Paisley Kaye Porter
Born on her due date Oct 30 2011 at 7:53 am
7lbs 12 oz
21 inches long
Basically, I was in labor for over 4 days. That's if you count "early labor" which I think should be counted. I woke up around 3 am Wednesday morning Oct 26 with crampy contractions that were pretty strong. They were also pretty close together. I thought maybe it was the real thing! Then morning came around and they slowed down a lot for the rest of the day. The next 2 days were the same story: lots of contractions at night but slow during the day. However, they were gradually getting more regular so that was a good sign. I barely got any sleep, but it was good practice for real labor.Friday afternoon I realized I hadn't felt the baby move much all day so I called my midwife and she suggested we go to the hospital to make sure everything was ok. It was. No problems with the baby. I was dilated to 1.5 at that point. Kind of disappointing after 2 days of strong contractions.
Saturday morning I realized that if I made a low moaning sound with the contractions it helped me to release tension and made the pain turn into more of a discomfort. I just had to close my eyes, relax my muscles, especially the muscles in my face, and focus on using that exhale/moan to release the tension in my abdomen. This is what it looked like:
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| Joey was helping me relax. :) |
Finally, Saturday around 4:30pm the contractions started to feel different. I still felt that campy feeling but there was a lot more pressure with them, and some lower back pain too. I told my sister who is a natural birth instructor and she thought it sounded like the real thing. We were diligent in timing the contractions after that, and at 9:30 they started coming 3 to 4 minutes apart. we waited a couple hours to make sure and at 11:30 Myles, my sister Fiona and I went to the hospital, but we knew they might just send us back home. They checked me and... I was at a 5! So they admitted me into the hospital.
It's funny how many people have this perception of "going into labor" like it happens suddenly and in a super exciting way, but most people know it's happening long before heading to the hospital. If your water breaks before going into labor that's a different story, but I read somewhere that only happens in about 8% of pregnancies.
The back pain with my contractions was getting worse. Fiona was my doula and she and Myles took turns giving me back rubs to help during the contractions. But it was still pretty bad. If it weren't for the back pain, labor would have been easy.
After about 4 hours in the hospital I was pretty exhausted and I wanted a break! I had only progressed to a 6 so I knew I still had a ways to go. I was hoping there was something that would help me to zonk out for an hour so I could regain my energy. The nurse gave me a drug called Fetanyl to help me sleep but it didn't do anything. Because of that I can't say my labor and delivery were 100% drug free, but I still call it a natural birth because there wasn't really any pain relief. If you are ever considering getting Fetanyl to help with labor and delivery, don't do it. It's not worth it. It doesn't even work, especially on back pain.
After that labor just got harder, mostly because of the back pain and because I was so tired. We knew the back pain was because the baby was in a posterior position, which means head down with her back against my back. This puts a lot of pressure on my back which causes the pain. We tried some different positions leaning forward to get her to turn anterior, hoping that would make the pain go away. It didn't seem like anything was working and I was too tired and weak to stay leaning forward for very long. By this point I was thinking that if we couldn't get her to change positions I would get an epidural, not just because of the back pain, but also because I've heard it's very difficult and painful to push out a posterior baby. Update: one important detail I forgot to mention. I remember at this moment praying that God would help me by getting Paisley to turn so I could have the natural birth I wanted. We called in the midwife to see if she knew of anything else we could try to get her to turn. Right before she came in I felt the baby move but I thought it was just an arm or a leg. Soon after she came in my water broke with a big pop! They say when your water breaks labor speeds up. Well, it sure did! She checked me right after and I was complete! And even better, the baby had turned! What a relief! God answers prayers!
After days of contractions, I hadn't even thought about pushing. So after feeling all that relief, the next thought was "How the heck am I going to push this baby out?" I started trying to "breathe the baby down" like they say in hypnobirthing but I was tired and impatient and didn't feel like I was getting anywhere. The midwife coached me through the kind of pushing she finds works best. So I waited for the urge and then gave it my all. After a couple of tries I got it right and I was making progress! A few more of those urges to push and she was born. I was so relieved I exclaimed "I had a baby!"
By this point I was so tired I was nearly delusional. They put the baby on my stomach for a moment and Myles cut the cord because it had already stopped pulsing, then they took her away because she had junk in her respiratory system and wasn't breathing. She was in the same room but I was still sad. Then the nurse tried to give me pitocin and I didn't know why so I took my arm away and told her I'd rather not. Then the midwife told me I was bleeding a lot so I needed pitocin so I let her give it to me. They kept telling me not to worry and everything would be ok. I thought 'What? I'm bleeding a lot? Why? And why is my baby over there and not in my arms?' I was told I had two minor tears. Everything was happening so fast and I was so tired I had no idea what was really going on.
A few minutes later everything was finally okay and I got to hold my precious baby. I was so glad to look into her eyes and say hello to her. She is so beautiful and perfect. I can't believe I grew her in my tummy! I love her so much. They asked us what her name was. Myles and I agreed so we told them "Paisley Kaye Porter". Hooray! Welcome to the world Paisley Kaye!
Later, although I was exhausted I couldn't get to sleep. I decided to try and get up and use the restroom so I called the nurse. While I was out of bed I lost so much blood that I passed out! It was kind of scary! The nurses saved my life by waking me up and taking me to the bed. They gave me more pitocin and more pain killers. Then I was finally able to sleep a little.
It's been a week since then and the rest of the recovery has gone very very well. I get pretty tired after long nights and when I get tired I get emotional. Most of the time it's because I'm overwhelmed by how much I love my daughter! Overall my mood and energy has been good, and I still laugh and play with my family. Physically, the healing has been very fast. I'm out going for walks and running errands already and the swelling is almost completely gone. I can do anything for myself that I need to... If I can find time and energy. The hardest part has been learning how to breastfeed. It takes a while to perfect the art of latching on, and it can be frustrating when your milk comes in and things get messy... but we're working on it. I'm learning new things every day.
Myles has been such a great daddy to her. He loves to hold her and he is always willing to help out in the middle of the night. I'm so grateful that I have him as my companion to help me take care of our beautiful daughter.
Paisley has been such a good baby. She only really cries when she's hungry. She loves to be held. She even let me sleep for 5 hours one night. Everything she does is cute. I love her.
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| Paisley's first bath. She didn't like it much. |
...Was awesome! It was a little cold at night but Myles and I survived in our 2-person sleeping bag. :) We saw so many cool animals I'd never seen before, and some I had seen before, just not that close.
