I went to bed the night of Sunday, September 20, with contractions, but this was nothing new, and I didn't think anything of it. When I woke up at 1 am still having contractions, I suddenly had the feeling that this might be it, considering all the bloody show I had had earlier in the day. I lay in bed for a few of them, then decided to get up and go downstairs so I could time them. I sat on the couch reading a book, and the contractions were consistently about 30 seconds long and 10 minutes apart. After an hour of this, I decided to try to get some sleep. I went back to bed for about
an hour, but couldn't sleep, so I got up at 3 and went back downstairs. I was having a lot of bloody show, and it was bright red. I ate a waffle with
some peanut butter and drank some iced red raspberry leaf tea. The contractions were getting closer together now, about 5 minutes apart, with some coming as close as 3 minutes. I decided to call my mom, who is on the east coast. She said she thought I should call my midwife. It was about 4 am by now, maybe 4:30. I was hesitant to call my midwife so soon, but she had told me to call as soon as I suspected I was in labor, as she thought I might go fast, considering I had given birth to my son in only 5 hours, and that was with a pit induction in the hospital. So I called her and told her that I had been having consistent contractions since 1 am that had gotten closer together, and I was having a lot of bloody show. She said she was coming over. I told her not to rush, because I didn't think it was close at all, but she said she was coming. She arrived about 30 minutes later. Just as she arrived, Tony and Jackson woke up and came downstairs.
She checked me and said I was only 2 cm. Soon after, the contractions really started picking up, and when she checked me again I was 4 cm and she said since I was now in active labor, she was going to stay. They started filling the birth pool, and the contractions started getting really painful and I couldn't wait to get in the pool. I don't know how long I labored in the pool. The water really made a difference, and I started finding a rhythm of breathing to get through each contraction. I imagined my baby and I just surfing a wave together, and kept moaning through each contraction, telling my baby we would just ride each wave together
and she would be born soon. My contractions started spacing out and my midwife thought I should get out of the pool. She checked me and I was 6, maybe 7 cm. I got out of the pool and started laboring on my knees with my arms on my bed, pushing my face into the mattress with each contraction. The pain in my back was unbelievable. I felt like my back was being crushed. I threw up on the bedroom floor several times. I don't know how long I labored like that until I told her I had to get back in the pool, but when I was back in the water, I felt much better. After a while, she thought maybe it was time to push. She checked me and said I was 10 cm but had an anterior cervical lip. She said I should try some pushes, and I tried, but I wasn't doing anything. She said I needed to get out of the pool, so I got out of the pool again, and she started giving me goldenseal because my contractions had
started spacing out.
She told me she wanted to try to push back the lip on my cervix while I pushed, to try and get the baby's head past it. This was the most painful thing I had ever experienced in my life up until that point, and it didn't work. By this time, it was afternoon. I tried pushing some more. Eventually, my cervix swelled and although she didn't tell me then, I actually went back down to like 6 cm from 10. I lay on the bed a while, trying to rest. My midwife's husband had brought her some dinner. I called my mom, who had kept calling Tony all day. She was very worried and I told her I wanted to go to the hospital but I was scared of what would happen there. I had already mentioned transfer to my midwife, who told me I would be treated horribly. She kept telling me that I could have had the baby already if I really wanted to, that it was just up to me to push her out. She said the baby would come out when I decided to stop being afraid of the pain. This was not really helpful.
Finally, at 6pm, she said she thought breaking my water would help, because the baby's head wasn't putting enough pressure on my cervix with the bag still intact. I thought about it for a while and finally agreed. As soon as she broke my water, the contractions became unbelieveably horrible. They were like the contractions I was having before times 1000. They never seemed
to stop. The pain just went on and on, unspooling like an endless ribbon of hell. I would have 4 contractions on top of each other, then a minute, then another 4 contractions. The pain in my back was indescribable. We had foolishly already begun draining the pool, so going back in the pool was not an option. Somehow, I endured another 3 hours of these contractions. I decided in my mind that when she checked me, if I was not complete I was going to the hospital. I was exhausted. I had been in labor since 4 am, I couldn't eat because I kept vomiting. When she checked me and said that I was an 8, I said we were transferring. I knew she didn't think I was serious so I said to my husband, "I am serious...please call 911." When I said that, she said she would call the hospitals to see who would take me other than the county hospital, which was too far of a ride for me to make, I knew, since I already didn't know how I would survive any length of car ride.
She called one hospital which was very rude but said they would take me. She then tried the hospital where I had my son, but they said they were full. She then tried my 2nd choice, and they were very nice and took all my info and said they would be expecting us.
Somehow, I managed to put on some pants and slowly creep down the stairs. I remember Jackson standing on the stairs, trying to grab onto my leg, wondering what was happening. Thank God our friend Christina had come over to watch him during my labor, and could stay with him as long as we needed her to. I got into the garage and starting puking everywhere, all over the garage. It was at that point that my contractions changed, but I didn't recognize it until we were already driving. But every time I got a contraction, I was standing up as much as I could in the car and my body was pushing on its own. So THIS was the urge to push that I had heard about. It was exactly like throwing up, I couldn't NOT do it. I was now grunting and screaming with each contraction. Tony did a great job getting us there as quickly as possible. I didn't tell him that I felt like I was about to push the baby out until we pulled up in front of the ER. I got out of the car and tried to walk toward the doors and couldn't. I grabbed onto his shoulders and started squatting with a new contraction, screaming and grunting, pushing. A lady standing outside the ER doors saw us and screamed, "Oh, my God!" and ran inside to get someone. A nurse or someone ran out with a wheelchair and pushed me down into it, I kept standing up and screaming and pushing, and she's yelling "Don't push! I have to get you to labor and delivery!" and I stood up from the wheelchair, screaming, "I have to push!" and I kept pushing. She pulled me out of the wheelchair and through some doors to a bed in the ER and I was instantly surrounded by doctors and nurses...someone examined me and said "She's complete and 2+ station" and they were calling over the loudspeakers for someone from labor and delivery to the ER for a "Code Stork"...a nurse came and she checked me and sat on the bed between my legs and told them to run with us on the bed to L&D. They started running through the halls...the whole time I am screaming and my body is pushing...it was like a scene from TV.
They got me to L&D and moved me to that bed and I started pushing again...although my whole body was pushing without me it seemed like they were still yelling at me to PUSH PUSH PUSH for 10 seconds, etc...they put an oxygen mask on me and said it was for the baby...after a few more contractions and pushes, the nurse was yelling for them to get the OB on call and she said that they were going to have the OB come in and cut an episiotomy and vacuum the baby out, because her heart tones were not good and it was taking me too long to get her out. Someone came in and said the OB was 10 minutes away, and the nurse said, "She needs to be like 30 seconds away," which really scared me, and then finally, with the next contraction, I pushed until I felt her head right there in the ring of fire and it stayed there until the next contraction came and I pushed her head out...it was the most amazing thing I have ever felt, that horrible searing pain of her head stretching me out and then suddenly feeling her head just come out, and hearing her immediately start to scream...and then her body still in there, wriggling, and they told me not to push, but I pushed anyway and felt her inside my body for the last few seconds, her arms and legs wriggling as she slid out...and then she was born, and I leaned forward to see her laying there screaming away, my gorgeous tiny little girl. She had come out face up, and the nurse who delivered her said, "Oh...that was what the trouble was," that she was posterior which was what made it so hard to push her out and made my whole labor that much longer and more excruciating. She was perfectly fine despite their fears about distress, her apgars were 9 and 9, she came out screaming and kicking like a 6 pound 11 ounce maniac! The OB came in a few minutes after that...thank God I pushed her out before they sucked her out. The feeling of pushing her out and of her being born is something I will never forget, it was the most beautiful, amazing thing, and although I did not get the peaceful homebirth for her that I wanted, at least I did it in the end without any medication.
It sucks that we ended up in the hospital, but it's not the end of the world...I think if I had waited longer to call my midwife, things might have been different, but who knows. I still have a lot of questions and mixed feelings about how things went at home...my midwife seemed annoyed that she was there for so long and she was often just reading a book or on the phone, and mentioned several times how tired she was, and my husband didn't support me much...I don't know what I was expecting, but I felt very alone most of the time. My midwife made several comments about how long it was taking, and it bothered me. Even in the end when she turned out to be posterior, all she ever said was, "Well, all heads can come out sooner or later." I feel like maybe if she would have told me she was posterior we could have tried things to turn her and make it easier. But I guess there is no point in second guessing it. My baby is here sleeping on my lap as I type, she's perfect and beautiful and that is what's important.
an hour, but couldn't sleep, so I got up at 3 and went back downstairs. I was having a lot of bloody show, and it was bright red. I ate a waffle with
some peanut butter and drank some iced red raspberry leaf tea. The contractions were getting closer together now, about 5 minutes apart, with some coming as close as 3 minutes. I decided to call my mom, who is on the east coast. She said she thought I should call my midwife. It was about 4 am by now, maybe 4:30. I was hesitant to call my midwife so soon, but she had told me to call as soon as I suspected I was in labor, as she thought I might go fast, considering I had given birth to my son in only 5 hours, and that was with a pit induction in the hospital. So I called her and told her that I had been having consistent contractions since 1 am that had gotten closer together, and I was having a lot of bloody show. She said she was coming over. I told her not to rush, because I didn't think it was close at all, but she said she was coming. She arrived about 30 minutes later. Just as she arrived, Tony and Jackson woke up and came downstairs.
She checked me and said I was only 2 cm. Soon after, the contractions really started picking up, and when she checked me again I was 4 cm and she said since I was now in active labor, she was going to stay. They started filling the birth pool, and the contractions started getting really painful and I couldn't wait to get in the pool. I don't know how long I labored in the pool. The water really made a difference, and I started finding a rhythm of breathing to get through each contraction. I imagined my baby and I just surfing a wave together, and kept moaning through each contraction, telling my baby we would just ride each wave together
and she would be born soon. My contractions started spacing out and my midwife thought I should get out of the pool. She checked me and I was 6, maybe 7 cm. I got out of the pool and started laboring on my knees with my arms on my bed, pushing my face into the mattress with each contraction. The pain in my back was unbelievable. I felt like my back was being crushed. I threw up on the bedroom floor several times. I don't know how long I labored like that until I told her I had to get back in the pool, but when I was back in the water, I felt much better. After a while, she thought maybe it was time to push. She checked me and said I was 10 cm but had an anterior cervical lip. She said I should try some pushes, and I tried, but I wasn't doing anything. She said I needed to get out of the pool, so I got out of the pool again, and she started giving me goldenseal because my contractions had
started spacing out.
She told me she wanted to try to push back the lip on my cervix while I pushed, to try and get the baby's head past it. This was the most painful thing I had ever experienced in my life up until that point, and it didn't work. By this time, it was afternoon. I tried pushing some more. Eventually, my cervix swelled and although she didn't tell me then, I actually went back down to like 6 cm from 10. I lay on the bed a while, trying to rest. My midwife's husband had brought her some dinner. I called my mom, who had kept calling Tony all day. She was very worried and I told her I wanted to go to the hospital but I was scared of what would happen there. I had already mentioned transfer to my midwife, who told me I would be treated horribly. She kept telling me that I could have had the baby already if I really wanted to, that it was just up to me to push her out. She said the baby would come out when I decided to stop being afraid of the pain. This was not really helpful.
Finally, at 6pm, she said she thought breaking my water would help, because the baby's head wasn't putting enough pressure on my cervix with the bag still intact. I thought about it for a while and finally agreed. As soon as she broke my water, the contractions became unbelieveably horrible. They were like the contractions I was having before times 1000. They never seemed
to stop. The pain just went on and on, unspooling like an endless ribbon of hell. I would have 4 contractions on top of each other, then a minute, then another 4 contractions. The pain in my back was indescribable. We had foolishly already begun draining the pool, so going back in the pool was not an option. Somehow, I endured another 3 hours of these contractions. I decided in my mind that when she checked me, if I was not complete I was going to the hospital. I was exhausted. I had been in labor since 4 am, I couldn't eat because I kept vomiting. When she checked me and said that I was an 8, I said we were transferring. I knew she didn't think I was serious so I said to my husband, "I am serious...please call 911." When I said that, she said she would call the hospitals to see who would take me other than the county hospital, which was too far of a ride for me to make, I knew, since I already didn't know how I would survive any length of car ride.
She called one hospital which was very rude but said they would take me. She then tried the hospital where I had my son, but they said they were full. She then tried my 2nd choice, and they were very nice and took all my info and said they would be expecting us.
Somehow, I managed to put on some pants and slowly creep down the stairs. I remember Jackson standing on the stairs, trying to grab onto my leg, wondering what was happening. Thank God our friend Christina had come over to watch him during my labor, and could stay with him as long as we needed her to. I got into the garage and starting puking everywhere, all over the garage. It was at that point that my contractions changed, but I didn't recognize it until we were already driving. But every time I got a contraction, I was standing up as much as I could in the car and my body was pushing on its own. So THIS was the urge to push that I had heard about. It was exactly like throwing up, I couldn't NOT do it. I was now grunting and screaming with each contraction. Tony did a great job getting us there as quickly as possible. I didn't tell him that I felt like I was about to push the baby out until we pulled up in front of the ER. I got out of the car and tried to walk toward the doors and couldn't. I grabbed onto his shoulders and started squatting with a new contraction, screaming and grunting, pushing. A lady standing outside the ER doors saw us and screamed, "Oh, my God!" and ran inside to get someone. A nurse or someone ran out with a wheelchair and pushed me down into it, I kept standing up and screaming and pushing, and she's yelling "Don't push! I have to get you to labor and delivery!" and I stood up from the wheelchair, screaming, "I have to push!" and I kept pushing. She pulled me out of the wheelchair and through some doors to a bed in the ER and I was instantly surrounded by doctors and nurses...someone examined me and said "She's complete and 2+ station" and they were calling over the loudspeakers for someone from labor and delivery to the ER for a "Code Stork"...a nurse came and she checked me and sat on the bed between my legs and told them to run with us on the bed to L&D. They started running through the halls...the whole time I am screaming and my body is pushing...it was like a scene from TV.
They got me to L&D and moved me to that bed and I started pushing again...although my whole body was pushing without me it seemed like they were still yelling at me to PUSH PUSH PUSH for 10 seconds, etc...they put an oxygen mask on me and said it was for the baby...after a few more contractions and pushes, the nurse was yelling for them to get the OB on call and she said that they were going to have the OB come in and cut an episiotomy and vacuum the baby out, because her heart tones were not good and it was taking me too long to get her out. Someone came in and said the OB was 10 minutes away, and the nurse said, "She needs to be like 30 seconds away," which really scared me, and then finally, with the next contraction, I pushed until I felt her head right there in the ring of fire and it stayed there until the next contraction came and I pushed her head out...it was the most amazing thing I have ever felt, that horrible searing pain of her head stretching me out and then suddenly feeling her head just come out, and hearing her immediately start to scream...and then her body still in there, wriggling, and they told me not to push, but I pushed anyway and felt her inside my body for the last few seconds, her arms and legs wriggling as she slid out...and then she was born, and I leaned forward to see her laying there screaming away, my gorgeous tiny little girl. She had come out face up, and the nurse who delivered her said, "Oh...that was what the trouble was," that she was posterior which was what made it so hard to push her out and made my whole labor that much longer and more excruciating. She was perfectly fine despite their fears about distress, her apgars were 9 and 9, she came out screaming and kicking like a 6 pound 11 ounce maniac! The OB came in a few minutes after that...thank God I pushed her out before they sucked her out. The feeling of pushing her out and of her being born is something I will never forget, it was the most beautiful, amazing thing, and although I did not get the peaceful homebirth for her that I wanted, at least I did it in the end without any medication.
It sucks that we ended up in the hospital, but it's not the end of the world...I think if I had waited longer to call my midwife, things might have been different, but who knows. I still have a lot of questions and mixed feelings about how things went at home...my midwife seemed annoyed that she was there for so long and she was often just reading a book or on the phone, and mentioned several times how tired she was, and my husband didn't support me much...I don't know what I was expecting, but I felt very alone most of the time. My midwife made several comments about how long it was taking, and it bothered me. Even in the end when she turned out to be posterior, all she ever said was, "Well, all heads can come out sooner or later." I feel like maybe if she would have told me she was posterior we could have tried things to turn her and make it easier. But I guess there is no point in second guessing it. My baby is here sleeping on my lap as I type, she's perfect and beautiful and that is what's important.
When contractions couple (or quad like yours 
