Pregnancy, and the creation of a child, is both miraculous and wholly ordinary. Every person on the face of this earth was carried in a mother's womb and born. Yet it is exciting and thrilling and an experience that can leave you at a loss for words. It's powerful and unforgettable. Part of its mystery is that there is no clear cut beginning, and if left alone, there is no defined end until it happens. We wait and wonder and dream about when the end will come but we don't know and have to be patient for Mother Nature to take its course. We are not a society accustomed to waiting and letting be, it's hard to do.
Eleanor Catherine's story began like all pregnancy's do. Quietly, without bells and whistles but with a whisper. On New Years eve while laying down with Evelyn, I felt a distinct, yet unknown, feeling that whispered the presence of a new little one. I had felt the embryo implant in my uterus. A week later, it was confirmed. We were pregnant.
My pregnancy went quickly and easily. I was granted one of the kindest Summer's to be pregnant through with only a handful of truly warm days. We coaxed Evelyn along into acceptance of the idea of having a new baby. We planned where she would sleep and prepared a room for her.
And then we waited for the end, for Mother Nature to take it's course. I experienced contractions through the night of the August full moon and thought she was near. I went walking and walking hoping she was near. I waited. Evelyn was born a week early at 39 weeks so I was thinking this little one would be early as well, but she wasn't.
We went into our prenatal appointment on Thursday,the day before her due date. When the midwife checked my cervix she was surprised to find that I was already 4.5 cm dilated! I wasn't in labor yet though. So we talked about some options and came up with a game plan. We decided that since Evelyn was born so quickly (from start to finish about 3.5 hours total) after my waters broke on their own that, with this one, we might want to make sure we were already at the hospital when my waters broke. Since I tested positive for Group B strep (it's a strep culture that many woman carry naturally) ideally I needed the antibiotics in me 4 hours before delivery, and preferably more than one dose, so we decided to schedule when to break my waters. My heart was pounding! It's one thing to be waiting and waiting, it's another thing to take matters into your own hands and cause labor to happen. We set up an appointment for 8 am the next day, our due date, Friday September 10th, to come in and get the antibiotics started. We went home and by dinner time I was having contractions.
We didn't waste any time going to Labor and Delivery that evening. They checked us in and got us into a room. I started the antibiotics and with rest, my contractions settled back down. I was having them sporadically throughout the evening, but they were not strong or painful. We had a quiet night, at peace knowing that if things should pick up we were where we needed to be. The experience was already wonderfully different than the mad chaos that we experienced with Evelyn's birth.
September 10th was a very popular day to be born! Five other woman had checked in before me that evening, and around 2:00 am, 3 woman gave birth within 20 minutes of each other! Needless-to-say, they delayed breaking my water until around 4:30am. I was already dilated to a full 5 cm. At this time we called our neighbor Jacquie to come join us. She is a labor and delivery nurse at OHSU and we had invited her to be a part of this birth as support for both of us and labor coach. She had completed a 15 hour shift when we checked in earlier that evening and had been resting at home but she came and joined us as soon as we called.
My plan was to deliver naturally again, with no epidural, using positioning and water to help me cope with labor. I stuck to my plan, and I did it again! No epidural, no pain medicine at all. I began to feel contractions increase within 20-30 minutes after they broke my water. I sat on a yoga ball briefly and then we moved to the tub. The tub was in a separate delivery room down the hall so I wanted to get there before my contractions became too strong to walk there. The nurse-staff knew my history of a fast delivery with Evelyn and we weren't expecting anything different with this one. We were right in thinking so, as I went from my water breaking to delivery in 2.5 hours!
The tub was a large, two person, free standing jet tub and my nurse, Charlotte, had filled it with wonderfully warm water. I climbed in and it didn't take long for the contractions to kick into full gear. Andy, Jacquie and I had been just talking and pausing to breath through the contractions when, very suddenly, I could no longer carry on a conversation and active labor had kicked in. Andy and Jacquie were amazing and I could not have gotten through it without them. I held onto Andy with all my might and Jacquie supported my head and washed my face with deliciously cold water. I positioned myself on my hands and knees and was able to rock back and forth in the water. I could feel my baby moving down with each contraction. I have long and intense contractions that come in clusters and it is all I could do to stay focused and present to get through them. I could hear the words of support from Andy and Jacquie but I couldn't respond, couldn't look up. Labor is an all consuming experience.
The midwife kept asking me if I had felt the urge to push yet. I felt pressure but not the urge to push. She checked my cervix and said I was dilated to an 8. I wish she hadn't told me because I knew that the hardest, most intense contractions are getting from an 8 to 10 in transitional labor and I couldn't imagine the contractions getting stronger. They did, but it only took 2 or 3 more contractions for me to progress. I still had not yet experienced the urge to push. My contractions were pushing me to the brink of what I felt I could handle. Just when I thought I was going to lose my mind I had a MASSIVE contraction paired with the
intense urge to push.
The term 'urge to push' is very misleading. It's not so much an urge as it is a driving force. It was such a strong contraction that it pushed the baby's head down and into crowning, the force of the contraction had forced me up out of the water. This sent the nurse-staff and midwife into a panic! They are NOT supposed to do water deliveries. This was made very clear to us during the hospital tour weeks earlier. We were told that the tub was there merely to help the mother in labor to
relax. Anyone who has actually experienced real labor can appreciate what a joke this statement truly is! They told us "We do not do water deliveries in this hospital." No one on staff is trained.
So when I started to crown in the tub, we had a problem on our hands. The midwife kept saying over and over, we really can't deliver in the tub. But I couldn't move! I was still in the throws of the contraction. Then, miraculously, I experienced a short 30 second break in my contractions. Jacquie recognized the moment and told me I
had to get out of the tub,
now! THANKFULLY I am a tall person. The nurses didn't know how to drain the tub, and couldn't open the tub door without spilling water everywhere. So I had to climb out over the edge of the tub, while my baby was on her way out! I took two or three steps from the tub to the bed and crawled up onto the bed and positioned myself up on my hands and knees. There was no way I could turn over onto my back while on a skinny hospital bed with her head coming down. I had one more contraction and pushed 2 times and my baby girl was out! I looked down and scooped her up into my arms. She was warm and wet and so sweet! I held her close and rocked her while we both caught our breath.
I was able to hold her against me for a long time. She began to breastfeed even before I delivered my placenta. I was able to just look at her and take her in. My baby was here in my arms, there isn't a feeling like it in the world! The nurses took amazing care to ensure that this birth was entirely different than Evelyn's. They did everything they could to make it a healing experience, and it was.
Eleanor Catherine Isom born at 6:52am on her due date, September 10th, 2010.
Nora weighed 8lbs,4.5 oz and was 21 inches long.
