This is the birth story of our son, Landon Charles Ryder.
When my Husband and I found out we were expecting a baby, I already knew I would birth "natural." Birth, to me, was a coming-of-age connection to all women before me was something I truly looked forward to. Almost as soon as I saw the + on the home pregnancy test, I began researching. What classes did I want to take? Who was the best OB? What’s a “Birth Plan” and do I need one? Those were a few of my first questions.
My pregnancy progressed un-eventfully, just as every couple hopes. At my 36-week appointment the OB/GYN offered a pelvic exam, as standard procedure. I was just over 2cm dilated and 90% effaced, the amniotic sac was bulging and Landon was slightly descending into my pelvis. For a first time mom, not yet term, this was serious progress. As I was currently in a state of whaleness (whaleness meaning I felt, looked, and probably walked like a whale out of water would) the news couldn't have made me feel any better. Despite any evidence, I felt those 2cm were a sign that labor would come sooner rather than later. Two weeks later, my OB offered a membrane sweep to "get things going", even though my body was making progress by itself at just 38 weeks. That Monday, after consideration I decided to proceed with the membrane sweep.
Tuesday night I began having light, regular contractions coming every 5 minutes and lasting 30 seconds to a minute. I went to bed, and woke up about every hour and a half from the pressure, but was able to sleep through most of them.
Wednesday I took several showers to help with pressure and we timed contractions. Showers rock. My contractions were coming every 3 and a half-4 minutes and lasting 45 second to a minute. They were stronger than period cramps, but I could still walk and talk through them. Thus began the waiting game.
I had been contracting regularly for more than 24 hours and my contractions were now 3 minutes apart. Although my pain was not substantial, I was sure I was in labor. Probably irrationally, I was worried that I might be progressing without much pain. Considering I had been a bit more than 3 cm progressed two days before I only had 6 cm to go and an accidental car delivery wasn't an option. Around 8, Wednesday evening, we decided to head to the hospital.
My worry of painless labor with lots of progress came from my sister’s first birth story. The first few hours of her labor were similar to mine. Not much pain but regular, close contractions. When she arrived to the hospital she was 8 cm. and delivered her son less than an hour later. If I was progressing like her I knew he could be here very soon.
We packed up the car slowly, called my parents and talked to our doula. She told us to go in and get checked then let her know how far along I was. When we arrived at the hospital I was 4 cm dilated and completely effaced. I progressed to almost 5 cm within the hour, so we decided to stay.
Most of my time was spent in the shower. I would do hip circles, sit and try to relax, or my husband would rub my back. I wanted to be on good terms with the nurse so each time she came to monitor with me I would agree. I was being monitored for twenty minutes every out of each hour. Landon was quiet low so in order to actually catch his heartbeat I had to be lying down and the monitors were pressed into my stomach. Unfortunately this was very painful.
Since we had been in the hospital more than 5 hours I decided to be checked again. My nursed performed the exam, she informed us (doula, husband, my mom and I) that I was just over 5 cm.
I had been laboring for more than 24 hours at this point and had only progressed 2 cm. Attempting to forget the number, hopped back in the shower and tried to keep my spirits up.
Several hours later, after more frustration with the monitors, I decided to be checked again. This time I asked if she would call my doctor to do it. I didn’t want the nurse doing any more of my exams as she was a bit rough.
I was still just over 5 cm. at this point it was about 4 in the morning. My doctor recommended AROM. He thought I wasn’t progressing very much because my water was cushioning my cervix. I had the choice to be released, labor at home, and wait for my water to break and things to pick up, or for him to break it then. He left and let us discusses the options.
At this point my emotions were high; I didn’t want my water broken. My goal was to labor without medical interventions and I was worried that AROM might begin a cascade of unnecessary interventions. At the same time I was also worried that I wouldn’t be able to labor much longer without a break. Yes, my water would break on its own eventually, but we didn’t know if it would break in an hour, or in another 8, and I was already pretty tired. I decided that since I was actively contracting, already 5 cm and fully effaced. The risks of AROM seemed slim in comparison to the risks of the Epidural I had in the back of my mind. After some tears I decided to have him break my water.
If you haven’t yet experienced amniotic membrane rupture, just take my word it’s strange. Doc pulled out the big crochet hook, checked my dilation again and broke my water. For some reason I expected it to hurt but it didn’t. The only thing I could feel was a sudden gush of water that completely felt like I was peeing myself.
Luckily, the strong contractions didn’t begin right away; they came on slowly for a few hours. By six am, the pressure had increased significantly and I stopped referring to contractions and pressure and started thinking of them as pain (probably part of the reason it hurt so much but oh well) . I couldn’t relax between contractions and Landon was having decels with a few of the contractions. I changed positions a bit more, tried doing some figure eights with my hips and his heart rate stabilized. He was probably just in a strange position but who knows.
At this point I started to really think I wanted an epidural. It was about 6 am and I had been laboring for almost 36 hours. I was completely exhausted.
I asked for an epi. After some discussion with my H and doula I finally I decided to have my OB check me again. The anesthesiologist was actually in the room waiting for me to decide. Talk about pressure. I think I was 7 cm, not quiet 8 but I can’t remember. I made a quick decision to wait it out another 30 minutes before getting the epidural.
I wobbled back to the shower and tried to distract myself from the pain. By now the shower was no longer relieving the pain. My entire body hurt when a pressure wave would come. They were close together and strong. Squatting in the shower and doing hip circles was all that kept me sane. I began to feel slight pressure like a bowel movement and knew that was a good sign. Even though it had only been about 30 minutes I asked to be checked again, 9 cm. In just 30 minutes I had progressed more than a centimeter. I continued to squat and move around in the shower. I think my husband was worried about me because I was moaning and my head was swaying back and forth.
Soon after returning to the shower I started to push gently with the contractions. The gentle push helped with the pain and my confidence. I figured I was pretty much ready to push at that point and got out to be checked again. The nurse didn’t have a chance to check me because I had a very strong contraction and turned over to hands and knees. The next contraction I pushed with.
Pushing was a strange sensation. I would feel a contraction begin, and then start to push, as soon as I pushed the pain from the contraction would go away. The harder I pushed the less pain there was. I only felt the “uncontrollable urge to push” through 2 of my contractions. The rest I pushed simply because it felt good. The uncontrollable urge was pretty interesting. The only thing I can compare it to is when you know you’re about to throw up and you couldn’t stop yourself no matter what. My body took control and I pushed without even meaning to.
After only a few pushes Landon was crowning. I knew he was crowning because pushing started causing a burning sensation around my urethra. I knew I should probably just breathe through a few contractions so that I didn’t tear but I just couldn’t. The contraction pain was worse than the burning so I pushed through it.
Next thing I knew London’s head had been birthed and the hard part was over. A few more pushes and he slid right out! Over all I couldn’t have been actively pushing longer than 30 minutes, a nice ending to a long labor.
Landon Charles was born at 8:22 am on December the 31st. He weighed exactly 7 pounds and was 19 ½ inches long.
Thank you for reading our birth story.
