For weeks upon weeks I had regular, painful contractions in the evening. I could time them, some of them took some focused breathing to get through, but all of them went away. My due date came and went and I was paranoid of an induction: bouncing on my labor ball, lunging, walking, squatting every second of the day. I watched Pitch Perfect more times than I am proud to admit while bouncing away on that labor ball. August 7th, my wedding anniversary, rolled around and I was still severely pregnant. I had a feeling I was going to wake up in labor, so every morning I woke up and wasn't in excruciating pain was a loss. Sometime that afternoon, contractions started and followed that same pattern. They were consistently 6 minutes apart, but super painful till 8 or 9 PM- yes, I contracted through my anniversary dinner- it was Free Pie Night at O'Charley's!
When I got home, still contracting I took a shower and they calmed down. I bounced on the ball and the contractions got to be like 4 min apart, but not crazy painful. I was pretty sure she was coming soon, so I laid down around 12:30/1 am with contractions puttering out. My theory was I wouldn't wake up with a baby between my legs.
At 3:54 AM I woke up with painful contractions. Around 5 AM they were 3 min apart so I called my midwife. She told me to come in quick. I went pee and was greeted by bloody show. I woke up Esme and said, "guess who's coming?" And she said, "Phoebe coming out?!!!" And then sang happy birthday Phoebe! In the car on the way to the babysitter she kept talking about "mumma go doctor! Get phoebe out!" I kissed her goodbye and was super emotional about leaving her. On the way to the hospital my contractions were 1-2 minutes and freaking HURT! We listened to Mumford & Sons and I tried to sing through the contractions.
When we got to our room, my midwife checked me and I was at 8cm, but -1 station. She offered to break my water then, but I was very hesitant. It was after my water was broken with Esme that the screaming and swearing started. I said I'd prefer to labor her down. I walked and rocked and squatted through contractions. I got in the shower and that helped the pain. I made a lot of tribal sounds, my goal being not to swear this time. In the shower I felt like something was in my vagina. My midwife checked and said my membranes were bulging and sagging. I agreed to let her poke them. I got in the bed, on my knees, but the angle didn't work for her for a small poke, so I got on my side with Jacob holding one leg. She broke my water and there was meconium. They started explaining to me what that meant and I yelled that I knew the NICU team was coming, can I get on my knees?
Phoebe was still pretty high. I tried grunting her down, and there was one contraction that I became overwhelmed and thought to myself "I can't do this anymore!!!!!" I screamed and cried a little and reminded myself how much easier the contractions were when I focused on being silent. A few contractions later, my midwife reminded me that it hurting more on my side was because that brought her further down... what we wanted. I agreed to get on my side and as soon as I was in position RING OF FIRE OMG it hurt! I forgot that screaming didn't help. I just needed to push. My midwife reminded me to push with contractions and I yelled that I didn't feel contractions just burning.
For 14 minutes I pushed, eventually focusing on my contractions to make them most useful. Pretty sure I pooped at this point. I'm not 100% but I think she was stuck crowning. I heard my MW say, "she's shouldering a little" and the nurse said, "okay, should we get her on her back after the next contraction?" And in my head I said, "eff that noise!" And focused and pushed with everything I had, and sweet Jesus she was out! I got to see her right away, something I didn't get with Esme because I was facing backwards. I was so happy to see her. She cried a little. Not too much, the NICU team assessed her in the room. My placenta took a while to come out. That sucked! I had a 1st degree tear, 2 stitches.
I am VERY sore like in my hips and knees. Surprisingly, peeing doesn't sting at all. I'm so happy. It hurt like a you know that last 40 minutes, but I asked for the epi zero times and said zero swear words! Phoebe is a nursing champ and we've been snuggling all day!
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