Adam Richard

On Tuesday, the day before my due date, I visited my midwife. I was 1.5 cm dilated, and my cervix was soft (I had been taking evening primrose oil), though not effaced, and Adam was in a -2 station. My midwife stripped my membranes that morning. I had been seeing my acupuncturist for about one week prior, and I visited him again on Wednesday (my due date), to see if we could get labor started.

That night I began to feel some cramping, ad at about 3:45 am on Thursday morning, I got up to go to the bathroom, and I lost my mucus plug. I went back to bed and woke up a couple hours later; contractions had begun. Being anywhere from 7 - 10 minutes apart, I was able to sleep in between the contraction until about 8:00 am. At this point, Tony began to "officially" keep track of the contractions. He also tried to get me to eat and/or drink something, but anything I ate or drank just came right back up - this was the case no matter what I tried (cereal, juice, etc). I ended up consistently vomiting throughout the morning and early afternoon. I also ended up burping at the end of each contraction - an easy way for Tony to track the contractions' endings!

While at home, I used various positions, from leaning on the kitchen counter and bathroom sink to kneeling over the couch or sitting on the toilet. Around 1 pm, the contractions were coming closer together, and I decided to get into the shower. The shower felt great and really helped in managing the pain. By the time I got out of the shower, my contractions had been consistently 3 minutes apart for about an hour, and Tony and I decided we should get going to the hospital. As I was getting dressed, my water suddenly broke - a large gush, and we knew for sure we had to get on the road.

Tony swears he wasn't speeding too much on our trip downtown, but I'm not so certain... Sitting in the car was extremely uncomfortable, and the pain was excruciating - I can't imagine what people in the cars we passed must have been thinking in in cars we passed must have been thinking if they glanced over at me! We made it to Aurora Sinai in record time and were whisked back into OB triage after just filling out a short form; it was about 2:45 pm at this point. The midwife on staff at that time checked me, and I was 6.5 cm dilated. Tony and I were excited to be so far along, but I remember thinking that I wasn't sure I could handle the remaining 3.5 cm without pain medication - the contractions were so intense, and I was surprisingly vocal in trying to manage them.

We were quickly taken up to labor & delivery, and after kneeling over the back of the bed for about 45 minutes, the midwife on call checked me again. I was 9.5 cm and really feeling the pressure to push. The midwife didn't want me to push against the remaining .5 cm of my cervix, for fear hat it would swell up, so she had me start to push while she used her finger to push the remaining .5 cm out of the way. This worked beautifully, and I was now at 10 cm. I initially began pushing while on my hands and knees, but we found hat using the side-lying position was much more effective. I pushed for about an hour, with the support of Tony, the RN on staff, and the midwife. The midwife did a lot of perineal massage while I pushed, in an effort to avoid excess tearing, which was great - I ended up with only a small first-degree tear that occurred with the last push, just as Adam cam out (he had a huge head!).

As soon as Adam was born, the midwife placed him on my chest. Tony and I were amazed to finally meet our son! I delivered the placenta shortly thereafter with just one push, but the midwife was concerned that I was excessively bleeding, so I received a shot of Pitocin in my thigh to encourage the hemorrhaging process. Tony was able to cut the umbilical cord after it stopped pulsing, and while the midwife was stitching me up, we were able to bond as a family. The hospital staff was amazing, and we weren't moved to the postpartum until over 2 hours after Adam's birth.

Throughout the entire day, Tony played such a key role in helping me get through each contraction, from squeezing my hips to reminding me to breathe to offering encouragement. I honestly wouldn't have been able to follow through on our natural birth plan without him by my side. I am also grateful to the midwife and th RN who assisted me in Adam's delivery - the two of them never left the room during my labor, and they were very helpful and accommodating

Adam Richard was born at 4:52 pm on Tuesday, January 10th, weighing 7lbs 8oz  and measuring 20 inches long!