Friday was a full day for me. I took Luke to Nana's house early and headed for my office for the 9am Sales Mtg. I also had a house to show at 10am. Everyone was surprised I showed up to the mtg since there were bets on when I would deliver. You see.. I'd been slowly progressing towards delivery for about 2 weeks. Contractions and widening of the cervix were all pointing towards the 'any time now' assumption for everyone.. even my Midwife.
I went on to show a house to a client at 10am who decided he wanted to buy it. We headed back to the office and spent a couple hours doing the paperwork. I was starting to feel a little contracty but that was pretty normal after being on my feet and busy for a few hours. I finished up with my client and went back to my desk to finish up some stuff I didn't want to leave hanging if the 'big event' happened over the weekend.
I headed home around 3 or so, picking up Luke and calling Dan to let him know I was feeling pretty confidant that this baby was going to make his entrance that weekend. At this point contractions were pretty steadily coming every 30 minutes or so.
Dan stopped and got Viva Mexico for dinner and around 6pm I started timing my contractions. They were about 15-20 minutes apart at this point. At around 8 they continued to be stalled at about 17 minutes average. I assumed this meant that it would be morning before we actually went to the hospital.. but there was no doubt something would be happening in the next 12 hours.
At 9:30 they were about 10 minutes apart. (Thanks Facebook for helping me remember the timeline! LOL) Even though most people choose to go to the hospital at this point I decided that they needed to be 10 minutes apart for about an hour before I went. So I told Dan I was going to lay in bed and advised him that he probably should too.. we might need some rest and it might be a very early morning. By 10pm we were in bed and contractions were still about 10 minutes apart.
I couldn't sleep of course but Dan was comfortably snoring away. Laying on the bed wasn't very comfortable for me so I went and grabbed my yoga ball and sat on it with my head on the bed, rotating my hips and breathing through each contraction. Then suddenly.. the contractions were 3 minutes apart, and they were coming HARD.
I immediately woke Dan up.. "Dan, its time.. we need to go to the hospital now.. I'm at 3 minutes apart." He stood up out of bed and for a minute paced about the bedroom unsure what to do.. then he said "Pants!".. and starting putting on his pants. He asked me if he should call his mom to come get Luke and I said "YES!"
I continued to sit on my ball and hoot through my contractions and give Dan instructions on the few items that needed to be added to the hospital bag. At some point Dan asked if he should call an ambulance. I said no.. we could make it. We all started making our way towards the door and Grandma showed up to retrieve Luke. I was standing in the door of the car hooting away while Dan strapped Luke into his mom's car.. I said.. OMG.. I think I'm going to have this baby on the garage floor.. and Judy asked "Do we need to call 911?? Dan I think we should call 911!" I said "no.. no we can make it."
I wanted to kneel on the floor of the car.. and Dan wouldn't let me.. he made me sit in the seat and put on my seatbelt.. even though it was the most uncomfortable position to be in. We started out and it was FOGGY. Like.. Pea Soup foggy. It felt like Dan was racing down the highway and I kept telling him not to rush.. we can make it. He insisted that he wasn't speeding.. that everyone else was driving slow. I exclaimed "Probably because you can't see farther than a car length! Please be careful! If we have this baby on the freeway I don't want the car to be on it's side!"
In less than 10 minutes we were in downtown Tacoma. We knew about where the hospital was but it was so foggy we couldn't see the tower.. which was the landmark we needed to get to exactly where we needed to be. I ended up having to take out my phone and hit the GPS to pinpoint where we were... Oh good.. Take a left here.. we are right under the tower.
We entered through the ER, got checked in and had to wait for someone from Labor and Delivery to retrieve us.. It was about 11pm at this point. Contractions were still about 3 minutes apart and I laughed that I felt like and owl.. hooting through them. The ER staff kept giving me worried looks.. and I later found out a woman had just given birth IN the ER. Finally a nurse made it down to retrieve me and we headed up to the 14th floor.
On the way up she asked me questions about my contractions, when my last midwife appt. was, what I was measuring at that appt., and she determined that we weren't going to a monitoring room.. we were going to a birthing room. As we wheeled into L&D I was glad to see that the On Call OB was my own OB.. the one who oversaw the midwife collective where I had been getting my pre natal care. They wheeled me into a delivery room and got me into a gown.
Dr. Ho gave me a check and I was dilated to about a 5+. Immediately after that check my contractions were one right on top of the other. She asked if I wanted to stand and lean over the bed to labor and I said yes. Then she asked if I wanted an epidural or if I wanted to go natural.. I answered with a laugh "I want to do whatever ends up naturally happening. I don't think we have time for the drugs."
I said I felt a little bit like I wanted to bare down so they had me get back on the bed and checked me again. I was dilated to a 6. At this point Dan is standing next to the bed and I have the death grip on his arm, now howling like a wolf through the contractions.. coming one right after the other. The nurse hears the change in my howl and decides to check me again. "You're at an 8! Won't be long now!"
As soon as she removed her hand and before she could get her glove off I felt Bruce shoot down into the birth canal. I screamed then and started hollering.. "OMG OMG he's coming now! I have to push NOW!!" Dr. Ho rushed into the room and up my legs went and I started pushing.
My first push felt good.. I was conscious of how I needed to be pushing and that first push was a good one. I felt Bruce move farther down. My second push wasn't as good.. it didn't feel productive. I told myself "push like your pooping Sarah.. push like your pooping!" I vaguely remember saying something like "Come on Bruce!".. but I'm not sure if I said it out loud. My 3rd push started out unproductive but midway I realized it and changed the muscle group.. it immediately felt productive and I could feel his head moving down. The next push was a good one and it felt like his head was pushing through and out. The next push didn't feel productive and I was IN PAIN. Ring of fire??? Hell it was Ramming Hammer of Fire! I was yelling "I hate this! I hate this! I hate this!" So the next push I consciously thought POOPING and bared down as hard as I could. I felt his head pop! One more push and out he slid.
For a moment there was the most orgasmic feeling of relief. I laughed and lay back and was so glad it was over. I did it.. I did it without drugs. I DID IT!!!
They lay Bruce on my chest and rubbed him.. he was so purple!!! They kept rubbing him and suctioning his mouth. He had apparently swallowed some fluid and the cord was wrapped twice. I was telling him to cry.. come Bruce.. cry for us.. show us some lungs.. and he cried out. Eventually Dan cut the cord and they took him over to the cradle to suction some more fluid and out slid my placenta.
Dr. Ho checked me for tears and at first it was just a small tear.. but once I started hollering that the stitching was hurting she realized that it was much worse. I had torn completely from vagina to sphincter and it would require surgery. So after spending a little time with my newborn I was wheeled off to get my repairs while Dan and my parents.. who had since arrived.. cooed over our new bundle.
And I got some laughing gas... it was awesome!
