To recap: my waters broke at about 1:30am followed by contractions - but of inconsistent intensity and frequency - for the rest of the night. At about 9am I called my mum and the midwife, Debbie, to tell them what was happening, but told them I was not yet in 'established labour', defined as 'strong, regular contractions' generally of no more than about five minutes apart.
Debbie said that if things hadn't gotten established by around lunch time she'd want me to come into the birth centre for a check, since my waters had broken. My mum said she'd be there in about an hour to collect Liam. All good. Somewhere in there we also called our doula, Vickie.
But then, things started hotting up. I was having more trouble focusing and relaxing through the contractions, especially with Liam popping in and out. Actually that's an understatement. It just wasn't happening. However I was still breathing rather than yelling at this point. Chris was mostly off trying to get Liam ready to go to my Mum's, but he'd left the watch in the room with me. So - since they were definitely getting a lot more intense - I started timing contractions. By the time my mother arrived at around 10am I had been having five minute apart contractions for at least half an hour. Mum took one look at me and said she didn't think, if she were me, that she'd be waiting till lunch time. In fact she would suggest that we head to the birth centre as soon as she left. Sage advice, as it turned out.
At that point I hadn't been thinking in terms of heading straight in, but her words prompted just that decision. As soon as she left with Liam, I had Chris call Debbie who arranged to meet us at the birth centre in half an hour. Of course, at that point we realised all the things 'we' (Chris) had to do before we left - change the sheets on Liam's bed, for one, since he'd wet the bed the night before, and change the sheets on our own bed in case my mum ended up sleeping there that night (I was still expecting to be home that night, but just in case...) - in retrospect I see that this was possibly not as urgent as I thought at the time. (And anyway I'll wake Chris up earlier next time!)
So, it was after 10:30 by the time we managed to leave the house - Debbie's notes said that we arrived at the birth centre at 11:00. On the way in I had a contraction at exactly the same spot as I remember having one on the way to give birth to Liam. That spot on Sulwood Drive will always harbour labour memories for me now. When we got there Debbie took us into our room - the same room Liam was born in - and took my blood pressure, listened to the baby's heartbeat, checked my pulse and whatnot. While she was doing that I had a couple more contractions but was able to sit on the edge of the bed and breathe through them.
Debbie said the bath (a large corner bath) was already filled, since Chris had told her on the phone that I wanted to come in to get in the bath, but that I might want to walk around a bit before getting in as the water could slow things down. I joked that that wouldn't be entirely unwelcome, but I was only half joking. I remembered how relaxing the bath was in my labour with Liam, how it helped me get right into the hypnobirthing/calmbirthing zone, and that was what I was counting on happening again.
Ha!
Debbie left us to get settled in, and I stripped off in record time and got in the water (not before having another contraction however, standing up, which really is not a good position for me during labour). Ahh, lovely. But what's this? Another contraction already? And, and - It was not easy to breathe through. In fact by this time my contractions were all accompanied by a sort of deep groaning breath, not just quiet breathing - that seemed to help somehow. A couple more contractions in quick succession and I was just about ready for drugs, and wondering how I'd get through. I was praying (literally, and I don't do that all that often) that this was transition - even though I'd been expecting several more hours before we got to that point - otherwise I did not know how I was going to get through.
I remember Chris wondering aloud whether he should go and get the midwife - or maybe he was talking to Vickie, who'd arrived shortly after I'd entered the bath. I was thinking the same thing, wanting Debbie to come in so that she could tell me it would shortly all be over. Please God! The next thing I knew Debbie was in there, and telling Chris that she could hear the change in my voice during contractions. Yes, I was no longer even remotely quiet. I was still using the calmbirthing though, and relaxing as much as I could.
The next thing I knew I was right in the middle of a normal contraction, when suddenly it became a push. I believe I said "Oh god, oh god, she's coming." I know, it sounds like a soap opera, but that's what I said. I don't remember having anything like this level of awareness of switching gears during my labour with Liam, but this time it was clear as bells. Debbie's notes say that this, the start of second stage, happened at 11:50, about 1/2 hour after I got into the water.
Now, I have to say that this was one of the hardest things I have ever done. I don't remember any sense of voluntary pushing - my body was just doing its thing - so I suppose the hard part was in letting it. I know I was very anxious not to tear (again) so there was a part of me that was wanting to hold back. Chris was right there reminding me to use my breath to breathe the baby down (not just to screech). Remarkably, this was actually helpful. I was freaking out a bit, and his reminders - and Debbie's - helped me to calm down and not hyperventilate!
I remember Debbie saying 'just one more push' and me saying 'really? is she really coming?' by which I really meant 'is it really about to be over?' Which of course it wasn't - one more push was to crowning, not birth.
It's funny how the mind works in amidst everything else. While all this was going on I was lying - or more like floating - on my side in the water, and once second stage got underway Debbie said it would help to have my legs open up a bit, so I asked Vickie to help support my upper leg. So when Debbie said it was almost over, while part of me was thinking 'thank God' and 'I am never doing this again' another part of me was thinking 'Just was well, because Vickie's arms must be getting awfully tired.'
Mikaela's head crowned - which means it not only was visible but stopped retracting between contractions - at 12:02am. And that's another thing, I remember the feeling of her moving back in after the end of the contractions and desperately not wanting it too, since that meant I'd have to just push her back again! I don't remember having that level of awareness of what was happening during Liam's birth. Of course, second stage with him was a lot longer, so I guess it might be all more of a blur - plus I'd been going at it all night (in established labour) so I was pretty tired by the time it came to pushing him out.
Then I think there was a bit of a break between her crowning and her head popping all the way out (with the cord around her neck, same as Liam - something I always used to think was a big deal, but found out when Liam was born that it is actually very common and not much of an issue - the midwife just unloops it). Or maybe the break was between her head and the rest of her. I remember once her head came out Debbie asked if the contraction was still there, to which I murmured a vague assent, and so she said I might be able to push the shoulder (and therefore the rest of her) out before it finished. Even as she was speaking I knew the contraction was pretty much done, but I tried anyway, so keen was I to be finished. So when there was that break between contractions at around this point, while it was something of a relief, it was mostly an annoyance, with the finish line in sight, so to speak.
Chris was up near my head providing a hand for me to keep a death grip on (actually more important than it sounds, since it was also helping me maintain my balance in the water), but Vickie was down the other end and able to see Mikaela's face when she came out. She wrote "From my position I had a clear view of the baby's face, it was
absolutely serene with a Mona Lisa smile." Of course she also said " Kirsten laboured with focused and well measured breathing, her face was beautifully soft, her mouth slightly opened, her eyes closed." This was referring to the transition period, which is not precisely how I remember it at all. Then again she said Chris was stoking my hair, which I thought was something she imagined, but Chris told me it was true. So I guess my record may not be completely accurate!
Anyway, at 12:10pm on June 24, less than 3 hours after labour had established, Mikaela came out into the world and straight up onto my chest in the water. They brought warm blankets to put over the exposed parts of us and I just held her.
She was amazing. And slippery. And at that stage we still didn't know she was a she (although I'd been referring to her that way the whole labour). The cord was in the way of our view as she came up, so no-one had seen. After a few minutes Debbie asked if it would be okay with me to let the water out, as it was hard to keep us warm - the blankets kept wicking up the water and needing to be changed - while we waited for the third stage to initiate (more contractions to expel the placenta). I said fine, but first I lifted her up to check if she was indeed Mikeala, or was some as yet unnamed boy. Mikaela she was (though I did almost drop her back into the water in the process, which I could almost swear happened with Liam too - slippery, like I said).
Of course, once the water was out of the bath and with it my lovely buoyancy, the bath had a hard bottom and was not all that comfortable. So after a couple of minutes I asked for and received help to get out - Mikaela never leaving my arms - and was deposited onto the (double) bed. There Mikaela nuzzled at my breast, though without latching on, and after a while the contractions started up again and out came the placenta. Those contractions were more like the ones from earlier in the labour though, thank goodness: easy to relax and breath through.
Once the placenta was out Mikaela did latch on and spent the next hour-and-a-half sucking away happily.
All in all this labour seemed harder - and much shorter - than Liam's, but I felt somehow more in control. I think it seemed harder mostly because I never had a chance to get into the calmbirthing 'zone' which I spent hours in during Liam's labour. And I felt more in control - more aware of what was happening - partly because I'd done it all before, maybe partly because I wasn't so tired by the end, and partly because I knew the midwife and connected with her. She was truly wonderful. Will I do it again? Well we'll have to wait and see. If we do go back for another turn, then yes, I would do it the same way. Except next time I will wake Chris earlier and go into the birth centre quite a bit earlier (after all, it went from 12 hours established labour with Liam to 3 with Mikaela - what will the next one be?)!
And thus endeth part 2. Part three, in which we find out whether I did tear again, and how the rest of the day went, will have to wait until another time. And probably won't be called Part 3, since it really won't be Mikaela's birth story anymore will it?
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