Madelyn Bree's Birth Story (Part 2)

Disclaimer: This is a birth story. There are details. Read at your own risk. I am also dividing Miss M's birth story into 3 parts (pre-labor, labor, and post-labor) so that the blog doesn't go on for forever. Below is labor.

There I was certain now that Miss M was positioned wrong and refusing or unable to push her own way out. I had tried the exercises my midwife had given me with no success. So I did what any other human being would do and googled for a solution.

I quickly came across a great website called Spinning Babies. And let me tell you. I wish I would have come across this site way earlier in my pregnancy because I would have taken full advantage of some of the exercises that encourage proper baby positions. There was one exercise that particularly caught my eye because it was designed for those who were late and/or labor was stalling. It's called the Side-lying release.

I immediately asked Jeremy to help me with this exercise and just see if it would help. The minute we got done I felt Madelyn move positions within my belly. It was about 10 p.m. Four hours later I was in labor.

Around 2 a.m., I woke up having to pee. That's when I felt my first contraction. I had been having a lot of false labor so I dismissed it as nothing. A few minutes later, another contraction hits and I feel the need to pee again. This continues until around 2:30 p.m. when I wake up Jeremy and ask him to start timing my contractions. The first two were 5 minutes and 42 seconds apart. Then, they were consistently 1 minute 30 seconds apart. At first, we were sure that it was false. But I kept having to pee. And they were starting to get stronger. Jeremy called our midwife for advice, but her phone went to voicemail. Since she wasn't on call that night, I wasn't worried. At that point I knew, we needed to get to the hospital soon

We left our house at 3:30 a.m.

Now, with Bradley, it took us 20 minutes to get to the hospital. This time around, Jeremy was not playing and we got their in 10. I got to OB Assessment where the nurses were rockstars. They had my chart already out, were reading my birth plan to each other, and were basically letting me call the shots. If I was in the middle of a contraction, they backed off until it was over and then stepped in to do their thing. If I had to go to the bathroom, they were like go ahead. About 15 minutes after arriving, they were rolling me back into a delivery room.

Now, I do have to brag a little here only because I am honestly so proud of myself. With B, I had no clue what to expect. I was in shock because he was a fast labor and delivery. I did a lot of yelling from the first contraction to the last to the pushing to after he was born. It was a yell fest. The nurses had to constantly ask me to quiet down and to just breath through it. All I wanted was to yell.

This time, however, I was a champ. I knew what hell felt like and I knew I was not there yet. And so I did not yell. Instead, I breathed and reminded myself that it was almost over and that, unfortunately, it was going to get worst. I only started to yell in the last 15 minutes when I had arrived at my limit for pain tolerance and needed to let out some tension to get her out. It was huge for me.

I was in the delivery room for about 15 minutes when it was time to push Madelyn out. Within 5 minutes, she was in my arms. And, immediately, I was captivated.

The second time around is so different from the first. The first one everything is a haze. I remember bits and pieces, but no details. With Madelyn, I noticed so much more.

For instance, a resident ended up delivering her because she came so fast and the doctor on call couldn't make it on time. With the female resident, came two male residents who were 'observing'. I am 90% certain that they had never seen a natural childbirth because their facial expressions were hilarious! In between contractions, I would try to catch a glimpse of them for a quick laugh.

With B, all the nurses and doctors were very hands on. With Madelyn, they really did let me run the show. They would back off whenever I had a contraction and step forward only in-between or when I was pushing. If I needed something, they ran to make it happen. It wasn't better or worse... just different.

I can say that the second labor and delivery was so much easier than the first. Jeremy and I were more prepared, calmer, and Miss M wasn't playing around when her time came.