Birth Story, Part I
TW: Cesarean birth, home birth, birth story
TLDR; At 3:30am, after three days of labor, the delivery team engulfed the small space in my hospital room for a second time to address my son’s rapidly decelerating heartbeat.
At 3:30am, I looked into my husband's sleep-deprived eyes, then at the nurses, midwives, anesthesiologist, and surgeon staring back at me, awaiting my decision - and finally, at the doppler on the monitor telling us that it was now or never.
At 3:30am, I had to make a choice.
And at 3:36am, my son arrived Earth-side via emergency cesarean.
Rowan’s birth may not have gone according to “plan,” but he sure as hell made his mark on the world as he roared into it.
Now, let’s rewind for a moment.
The days preceding his birth, as well as the birth itself, unraveled in a whirlwind of events, to say the least. Truth be told, it was intense and beautiful, calm and scary, and chaotic and serene all at the same time. Oxymoron, yes, but truthful - as birth is no one thing.
On September 22, I went into prodromal labor around 3:00am; my contractions were very mild and about seven minutes apart, so I went back to sleep and contacted my midwife around 6:00am. She advised that I should contact her again when my contractions were five minutes apart, and I continued to labor at home. James stayed home with me, per her recommendation, and we knew that we’d soon get to meet our baby boy.
My midwife stopped by to check on me that afternoon; things were progressing slowly (as is often the case for first babies, I’m told), but all was well, so I was instructed to keep laboring at home.
My husband and I walked around our neighborhood for a bit, we picked green beans, peppers, tomatoes, and kale from my garden, I gave my husband a haircut, we baked a ton of banana nut and pumpkin muffins (my in-laws actually had to drop off a carton of eggs because I ran out lol), and watched a movie. A gentle, yet productive day as we anxiously awaited contractions to move closer together.
By nightfall, my contractions were increasing in intensity, but stayed at seven minutes, so we both decided to try and get some sleep.
I was able to sleep on and off (mostly off) until about 7:00am the next morning, and my contractions slowed for a while. Again, totally normal for first pregnancies. When they returned, I started to feel shaky and got a few hot flashes - all par for the course, so I was able to continue laboring at home.
At this point, my midwife suggested I contact my doula for support, but I still felt comfortable enough to stay the course without her for the time being. Additionally, my husband and I were soaking up the last few hours of time as just “us” for as long as we could; laughing and wondering at how our lives were about to change, and getting through contractions that were slowly staring to stop me in my tracks as we finalized our son’s name.
Contractions started coming five minutes apart that afternoon, and my midwife came to check on me again - it was game on. She took a respite in our guest bedroom (she had been at two other births over these two days, bless her heart - and I was number three), and I again tried to get some sleep (let’s laugh at that together).
Sleep was short lived, to say the least, as contractions continued to grow in intensity; I was up for good around 2:00am. It was really “game on,” now.
My midwife was already with me, I called my doula around 5:00am, and my son was sending all signs that he was ready to enter the world.
At 9:00am my water broke; based on my progression, my midwife anticipated that our son would be Earth-side by about 11:00am - but he had other plans.
