Thomas' birth. Warning: Long story!

0133 on Tuesday, December 30th, 2013.

I was downstairs on the couch sitting through contractions that were uncomfortable enough to make me antsy and unable to sleep.  I had energy, so I emptied the dishwasher and picked up the house, but I could not concentrate on much else.  Finally, around 0400 I was able to go back to sleep on the couch.  I woke to sunlight at about 0645, when I decided to get out there and do some walking, hoping to get this baby out today!  I walked and the contractions did speed up.  I thought they were intense in the morning...

Mike went to work.  I called the midwives at 0945 or so and let them know my contractions were between 2-6 minutes apart.  They suggested I come in and get checked.  I called Mike back and told him to make his way home; I thought we might just have a baby today.

We dropped the boys at my good friend Sonia's, bags packed for them to stay overnight.  Mike stopped at Baskin Robbins on the way, so I could get some ice cream.  We arrived at the hospital and I was disappointed to find I was only dilated to 3 cm, 80% effaced and the baby was a -4 station (that means he was still high up in my pelvis).  I told the midwife my plan was to go natural, no drugs, no epidural.  She suggested it might be more comfortable for me to labor more at home and do some more walking.  At first, I was hoping the contractions would get stronger and more frequent quickly, but after a walk around the hospital that only took Mike and I fifteen minutes, we decided to head home.  I needed to put some shorts on and get better walking shoes.  Mike got some lunch while we were there.

We decided to go over into one of the housing areas and do some more walking, through which I stopped a few dozen times to breath through contractions.  We walked for about an hour and a half and then went back to the house one more time.  We made our way back to the hospital around 1500 where the midwife checked again:  only 4 cm, but 90% effaced and the baby moved to a -2 station.  OMGoodness!!  But, she said she stripped my membranes a bit and was fairly certain by my level of discomfort at that time that things would move pretty quickly from there.

Boy was she right.  I was in a triage room, waiting for my L&D nurse to come and move me to a labor room.  Apparently, I was uncomfortable enough for the contractions to cause vomiting, which is a good sign labor is progressing.  Glad I only ate that ice cream, which I counted on to be not too bad if I did get sick.  All that prior experience with puking while pregnant paid off for delivery!

Not sure what time the nurse came, but we moved to an L&D room, where I proceeded to move on to contractions more intense than anything I had experienced with the first two boys.  I got into the whirlpool tub, but the water was not warm enough and I got cold pretty quickly.  I made Mike help me out, even though he wanted me to wait for the nurse to come back.  I think he was afraid of me falling.  I fell in the shower at 34 weeks and people get a little worried about things like that.  I was shivering though, and just wanted out.  We moved back to the bedside and I got so uncomfortable I had a moment of weakness and decided that I better make sure the window was really closed for an epidural.  Mike said he and the nurse basically ignored me, lol, as sure enough, there was no chance of that.  I asked to be checked again and the midwife came.  8 cm, 90% effaced, baby at 0 station.

At that point, I was laboring on the bed, on my hands and knees.  I had put on my gown backwards (more like a robe) so that if anyone came in they would not see my behind in the air.  Mike later said that turned out to be a good idea.  The midwife said she thought I would be feeling some pressure to push anytime.  She got more people and supplies into the room and stuck around.  I sure did feel that pressure pretty quickly.

The midwife suggested that I turn more onto my left side for the actual pushing.  My water still had not broken and she asked if I would like her to do that.  My question:  "Will it help get this baby out??"  She said probably.  I said yes.  She broke my water, which really did not add any pain to the labor at that point.  I still felt a lot of pressure.

 She then mentioned that I was probably going to be feeling some burning while pushing.  Burning?  Talk about the understatement of the century.  I have since been describing said "burning" as someone putting a blow torch down there.  And I thought the contractions I had been most recently having were painful.  Let me just say, that everything regarding labor just gets progressively worse and more painful until the point of pushing, which is the worst.

An addendum to the story:  Jackson takes piano lessons from a lady whose sister lives here (they are in the Navy).  She was also pregnant and when we went to our first lesson after Thomas was born she and I exchanged birth stories.  I got to the point of telling her about the burning and she said, "Oh yeah, the ring of fire."  My mouth dropped open.  I said, "That is the perfect way to describe it."  Apparently, even some books describe it that way!

The relief only comes once that baby is out.  So push with all your might.

I got a burst of energy when the midwife said the baby had meconium in the fluid.  That gave me the will to push, as I wanted him out as soon as possible to avoid anything bad happening to him.  I gave another two pushes, I think, and he was out.  My first thought was that his face was pretty blue and swollen and that he had a pretty big head.  He looked a lot better by the time they got his weight.

Even after the baby is out, there is not complete relief.  You are still waiting on the placenta.   After the pediatrics team checked out the baby and gave him to me, I was still pretty uncomfortable, not to mention exhausted.  I wanted to much to pick him up and look at him, but I just did not have the energy.  So, he laid there on my chest for a bit, until everything was taken care of and I could sit up.

Mike and I could not decide on a name right away.  And there were too many people coming in and out of the room for us to debate.  Apparently, our baby was the first to get any kind of bodily fluid on our labor nurse's shoes.  She joked that she felt she should get some say in naming him because of that.  We had told her our list of names when she initially brought us to the room and she said she was going to call him Tommy.  Mike and I still had not made a firm decision when we were taken to the postpartum room, but I guess Thomas stuck with both of us because we fairly easily agreed to go with it.  For his middle name, we  thought we would use Arthur for the longest time.  Arthur was Mike's grandpa's name and Mike's middle name.  But we had also thought about Michael, although had more leaned toward Arthur.  Jackson's middle name is for Mike's Dad.  Max's middle name is for my Dad.  And now, Thomas' middle name is for Mike. It was a last minute change.  Mike just said he liked it better.

Mike went home that night, so that he could get something to eat and have a good night's sleep.  He brought Jackson and Max by the next morning to meet the baby.  They were instantly in love.  They stayed for a couple hours and then went back home.  The nurses told me that since this was our third baby, I could go home at 24 hours.  So, 1813 on December 31st they did a heal stick to check bilirubin levels and something else.  All was well, Mike and the boys came back to get us, and we were on our way home.

Going home outfit:  Boys are Awesome!!!

Big brothers ready to take the new baby home

He cried when we first buckled him in, but once we got going, he was quite content in the car seat.  Let's just hope that continues; Jackson and Max were not fans of being in the car seat.