Birth Story: Jane

I woke up at 2am, mostly confused. I went to the bathroom and had a few contractions in there. I refused to believe that I was in labor because 1) I was soooo tired and wanted to go back to sleep and 2) I was only one day past my EDD. When I went back to bed, Sky asked if I was in labor. I told him to go back to sleep and I'd wake him if/when I needed him. I headed out to the couch and was able to sleep between contractions for a couple of hours. At 4:30 I woke up pretty alert and started working through contractions while kneeling over the couch for the next 2 hours. I ate a hard-boiled egg and had some Naked juice, knowing full well I would be throwing it all up later. Jude woke up at 6:30 and I took him back to our bed. The next 15 minutes were pretty emotional for me as I nursed Jude and held Sky's hand through harder contractions that came on quite rapidly. It may sound crazy, but I knew this moment of saying goodbye to our family of three was something I needed to address in order for labor to really get going.

Things really took off from there and I needed Sky for both physical and emotional support. Jude and my mother-in-law were around for the next hour. I didn't mind having Jude around, but it was becoming increasingly difficult for Skyler to support me while having Jude hanging on his neck, so my mother-in-law took him to the park for the next couple of hours. Sky and I continued laboring together. Just like Jude's labor, I wanted to walk and take the contractions standing up, leaning against a counter or wall while Sky squeezed my hips. A little after 8am, Sky texted my midwife to tell her I was in labor and that he'd let her know when we wanted her to come. About 15 minutes later I complained of needing to throw up and over the next few contractions completely emptied my stomach (in a bucket, then the toilet once we made it there). Contractions were getting really hard by this point and coming quickly. I let myself be much more vocal this labor, and moaned/whined through the contractions. Sky told my midwife to make her way over. At 9:15am, she showed up right as I was transitioning, although I didn't want to let myself believe I was that far into labor. Sky was so excited though, knowing it was only a short matter of time and trying to reassure me of that. After about 15 minutes of really difficult contractions, I started pushing against the contractions a bit, which felt good. With one contraction I had no choice but to really push and I yelled out, "I'm pushing! I can't help it!" My midwife was calm and just gently suggested that I remove my pants soon.

The next hour was the most frustrating and difficult part of labor for me. So many people had told me that the second baby always comes out in just a push or two, so when I had been pushing for nearly 45 minutes with no feeling of progress, I was so worn down, physically and emotionally. My contractions had spread so far apart, but I still felt a lot of pressure and discomfort in between. I had been in a deep squat by the side of our bed and my legs were exhausted. I was even questioning whether or not I should be pushing! I remember looking up after an extremely hard contraction and saying, "I'm so frustrated! Should I even be pushing?!" I'm sure this was comical to my midwife, but she was very kind and reassured me that I was fully dilated (there are alternative ways to tell this, BTW), and that I was incredibly close. That gave me just the motivation I needed and I announced that I wanted to get in the bathtub. I made my way into the bathroom, sat down in the tub and immediately wanted to get out. Unfortunately for me, a couple of contractions came on really quickly and I had no choice but to stay in there through them. I decided to sit on the toilet and immediately my pushing became super effective (uh, duh!). I started feeling baby move down and within just a few contractions, we could all see the bag of waters. I was propped up on the edge of the toilet and over the next two contractions my water broke and baby's head was out, face up! Turns out baby had turned posterior, which was likely the reason for the longer pushing and discomfort between contractions. Within another contraction, baby was completely out and on my belly! I felt instant relief and total euphoria that was only heightened when I saw that we had a little girl. Jude and my mother-in-law had come home right as I was pushing baby out, so while Jude didn't see anything, he did get to come and be with us immediately, which I loved. Baby Jane nursed right away and within 10 minutes or so, our new little family of four was snuggling on our bed.