I started pretty major prodromal labor at 3:30 am on Sunday, and the contractions faded by 7 am. Same thing Monday, and almost exactly the same timing! Very frustrating. My midwife suggested I go in for acupuncture, and within an hour I was in good, solid labor. Dunno what she did but now we were cooking! I called the midwives and my doula at 5:30 pm and settled in to have this kiddo.
All the prodromal labor had already gotten me dilated to 4 cm and fully effaced, so the active labor part was really pretty short. I wasn't looking at the clock, but I think I was in transition by 9 pm or so. The contractions were getting pretty difficult to deal with, and I was really trying to "run away" from them, which was not helping. Then it was time to push, which was the hardest thing I have ever done. In a way it was a relief to channel some of that energy somewhere, but the problem was that I didn't really know *how* to push, since I was never able to push effectively with Leah. It took me a while to figure out what to do. I pushed for a while in the tub, but wasn't moving him down well, so my team suggested I get out of the tub and try some different positions for pushing.
My abiding memory of this time was how hard it was for me to change positions and how hard it was to tell when a contraction was coming so I could push. I guess I had this image that I would be able to rest completely between pushing contractions as I had between labor contractions, but that wasn't so for me. It was pretty rough. BJ was a bit asynclitic, and I actually thought at one point that he was simply never going to come out. But of course he did!
He's beautiful and perfect and I got my HBAC! I'm sure over time my memory of how rough it was will fade. I'm proud of myself that I was able to stay out of the hospital and avoid medication (two major goals for me and my individual situation), and every time I look at this baby's head I still can't believe I pushed him out!
All the prodromal labor had already gotten me dilated to 4 cm and fully effaced, so the active labor part was really pretty short. I wasn't looking at the clock, but I think I was in transition by 9 pm or so. The contractions were getting pretty difficult to deal with, and I was really trying to "run away" from them, which was not helping. Then it was time to push, which was the hardest thing I have ever done. In a way it was a relief to channel some of that energy somewhere, but the problem was that I didn't really know *how* to push, since I was never able to push effectively with Leah. It took me a while to figure out what to do. I pushed for a while in the tub, but wasn't moving him down well, so my team suggested I get out of the tub and try some different positions for pushing.
My abiding memory of this time was how hard it was for me to change positions and how hard it was to tell when a contraction was coming so I could push. I guess I had this image that I would be able to rest completely between pushing contractions as I had between labor contractions, but that wasn't so for me. It was pretty rough. BJ was a bit asynclitic, and I actually thought at one point that he was simply never going to come out. But of course he did!
He's beautiful and perfect and I got my HBAC! I'm sure over time my memory of how rough it was will fade. I'm proud of myself that I was able to stay out of the hospital and avoid medication (two major goals for me and my individual situation), and every time I look at this baby's head I still can't believe I pushed him out!
