OK, I thought. Could this be Braxton-Hicks? I doubt it. It's probably the real thing at this point. All right. We'll see what happens as far as how long the labor takes and when this baby will be born. It's in Krishna's hands. If He thinks a Wednesday birth would be better, he can delay it until then. Otherwise, I guess most likely this baby will be born tomorrow. A Tuesday baby. Well, I guess that's not so bad. After all, my horoscope says I will be the mother of heroes, so I guess it might just be inevitable destiny that I'll have babies with intense, powerful, strong personalities. And if this boy really does become heroic, that's cool. I can be happy and proud about that. I guess I can accept a Tuesday baby.
Sure enough, the contractions continued as the evening progressed. With my first two births, my contractions had not only been irregularly spaced but also remained fairly brief and gentle for a good long while, but in this case, my contractions very quickly got to the point where they were around a minute long, although the spacing was still irregular. I timed them and called my midwife and doula to inform them of what was happening. Both midwife and doula told me to keep on laboring at home for the time being, and call them again when the contractions started being more regular and close together.
Eventually, my mom, husband, and kids went to sleep. I went into my bathroom, keeping my husband's phone with me (mine was broken at that point) to time the contractions and to have it close at hand so I could call my midwife and doula when I needed to. The contractions started being harder to bear, but not too terrible. I breathed through them and kept my eyes on that clock on his phone, just waiting, waiting for the time to come when they would be a regular five minutes apart or less so that I could call my doula and tell her to come on out.
When that time finally arrived, which wasn't until about 4 a.m., it was (unsurprisingly) hard to speak. But I called my doula, who lived about 45 minutes away, and told her I was ready for her to go ahead and drive down. She asked whether she should drive to my home or to the birth center (which was only 8 minutes from my home). I told her I was at home for the time being, but if we decided to go to the birth center, I would call her back and let her know so that she could go there instead. She said OK and hopped into her car to start driving.
Then I called my midwife to update her. Kathy (the midwife) aims to orchestrate things so that birthing moms do make it to the birth center in time to have their babies there, but don't get there many hours in advance -- and in order to achieve this, she seems to me to pretty much always err on the side of telling moms to go on laboring at home and wait a bit longer before going to the birth center. So it was not a big surprise when that's what she said to me when I called her with contractions I couldn't speak through that were at least one minute long and five minutes or less apart. (Do I sound like I'm rolling my eyes? Hmm, I wonder why!)
Anyway, I accepted her advice, got off the phone and breathed through another contraction or two -- but then I felt it. The urge to push! Oh, no! I was about to have this baby!!! Quickly, I woke up my husband and mom and let them know that I needed to get to the birth center, now! We had planned on all of us going there together, including the kids... but the kids were sleeping now, and waking them up and herding them out to the car would take too long given the urgency of the situation. So we decided that my husband would stay home with them while my mom took me to the birth center.
As we walked out to the van, I called Kathy to let her know that I was entering the pushing stage and that we were on our way to the birth center, and then called Sarah (my doula) to tell her to head there as well. I felt the need to push again after climbing into the front passenger seat of the van. I couldn't sit down normally. I knelt backward on the seat, holding on to the headrest. It was an uncomfortable ride. I was glad the drive was short and the early-morning streets were empty of traffic.
As soon as we pulled up beside the building that housed the birth center, I had the urge to push again. With that push, my water broke, leaving a mess on the seat.
I climbed out of the van and crouched on all fours in the parking lot. Kathy arrived and urged me to my feet, telling me I had to get up and make my way into the building, to the elevator, and up to the birth center, which was located on the top (4th) floor. It was difficult, but I complied. I had to push twice more on the way up there, and then, while walking down the hall toward the room that Kathy had designated for me to give birth in, I needed to stop and push again -- and this time, I felt the burning, stretching sensation that meant the baby was crowning. I gasped to my mom and Kathy, "I think he's coming out!" My mom, who was closest to me (Kathy was slightly ahead of us) got down to take a look, and confirmed with excitement, "Yes! I can see his head!"
Kathy quickly joined us, and in no time, with another couple of pushes, he was out! Right there in the hallway! (It was 4:34 a.m.) We congratulated ourselves afterward on our good luck that the birth had taken place on the tile floor rather than the bed, because it meant easier clean-up of the bloody mess! LOL!
But the mess wasn't entirely over and done with, of course, and (if I remember things correctly) Kathy wanted us to be comfortable for the next part, so she spread absorbent pads with waterproof backing on the bed in my designated room, and she and my mom helped me and the baby get in there and lie down. Kathy immediately started encouraging me to nurse him. She was really pushy about it! I nursed him as best I could; he was a bit fussy and wanted to drink, but seemed to have some difficulty with it. (I discovered later, when we visited my older brother who is a pediatrician, that my baby has a tongue-tie; no wonder he had to struggle to figure out how to get the liquid to come out!) A little while longer and the placenta came out. I had some afterpains with this birth -- the first time I had experienced them. Sarah arrived, surprised and sorry to have missed the birth, but eager to be helpful in any way she could (which she certainly succeeded at, assisting me in many small ways, and just giving me the gentle comfort of her sweet, pleasant company).
My husband was called, and since the kids were still asleep, my mom went home to stay with them so that my honey could come over and meet his new baby son, bringing with him some necessities that my mom and I had left behind in our earlier rush. My husband was disappointed about having missed his son's birth, but ultimately said that the way things had happened was probably for the best, as he thought he might not have been able to handle the events as well as my mom had.
Eventually the baby got his tummy full and went to sleep, and I was able to get up, take a bath, change into clean clothes, and have some breakfast. My wonderful friend Joanna came to meet the baby and hang out for a bit, and I was very glad to have her there. I took care of filling out the requisite forms, and after letting the baby rest for a while, one of the assistants at the birth center bathed, measured and weighed him. He weighed 10 lbs., 1 oz. His sister had weighed 10 lbs. exactly, so we made sure to make a big deal over how he had beaten her by one ounce. ;)
It had been, for sure, my easiest birthing experience. The contractions, while strong enough to mean business almost from the very beginning, had never gotten so unbearably painful as to break me down emotionally, like they had done during my daughter's birth. The sustained length and strength of the contractions had meant a far shorter labor than I'd had during earlier births: only 9 hours! My family and I were amazed by how quick it had been!! (Only because of my history of super long labors. 9 hours is really just a little on the short side of average! ^_^ ) And the pushing stage had been much less painful than with my first birth. All in all, the whole thing had been very bearable. And because according to the Vedic system, the day of the week doesn't change until sunrise, by that manner of calculating, I had -- miraculously enough -- actually gotten the Monday baby I'd been yearning for!!!!!!!
to be continued...
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