Late Sunday evening into early Monday morning (March 28th/29th) I began having my very first contractions, and I knew that they were not Braxton Hicks contractions (which i never had). I told Chris that each contraction "felt like someone was carving out my soul", yikes! And then my mucous plug (bloody show) came out, which is the membrane that closes off your cervix during pregnancy. Our midwives went over the signs of early labor with us at one of our prenatal appointments, so even though I was set on having Carys on or after April 5th (her due date), I had a feeling she would be arriving a few days early (even if i didn't want to admit it to myself). I called Lori (one of our midwives - the other one is Tierney) and told her what was going on and she told me to relax and go about my normal day, so i did just that. I saw our chiropractor on monday and tuesday, who i had been seeing the last two weeks of my pregnancy after we found out Carys was breech, for the Webster Technique.
Early Wednesday morning (March 31st) around 2:30am my water broke. Which I was surprised at b/c contrary to how birth is depicted on tv and movies, only something like 5% of women have spontaneous rupture of membranes (i guess the water usually breaks while already in labor, or the doctor or midwife will break it themselves). Right before my water broke, Chris and I were watching a movie, well I wasn't really watching it bc my contractions were so bad. So while Chris was watching a movie, I was trying to sleep in between contractions, while also trying to time them (dont ask). After the movie was over he said I fell asleep and he went into the basement. So around 2:30am, I woke up to a popping sound (it didnt hurt or anything) and I knew my water broke bc this is how it was always described to me, and when it happens you just know! I yelled down to Chris that my water broke. And that's when we both new that it was party time... birthday party time :) Later on, after Carys was born, Chris told me that when I told him my water broke he almost fainted... poor guy.
Anyway, we went upstairs and Chris set up our bed and floor, and got together all of the birth supplies. Meanwhile I sat at my computer desk and timed my contractions on this contraction master website. Chris called our midwives and told them to come in a couple of hours bc my contractions were getting closer together and stronger. And at that point I felt that I could labor on my own for a little while. I tried listening to my Hypnobabies, a form of hypnobirthing that I had been using to prepare for childbirth. However, I found them EXTREMELY annoying while in labor. I was like, OMG how does this idiot expect me to relax during the most pain I've ever felt in my life. However, I did find that listening to them as preparation did help me in having the natural childbirth that I wanted. I just could not listen to them while actually in labor. Anyway, I think my midwives got to our house around 5-6am, and I had been laying in bed pretty much since my water broke... just riding the contraction waves... clinging onto my bed sheets with each contraction. Tierney and Lori asked if I was fearful of anything at that point, and I said "I'm just in so much pain and I don't know what to do" and they just looked at me with sympathy and said "yeah." Obviously they didn't come with an epidural in tow, so I knew they weren't going to magically take my pain away. Their reaction to my statement made me realize that I was just going to have to find the strength in myself to get through the day. And I knew all of this going into childbirth, and I knew exactly what I was in for having a homebirth. If I wanted someone to magically make my pain disappear I would be in the hospital. I just had to keep reminding myself why I was having a homebirth. I'm not going to lie, there were several times I asked myself, throughout my labor, "why exactly I was doing this without pain meds?" and "wouldn't a C-Section just be easier?" and "was my dad right, am i insane for wanting to do this w/o even taking a tylenol?"
But then I would remember that I absolutely did NOT want to go to the hospital or have ANY pain medication, and I would remember all of the reasons why I was doing is this way, this is exactly what I wanted and I was getting it. So really the only thing I could do was just embrace the pain and deal with each second as it came. I really had to focus on staying in the moment and not get caught up with getting scared. I knew that child birth was natural and I knew my body could get through it. I just TRIED to breath and relax through each contraction... much easier said than done!
At 10am the midwives asked me if I wanted to know how dialated I was. I guess some women don't want to know but I was dying to know. When they checked me they said I was around 9cm which was awesome bc you can start pushing at 10cm, however, later we found out that breech babies present differentley in the cervix so I probably was really around 6cm (this is what the midwives told me at one of our post-natal appointments bc they delivered another breech baby a couple of weeks after Carys was born).
So I was in labor for 16 hours... during this time I was: laying in bed, sitting on the birthing ball, hanging out in the bath tub or shower, trying to walk around the house or up and down the stairs, or sitting on the toilet. The midwives kept shoving honey down my throat bc I couldn't eat (you're just NOT hungry AT ALL when you're in labor) and they wanted to give me some sugar so I would have energy when it came time to push. Chris, bless his heart lol, couldn't really do anything to help me. If I asked him for anything of course he would do it, or get it. I think I told him a couple of times that I was fine and to leave me alone. But I didn't really want anyone to help me or talk to me. Even my midwives said they were kinda bored the whole day bc I was doing so well on my own. I'm very independent in life... so i guess that transferred over to labor. I'm just not a needy person.
Around 6:45pm (i'm just guessing the time) I started pushing. Everyone says they get a really strong urge to push, but I didn't... maybe it's bc Carys was breech, but the only reason I started pushing is bc I was 10cm, and my midwives told me to, and bc I just wanted the whole labor thing to be OVER and of course I wanted to see my precious baby girl after 9 loooong months of waiting.
Unlike how it's usually done in hospitals, I was not lying in bed on my back with my legs up in the air pushing. I was... get ready for this... on all fours, yes on my hands and knees, on our bedroom floor. This is the best way to push out a breech baby. This position wasn't really working so I got into a squatting position at the end of our bed and hung onto the footboard, the gravity worked really well to bring Carys down so then they instructed me to get back down on all fours. At some point while I was pushing I heard Tierney yell at Chris to find his feet. I guess this was because he was jumping up and down around the bedroom, lol. He was so excited, we were all so excited! Then he got in front of me and I held onto him as I continued to push... really hard. I just remember EVERYONE yelling at me to push, which I obivously was doing so that was kind of annoying. After about an hour of pushing Carys Willow was born at 7:35pm. So, b/c she was breech, she came out butt first... then her legs dropped down, and so her legs and torso were out and with the last push her head came out. And there she was... a perfect little baby girl!
