know I needed her to take the kids and then called Nate to let him know it was showtime! At this point it was 11:00am on April 14th.

In L&D, I met my nurse and the midwife on call and after running some labs (and botching an IV),

I was finally put on pitocin at 2:30pm. The midwife wanted to increase it every 30 minutes and start low. I hrumph’d at this because I was used to my previous OB hitting me up hard and fast with pitocin, breaking my water after the IV was started and having a baby in my arms a few hours later, but the midwife wanted to give me a chance at the delivery I had wanted. She was not thrilled with me being induced and kept telling me it would increase my chances of c-section, but we moved forward with the plan nonetheless. Our plan at this point was to have an epidural free birth, but I knew with the pitocin that those plans may change, and assured the nurse and midwife that I was open to pain meds, nitrous oxide, and possibly an Epidural in the end. Nate stayed optimistic about using the things we learned in our childbirth class for an epidural free birth which in turn helped me.

The baby was too high (-3 station) for the midwife to break my water so Nate helped me with positioning and we worked on getting baby’s head down. Hours went by, we slept when we could, but we were working hard to get baby to come down. At this point the contractions were a minor nuisance, but nothing I couldn't handle and hadn't already experienced while contracting at home. We tried the tub around 10pm and it was great, sadly because I was on pitocin, I had to be on continuous monitoring, but was still able to walk around and be in the tub as I pleased as long as baby cooperated. Of course as with everyone of my children, there was no cooperating, our poor nurse was in and out of our room (all night) trying to find baby and this led to having me leave the tub. Once we were back in our room, Kristin, my midwife on call, showed up to check me and see if we had made progress in getting the head down.

Joy upon joys! At 12:15am, April 15th, we had finally made enough progress to be considered in active labor (4cm, 80% effaced, and a baby at a 0/+1 station), so my water was broken. Turns out my normal midwife, Rieneke, was right about me having above normal fluids because Kristin awarded me the badge of most fluid she'd ever seen. Seriously...it was like Niagara Falls...eww (Nate would also purposely make me laugh while I was standing or sitting up to make more come out, I'm sure the nurse found us rather obnoxious).

At this point, Nate and I knew that things would get serious from here (given our past experiences) and were a bit apprehensive about it being so late. Sleep was important and we were already pretty drained, but there was no stopping it now. Soon the contractions picked up and we were moving about the room about every 20 minutes or so changing positions to keep up with pain. I was still doing really well, I had picked up my own breathing pattern and had Nate talking to me (affirmations) through the contractions. We were thankful for our birthing class and used every method taught to us to help get me through contractions. I found that hanging off Nate, squatting, while he supported me was the most relieving, but now at well after 2am with contractions coming every 1.5-2 minutes, I was just too tired to keep standing. I found that sitting in the rooms rocking chair is what helped the most. I could rock as hard and fast or slow as I wanted to through a contraction and focus on something else at the peak. I was repeating the affirmations after Nate now and things were pretty darn uncomfortable. I would fall asleep between contractions and wake to the pain, reach for Nate, and he would begin affirmations as I moaned and repeated after him.

We did this for a few hours, sleeping for only 2 minutes at a time (at one point I woke up and swore I saw a life size gummy bears walking around the room during a contraction). At about 4:45am I looked up at the clock and thought that I just couldn't do this anymore. Maybe the baby wasn't here yet because I was in too much pain and couldn't relax enough, so I told Nate I'd had enough and it was time for the epidural. I had 3 good contractions right then that double peaked and brought me to tears so I knew I was done. Nate said to just wait for the midwife to check me first and then I could make my final decision. At 5:00am, the nurse and midwife both came in and I told them I wanted to be checked. I wasn't feeling any of my transitions symptoms, the pitocin had been turned down and nearly off because I was doing well on my own, but I felt like there hadn't been enough progress made. The midwife agreed, the nurse agreed that none of my signs pointed to baby anytime soon, and so they helped me stand from the rocking chair so I could take two steps over to the corner of the bed.

As I stood I was rocked with the biggest contraction yet and called Nate to me so I could hang off of him. Then, that's when I felt her head come down. I managed to get out “HER HEAD!” before the urge to push took over. The nurse started throwing chux and towels and all things soft on the floor as I was still standing and there was no going to the bed now. The midwife was down on her knees in a flash and told me not to push if I could help it (ha-ha) while she helped my cervix open that last little bit. I don't remember much about the pain here, just that I was internally telling myself I could have her out in 2 to 3 pushes, that I was a good pusher, hang in there...within two contraction and the midwife letting my body take the lead, I indeed had Brenda out within 2-3 pushes, it was now 5:11am. Nate was a super hero and kept a hold of me the whole time, watching from quite a different angle than he's used to of one of our children being born.

Brenda Lorrayne Saunders

After she was out, they sat me back in the rocking chair so I could hold Brenda, but I had pushed her out so quick that she was still full of fluid and wouldn't cry. Another nurse had now joined us and took her to quickly suction her out as I was escorted to the bed for the rest of the delivery. Nate was by Brenda’s side giving her a stern talking to so she would breathe (what do you know, daddy’s voice really does get a baby to take a breath, thank you Kyndal). Kristin kept telling me how awesome I had done, that I had pushed a 9lbs12oz baby out, with no tearing whatsoever while standing and squatting like a cave woman (ladies, do not be intimidated by the squat bar! Thank you heavy lifting lol). I was so exhausted at this point that I almost immediately started to fall asleep. After a few short minutes, the placenta was delivered, Brenda was breathing and layed on my chest for skin to skin and I was able to finally fall asleep. They did Brenda's exam while she slept on my chest and I drooled into REM. Nate was finally able to rest now with us and we happily slept until shift change.

I am happy she is here, I'm happy to no longer be pregnant, and happy that I can now spend all my energy on raising my beautiful little family!!