Birth Stories: Avery Autumn

I felt my first contraction around 8:00 pm on Saturday, 8/27. I had been feeling tons of pregnancy contractions during the last four weeks but this one was different I felt it in my back. I lounged on the couch to watch television and eat cookie dough ice cream.

Around 9:00 pm, Jeff came out into the living room after just putting Madeline (our 21 month old) to bed. Over the last hour I had a few of those different contractions. I told Jeff but we didn't say much more than that. We ate popcorn and started a movie. I watched for a while on the birthing ball but then decided to go to bed around 9:45 pm.

I think part of me knew this was real labor but part of me didn't want to be "the boy who cried wolf" so I just got into bed and asked Jeff to start timing a couple of them in terms of both duration and frequency. The contractions were ten minutes apart and lasting about 70 seconds. After timing a few, Jeff suggested we not time any more.

A couple more contractions came and I decided to give Laurie a heads-up before it got to be too late. By this time it was 11:00 pm and I called her. Because the contractions were still so far apart and the intensity was fairly mild, she suggested we try to sleep and told us to call her when we break the five minute mark. Our friends, Faye and Erik, were going to be watching Madeline during the labor so I called them to give them a heads-up as well.

Over the next hour, we stayed in bed and I became more convinced that this was real labor. At midnight, I was sure it was real labor. I made four trips to the bathroom for some very loose BMs in a very short period of time. During this same midnight hour, I discovered bright red bloody show, the contractions were getting closer together and the intensity of them was ramping up.

Each time I walked to or from the bathroom, the contractions would hit back to back. I also felt like I was going to pee during some of these contractions and I thought that was weird. By one o'clock, I started shaking a lot. I knew that shaking was indicative of transition but couldn't really believe that I was in transition yet. I pulled out my handy Bradley workbook chart to see whether shaking was often present during any other stage.

During this time, I noticed the phrase: "may put pressure on bladder causing need to urinate" during a contraction. It was under the late first stage (hard labor) category. That symptom had already subsided and the shaking had taken over. I thought then that I may be in transition. I suggested that we call Laurie back. Because I hadn't quite hit the 5 minute mark yet, Jeff suggested we wait.

After about fifteen minutes of us making opposite suggestions to one another, I asked him to call Laurie. He called her, as well as Faye and Erik. Faye brought Madeline back to her house for the night. Meredith and Laurie showed up shortly after Faye left.

By now it was about 1:30 am (they all live very close to us). Meredith and Laurie came in and sat down peacefully on the floor next to me. Other than trips to the bathroom, phone and bookshelf, I had been in a side-lying position since around 10:00 pm. They asked me whether I wanted to do an internal exam. I wavered for a while but then said we might as well just in case I'm only a couple centimeters and if that is the case, they could both go home and get some sleep.

Meredith commented that it might be helpful to know because they may need to quickly get ready. I consented and found out the baby was at zero station, I was 100% effaced and at a definite 7 cm. I guess I was in transition. In addition to the shakes I'd been getting, I was now also getting sweaty palms in between the cold shakes.

Laurie did a vaginal wash with chlorhexidine because I tested GBS positive the week before. Meredith did most of the set-up while Laurie rested on the bed with Jeff and me. By this time, I was really focused on the contractions.

Just before 2:30 am I felt a little bit of an urge to push but I was nervous and wanted to make sure I was fully dilated. Laurie did another exam and I had a little further to go. Meredith joined us on the bed.

It was very peaceful having the four of us laying on the bed together helping our little baby come into the outside world. In another contraction or two, there was no stopping it and the pushing began. I pushed for about 15 minutes before she was born.

During the second stage, I remember only two times where I got enough of a break to relax my whole body. The contractions were really coming back to back. The pushing stage was the most intense for me. I felt everything though and loved that. I loved feeling the trickle of amniotic fluid come out letting me know the bag of waters had broken. I felt a little bit of the stretching and burning. I feel like I felt everything about her coming out of me. I got really sweaty too.

I stayed in the side-lying position with Jeff supporting my right leg. Laurie applied olive oil and warm washcloths. Meredith took over Jeff's position with my right leg and Jeff moved in to apply the counter pressure. He did a great job because I didn't tear at all.

Laurie kept telling me to be gentle with my pushes and they were all being so supportive with positive comments. It was very cool to feel the baby's head as it came out. Meredith later said that Jeff was stroking the baby's head when he wasn't applying the pressure. I don't know if it was because I was so focused on the inner feelings of the baby or not but I didn't actually feel anything that Laurie or Jeff was doing to me.

As the baby came out, Jeff witnessed the fetal Heimlich maneuver. There was no suctioning done. Jeff received the baby and immediately handed her to me. Laurie also had her hands in there to unwrap the umbilical cord from around its body. Its hand was also up by her chin when it came out.

She was born at 2:50 am, August 28th (her due date). The three of us laid with the baby for a good several minutes before Jeff checked to see whether it was a boy or girl. It was a girl. We named her Avery Autumn. The three of us bonded.

Shortly after she was born, I delivered the placenta. It didn't feel like much at all. After a push or so it was almost out and Laurie asked me to give a little cough and out it came. We got to inspect both sides of it and see the small hole in the amniotic sac that she came out of.

I nursed Avery about an hour later. She nursed for over a half hour. I wasn't until she was finished nursing that Jeff cut her cord. After that Meredith took her and she weighed in at 8lbs 4oz and measured 20" in length. Meredith administered the Vitamin K shot, as well as the erythromycin eye ointment. She was never washed. The vernix was abundant and we each rubbed some into ourselves.

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