As I sit here holding my sweet, sweet baby, I cannot help but reminisce on the day that she made her grand entrance into the world. My labor and her birth were a total of seventeen hours and honestly, I loved every single second of it. On my birth preferences sheet, I wrote that my ideal labor and delivery experience would be a joy-filled water birth and that is exactly what we got in the end, but it was a crazy ride getting there, that is for sure! Let me tell you the story of our Sweet Avery’s birthday, which just happens to be a hospital water birth story:
The Weeks + Days Before My Induction:
I had quite a bit of progress over 39 and 40 weeks of my pregnancy, but all of my signs and symptoms ended up fizzling out and turning into nothing. I was pretty frustrated that nothing was happening even though I had tons of cramps, blood, and mucus – things that some people only get right before labor starts, or even during active labor. Keyword: SOME. I was not one of those people.
My doula, Olivia, was so encouraging. She reminded me that even though I didn’t necessarily see any imminent signs of active labor once everything fizzled out (many times), that it did not mean that my body was not progressing. Instead, she said that everything that was happening would help me once I did get into active labor. It was all very good progress – just not the progress that I was expecting!
The day I hit 41 weeks, I knew that I needed to get things moving along. I talked with one of my midwives and we agreed that I would try practically everything to get things going. That week, I walked, danced, ate eggplant parm and very spicy thai food, I juiced a whole pineapple, I did stair lunges, and the list goes on and on. From a medical standpoint, I went into my midwifery practice 4 times that week – I had 3 cervical sweep & stretches (ouch) and one NST. The entire time, I was 3/4 cm dilated (just depending on who checked). On Wednesday, we agreed that I needed to have this baby and we had to schedule an induction since I was about to hit 42 weeks. I left that appointment devastated. I cried and cried and cried on my way home. All I could think about was the fact that an induction = extra interventions, which is something that I just did not want. I didn’t want to be hooked up to wires or have an IV to administer pitocin and I most definitely did not want pain medicine, if I could avoid it (and I thought that I would cave since an induction is supposed to make contractions much harder and faster).
At the same time, I felt a sense of relief. I knew when I would have my baby and I did not have to worry about it anymore. I didn’t have to do everything to get her to come. So, later that day, I went and got a massage, got my nails done, and just relaxed. I stopped doing everything and I just enjoyed our last two days of marriage, without kids. Ian and I went out to dinner both nights (Italian the first night and Korean BBQ the second night) and just had a blast together. It was perfect…but if I had to redo anything, I maybe wouldn’t get Korean BBQ again 😉
The Day of Avery’s Birth:
On the morning of my induction, Ian and I both were a ball of nerves. We went and had coffee at one of our favorite coffee shops, then got a smoothie, and then ran back by the house, kissed the pups bye, and headed over to the hospital. We were both so nervous – I felt like I was going to throw up, and we were both shivering from the AC running, but sweating at the same time. We had no idea what to expect and it was just very nerve wracking.
Once we got to the hospital, we were immediately placed in a room and I got dressed in my hospital gown. They hooked me up to take my blood pressure and get Avery’s HR. My blood pressure was THROUGH THE ROOF. My nurse just looked at me and said, “Yeah… We need to get that down.” Haha! Thankfully, once my midwife came in, checked me, and explained what the plan was, I was able to calm down a bit and my blood pressure started to go back down. The plan was to start with Cytotec instead of Pitocin since I was having some contractions already (nothing significant). We hoped that my contractions would kick up with just 1 or 2 doses, but they warned us that we might potentially have to do 4 doses and then pitocin if nothing was progressing. I was so happy with this decision because it allowed me to stay without an IV. The ONLY hang up was that once I took Cytotec, I had to be on a HR monitor for baby and I could not get into the tub until 4 hours after my dose…but still, better than being hooked up to ALL the things + using Pitocin. I got a membrane sweep and we got things started!
Around 11am, Olivia arrived and I also got my first dose of Cytotec. From there, we pretty much hung out in our room eating, sharing stories (mostly drama-filled stories lol!), and watching Say Yes To The Dress. My contractions were increasing and some were relatively painful, but Olivia kept telling me to downplay them for as long as I could and that’s just what I did! Around 3:30/4pm or so, my contractions were coming, but they were still very inconsistent, so we did another round of Cytotec.
During the next four hours, we had guests in and out – Olivia stayed the whole time, Ian’s parents were in the room quite a bit in the beginning, and my sisters, Katie and Jenny visited, as well. I mainly just laid on my left and then my right side, but I also did some ball bouncing, as well, which is when my contractions would always ramp up. Once the next dose of Cytotec was up, I was checked again and I was still only 4 cm and only 80% effaced…so not much progression, BUT my contractions were coming much stronger and very frequently, so they were unable to give me another dose of Cytotec. At that point, that meant that I was cleared to get into the tub (once I hit 6cm) AND I was free to get off the HR monitor, so I could walk around. I got another membrane sweep and we were off walking the halls.
We were in and out of the waiting room, where Ian’s parents were, Ian and I walked outside, where I told him that I thought that I would puke at some point that night (I kept getting waves of nausea, but nothing serious), and Olivia, Jenny, Ian, Katie, and myself walked up and down the halls, down and up some stairs (I did two stairs at a time on the way up), and we occasionally sat down. I was definitely slowing down at this point and I was in the birthing mode. Things were getting painful, I was getting contractions more frequently, and it was to the point where I would slow down walking, or have to stop. I remember trying to listen and talk, but once a contraction hit, it was getting hard to talk through them. Olivia mentioned walking the hall one more time and then heading back to the room for some ball bouncing, so that’s what we did! On the way back to the room around 10:30pm, my water broke! It was the world’s strangest feeling ever and I knew exactly what it was because of the popping sound. SO surreal. But, it was not like the movies. My shorts were soaked, but there was not a puddle on the floor (from what I remember). We went and told my nurse and she did a strip to make sure that it was actually my water. It came back negative, but I just knew that it was my water, so I wasn’t concerned.
Not even a few minutes passed and I had to throw up. I sat up quickly, and Olivia (or maybe Ian?) grabbed a puke bag, and that’s when the gush of water came. My water DEFINITELY broke and this time, it was very apparent. A this point, I sat on a ball and leaned up against the bed. My sister texted her friend when I was in this position and said, “Oh she is hitting that point! Her head has gone down and she’s stopped talking and can’t even think straight to answer yes/no questions.” Haha! Around 11:30pm, I was in bed doing side lying. Olivia started diffusing peppermint and gave me a cool washcloth with essential oils to smell when I felt nauseous because I threw up two more times. This helped SO much. She also started playing relaxing music and massaged my leg when I was on one side. When I flipped sides, I was in too much pain to have anyone touch me and I started getting hip pain and serious back labor, so I asked how I could relieve the back pain and she suggested that I flip over to my hands and knees.
This position was better, but still really painful. I labored here for about 20 minutes or so, according to Ian. At this point, I just remember occasionally shaking my head no and I wondered if I was going through transition, but thought that there was no way since I was only 4 cm last time they checked me. We were going to give it 30-45 more minutes and then I was going to get checked. We were all crossing our fingers that I would be 6 cm dilated – we were trying to time it perfectly so that I could labor in the tub as much as possible. I was just so in the zone – breathing deep, deep breaths, through the contractions. After each contraction passed, I would start fresh with the next one (thank you so much for this advice, Olivia!).
I thought that the Korean BBQ was sneaking up on me (haha), so I asked what would happen if I tried to poop (we were talking about the Korean BBQ all day – how it was a bad decision, so this was not out of the blue!). We all joked that everyone in the room would know if I was about to push out a baby, so I headed off to the bathroom…and I did poop. But, as I was pooping, the sensation to poop kept getting stronger and stronger. I thought that my stomach was just SEVERELY messed up from the Korean BBQ, but I guess I started grunting some and Olivia and Ian came in asking if I felt like I was pushing out a baby. I just responded saying that I had no idea, so Olivia called the midwife in and this is when my sister left, just hoping that I was 6 cm so that I could hop in the tub.
My midwife, Beverly, was so patient with me! It was INSANELY hard for me to get over to the bed and so painful to lay there on my back for the check (I highly recommend staying off your back when you are laboring. It makes it so much more painful!). Like I said, everyone in the room was just praying that I was 6 cm so that I could get some kind of relief, so we were not expecting to hear Beverly say that I was 10 cm and that I needed to get ready to push…right then! I’m not sure if I am just a really quiet laborer, or if I have a high pain tolerance, or what, but nobody was expecting it to happen this fast, or for me to be so far along out of nowhere. In fact, Olivia almost left around midnight, but decided to stay until my next check, which was supposed to be at 1am, but we delayed it to 1:45pm. PRAISE THE LORD THAT SHE DID!
This is when the craziness started. Everyone rushed in, trying to prepare the tub for a water birth. Midwife Beverly told me that I could labor on the toilet if it was the most comfortable position for me, so I headed back over that way. Olivia and Ian checked me to make sure all was okay and not even a few minutes later, they both said, “Uhhh… There is a head!” So, down went a pad in the bathroom and I thought that I was going to have to push out a baby there.
At this point, people were scrambling. The pool was still being filled, but nobody thought I would make it, Beverly was gowning up, and it got really real for Ian and myself. Beverly told me to try to make it to the bed to have her on my hands and knees and I made it over there in time. Thankfully, before I actually pushed her out, the pool was filled to the minimum line (!!!!). Beverly asked if I wanted to try to make it over to the pool and I remember asking if I would get some relief if I did try to make it. She said that it would probably take some of the pain away, but definitely not all, so we made the decision to make the transition from the bed to the pool.
According to Ian (I was so insanely out of it!), when I transitioned from the bed to the pool, Avery’s head was partially out and I jumped off the bed and into the pool. Apparently some of the people in the room said something along the lines of, “are we sure she’s about to have a baby? She is moving great!” Hahahah. One of my birth preferences was to push on my own instead of having coached pushing. What I didn’t know is that I wouldn’t actually have to push. My body did it for me and I literally just kneeled there. It was insane and a feeling that I just cannot describe. Just a couple of pushes later (Ian says about 5), Avery made her appearance at 2:09am. So, from the time that our midwife was called to come check to the time that she was born was just about 25 minutes. Now you see why everyone was racing around, ha! THINGS MOVED FAST. Outside of our room, Jenny told me that she saw people sprinting to our room, hahahaha.
When Avery arrived, the cord was unfortunately tied around her neck extremely tight. So tight that our midwife had to immediately cut it and Avery was limp and very, very purple. I was in so much shock from the entire birth process that it just did not register that the tiny, limp purple baby was my daughter, especially since I couldn’t hear her cry. Olivia told me to talk to her while they were trying to get her breathing and all I said was, “Hey girl!” hahaha! I’m telling you – I was in shock and just had no idea what to say or do. Respiratory was called and they immediately took her. Olivia and Beverly kept me so calm and told me that everything was going to be okay. I am so thankful for this!!
While Ian was with Avery, I got out of the tub (I got my natural hospital water birth!!) and delivered my placenta in bed while still being reassured that everything was okay with Avery. Beverly told me that I did not tear (if anything, I just had the smallest internal tear that did not need stitches) and that I looked perfect! I was still pretty out of it, but I remember Olivia telling me that everything looked 100% normal down there, hahah! I was THRILLED, to say the least.
A few minutes later, I got to experience the best thing ever – meeting my daughter for the first time, face to face! She was finally stable, so they put her on my chest to get her stats up and she improved immediately. BEST FEELING EVER. This is when I found out that she weighed SEVEN POUNDS AND FIFTEEN OUNCES + 21 inches long. She had been measuring really small the entire time, so we were all shocked. And I didn’t tear!!!! I still cannot believe it.
Things moved so quickly out of nowhere (or like I said, maybe I just am a quiet laborer, or maybe I have a high pain tolerance and people just couldn’t tell how far along I had really progressed) that my birth photographer arrived just moments after the birth. But, I did not mind at all – I had the perfect daughter! Elli, our photographer, took photos of our first moments together as a family. I CANNOT wait to see these! She also came with us to PP and took pictures of everyone meeting Avery for the first time too. It was so, so special and I highly recommend Elli to everyone. She is SO insanely talented.
My entire birth experience was just hands down, the most amazing experience of my life and I wish I could do it over and over and over again. Yes, it was painful, but it was not as bad as I thought it would be. Not even close! And honestly – having a natural, hospital water birth was the best decision that I could have made. I felt (and feel) so empowered and if I am blessed enough to have another baby, I will definitely go the same route…maybe just without the induction this time around…or the Korean BBQ, ha!
Also, I want to take the time to give the BIGGEST thank you’s to Olivia and Beverly. I am so thankful for these two amazing women! I was Olivia’s last doula client and now she is moving on to her midwifery training and I just know that she is going to be the best midwife ever!
Last but not least, Ian – you are a freaking rockstar and you have become THE world’s best daddy ever. I am so, so, so blessed to be able to call you my husband and to be able to walk through life with you by my side. I love you and there is no way that I could do this without you!
There you have it – Avery’s fast and furious birth story! I somehow successfully pulled off a natural water birth after an induction and I am just so thankful to have my daughter here with us safe and sound. Are you trying to have a hospital water birth? Or, maybe you are just trying to go natural. Whatever it might be, let me know if you have any questions at all and I’d be happy to answer them!
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