May 20, 2014 10:02 am

Thora’s Birth Story

I woke up at 8am on Saturday the 3rd having infrequent contractions. They didn’t seem worth timing, but they also didn’t go away after several hours. Right at about 1pm, I decided to time them to see if there was any kind of pattern.

Timing revealed they were about five minutes apart and were lasting for roughly a minute. Since that’s more or less the rule of thumb for calling your providers saying you’re in labor, I decided to make sure things were actually happening so I waited it out — for the next SEVEN HOURS.

The contractions seemed to start spacing out a bit around 8pm, so I called my midwife, Denise, to let her know what had happened that day. The waves never got closer together or any more intense, so I correctly assumed they were prodromal labor and not actual labor and Denise basically confirmed this. Still! It felt like progress.

The next morning, I barely had any contractions at all; certainly nothing worth timing. However, I did start losing my mucus plug (gross, sorry) which continued throughout the day.

Monday was pretty similar. I knew things were barely getting going and I was okay just letting events unfold – I wasn’t getting my hopes up that this was “real labor” or anything.

That said, I was super uncomfortable and cranky all day long. I went to my chiropractic appointment at 10am and couldn’t get comfortable on the table. I was coming down with yet another cold (I think the grand total over the pregnancy was seven) and I just wanted to lay down and relax but I couldn’t figure out how because no positions felt relaxing in the slightest.

I went to my prenatal appointment at 2pm and declined a cervical check. I just hate them so much and I also didn’t want to know a number and have it discourage me. It would only be a measurement of where I was right then, not where I might be once labor kicked in or even a guess as to when labor would kick in.

Much later that evening (Monday the 5th), I noticed I was having a pattern of contractions. They weren’t severe, but they were definitely much more difficult to get through than the ones from Saturday. Daniel was tired and I told him it was fine to go to bed – I was watching TV and working through the waves.

After several hours of working through the waves by relaxing, I noticed that I wanted to vocalize to get through contractions. I felt like an idiot doing it, but I made a little noise with each and that seemed to help get through them. They were still about ten minutes apart, but they felt really intense.

Finally, around 2:30am, I tried to get comfortable enough to rest just in case labor actually kicked in and I was in it for the long haul. I propped some pillows up on the couch and reclined a bit. It wasn’t the greatest, but it did allow me to fall asleep.

At 4am, I woke up because of a weird sensation in my nether regions and I thought, “that felt like it could have been my water breaking.” But I was so outrageously tired that I drifted back to sleep for a split second and then momentarily became convinced I dreamed the whole thing. Then I came to my senses and realized that if I thought my water had broken, even if I was wrong, I should get off the couch and into the bathroom.

The second I stood up, I knew it was my water. I soaked my underpants and leggings just with the few steps to the bathroom, and I stood there for a minute trying to decide what to do. I wasn’t having contractions right then, but maybe I should call somebody? Or not? Aaah! This was turning into the real thing!

I decided to put on some Depends underwear so I didn’t sog any furniture and I laid back down and tried to get some rest. I managed to wait until 6:30am to wake up Daniel and tell him my water broke.

At about 7am, I requested to switch him spots so I could have the bedroom and he could use the living room to entertain Wesley for a bit. I called Denise to tell her my water broke at 4am but contractions were still about 10 minutes apart.

However, at about 7:30am, contractions really started to kick in and they quickly became more difficult to work through. I received a text from my friend Meagan saying she saw my tweet about my water breaking and if I needed her to take Wesley for the day, she’d be happy to do so. I let Daniel know that she offered and that things were picking up to the point where I felt like I needed him, so could he please go drop Wesley off? He got everything together and left to walk Wesley to her house.

Once he left, contractions were about 3.5 minutes apart and I had a really weird crying jag. The contractions weren’t unbearable by any means, but I just felt like I needed to cry, I guess? It happened a couple more times over the course of the day and I found myself saying “I’m okay, I don’t even know why I’m crying.” Once Daniel got back, I let him know he should probably call the midwives to tell them that things were really kicking in.

(more…)

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May 7, 2014 1:06 pm

Thora Pauline

Thora Pauline was born at 7:49pm on May 6th, weighing 8lbs 2oz and measuring 20 inches long. She’s lovely.

Baby Thora

I didn’t get my VBAC, but it sure wasn’t for lack of trying! I labored at home for nearly twelve hours and made it all the way to the pushing stage, but baby’s heart rate reacted really badly to pushing, so we transferred to the hospital right at the end and I ended up with a repeat c-section. Birth story coming soon! (It’s a bit of a novel.)

She’s a dream and Wesley just loves her.

Wesley and Thora.

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April 22, 2014 5:21 pm

37 Weeks

Aaaah! This is the most pregnant I have ever been! I’m 37w3d and Wesley was born at 37w0d so this is all uncharted territory for me.

I had a prenatal today and things are still looking good: BP was 126/78, baby’s position is LOT, and I was given some “Dr. Christopher’s Birth Prep” capsules to take. They also recommended Evening Primrose Oil capsules, but I’m still doing some research on whether or not I want to try those. They did my GBS test today too.

Denise did a cervical check (SO UNPLEASANT, UGH) and said I was about 1cm dilated and the tissues were soft, which is a good sign my body is getting ready. I know cervical checks really do not mean very much in terms of predicting when labor will happen, but in some respects it’s nice to know that I’m not totally unfavorable at this point like I was with Wesley. Denise also said I have a “nice big pelvis” and then later described it as “roomy” so that’s funny, but it’s a good sign too. She said the baby is really easy to engage in my pelvis if she applies pressure to the top of my belly, so it looks like there shouldn’t be any engagement problems.

I finally purchased the last few things for my birth kit, so that’s basically ready to go. I still need to pick up some towels from my mother-in-law who has a bunch of extras that she doesn’t mind me using (ours are all white and we have, like, four. I’m supposed to have around ten) and she also has some bendy straws, which I think is the last thing I’m missing.

Then I get to go grocery shopping for labor food! I wasn’t allowed to eat during labor with Wesley so I have no idea what I might like this time. I’m thinking popsicles, Gatorade, and maybe fruit snacks? We always have stuff like Greek yogurt and fruit on hand but I could see something like fruit popsicles being helpful and we never have that kind of stuff on hand normally.

I’m down to four more days of work left – this Thursday and Friday, and then next Tuesday and Wednesday. My job is not strenuous by any means but gosh, I am kind of ready to be done.

Next Monday is our home visit, where the midwives come do my prenatal appointment at our apartment and determine where they’ll set up their stuff and highlight any cleanliness or safety issues they see. This means I have to, like, really REALLY clean up and make it presentable in here. We should probably shampoo the carpets but I can’t even think about moving all our living room furniture to do it so it may not happen. Ack.

Mostly I don’t know what to do with stuff like our wooden drying rack for clothes, which we use but not consistently, so it lives awkwardly in our kitchen because there’s really nowhere else to put it. Or Wesley’s outside toys – we don’t have a porch or a backyard and I don’t feel comfortable just leaving them outside all the time, so they live in the kitchen and the living room and generally take up a lot of space. Hmm. Renting a less-than-optimal living space kind of sucks in this regard.

In terms of labor and baby updates, my plan is to keep my Twitter updated as long as I can manage. I might assign somebody to post updates if I become unable to do so, but that’ll probably be the best place to get baby notifications if you’re interested.

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