The Birth Story! Part Three: Saturday

Saturday: October 2nd. Oh, I love you Nubain. I love you so much I may name my next kid Nubain. Okay, maybe not. Contractions continue to come every ten minutes after the Nubain was shot into my hip. There was always the possibility the Nubain would make the contractions stop or slow the progress of labor, but thankfully that did not happen. Some contractions I can sleep through, most I am aware of but can breathe through and remain relaxed, and every now and then I'd get a strong one and let out a "Whoooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaa" moan right into sleeping Jay's ear. Jay would have to wake up to help me to the bathroom. Every time I changed position I would have a contraction. A few times I was able to sneak to the bathroom by myself and let Jay sleep, but not many because he would hear the crinkle of the pads on the bed as I moved. On one of my solo trips to the bathroom I had a conversation with myself, like a crazy person. This was not going to go on for a third day. I had had enough of being scared of how much the post water breaking contractions were going to hurt. I wanted them to hurt. They have to hurt for the baby to come out. Once the baby is out, it will immediately stop hurting. These contractions are pissing me off. I will do whatever I can to make them stop. Another hour of rest and then I am going to own this pain.

It would have been so great to reach this point, I dunno, a day ago! But I was finally here. I was ready to get this baby out! It's 3:45AM and Roswitha comes in with her big plastic hook in it's sterile packaging. She gives me another internal and while she's in there my water breaks! I felt the pop and the gush, it did not feel like pee as I've heard it described before. Maybe it didn't feel like pee because I had a woman's hand wrist deep up my vagina and that is not a usual sensation that accompanies pee. I thought she would remove her hand quickly but she stayed in there and said she could feel the baby slipping down very quickly now. It's show time people! Let's do this! Get that tub warmed up!

As I squatted in the tub and waited for these monstrous contractions to hit me, I listened to Roswitha explain what would happen next. We have to dilate to 10cms before I am allowed to push. Pushing prematurely can cause the cervix to swell. She says to let her know if I feel pressure in my bottom. Okay, that's straight forward enough. Off she goes to update my chart when with the next contraction I feel like I am going to poop in this tub. I am in denial this is the pressure in my bottom she literally just mentioned a minute ago. I really think I have to poop. 3 minutes later, with the next contraction, I tell Jay to go get her I'm pushing without trying to. I'm 100% convinced my body is pushing prematurely and my cervix is going to swell and explode. She does an internal in the tub and I am fully dilated. I was 8 cms like 10 minutes ago. That's crazy! Our kid practically fell out once the water was broken. She hurried to alert her assistant to come in. Then Roswitha said something that really kicked me into overdrive. She said, "It's up to you how soon your baby is born."

I started pushing in a standing squat in the tub until she could feel his head an inch from the surface. She told me to push right there, focus all my energy right there. With that push he started to crown. Yea right. She told me to feel. Holy crap! She wasn't lying. He is right there! She had me switch to laying on my back in the tub for the last few pushes. The tub had these sets of hand rails that worked perfectly for you to put your feet up against. Someone put a lot of thought into that tub. The contractions were now the least of my worries. In fact, I had very little to worry about because I was no longer in control. My body pushed with every contraction, popping me out of the water like a demon possessed animal. Initially, I was an ineffective pusher because I was screaming "Ahhhhh" so loud our neighbors back in Kingsland probably heard me. Roswitha corrected me and told me to use that energy in pushing, hold my breath if I have to, but use the energy to push. Chin down, breath held, push with everything you got. Okay now STOP PUSHING!! STOP PUSHING!!! DONNA, STOP PUSHING!! Easier said than done at this point. I was about to tear. I had to focus on not pushing for a few seconds while Roswitha worked her magic down there. Okay, we're good to go. With the next few contractions she said his head was out. I reached down and felt his head and had 2 thoughts. 1) Wow, that's alot of hair! 2) Oh, that's a small head. Good! I got a small baby! Maybe he won't rip me apart in the next few pushes. (Forgot about molding, the tip of his head was small, the rest was not).

With his head sticking out, Roswitha said the next push to push as hard as I could and we would have our baby! Okay, where the hell did all of my contractions go? Come on, come on, come on, come on. Okay PUSH PUSH PUSH! And with me pushing and Roswitha guiding him out he sprung from the water arms and legs flailing. It took a moment to untangle the cord that was around his neck but then she flopped him down on my chest. He was so grey and big! OMG this was not the small baby I had just imagined. Where was all of this hiding? This was a huge baby. This was a huge, grey baby. Why is my baby grey? Monica, the midwife assistant, rubbed him with a towel and he pinked right up. I waited for the big dramatic cry, but he only softly cried at first, saving his first big cry for his Daddy. We all just stared at him for awhile while we waiting for the cord to stop pulsing. Then Jay cut the cord and they gave Corbin to him to hold. Jay said right away he reached out and grabbed his shirt. I picture this tiny, minutes old newborn, grabbing his Dad by the collar, pulling him towards his face to get a good look. Once the placenta was out, we got into bed to snuggle. No more pain! No more contractions! We counted fingers and toes and called the family to tell them the good news.

Corbin Jose was born at 5:09AM to 'Cold Shower Tuesdays' by Bowling for Soup on 10/2/10 (his original due date). 7 lbs 15 ozs 20 3/4 inches long.
Roswitha said I had a tiny tiny tear, that didn't need stitches as long as I promised to keep my legs together, meaning don't sit Indian style for a week or two. I was up walking around within two hours. We were discharged at 12:45pm later that same day and have had a smooth recovery. I can not thank our team of midwives enough for giving me the strength to keep the birth plan I wanted. I had an amazing coach in Jay and our son is more perfect than we ever could have imagined. And it is true what they say about the endorphins making your forget all the pain. In the moment, I told Jay I was going to comment on every serene natural birth youtube video I had watched with a big "F-U That's Not What It's Like!!!" comment, but now that it's over I have happy, fuzzy memories about the whole experience. I also was quoted as saying "I would rather get punched in the face over and over again than have these contractions. If I could give birth by getting punched in the face, I would definitely choose that."

It took awhile to remember all the details to fill these 3 posts. I'm glad Corbin let me work on the computer a few hours here and there before the experience faded too much. So there you have it! 44 hours from start to finish. My advice to my future self for next time: Eat, even if you're not hungry and sleep when you can in the early stages, and for God's sake if they want to break your water- do it! It probably would have saved us 7 hours of misery.

Thanks for reading!