My Birth Story!

I have been meaning to blog about the birth of Heidi for a while now but I honestly just haven't had the time. When I have down time I spend it cleaning or just standing in the shower. I never knew just how relaxing ten minutes in the shower could be until I became a mom.

A common question I get is what was your birth like? It is a story I like to tell because by societies standards today my birth story is anything but "typical." I knew before I ever became pregnant that I wanted to have a natural childbirth (no epidural, no pain medication) in the water and with a midwife at a birthing center. I was lucky enough to have all of that except for the birthing center. Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with pregnancy induced hypertension at 24 weeks and gestational diabetes at 30 weeks so at 32 weeks I had to transfer from the care of my midwives at the birthing center. Luckily, in Knoxville we have a hospital that allows midwives to do waterbirth deliveries so bam problem solved.

During the course of my pregnancy I somehow managed to gain almost 50lbs and on the day Heidi was born I was just south of 200lbs despite having a pretty strict diet due to the diabetes. It was mainly fluid because my hands, feet and face stayed pretty swollen throughout my whole pregnancy. I was so big nobody thought I was going to make it past June much less to my July 30th due date and everybody was talking about how I was going to have this huge baby. At 36 weeks my ultrasound put her at 7lbs 14 oz.

I managed to make it to my 39 week appointment where my midwife decided to strip my membranes in hope of starting labor because the hospital I was delivering at was going to stop having water births on August 1st so I was starting to cut it really close. My midwife told me that I would know within 48 hours if stripping my membranes was going to work. This was on a Tuesday. On Thursday I was walking through walmart with my mom when my first real contraction hit. It caught me off guard but I didn't think to much of it. Well about 10 minutes later another one came. This continued to go on all day and all afternoon. Then, in the middle of the night they started coming every 3 to 5 minutes a part so I knew this was the real deal. I wanted to labor at home as long as possible so with the help of Daniel I used coping methods such as soaking in the tub, massage and bouncing on the birthing ball to manage the contractions. By 7:00 on Friday morning by contractions were every 2-3 minutes apart and strong so I called my Midwife and told her I was on my way to the hospital. I just knew I was going to have Heidi that day the 26th of July which just so happened to be my Dads birthday. When I arrived at the hospital I was only dilated to a 2. Talk about a blow to my ego. I had been up all night my contractions were 2 minutes apart on the machine and strong so they decided to keep me. I walked the hospital halls all day long trying to get this labor going and at 4:00 pm when they checked me again I was still only at a 2. She said I was still in very early labor because true labor is contractions with cervical change and that my contractions would be even stronger when I got into true labor. I think I looked at her like she had 4 eyes. She gave me two choices. One, she would give me a shot of morphine to take the edge off and send me home to rest or she could break my water and see if that started cervical change and if it didn't she would start me on Pitocin. I knew that I did not want Pitocin it is the devil however, after being in labor for as long as I already had been it was tempting. After some tears and talking with Daniel and the midwife I knew that I wanted to go home. I even tried to refuse the morphine because I did not want an medication going to my baby. However, the midwife did an amazing job of helping me realize that I was not being a bad mom for taking it and that it would help me rest. We left the hospital around 5:30 that afternoon and I came back home. When I got home I actually ate a taco and then tried to watch a TV show however by that time the contractions seemed to intensify tenfold. Take the edge off my ass these babies were coming strong and fast about every 1-2 minutes at this point but I refused to go back to the hospital. I knew that when I went back I was not leaving until I had a baby. 
I like to consider myself tough but this was really starting to test that. I spent the early part of the night trying to rest and actually labored by for about6 hours. I wanted Daniel and my mom and dad to rest. About 3:00am though I just could not do it by myself any longer. I was exhausted. I woke Daniel up and basically told him he had to help me. He woke up and we put my birthing ball in the shower and I bounced on it while the hot water ran down my back. The contractions to me felt like the worst period cramps combined with the worst food poisoning you've ever had. About 6:00am I told my mom I had to go to the hospital.  I was actually sitting on the toilet laboring at this point because that was the most comfortable place for some reason. I called my midwife and told her to meet me at the hospital. The only problem was that I realized I could not stand up. The contractions were so intense and I was having a ton of pressure. I honestly thought I was going to have Heidi on the toilet in our tiny little bathroom. This was the first time I actually panicked a little. My mom told me I was going to have to stand up or she was going to call the ambulance. That got me on my feet but I think it took about 10 more minutes to actually make it to the car. When I did I was on my hands and knees in the backseat while Daniel drove like a bad out of hell to the hospital and my mom braced me to keep me from falling. When we made it to the hospital I remember riding the elevator and a contraction hitting right as the doors opened. The nurses took me straight to the same room I had labored in all day the previous day because my water tub was already set up in there but it was empty and I was convinced there was no way it would be full before Heidi made her appearance. By this time it was 7am and the nurse checked me and I was 6.5 centimeters. That was music to my ears and honestly gave me the strength and energy I needed for that last home stretch. I remember the nurse helping me labor until my midwife got there. She had me focusing on this little spot on the wall and slowly breathing through the intense contractions coming every 30 seconds at this point. I looked at that little spot and just hummed through every contraction until my watertub was full. All I wanted was to get into the water. Finally around 8:45 I did and as soon as I got in my contractions went away and for 10 minutes I got the most amazing sleep of my life. I completely passed out lying over a birthing stool in the water. It is phenomenal how the body works because it gave me the rest I needed to finish the hardest but most rewarding task of my entire life. I remember being woken from my precious slumber by a horrible contractions and suddenly I felt like I needed to take the biggest poo of my life. When I told my midwife this she told me to just poop then. I started to push a little and that's when Heidis head started to move down. It was the most intense thing I have ever felt. This went on for several minutes and finally I just stood up and said "I cant do this anymore." Everyone in the room said yes you can you have to. So, I just sat down in pretty much a split on my knees and pushed like nobodys business. I remember thinking I am not pushing for an hour this baby is coming out. I remember putting my hand down and feeling Heidi crowning. My midwife Blair told me to turn over and grab my knees so I did and with one final push at 9:51am on Saturday July 27th after over 32 hours of intense labor and 15 minutes of pushing Heidi Catherine Wilder made her debut. She was born in the water and immediately brought to my chest where she stayed until the blood stopped pumping into the cord. Daniel then cut the cord and I got out of the tub and on to the bed where Heidi still stayed on my chest skin to skin. (Oh, I forgot to mention I was naked as a jaybird the whole time I was in the birthing tub and I don't give two damns who saw what). My favorite part was nobody was in a rush to take Heidi away from me to clean her or weigh her or any of that. For over an hour it was just her on my chest. My sweet little baby was perfect and I felt like a rockstar! I am not ashamed to say that I feel pretty badass for doing what I did. I don't know too many people that would have done that. I also loved that we proved everybody wrong. She was born just 3 days shy of her due date and my gigantic baby only weighed 7lbs 6oz. The worst part of the whole experience was having to stay in the hospital for 48 hours after she was born because no exaggeration I was ready to put my clothes on and go home about thirty minutes after she was born. I am confident I could have came home and been just fine.

I never expected  I would have such a long labor and I never anticipated just how intense the contractions would be. It wasn't easy but I will not hesitate to do it again. I might even have a homebirth next time.  I am a woman and I am strong. I was made for this and I did it. I know I had doubters and of course that helped to drive me but in the end for me it was about doing what I felt was best for my baby and by gosh I can say YES, I DID THAT!

I am going to try to write more blogs on this crazy thing called being a mom and about my adventures in being a natural birthing, extended breastfeeding, co-sleeping, baby wearing, delayed vaccinating, child-lead weaning "granola" mama.