I would have posted this earlier, but 2 days pp, the whole family (except Abigail) came down with Isabella's cold. I have an awful hacking cough which makes my body hurt as women who just give birth really shouldn't! Anyway...
Abigail Catherine Parish’s Birth Story - May 7, 2008
On the evening of Tuesday, May 6 we were sitting at the dinner table eating around 6:30pm. I was sitting on the exercise ball as I had been doing for the past few months. Towards the end of dinner, I felt a little trickle – essentially a drip – and didn’t know if I had peed or what. I went to the bathroom and confirmed that yes my underwear were slightly wet. DH responded much the way he did last time – he went to bed! MIL and I went for a walk around the neighborhood, during which time, I became further convinced that I was “drippy” and maybe even starting to feel a bit crampy. Then, I tried to get some sleep.
Around midnight, I woke up to go to the bathroom and continued to feel drippy. I was also having more contractions but, I had difficulty being bothered to consistently time them. It seemed they were five minutes apart and lasting a minute…but it was hard to be sure as I wasn’t keeping close tabs on them. By 1:20am I decided I needed DH’s help to time. Shortly after 2am, I had put in my Hypnobabies CD and was listening to that when I decided I was really tired and I should just lie down. The contractions were so manageable, I didn’t have to work or concentrate to get through them. So, I put on my CD and went to sleep! At 3:15am, I awoke to a gush of water. I got up to go to the bathroom and by the time I got there my teeth were chattering and then the contractions came on quickly. Still, they were very manageable, they would peak up in the beginning then quickly die back down in intensity. They were just pretty close together and short, but not terribly bothersome. DH called my doula and midwife. Our doula came over and followed us to the birth center.
In the car, on the way to the birth center, my teeth continued to chatter and the contractions also seemed to be coming every couple of minutes. I kept thinking they were really short, as they would only be intense for such a brief time and then fade away. But, DH told me they were lasting about a minute. We arrived at the birth center just before 4am. The student midwife was there to let us in and was setting things up. We went into the birthing suite and started getting ready. I felt so strange being the center of attention as I obviously wasn’t so consumed in the contractions yet – I was still concerned and aware of things outside of myself. When my midwife arrived, about 20 minutes later, I was still just pacing around then stopping to lean over the bed and sway during contractions. She asked to do some monitoring with the fetal Doppler and then give me a quick exam to see how far dilated I was. The baby sounded good and she checked me to find I was at 7-8cm dilated. I was pretty surprised – it hadn’t even been hard to get to that!
Just before 5am, I decided it was a good time to get into the tub. I only had a couple of contractions in the tub before they started getting serious. To be honest, up until that point, the contractions were very easy to deal with which is probably why I was so surprised to be as far dilated as I was! Suddenly, they seemed to be awfully close together and they were starting to get quite intense. DH and my doula kept me cool with wet washcloths and a fan as well as bringing me lots of water to drink. Contractions just seem to be coming on top of each other and I was having to work much harder at coping with them. I knew I just needed to get through this time, because pushing was coming next. Transition meant I was almost done. Even though it seemed like it was taking forever, my doula said I had only been going through this for a little while – like about 15 minutes.
Then, those contractions caused me to start moaning and were becoming more than just serious, they were getting painful. I kept looking forward to being through transition and getting to the longer recovery time between pushing contractions. But, no sooner did a contraction end, while I thought I was still in transition, than the need to push began! It must have been around 5:30am when my body started pushing. And when it started, it felt like the baby would be coming out any second! My midwife confirmed that the head was “right there” and reassured me that I was OK to do this in the tub. We had been concerned that I wouldn’t have enough perineal support in the tub, but luckily I did. At that point, I really didn’t want to get out! My body just pushed and pushed whenever it needed to. The contractions didn’t spread out like I was expecting them to, they continued coming so close together but this time they included that undeniable need to push. The moaning I had done during transition quickly turned into some screams and then calmed down into bellowing. I bellowed a lot as I pushed the baby down, knowing it just couldn’t take many more pushes because it felt like it was ready to come out of my body! My midwife was encouraging me by saying the pushes were working really well to stretch my perineum slowly. I was really glad she verbalized that, because of course, I was so worried of splitting myself open! Then, all the sudden that horrid ring of fire was there and I felt like I was tearing upwards – towards my urethra. I kept pulling my bottom back, as if me pulling back would leave the baby out there in front – too bad it doesn’t work that way. Instead, the baby chases you down! It chased me down and I pushed out the head. Oh my goodness, the pain was INTENSE. But, I just kept thinking – I’m almost done! With another push, painful but not as much so as the head, I pushed out the shoulders and then felt that wonderful rush of the body slithering out. What a relief! Our little one came into the world at 5:49am. My midwife helped me pull the baby up to me and I held it as she tried to figure out where the cord was wrapping around. Apparently, the baby was trying to carry it like a purse over its shoulder! She got the baby untwisted and I pulled it back to look – we had a girl!
I was bleeding quite a lot so they gave me a shot of pitocin but then had to follow that with a shot and tablet of misoprostol to finally slow the blood loss. The excellent news was, I had no tears!! My perineum was completely in tact, but I had a small skidmark (of sorts) going up towards my urethra. It was amazing! The next couple of hours, the midwives made sure I was recovering okay, paying close attention to my blood loss, let me nurse the baby, and then gave her a newborn exam. She was very interested in nursing and did so for quite a long time. Her latch, while not perfect, was pretty tolerable (at least that first nursing session). As they started her exam, they asked her name – Abigail Catherine (Catherine being a compromise between my preference of Katherine and DH’s preference of Catharine). She weighed in at 9 pounds 1 ounce, 22 inches long, 14 inch head diameter. Another big girl! We called Isabella and Grandma to tell them. Then, shortly before 9:30am we headed home!
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Abigail Catherine Parish’s Birth Story - May 7, 2008
On the evening of Tuesday, May 6 we were sitting at the dinner table eating around 6:30pm. I was sitting on the exercise ball as I had been doing for the past few months. Towards the end of dinner, I felt a little trickle – essentially a drip – and didn’t know if I had peed or what. I went to the bathroom and confirmed that yes my underwear were slightly wet. DH responded much the way he did last time – he went to bed! MIL and I went for a walk around the neighborhood, during which time, I became further convinced that I was “drippy” and maybe even starting to feel a bit crampy. Then, I tried to get some sleep.
Around midnight, I woke up to go to the bathroom and continued to feel drippy. I was also having more contractions but, I had difficulty being bothered to consistently time them. It seemed they were five minutes apart and lasting a minute…but it was hard to be sure as I wasn’t keeping close tabs on them. By 1:20am I decided I needed DH’s help to time. Shortly after 2am, I had put in my Hypnobabies CD and was listening to that when I decided I was really tired and I should just lie down. The contractions were so manageable, I didn’t have to work or concentrate to get through them. So, I put on my CD and went to sleep! At 3:15am, I awoke to a gush of water. I got up to go to the bathroom and by the time I got there my teeth were chattering and then the contractions came on quickly. Still, they were very manageable, they would peak up in the beginning then quickly die back down in intensity. They were just pretty close together and short, but not terribly bothersome. DH called my doula and midwife. Our doula came over and followed us to the birth center.
In the car, on the way to the birth center, my teeth continued to chatter and the contractions also seemed to be coming every couple of minutes. I kept thinking they were really short, as they would only be intense for such a brief time and then fade away. But, DH told me they were lasting about a minute. We arrived at the birth center just before 4am. The student midwife was there to let us in and was setting things up. We went into the birthing suite and started getting ready. I felt so strange being the center of attention as I obviously wasn’t so consumed in the contractions yet – I was still concerned and aware of things outside of myself. When my midwife arrived, about 20 minutes later, I was still just pacing around then stopping to lean over the bed and sway during contractions. She asked to do some monitoring with the fetal Doppler and then give me a quick exam to see how far dilated I was. The baby sounded good and she checked me to find I was at 7-8cm dilated. I was pretty surprised – it hadn’t even been hard to get to that!
Just before 5am, I decided it was a good time to get into the tub. I only had a couple of contractions in the tub before they started getting serious. To be honest, up until that point, the contractions were very easy to deal with which is probably why I was so surprised to be as far dilated as I was! Suddenly, they seemed to be awfully close together and they were starting to get quite intense. DH and my doula kept me cool with wet washcloths and a fan as well as bringing me lots of water to drink. Contractions just seem to be coming on top of each other and I was having to work much harder at coping with them. I knew I just needed to get through this time, because pushing was coming next. Transition meant I was almost done. Even though it seemed like it was taking forever, my doula said I had only been going through this for a little while – like about 15 minutes.
Then, those contractions caused me to start moaning and were becoming more than just serious, they were getting painful. I kept looking forward to being through transition and getting to the longer recovery time between pushing contractions. But, no sooner did a contraction end, while I thought I was still in transition, than the need to push began! It must have been around 5:30am when my body started pushing. And when it started, it felt like the baby would be coming out any second! My midwife confirmed that the head was “right there” and reassured me that I was OK to do this in the tub. We had been concerned that I wouldn’t have enough perineal support in the tub, but luckily I did. At that point, I really didn’t want to get out! My body just pushed and pushed whenever it needed to. The contractions didn’t spread out like I was expecting them to, they continued coming so close together but this time they included that undeniable need to push. The moaning I had done during transition quickly turned into some screams and then calmed down into bellowing. I bellowed a lot as I pushed the baby down, knowing it just couldn’t take many more pushes because it felt like it was ready to come out of my body! My midwife was encouraging me by saying the pushes were working really well to stretch my perineum slowly. I was really glad she verbalized that, because of course, I was so worried of splitting myself open! Then, all the sudden that horrid ring of fire was there and I felt like I was tearing upwards – towards my urethra. I kept pulling my bottom back, as if me pulling back would leave the baby out there in front – too bad it doesn’t work that way. Instead, the baby chases you down! It chased me down and I pushed out the head. Oh my goodness, the pain was INTENSE. But, I just kept thinking – I’m almost done! With another push, painful but not as much so as the head, I pushed out the shoulders and then felt that wonderful rush of the body slithering out. What a relief! Our little one came into the world at 5:49am. My midwife helped me pull the baby up to me and I held it as she tried to figure out where the cord was wrapping around. Apparently, the baby was trying to carry it like a purse over its shoulder! She got the baby untwisted and I pulled it back to look – we had a girl!
I was bleeding quite a lot so they gave me a shot of pitocin but then had to follow that with a shot and tablet of misoprostol to finally slow the blood loss. The excellent news was, I had no tears!! My perineum was completely in tact, but I had a small skidmark (of sorts) going up towards my urethra. It was amazing! The next couple of hours, the midwives made sure I was recovering okay, paying close attention to my blood loss, let me nurse the baby, and then gave her a newborn exam. She was very interested in nursing and did so for quite a long time. Her latch, while not perfect, was pretty tolerable (at least that first nursing session). As they started her exam, they asked her name – Abigail Catherine (Catherine being a compromise between my preference of Katherine and DH’s preference of Catharine). She weighed in at 9 pounds 1 ounce, 22 inches long, 14 inch head diameter. Another big girl! We called Isabella and Grandma to tell them. Then, shortly before 9:30am we headed home!
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