I am ecstatic to announce that Emmett (otherwise known as Poppy) joined us on June 22 at 11:33pm after only a 3 hour and 5 minute labor.

Here’s the story:

At 40w4d, the Wednesday following my due date, I had been on bed rest due to pregnancy-induced hypertension for a little over two weeks and had had my membranes stripped 3 times, most recently at 40w3d.  I was having isolated practice contractions and Braxton Hicks, but not many, and was pessimistic.  I was scheduled to go for a non stress test at the hospital at 40w6d to determine if I could remain pregnant past the 41w mark, and the midwives were pessimistic about my chances because isolated readings of my blood pressure had been very high.

As a last ditch effort, I had an acupuncture appointment with at 6:30pm.  The acupuncturist worked on me for an hour and a half and then had a member of her staff do 15 minutes of acupressure on my feet before sending me home.  I had two or so contractions on the table before leaving, but they weren’t that close together.

Contractions began in earnest on my walk home around 8:30pm and were painful, about 35-45 seconds long and approximately 3 1/2 minutes apart.  The midwives had instructed us to call them when the contractions had been less than 10 minutes apart for an hour and hurt.  However, within half an hour of starting, my contractions were getting closer to 50 seconds long and 2 1/2 minutes apart, so I asked the husband to call Barbara, the midwife on duty, at 9:15pm.

Barbara listened to me breathe through a contraction and must have concluded it was early yet.  She congratulated me for handling the contraction and told me I could take a bath or shower to take the edge off and call her when the contractions got more painful or closer together.  I asked the husband to run the bath, and hopped in when it was halfway full.  In 10 minutes, I had 4 contractions, all of which were very painful.  I called for the husband to get me clothes, which he did, but didn’t stick around to help me into them.  I tried to dress through the next contraction, and wound up hopping back into the tub and asking the husband to call Barbara.  Barely 20 minutes had passed since we had called her. 

Barbara asked us to hang out for 15 minutes before leaving for the birthing center, since she lived further away than we did.

A minute or two after our arrival at the birthing center, I had my first and only internal—Barbara said, “I’m glad you’re here…you’re 7 or 8 centimeters.”  I really wanted to get into the jacuzzi tub, but hospital rules said that the baby’s heart rate had to be monitored for 20 contractions upon arrival, so I was stuck on the bed.  This was the worst part, because it basically meant I was tethered to the bed for transition, which for me lasted only 20 minutes or so.  

Almost as soon as I got into the tub, I felt a lot of pressure like I needed to push.  When I told Barbara, she said I should try to push and see if it hurt.  If not, I was likely fully dilated and ok to push.  I tried, and it didn’t hurt, so at 11:07pm I got out of the tub and onto the bed to push.  I had wanted to deliver on all fours to spare both my tailbone and my pelvis from trauma, but after about 15 minutes, my legs were shaking too much.  I wound up switching to my right side, where I stayed until I delivered Emmett at 11:33pm.   The “ring of fire” thing is no joke, especially since Emmett stayed there for 3 contractions!  On the plus side, he must have helped me, since I did not tear at all. 

Apologies for the late post!  We had a bit of a shock in the days after birth when we discovered that the baby has a birth defect which went unnoticed at the hospital.  More on that next time…