This is How the Birth of Annalise Came About
A beautiful sneak peek photo from our newborn session with my super talented brother and sister in law (Alex & Ivy Photography)
It seems a little sacrilegious to title my blog post after the opening verse of Matthew about the birth of our Savior, but after I thought of it I couldn't think of any other title that I would rather have. Don't worry though, this blog post will exclude all mentions of Annalise's conception (and everyone breathes a sigh of relief).
"My symphysis pubis literally hurts so bad I can't walk. Bryce is staying home because I can't get to the bathroom without him." - Friday, June 1st at 7:57am text to my mom.
That lovely blue part of the picture above is the symphysis pubis. It is made of cartilage and during pregnancy it expands up to 1 cm to allow extra room in the pelvis for that beautiful baby head to go through. During expansion it can cause pain, but never in my life/career have I heard of anyone with this sort of pain. On the way to the bathroom in the middle of the night I seriously thought I was going to have to get on my hands and knees and crawl to the bed. It felt like there was a knife in my pelvis with each step. I somehow managed to make it to bed but was making lots of moaning noises and Bryce asked if I was in labor. No, not in labor, but near death might be a better description.
As soon as the office opened I called the midwife to ask what could be done. At 39 weeks and 2 days, and an uncertain amount of time remaining in my pregnancy (ok, there was a maximum of 1 week and 5 days), I knew something needed to be done. I had been wanting my membranes stripped for weeks but they have a strict policy of only doing it at 40 weeks. For those that don't know, membrane stripping is basically a very aggressive cervical check and the provider will separate the amniotic sac from the uterus. This releases prostaglandins which helps to stimulate contractions. Often times this will bring on labor. When I called the midwife she suggested a chiropractor (which I knew can be helpful but usually requires many adjustments, and I was doubtful it would ever help me walk at this point) or that I could throw in the towel and try a membrane stripping. Yes, I'll take the membrane stripping please!
Getting to the hospital was quite the ordeal since I couldn't walk. Bryce and I had our walking system down, basically like a slow dance, but I put all my weight on him and he practically dragged me. We live on the 2nd story of our apartment complex, and I couldn't even take a step down the stairs so I ended up scooting down the stairs on my butt. Thankfully, none of the neighbors were out, I felt so silly! Once we pulled up to the clinic I had to call for them to bring down a wheelchair. I really was an invalid, I'm telling you.
Prior to my membrane stripping I was 3 cm dilated and afterwards I was 5 cm and the midwife felt pretty confident that we were going to have a baby that day (praise the Lord!). We left the clinic at 9:00am and headed home. I called my mom and she decided to head down so she could be here when the baby came.
My midwife recommended using a breast pump every hour to help stimulate contractions, which it did, but afterwards they would slow down again, and none of the contractions were painful. In fact I had been having contractions since 17 weeks, and really these were not much worse. All I wanted to do was get up and go on a long walk since everyone says walking helps advance labor but...I couldn't walk. So we just layed there in bed and watched the Great British Baking Show (fabulous show by the way!).
Mom got there around 2:00pm and I was still having contractions around 5 minutes apart without the breast pump, 1-2 minutes apart with the breast pump, but then they would spread out to 5+ minutes after, and again, they were just really not painful. I really never thought in my life that I would be hoping for something to be more painful, but there I was just hoping and praying that my contractions would just kick into gear and be real, and be painful!
Mom and I hung out and chatted for a couple hours, we ate dinner and by then my contractions had really started to space out, and I hadn't done the breast pump since my mom had gotten there since it hadn't really seemed to be working. At 7:30pm I texted the midwife I had done clinicals with and asked her opinion on whether I should keep doing the breast pump and she said for sure, she felt that it was helpful. Alright then, one more round. I turned it on and started to have actually painful contractions, which was encouraging. Five minutes in I had the most intense contraction, definitely couldn't talk through it and definitely made some moaning noises. I quickly turned the pump off and thought I would wait to see if they actually continued and wouldn't peter out like the other times. A minute later I had another just like it and told mom to go get Bryce. Since mom and I had just been hanging out, he had gone to play video games with his brother and friend (He's not a bad husband, I told him too). I realized pretty quick I was going to have to find another position, since laying on your back isn't any way to try to cope with labor. Bryce helped me to my feet and I had another contraction and said, "Man! I feel like I have to poop!" Mom quickly replied, "Alright, I think we should go to the hospital."
I had most of our bags already packed but there were a few last minute things, so Bryce and mom made pretty quick work of getting it all ready and out to the car while I sat on the bench breathing through my ever increasingly painful contractions.
I again had to scoot my way down the stairs, and this time the neighbors were out, ugh, and I did get some stares. The hospital is about a 10 minute drive away and I think I had 5-6 contractions on the way there. My biggest worry was that I wouldn't be able to get my epidural, I was pretty alarmed at how quickly and intensely my contractions came on that I didn't really know how dilated I would be or what to expect time wise. On the wheel chair ride up to the Labor and Delivery unit I had 4-5 contractions, with a couple being extremely painful, and again the fear of not getting my epidural was really setting in.
"We are at the hospital. Contractions are getting stronger." Friday, June 1st at 8:26pm - group text to the "elite group" (AKA, my family)
When I got up to the unit they got me into a room right away and I was dilated to 6cm. Bryce was such a fantastic birthing coach! In the hour or so waiting for my epidural he used our birthing class strategy of "non-focused awareness" to help me though my contractions. The hospital also had an audio system you could plug in your music to and it would play in the whole room. I had worship music playing which really helped. I was really glad that an epidural was already in my birthing plan (and in fact was my only birthing plan) since there wasn't any other way I could cope with labor with my symphysis pubis pain. I couldn't get in the tub, I couldn't walk, and I couldn't really get in any other positions.
"She just got her epidural and they are about to break her water." Friday June 1st at 9:10pm - group text to the "elite group"
I was pretty nervous about getting an epidural. Being in healthcare I had seen several epidurals placed and that needle is so long! The CRNA that placed it was fantastic though and he did so good, he got it done in between my contractions and I barely felt a thing. They numb the area first and that feels stingy, but then the epidural needle going in you can't feel at all. There can be some zinger feelings going down one leg or the other, but it's very short lived.
Once I got my epidural I felt almost instant relief of my contractions. They had started to space out a bit so they decided to start pitocin and my midwife came in and broke my water.
Then we used this giant peanut ball (picture below) which is supposed to open your pelvis and allow the baby to descend and your cervix to dilate more. We did that for an hour. During that time I was a little worried because I was definitely starting to feel contractions almost like I didn't have an epidural. Thankfully, this didn't last, I think the epidural was still just taking a bit of time to work fully.
"She was just checked and she is fully dilated." Friday, June 1st at 10:24pm - group text to the "elite group"
The nurse that checked me an hour later was quite surprised that I was already fully dilated. So surprised, in fact, she wanted someone else to double check, so the student midwife came in and checked and sure enough, I was. We called our photographer to make sure she would be there for the delivery.
"She should be able to to start pushing in about 30 minutes." Friday, June 1st at 10:46pm - group text to the "elite group"
It actually ended up being a bit longer than 30 minutes. I did some practice pushes and they felt that a little more time to "labor down" (essentially just laying there through contractions to let the baby descend a little more) would be beneficial. My epidural really was a great epidural because I could feel my contractions coming so I knew when to start my pushing, but I didn't feel pain.
Pushing was really hard though! They have you push for 10 seconds, take a breath and repeat 2 more times. During the 10 second push you take a deep breath and hold it, and that was the hardest part. Bryce said at one point, "Ya, who knew you needed to practice holding your breath for long periods of time!" I ended up pushing for one hour, which I was really happy about. I have heard that most women in their first labor have an average pushing time of about 3 hours, so 1 hour was easy! Pushing with an epidural was hard though because it was difficult to feel/tell if I was doing it right or if anything was even happening. Thankfully my midwife and student midwife were very encouraging with lots of "you're doing great!" Half way through I asked if her head was low enough that I'd be able to feel it, and it was. After feeling it, it helped me focus and gave me another burst of energy that I could do this, she was almost out! I knew when her head started being visible with my pushes because Bryce started chiming in with the "good job's." And then came the last pushes, and even with an epidural it's quite uncomfortable when a baby is fully in your birth canal!
* I do have to say something about this picture. I am laughing, not crying just so you know. The nurse had been doing the counting for each contraction but on this particular one she had stepped away but I felt a contraction coming so I started pushing, but then no one was counting. I was sort of counting in my head but knew it would be hard to get to 10 so I grunted out "Count!" Bryce proceeding to count by starting at 7, and I knew quite well we were only at about 3. How could he have such poor grasp on time. Needless to say the pushing didn't really continue because I started laughing so hard, and you can see his hands up in the air. He said something like, "What?! I didn't know where we were so I just started somewhere!" A pretty funny moment that I'm glad she got a picture of.
"Annalise Joy was born at 1:00am. Mom and baby are doing great. She is 7 lb 7 oz and 19 1/4 inches long." Saturday, June 2nd at 1:57am.
When she came out, I got to reach down and pull her the rest of the way out and bring her up to my chest, which was absolutely the most amazing thing. I immediately started crying at this wonder. This child, who just moments before was in my belly and was now in the world, on me, my dear daughter. I'm so grateful for our fantastic photographer (Abbey Armstrong) who captured such sweet moments. I did have a couple good (or bad?) tears, which was unfortunate. I've been slowly recovering and feel that just today I really am feeling close to normal.
All in all, I really couldn't have asked for a better birth experience. Considering I didn't really have any contractions that bothered me until 7:30pm Friday and she was born Saturday at 1:00am. Five and half hours sounds pretty good to me. Who knows what the next one will be like though!
Also, I was also so glad that I got to have a student midwife deliver my baby. I was happy to know I was contributing to her learning and her birth count. She was fantastic and I loved her (she's the one helping me grab Annalise in the picture below, smiles all around!).
Oh the joy!
Can you tell how in love with her he is!!!
I just love the city lights in the background of this one. The world was asleep during the greatest moments of our lives (well at least Pocatello was).
It's hard to believe it was already 2 weeks ago (2 weeks at 1:00am!). We've had the best time with her and I love being her mommy. I'm also am so glad that I get the summer off to just be home with her. Bryce is also the best daddy and how sweet that Sunday he get's to celebrate his first Father's day! Thanks for letting me share my story, if nothing else, it's written down so after the amnesia sets in I can still remember it.
