Going O - NATURAL: Read at your OWN risk

Saturday night I had TOTAL déjà vu. In 2003 When I was pregnant with Brooke when I was 40 weeks +2 days my water broke at 1 a.m. - RIGHT after I had gotten into bed.

Fast forward to 2008: On Saturday night at 40 weeks + 2 days I had JUST gotten in bed right before midnight. I had a few contractions during the movie "TRANSFORMERS" we rented that were difficult and I was exhausted. I said my prayers and cleared my mind and I felt a big “WHOOSH” of a kick after lots of little kicks. Then I felt a weird movement and then “GUSH” – I let out a little scream and I jumped off the bed with Olympic Speed, vaulted over the bed pillows, and sprinted to the bathroom leaving a Hansel and Gretal type of trail.

COMMOTION ENSUED– My mom woke up Brian who had fallen asleep during the movie (It took her about a full minute to bring him around). We called the midwives to let them know what happened, got ready in lightening speed and were all set to go to the hospital when…..we were told to get some rest until the contractions were at least 7 minutes apart. I thought HOW in the world will I get sleep with fluid still gushing? The answer? “Put a towel on the bed.”

So all night long I had HARD contractions…but every 15 minutes apart still. How depressing! They hurt to where I had to vocalize during them, then it would take me about 4 minutes to recover, and I would have 4 full minutes off drifting to sleep before ANOTHER contractions would JOLT me to be awake…and write down the time, etc. This went on until 6 am. GREAT! Brian slept like a baby.

The plan given to me by the midwives to avoid Pitocin was a bright cheery glass of fruit smoothy with Castor oil to get labor going before arriving at the hospital. I chugged that baby down – DISGUSTING!!

On the way to the hospital, I had ONLY 2 contractions in 50 minutes. They seemed to by dying away....NOT GOOD!

At 7:30 AM I was 0n the monitor at the hospital I had only 1 GOOD contraction and 1 little one in 25 minutes. NOT IMPRESSIVE! The verdict? WALK! DÉJÀ VU AGAIN - but this time just from last Saturday.

The only difference was the contractions that I had during the walk (still 7 to 10 min apart) hurt so much I would have to lean against the wall and vocalize during the contraction.

We stopped walking at about 9:30 A.M. The contractions were then 5 to 7 min apart…but not really active labor … The midwife didn't want to come in with LACKLUSTER action like this!

Monitor time – NOTHING IMPRESSIVE! I had 2-3 good contractions in 30 minutes. WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY BODY??? I thought to myself. Does my body NOT understand what it needs to do? Did two prior births with PITOCIN mess up my body’s know how to know what to do?

I was then checked – and I was a JUST a 4. YIPEE – in the past 48 hours I progressed ONLY a full .5 of a cm. FABULOUS! This had ALL THE SIGNS OFF BEING A VERY LONG ARDUOUS LABOR...with possible Prolonged rupture of membranes (more than 18 hours of broken waters). That would mean pitocin - again - no waterbirth, and all the stuff I was trying to avoid. HOW DEPRESSING!

Brian was good and kept on massaging the acupressure pulse points – on my little pinkie toe especially. That seemed to help BIGTIME. IT was the only time I would actually get a good contraction! He was being a great labor coach so far! I was impressed!

The midwife showed up just in time for a big juicy contraction – I was VERY vocal and it was much harder. I heard myself say, “I HATE THOSE!” and she said, “Well, we LIKE those! ....We need to see some more of those in a consistent pattern to get you into the Alternative Birthing Center (ABC room). I pictured walking around for another hour, or staying on that darn monitor in TRIAGE for another hours......UGH!!!

GREAT! It didn’t look like that would happen to me ANYTIME SOON!! Then I had another big hard juicy contraction. I could hear Brian and the midwife AMIABLY chatting and I heard myself say, “DON’T TALK! DON’T TALK!” Then the blood nurse came in to draw the blood…during this same seemingly NEVER ENDING contraction. “C’MON! GET DONE ALREADY!.” Well, the blood nurse thought I was talking to her so she said flusteredly, “OK, and whipped out the rubber band and vials.” “NO,” I said through clenched teeth,” I’m TALKING TO THE CONTRACTION.” I heard laughter, and then the contraction was done and we proceeded.

After one more like this – Hillary my midwife- said she would check me. She looked very surprised and said, “OH, you’re a SEVEN!”

So I went from a 4 to 7 in only 20 minutes. She said, “Lets GO to the ABC room!”

I doubted my desire to walk, but when I got off the bed – It felt AWESOME to walk down the hall. I felt so FREE!

At 10:45 AM We got to the room and like some crazy magnet was PULLING me I went to a tiny section of wall and rested my head against the wall for the next 3 contractions.

I heard the preparations VAGUELY around me –the tub filling up with water, Brian rushing to get our stuff out of the car, tables being set up around me with instruments, the baby cart portion of the room being set up.

Hillary encouraged me then to get into the tub. I didn’t really want to – standing was the ONLY thing I really wanted to do –but I did. Brian brought me the bath pillow and managed to get me on tape between contractions. I calmly told him to turn it off because I didn’t want my “screaming” on the tape (which I never did scream, I just vocalized loudly). I thought a couple of time in the tub – why don’t I just GIVE UP and do an epidural right now? It sounds so much NICER! Then I told myself to toughen up and that it was almost over.

The water pillow I was resting on all of a sudden bounced off the ledge and suddenly became this pester y enemy and kept bumping into me in the water. During a contraction I heard myself say, “GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!!!!”

Then I felt pressure like Hillary said I would, but she had gone out of the room to get latex gloves. I heard myself calling for her to hurry up. When she came she told me I was a 9 – but I could push if I needed to. With that next HORRIBLE contraction I told myself, “TRANSVERSE IN” and I pushed for a solid MINUTE. I heard Brian telling me to BREATHE and I heard, “You’re almost there babe! “ and “Here’s the head, keep pushing!” and “Ok, the head is out keep pushing!!!” I heard myself crying a little and realized it was DONE! ONE GIGANTIC PUSH was all it took! (thank you strong TRANSVERSE MUSCLE!) I looked done and realized the baby had popped up in the water and Hillary guided her into my arms. I didn’t hear crying or anything so it didn’t really register that I was holding the baby. After about 2 1/2 minutes I unfurrowed my brow and looked down at her. I felt not totally present in the situation yet. I felt myself still wanting to cry.

I was only in the ABC room 34 minutes and she was born. So much for not really being in LABOR!

I went from a 4 to a 10 in about 1 hour! A little bizarre, but I'll take it!

Then after 5 minutes Brian cut the chord and they cleaned up the baby. They helped me out of the water and I realized “ Oh MY GOSH – my LEGS WORK!!” It had never happened post birth that I could actually use my legs. IT was awesome! They helped me to the bed while I watched the nurse clean up the baby for what seemed like the LONGEST time.

Kylianne Angel Wayne – is the name we chose for her. She latched on RIGHT away and nursed enthusicatically for about 25 minutes. Then they took her and weighed her – 7 lbs 0 oz, and 19 inches long.

Then the question I was DYING to know, “ DID I TEAR?” That was my WORST after Brooke and Tyler was that I had episiotomies with both AND I tore on top of that with both and it was EXTREMELEY painful for me for about 2 weeks. The VERDICT “Nope, just a slight abrasion. You don’t even need a stitch.” I was EXTREMELY happy with that. FASTER RECOVERY. That is one nice thing about the water births – MUCH lower incident of tearing.

Then, I felt the Castor oil kick in and I was able to RUN to the bathroom , which was unthinkable that I had that much control over my body. I will always wonder – did that horrible stuff that I could still taste on my lips help things speed along, or did it really kick in ONLY now? I will ALWAYS WONDER!

So while going O NATURAL with a water birth sucked BIGTIME DURING the labor and birth, afterwards I felt GREAT!! I just wanted an ice pack. Not even IB profen – No perkeset like with the other two, not catheter to take out, not waiting 2 hours to use my legs, no bloated limbs from IVs, no machines to be hooked up to, no sore back from the epidural, no episiotomy, no tearing, and I wore my own clothes before during and after the birth. So would I do it again. YES (with a great deal of mental prep to get me in the frame of mind, but YES!

BONUS: We were told we would have to leave the large nice ABC room with the large bed about 5 hours after delivery. Since it was a weekend and quite dead, no one came to use the OTHER ABC room (in which case they would need ours open) so we stayed the FULL 48 hours in this very nice posh LARGE room. AWESOME!