Brielle’s Birth Story
I was due March 19, 2012. The day came and went, as did 12 more! My midwife, Liz performed 2 fetal heart tests and one amniotic fluid ultrasound and both were good! I continued to take long walks and enjoy the nice spring weather (unusually warm) with Rhya. She loved the frequent appts as she always got stickers and even got to play on the ipad a few times! She loved Liz and Kristen (Liz’s nurse).
I had a Fri morning appt on March 30th and started having light contractions for the rest of the day. They were very random and bearable so I went to bed that night not expecting much to happen. However, I started to have regular contractions every 5-6 minutes at 11pm. I called Mom at 1:30 am and by the time she arrived they were pretty intense and close together. I still didn’t think I needed to go in yet. After witnessing a few contractions, Mom urged me to get my stuff put together and get going. I woke up Nate (he didn’t expect me to progress that fast!) and we left at 2:30 am. Mom stayed back to watch Rhya.
As we were backing out the driveway we saw two cop cars go whizzing by. They stopped at the baseball diamond and arrested a guy. I knelt on the backseat the whole way and told Nate to slow down for every contraction (bumps- ouch!!). I noticed that he sped up to 70 mph (in a 55 mph zone) in between his orders to slow down!
I managed to walk the whole way to the birthing suite with some help from Nate during the contractions. The nurses were waiting for us and quickly got us settled into a room. She checked me right away and I was already dilated to a 7! Yippee!!! She also said that my water bag was bulging. The nurse hooked me up to a heart rate monitor for five minutes and then let me go straight to the tub with POWERFUL jets. I put my back right next to a jet since I was having more back pain than front pain. Every time a contraction would come I knelt over the side of the tub against Nate’s arm. The pain was way more tolerable that way, and I could get fresh, cool air as well as rock my hips.
Liz arrived after I had labored for an hour or so. She taped some lavender essential oil cotton balls to the side of the tub and started up the CD player with relaxing music. She was an AWESOME labor coach, as she was super encouraging and knew exactly what to say at the proper moments.
I had no concept of time, but before I knew it Liz wanted to check my cervix. I was dilated to a nine! We decided that I should move to the waterbirth tub. All I had on was a bra, so Liz, the nurse, and Nate wrapped me in towels and led me across the hall.
Liz asked me to sit on the toilet through two contractions. They were incredibly painful so Nate knelt/squatted in front of the toilet and I gripped his back/shoulders through the contractions. I vaguely remember us laughing a bit at his runners pose.
During the last toilet contraction Liz suggested that I push a little bit. SWOOOSH!! Out came a huge gush of water. Then I felt a huge urge to push. Liz got a little panicky and told me to STOP pushing! She could feel the baby’s head RIGHT THERE so said we had to get to the tub. I said there was NO WAY I could walk ANYWHERE. She said that I had to and that they’d help. I asked Nate if he could carry me. ;-) I surprised myself and walked over to the tub (while basically hanging on Liz and Nate), climbed up the stepstool, and flopped into the tub. I remember apologizing that I was a crab and they laughed.
I knelt on the floor of the tub and leaned over the side with my head outside the tub. My contractions were almost steady and Liz told me to push. My body knew what to do but I followed Liz’s advice on how much to push. She was all of a sudden telling me to do lots of short HARD pushes. OUCH! After the fact we found out that Brielle’s hand was up by her face, so her head came out fine but it was a very tight squeeze to get her elbow and shoulders out at the same time.
Brielle was born on March 31 at 5:02 am after only a minute of pushing! Liz passed her up to me from below so I was able to lift her up out of the water and then flip around and place her on my chest. She cried a little bit but not much. The nurses brought warm towels and placed them around Brielle’s shoulders. The rest of her body was underneath the warm water.
We got to sit and rest in the tub until the cord stopped pulsing, which took 40 minutes! Brielle spent the time looking around and sputtering a bit. Liz suctioned out a few boogies but other than that we were left to ourselves.
Nate cut the cord and then I moved onto a bed while the nurse dried off Brielle. I then delivered the placenta. Liz also confirmed that did not rip and wasn’t even swollen (thanks to the water birth!)
I took Brielle back again. She started rooting around right away and nursed for TWO hours!! Her latch was instant and strong.
We did not give her a bath for her first couple of days, just rubbed the vernix into her skin for a moisturizer. We also did not give her the eye ointment or the Vitamin K shot, so Brielle was free from all interventions! She was super happy and content. She didn’t leave my side until 9:30 that morning when Leah the nurse weighed and measured her.
Brielle Bethany Lester
8 pounds, 11 ounces, 21 inches long, and a 14 ½ inch head circumference.
