Clara's Birth Story

My pregnancy was a normal, low risk pregnancy even though I had had a miscarriage before.  My blood pressure was awesome the whole time, only a little bit of swelling in my feet at the end, and only gained 25 pounds.  I could have induced, but I did some reading and had decided that I wanted as natural of a birth as I could.  And, I REALLY wanted to be able to use the hot tub during labor!!  I had an AWESOME doctor... and he is quite good looking for a guy in his late forties.  (See for yourself!)  When I got toward the end, he was totally on board with waiting for Clara to come on her own (although at that time she was just "the baby" since we had not found out what we were having).  In the end, he missed her birth since he was at a baseball tournament with one of his kids the weekend that she was born.

Friday 5/13 (40 weeks 3 days pregnant)

5:30pm: I left work with a pain that I thought could be a contraction.  

6:00pm: I got home after having 3 more contractions while driving.  They seemed to be between 10 and 12 minutes apart.  I texted Caleb (who was out at the range for Family Day) to tell him that I was not going to come out to Family Day because I was in pain.  I continued to time contractions, and they seemed to be getting closer together.  (I was going through the baby clothes that I had just bought earlier that day at a yard sale while I was sitting on the couch waiting for Caleb to get home.)

7:00 pm: Caleb finally got home.  He took a shower, and I went to the bathroom and realized that I was bleeding.  I called the doctor’s office to see what I should do.  The answering service person at the doctor’s office told me to go to the hospital to get checked out.

7:30pm: We leave for the hospital.  Neither of us was able to eat dinner, but Caleb brought fruit and a granola bar to eat on the way.   I just tried to concentrate on getting through the contractions on our drive to Manhattan (30 minutes away).

8:20pm: I finished the admission process and got checked.  On Monday 5/9, I was 2cm dilated and 70% effaced.  When they checked me now, I was 3cm dilated.  We were told that the monitor in the room shows my baby’s heartbeat, my contractions, and also the baby’s heartbeat and contractions of the lady next door (she had an internal monitor, so her contractions were CRAZY).  Every time the computer goes to screen saver, I make Caleb walk over and jiggle the mouse so we could see it again.

9:20pm: The nurse checked me again and I was now 4cm dilated.  I was making progress, so they decided to keep me.  I called my mom, Angela (my photographer friend who would be coming later to take pictures of the birth), and I posted my cryptic post on Facebook ("It's a...").  Since I had been hinting that I wanted to use the hot tub during labor, they went ahead and got it ready for me to use.  Before I got in, though, I wanted to walk around for a while.  I did one lap in the Labor and Delivery area and was going to go for another, but a nurse was eating at the nurses’ station and the smell made me nauseous.  Once I got back into the room, I got into the hot tub which was very nice on my back labor.  The room had a radio, so it was doubly relaxing.

11:00pm: After about an hour in the tub, I got out since I was getting too hot.  The nurse checked me and I was still 4cm.  I asked to use the birthing ball.  Caleb sat behind me and rubbed my back which was great.  At one point, I asked him if he thought I could make it without an epidural.  He said he knew that I could because that had been my plan from day one.  Boy, was I glad he had faith in me!

Saturday 5/14

1:00am: I did the ball for about an hour, then I was hooked back up to the monitors for an hour to make sure that the baby’s heartbeat was still doing good and that my contractions were not adversely affecting the baby’s heartbeat.  Then, I was checked again.  The nurse said that I was 5cm.

2:00am: I was checked again an hour later.  I was still 5cm.

3:00am: Between 1am and 3am, I was in the bed.  I was falling asleep between each contraction, and Caleb was snoozing off and on, too.  I was checked again.  I was 6cm and my water broke!  The nurse said that I should try to walk around for 45 minutes.  I made it walking for about 30 minutes before I got nauseous and headed back to my room.  Contractions were getting very strong now.  When I got back to the room, I bent over a folding chair during contractions with Caleb rubbing my back.  It was then that I got sick and threw up.

4:00am: After getting sick, I had to sit down.  I got back into the bed and got checked.  Walking the hall did some good because I was now 7cm.

5:00am: I was in the bed for an hour and got absolutely no relief between contractions.  The nurse checked me again and I was 8 cm.  (At that point, I had Caleb text Angela so that she could get to the hospital in time for the birth.)  I got back onto the ball to see if I could get some relief.  I was told by the nurse that I may want to get an epidural.  I was against this because of the horror stories that I had heard (it not working, only getting relief on one side, etc), and because the medicine that they use in an epidural is Lidocaine (or a medicine like it) which I have almost passed out after being injected with it in the past.  I really did not want to get it, but the doctor (Dr. Bennett, who was not the one I had seen during my pregnancy) came in and told me that I was tired and I wasn’t relaxing during contractions which was causing my pelvis to not open.  She talked me through a few contractions which was very helpful, and told me that the anesthesiologist was already there to give another epidural so if I wanted it, I should make up my mind soon.  She said she would give me a liter of fluids, and then I would need to make a decision about the epidural. 

5:30am: Angela arrived at the hospital.  I tried to get her input into the epidural vs. no epidural debate, but she had all 3 of her girls with an epidural, so she would not weigh in either way.

6:00am: I (luckily) got a new nurse at this point (Nurse Beth).  She hooked up the fluids, and then stayed with me to help relax me through contractions

6:30am: At this point, the anesthesiologist came to the door saying that she was headed home, so if I wanted to get an epidural, I would have to get it now.  I asked to be checked again just to see if I had made any progress at all.  I was 9cm, so I would NOT be getting an epidural!

7:00am: Soon after she checked me, she was just about to leave the room when I said that I felt like I had to push!  The nurse checked me again, and I only had lip left, so I could start pushing!  Beth (my awesome nurse) helped me hold up one leg while the baby nurse Liz (or Angela early on) helped me hold up the other.  Caleb held my head.  (Caleb told me later that I turned purple while I pushed.  He also said that sometimes I hadn't fully gotten my normal color back before I had to push again.)  I found out later that I blew some capillaries in my eyes and face from pushing.  It was really hard for me to hold back my legs.  It seemed more natural to push my hands against them, but that wasn’t what the nurses were wanting!  And, the weirdest thing happened while pushing: my belly moved down, it felt abnormal!  Near the time that Clara was born, I remember Nurse Beth saying to the doctor, “Are you going to deliver this baby, or am I?”  After that, I remember telling Nurse Beth and Dr. Bennett that I wanted Clara to be placed on my chest once she was out.  They said that they would do that as long as the cord was not wrapped around her neck.  (It was only after I looked at the pictures of the birth that I found out that the cord had been wrapped around her neck!)

7:56am: Our little baby girl, Clara Rachel Riggs, was born!  I was SO excited that we had a girl.  That was the first thing that I checked!  After she was born, I was stitched up (also without drugs).  I only had 1^st degree tears.  And, the doctor showed me the placenta, which was pretty awesome to see and for her to explain to me!  I remember asking the doctor if she was crying enough (she was crying, but just not very much and being the worrier that I am, I was concerned).  She was (and is) just perfect!!