Fast forward 20 months and here I was again, ready for another natural birth, but this time much more prepared. And this time, the difference was night and day.
My due date was June 3rd. On Tuesday morning (May 31st), I woke up at four am with a few sporadic, pretty intense contractions. It felt very similar to what I woke up to with Ashtyn, so I thought maybe it was labor.
It wasn't. Turns out it was the baby dropping. Usually, babies come 7 to 10 days after dropping, so I was assuming that would be the timeline for our baby as well.
That evening, I lost my mucous plug, but I didn't realize it. All I saw was a few drops of red blood, which isn't usually a good sign, and I called my midwife Donna. She had me lay down and take Vitamin K, which seemed to help.
The next morning, Donna came for a scheduled appointment in the morning. Everything was looking and sounding good. We found the cord hanging high, meaning that the placenta was most likely above the baby as well. Donna scheduled another appointment, fully expecting my baby to come before then.
She left to her other appointments and we went about our day, Ben working and me doing my normal get-things-done-while-Ashtyn-is-sleeping stuff. Then I noticed the blood was back and that there seemed to be more of it. I took a Vitamin K and laid down, hoping it would stop.
An hour later, it hadn't, so I called Donna. I was catching her just as she was almost home, but she was very concerned, so she turned around and came back. She was worried that the placenta was actually under the baby and covering the cervix, which would mean an automatic transfer to the hospital for a c-section. That situation is called placenta previa and a c-section is the safest way (and often the only way) to ensure the baby's safe delivery. I was in tears, very stressed and not wanting to be in that situation, but Ben sat with me and we waited for Donna so we could know what the situation actually was and what our options were with it.
Donna arrived and she did an internal exam to determine whether the placenta was there or not. She reached in and instead of finding the placenta, she found the baby's head! Oh, how happy we all were. Not only did she find the baby's head, but I was dilated to a four. I was in labor and I didn't even know it. I was having Braxton-hicks. They were a little more intense than normal, but they lasted ten seconds or less and came so randomly, I would go two hours without one and then have three in twenty minutes. I'd try timing them, but I was sure it wasn't labor.
Donna had Ben put on a glove and feel the baby's head. While he was doing that (it probably took about five minutes), I progressed more and was dilated to about a six. I thought about what it took to get dilated to a six with Ashtyn and felt euphoric at the difference.
Donna had her birth stuff in the trunk and felt I was progressing fast enough that she didn't dare leave. She called her assistants and Ben had a few last minute things to do to get ready for the birth (we needed a few prescriptions for the baby, Donna wanted me to drink soy milk to stimulate some real contractions, and we dropped Ashtyn off with Ben's mom).
While he was gone, Donna had me walk stairs, which very quickly brought on some contractions. This was about 3:45. They were between 20 and 30 seconds long, with 2 to 3 minutes between each one. The contractions were getting stronger, but weren't too bad. I was honestly so happy with how my labor was going so far (especially compared to last time) that the contractions felt like nothing to me.
Around 4:30, my contractions were starting to get pretty intense. They were longer, more like a minute long, but still 3 to 5 minutes apart. I turned on Hypnobabies and laid on the bed, focusing on relaxing. It took a lot of concentration at this point to stay relaxed during the contractions. It was nice to have the space between them, it gave me a chance to focus. I felt better prepared with Hypnobabies and it really helped to think about what the contractions were doing--moving the baby down and opening my cervix. Concentrating on that really helped me relax my body.
I lost track of time and let myself forget about the outside world. Donna checked me once more and I was dilated to an eight. The contractions were getting intense by this point, so I was really happy to know I'd already made it into transition (the hardest part of labor, where your body dilates from a 7 to a 10).
They set up the place where I would do the pushing and moved me there, checking me again. I hadn't progressed tons since the last check, so they broke my water. The contractions were beginning to get closer together and at this point, they didn't go away entirely between each contraction.
I lay on the end of the bed, holding Ben's hand, with him kneeling over me. While I held his hand and needed that support, I was able to relax enough that I didn't need them to squeeze every time a contraction came.
I was definitely feeling done with it all and was going to ask Donna to check me again to see how close I was when I suddenly felt the urge to push. I never felt this with Ashtyn's birth; then, the midwives just told me I could push whenever and I was so tired of labor that I just started pushing. It was a weird, strong sensation.
The pushing part was the only thing about this labor that felt harder than with Ashtyn's birth process. With Ashtyn, I just pushed. It was painful as she crowned, but I just let go. This led to tearing and much harder recovery period. This time around, pushing was so different.
Donna held her hand at Parker's head, instructing me to push against her if I felt any pain or burning at all. They gave me so much support and Donna let me know what was going on the entire time. A contraction would come and I'd push. If I felt pain or burning, Donna would help me relax (while I squeezed poor Ben's hand harder than anything, because relaxing at this point was so hard). This let the baby's head work it's way out of my body without tearing the skin or damaging anything inside.
I was getting discouraged, with how hard this part was, so Donna guided my hand down and let me feel the head. She told me I only had one or two contractions left and the baby would be out. The next contraction, the baby made it through. The sensation of the baby coming out (and I remember this with Ashtyn too) is the weirdest and most satisfying sensation I've ever felt in my life.
We waited to find out the gender and I told Ben before labor began that it was his job to check. He teased me that he was going to tell me the wrong one, but I knew he was joking. As soon as she was out, Ben squeezed my hand gently and told me, "It's a girl," with a big grin on his face. I was so happy.
It was still not easy, but once again, it was totally worth it. There is something so sweet and precious about newborns. I feel so grateful for my two babies and the joy they bring to our little family.
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