The Birth Story Series - Lindsey’s Story
Welcome to the Birth Story Series! Sharing birth stories helps normalize birth and takes some of the fear of the unknown out of the equation. I am excited to share this space to honor birth stories from women in our community. Birth is transformative, beautiful, and profound no matter how it happens!
If you'd like to share your birth story send us an email by filling out our contact form here. All birth experiences and stories are welcome here; epidural, unmedicated, c-section, loss, home birth, however birth looked for you, this is a safe space to share!
My first birth was long, difficult and went almost the complete opposite way that I hoped it would. I learned from that experience to let go of expectations but I still hoped for a water birth the second time around.
My guess date was July 8th but I had always had this feeling that her due date had to do with the number 5. I was confident she would come closer to the 5th of July. I started vacation from work on July 5th thinking it would run into my maternity leave. The week came and went with zero sign of baby. The week of the 12th I started trying all sorts of things to get the baby to decide to arrive earth side. I was walking daily, drinking red raspberry leaf tea and eating pineapple. I had my membranes swept on the 9th and then again on the 13th. It seemed like nothing was working. My sister and her fiance had been staying with us for going on 2 weeks waiting for baby to arrive so they could stay home with our daughter while we were at the hospital but were set to leave on the 15th. I was convinced that I would probably go into labor after they left.
I woke up the morning of the 15th and noticed some fluid leaking. The same thing had happened with my first birth so I knew from experience that if nothing happened after 24 hours that they would want to induce me, which I didn't want. I was working from but continued to try to walk around the house whenever I could to try to encourage things to get moving. Around 12p I took a lunch break to eat and put my daughter down for her nap. I noticed when I was placing her in her crib that my back started aching. I hoped it was a good sign of labor progressing. I went back into my office, where I shared a home working space with my husband. The back aches continued until I was so uncomfortable I had to stand up.
Suddenly, around 1pm I had my first contraction but it was all in my back. It sent me to my hands and knees and was already pretty intense. Within a few minutes I was back to the ground breathing through the contractions in my back. I could barely talk through them. After the 3rd or 4th contraction like that my husband convinced me to go downstairs to labor in our room as I had originally planned. I got in the shower which helped. I was consistently having contractions every 2 minutes to the point where my husband would be able to count down when the next contraction was happening. For some reason I mis-remembered the directions of 4-1-1 and instead thought I needed to wait until contractions were 1 minute apart before heading in (due to my last birth I wanted to wait as long as possible to go into the hospital). My husband called the hospital and they said for us to start making our way in. As I made my way out of the bathroom the intensity rose dramatically. I started to worry about the intensity and started doubting whether I could handle the contractions for another 4-6 hours which is what I thought was the minimum time I would be in labor for. I slowly made my way out of the house to the car, pausing for 3 contractions before making it to the car. All the contractions remained in my back the entire time.
I couldn't sit at this point because the contractions were so strong. I was on all fours in the back of the car as my husband drove to the hospital. I told my husband that I didn't think I could handle the intensity any longer and that I needed an epidural. Halfway to the hospital I felt her head move down and intensity rose even more. I let out a yell for what felt like a full minute. I didn't want to push because I wanted to make it to the hospital.
We finally made it to the ER entrance. I was howling through contractions at this point, as they helped unload me from the car and onto a wheelchair, which I rode on my knees facing the nurse pushing it. While I knew baby was so close there was also part of me still doubting and thinking I had hours to go. We got into the room and I said that I needed an epidural. They told me that it was time to push. I started pushing as much as I could instead of waiting to use the contractions. The nurses and midwife were absolutely amazing and were a calming presence the entire time. Once I finally accepted that she would be joining us soon and not in hours I relaxed enough to use my contractions for each push. While pushing was still exhausting and painful it felt SO much better to push with the contractions. I was excited everytime I could feel her move down a bit further. Finally, we could see her head! After a few more pushes the nurses and midwife told me "one more push". I pushed as hard as I could but nothing happened. There was some commotion as they realized her shoulder was stuck (shoulder dystocia). The nurses worked quickly and efficiently to free the baby's shoulder. Once she came out the first thing I saw was the nurse unwrapping the umbilical cord from around her neck...3 times. When they placed her on my chest I was in shock and worried as she wasn't crying. Everyone was smiling but I was still worried about the baby.
Then suddenly, a wave of relief, as she began to cry. Our baby girl had arrived: 8lbs 7oz! In total the whole labor and delivery took 2 hours and 40 minutes which was shorter than the amount of time I pushed for my first birth!
