On July 6th, 2010 at 9:41 am, Micah Russell was born! He was 21 inches long and weighted 8 lbs. 11 oz.
For the past two weeks, I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions that I noticed more than I felt. My belly would tense up and we would joke around that the baby was going to come early. On July 5th, Jason and I spent the day at home making crafts for the baby's room. After dinner, we went for a walk in the neighborhood (about 2 miles). It took about two hours: I was walking a little bit slower than I had been, but I figured I just hadn't gone for a walk in a while and we were taking pictures. On our walk, we talked about how it would be really convenient for the birth to start on Thursday evening, since we had a busy week wrapping up work stuff. When we got home, we had a bowl of mint chocolate chip ice cream with chocolate cookie crumbles on top (yum!) and sat on our balcony to watch the fireworks. Then we went to bed a bit later than usual.
I got up around 1:30 am, then again a little after 2 to go to the bathroom. A little after 3 am, I had to get up again. Usually, I only have to get up once or twice during the evening, so this seemed a tad unusual. At 3:30 am, I had what felt like a horrible menstrual cramp. I woke up Jason and said "I think we're going to have a baby today!" He sort of woke up and said "But what happened to the cleaning?" Both my mom and my sister had been stressing to us that we'll know because I will go on a mad cleaning frenzy...didn't really happen, evidently for me it's crafts! Jason started timing the contractions, which were 4-5 minutes apart and 60-75 seconds long. He timed two and called Jan, our midwife. Jan told us to keep timing the length of the contractions, since this came on so suddenly. She was somewhat skeptical that I was in active labor already. But after two more and another phone call, she was on her way!
The contractions were intense and at one point, I told Jason "This is really going to hurt!" to which he reminded me that I can do it and that I just needed to do some deep breaths and relax during the pain. I moved some of my houseplants into our living room, since that's where I planned to deliver and it felt like the right thing to do. I also turned on the ceiling fans and turned up the AC. We didn't have a bag packed and the car seat was still in the box... My due date was July 16th and we planned to get that done during the week. So between contractions Jason started packing the bag. He opened up the Bradley workbook for the list, but didn't get far before Jan arrived at 5:20 am. By then, our place was refrigerator and Jan needed a sweater. but the coolness of the air was quite a relief to me.
Jan did an exam right away and assessed that I was already 7 cm dilated. We hoped to use the birthing tub, but didn't have sufficient time to fill it... it takes three hours and Jan was not sure we'd make it before the delivery... but allowed us to make that decision. The other option was to fill our bathtub, which we decided to do. Around that time, Jan's fellow midwife, Pam, arrived to assist.
It was nice being in the water, having that warmth around me and some of the pressure relieved, yet the contractions kept intensifying. I was in for about a half an hour, then decided to lay down on our futon in the living room. This felt worse, but I was just looking for rest. During contractions, I would grab Jason. He rubbed my lower back and thighs between contractions which helped relieve muscle tension, and Pam held my hand and told me I can do this. Jason also kept giving me sips of ice water, which was really comforting. After a few contractions, Jan suggested I change positions; I decided to stand and Jason and I slow danced. Jan and Pam commented "oh, she's moving differently" and encouraged me to just go with it. During contractions, I would often press down on Jason's hands and lean my wight into him, which felt very secure. Honestly, from the very start of the contractions, Coral's advice of not wasting my energy played over in my head and when I found myself tensing up, I'd focus on relaxing and opening up my hands. I eventually got on my hands and knees and asked for the birthing ball, which I leaned my body over and rocked on. When I would get a contractions, I would roll and bear down. I don't remember when the birthing ball left, and my eyes were closed for most of the labor, but I ended up leaning over the futon on my hands and knees, with a pillow under my knees. My bag of waters did not break and I was getting the urge to push. I was waiting for it to break to push, but Jan said that if it felt good to push, then go with it, which I did. They saw Micah's head in the bag and told me he was crowning. I felt the "Ring of Fire" which lives up to its name... a burning sensation, but it does not last long at all. Jan slightly tore my bag. Two or three pushes later with a few guttural, primal screams, Micah was here and he was screaming too! I turned over and he was placed on my chest... I didn't even know if it was a boy or a girl yet. It was just nice holding him in my arms. From the start of contractions to his birth, it was 6 hours and 15 minutes. After some time, I delivered the placenta with some help from Jan. Jason cut the cord and then we named him.
Rebecca & Jason, Milwaukee
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