Birth Story

Welcome Baby Ariannah!

She graced us on Friday, January 11th at 10:14pm. Here is our birth story.

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night I was having very mild contractions while lying in bed trying to go to sleep for the night. They went away in the middle of the night and didn't return until the next night when I would lie down to sleep. Thursday night, I opened our back door to get our dogs some fresh water and our Rottweiler tried to come into the house. I kicked at her to back her up, not to actually kick her, and the action of forcing my leg out at her pulled my groin muscle fierce! I could not move! I had to get my 5 year old son to feed the dogs at that point and to help me. I called my husband, who was at work (works nights), and he could not get off of work for a couple of hours to help me get the kids to bed and myself into a hot bath to help my leg feel better. So I semi-crawled/slithered up our stairs to our bedroom so all of us could just go to bed right then. Being just one night shy of 10 months pregnant, I was already having a hard time getting in and out of the bed. Add this to my pulled groin muscle and I couldn't even move to get on the bed. I somehow made it on the bed after making sure that I went to the bathroom, even though being this pregnant we tend to go throughout the night anyway. Around 2 am, I call my husband on his cell phone, who is now home and downstairs, to come upstairs to help me go to the bathroom. Still in pain from groin.

Woke up in the morning with contractions that did not go away in the night this time. Still in pain when trying to get off the bed from groin muscle but can actually walk with a limp. The contractions are very mild and not the typical contractions. The whole time I got them they were more of cramps along the bottom of my belly. They were more like cramps. Still very mild. I did decide to time them out of curiosity and they are about 6-9 minutes apart, but still mild and not getting regular. So I decide to tell DH that he should not go to work. He was suppose to go in early this day at noon. It is Friday now and my actual due date. We stay busy. We clean some, walked around the block. Could only walk around once instead of twice though because my groin muscle still hurts. I am drinking my water and trying to stay fed. I don't have much of an appetite but I know that I need to keep myself well fed. I don't eat big meals, but I eat something. Mostly peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I start repacking my bag and the snack bag that I am taking with me. I already have baby bag packed. I start getting all of our stuff together to load into the truck. We take out the kids seats and put in the baby car seat. I have by now taken about 2 hot showers to help me get warm and comfortable. The cramps are still not getting any stronger but are just strong enough to be annoying and still not any closer together or further apart.

I decide that I should probably get some rest, seeing how I don't know exactly how long this will last and do not want to tire out early! I take a hot bath (shouldn't have done this probably...) and lie down to nap. I took a good couple of hours! About 3 or 4ish, don't exactly remember which, we decide to take the kids to the park. It is a nice warm, sunny day out! We stay out there about an hour. The kids have fun! We come back home and sit for a while. About 5ish, we decide to start supper and see how things go. I go upstairs to take another shower, but once up there decide that I am not going to shower. If I get in the shower I am not going to want to come out. It is at this point that I decide to call the midwife to see about coming in. The cramps have started to get stronger but still not closer together for about a half hour now. We decide that we are going to eat dinner and then see if I want to come in. We eat. They are getting strong enough that they are actually getting painful now. Now my groin muscle still hurts also. Walking is not fun. After we finish dinner, which I actually had enough of an appetite to eat all of, I call the on-call midwife and we decide to meet at the birth center. So we get the other 2 kiddos set up with their night night clothes and some movies and pillows and head over to our neighbor's house so they can all chill out over there. We get to the birth center about 7:30pm. My midwife checks me out of my own curiosity and I am at 5cm dialated and 90% effaced. Not bad. I was really hoping I wasn't a 2 or a 3! I would have just turned around and came home, but I am far enough along in my own opinion to stay. I need some new techniques to help me handle the cramps. They are still not the typical contractions on the belly. I don't have any contracting feelings on my belly at all still. Baby has been at a +3 station for about a month so we are really just waiting to see what happens as labor progresses. The midwife sets me up on a birthing ball for the time being and it helps so much with handling the cramps now. I didn't have this at home. I spent a little over an hour on the ball. The midwife comes back in after hearing me get more vocal with each cramp and checks me again to see if I can get into the tub. I am dialated enough now to get into the tub! Yay!

I am a water girl! I love hot baths! So this is like heaven to me! And as an added bonus, my groin muscle does not hurt that much in the hot water! I can actually manuever it to get comfortable! So after spending a little more than an hour in the tub, my water still has not broken. And cervix has moved down enough that my midwife now feels that she can actually get to it to break it even with baby's head that far down. So as soon as the cramp stops I say, "Okay, 1,2,3, go!" real fast and I get up and they help me out of the tub and onto the bed so my groin muscle doesn't pull and she breaks my water on the bed. Not much water comes out. And they help me back off the bed and back into the water before the next cramp hits. As I am on the bed getting my water broken, the birth assistant is filling the tub up with nice hot water again for me. Now I ask for my water to be broken. My cramps were getting very intense that it was hard for me to deal with. I could feel the water bag pushing out in a spherical sensation that pushed against the inside of the crook of my legs and my butt at the same time. Like I was going to explode! I was almost begging them to break my water. We all knew that as soon as my water broke, the game was going to be over! And sure enough, I had one full cramp. The very next cramp, I made it half way and then all of a sudden the baby came all the way down the birth canal so I didn't have any break in between cramps. No break! No breath! She came down so fast that I went straight as a board in the tub. I could not release my muscles to feel baby's head or to bend my knees so baby could come out! I was stuck! I think I finally released one of my legs so it could bend and baby's head came out and then the shoulder's got stuck for a minute. The midwife turned baby and then she came all the way out. Exactly 9 minutes after they broke my water. My whole labor from the time I got to the birth center was a little over 3 hours. My third baby was my first drug-free, natural birth. All three of them were vaginal births. It stung a little pushing her out, but I am tear free! I had a little skid mark and that was it. We stayed at the birth center our 4 hours and was cleared to go home.

I am still processing the whole experience and it's been a week now. Ariannah is doing great! She was 7 pounds 11 ounces born on her ultrasound due date. She was 20 inches long with a head circumference of 13 inches. She latched right away in the tub and then again in the bed. She pretty much stayed latched on the whole time we were at the birth center! She comfort nursed a lot. But then again, so did my other 2 kids. So that was nothing new.

We came home about 3 am and slept until about 9am when Hubby went and got the kids from our neighbors. They immediately loved the new baby! It was so cute how they hugged and kissed the new baby! After this, Ariannah had latch problems for a few days. She would slide off a little. Just enough to leave blisters. Ouch! Then after a couple days of fixing that, we got Thrush. Ugh! Made a home remedy and applied diligently for a couple of days and we are now doing wonderful!

So now we are enjoying our new bundle of sleeping joy!