Tricia's birth

On September 23 I was not feeling well and thought that maybe baby girl was going to be coming that day or the next. Once the afternoon hit that day I started to feel better so I figured baby was not going to be coming soon anymore. We had a doctor’s appointment that afternoon and I was hoping to have progressed even more from the previous week, and we had! We were now 3 cm dilated and about 85% effaced. I was hoping that baby girl would come within the next week, but was unsure how ready she was and figured she would make me wait longer.

On Sunday September 25 I felt fine all day long and that evening Chris and I went to our church picnic. Toward the end of the picnic I started to have lower back pain but I had been having lower back pain for the past couple weeks so I didn’t think much about it. I was tired and ready to go home but Chris did not want to leave his game of volleyball until it was over. Some friends and I jokingly said I should lay on the ground moaning and they would yell for Chris. I thought about it for a few seconds but decided against it because I knew Chris would throw me in the car and would whiz us off to the hospital. Then on the way to the hospital I would have to try to convince him that I was not in labor.

After the game was over Chris and I headed home to relax. We took our 39 week photo and I decided to upload it before heading to bed. Chris was exhausted so he went up before me and once I went to bed it was around 10:30pm. As we were laying in bed I all of sudden felt a pop in my pelvic area followed by pain. I thought maybe my water broke but I checked and it was not my water. I looked at the clock and it was 10:44 pm and I figured I would just try to get a good night’s rest.  A few minutes later I felt pain again and I looked at the clock and it was 10:48pm, only 4 minutes apart. I stayed in bed a little longer and then I had another wave of pain at 10:52pm. I decided I was not going to sleep if this was going to continue so I got my phone out and looked up the difference between real labor pains and Braxton hicks.

The pain I was feeling was in the area for Braxton hicks since it was lower and I had read that real labor starts in the back and comes around front and contracts the whole belly. I decided to walk around the house to see if the labor pains would get better or worse. I don’t know how long I walked around the house but the pains were not getting better so I decided to take a bath, this was about 11:42pm and I was in the tub until 11:54pm and during the bath I had 3 more contractions. I also felt like my water broke and ended up having to change my underwear three times, so I assumed it was my water.

At midnight I woke Chris up and asked him if I should call the hospital or my mom and he said yes (he was still asleep and does not remember this). I called my mom but she did not answer so I hung up and called the hospital. The nurse told me the way to determine whether or not it is true labor is to lie on my left side and drink water, and if after forty-five to sixty minutes they get worse then that is true labor. My mom beeped in while I was on the phone with the hospital so I called her back and told her what was going on. My dad and she were in Omaha for my grandmas funeral so they were a good three and a half to four hours away. I told her I would keep her posted.

The minute I laid down the pain intensified but I was determined to stick out the forty-five minutes because I did not want to go all the way to the hospital just to be turned away because I am not in labor. After 15 minutes I had to go to the bathroom really bad so I made my way to the bathroom and spent and good 5 minutes in there. I was starting to think that maybe this was true labor because a sign of labor is diarrhea. I went back to lie down and after another 15 minutes I was back in the bathroom. I went back and laid down and then I was able to make it to the forty-five minute mark and by this point I was stuck on the toilet. I called the hospital back and explained that the symptoms got worse and the nurse said I could come in if I wanted and that it sounded like I was uncomfortable. I told her I would head in but it would be awhile since it is about a thirty-five minute drive.

I was still on the toilet so I yelled for Chris and he came running in. I told him we needed to go to the hospital so I gave him instructions to put the dogs away and put my pillows in the vehicle (my bags were already in the car). Once he got everything ready I got in the car and we made the trip to the hospital. The contractions were coming every three to four minutes and the best way for me to deal with the pain was to keep my eyes closed. Chris called my mom and told her what was going on but her and my dad were going to wait until we got to the hospital to see whether or not I was in labor. The trip to the hospital was brutal since I was confined to sitting down. Once we arrived we had to check in and I had to sign a form, my signature was more of a scribble since I was in pain. We got to our labor and delivery room and I changed into the hospital gown and was told I needed to lie on the bed so they could monitor me and baby.

They also did an internal check and I was 6-7 cm dilated and 100% effaced, but my water had not completely broken. Lying on the bed was painful and made the contractions worse, after ten minutes I had to use the bathroom again so I had to be unhooked from the monitors. The nurse said they needed forty-five minutes of monitoring so I had to be hooked up again. I really wanted to get into the tub but I needed to be monitored before I could do that. I asked if I could be positioned different and they brought in the exercise ball for me to sit on. That helped make the contractions not as painful and Chris was massaging my lower back which also helped ease the contractions. While I was on the ball being monitored the nurse had a form of questions that she had to ask me. It took a long time to get through the form since I was not able to answer during contractions. After she was done she said that she looked at my chart and saw that I did not want pain medication so she said she would not ask me if I wanted any, but if at any time I decided I wanted some that I needed to let her know. She also said she had to start an IV because even if I don’t have an epidural they would start pitocin after the baby is born to help my uterus contract down.

Another person (nurse?) came in the room and assisted the first nurse with the IV. I kept my eyes closed because not only was it helping with contractions, but I also did not want to watch them put the IV in. It felt as though it took 10 minutes for the nurse to get the IV in and later Chris informed me that it did indeed take that long and that the nurse had made multiple pokes before getting it right. It did hurt when she was putting the IV in, and at that point the pain from her putting the IV in was worse than the pain from contractions. After getting the IV in my time on the monitor was almost up so the nurse started to fill the tub for me. Once the tub was filled I was able to get in and it was a huge relief to be in the tub. There were jets in the tub so we turned those on and they massaged my lower back. I had been in the tub for quite awhile and Chris was by my side the entire time either holding my hand during a contraction, or making phone calls to the rest of the family. I was so relaxed in the tub that I started to fall asleep! I was concerned that if I was that relaxed in the tub that I may not be progressing at all so Chris got a nurse so I could be checked. The nurse stated that if I was falling asleep then I wasn’t ready to start pushing but I told her that I wanted to know if I progressed or not so I knew whether or not I needed to change what I was doing in order to keep labor progressing. The nurse checked me and I was now 9 cm dilated! We had been at the hospital for only 2 hours and I had gone from 6-7 to 9 in that short amount of time. After finding out I was 9 cm I stated that I was getting back in the tub until I got to 10 cm. At this time my sister in law Britteny had arrived and was in the room setting up her camera equipment since we wanted pictures of the baby right away. Just as soon as I was in the tub and relaxed the contractions jumped up in intensity. They were so strong that I was unable to stay laying in the tub and had to get on my hands and knees in the tub in order to cope with the pain. I was in the tub for about 30 minutes and every time I had a contraction I felt the urge to push and I informed Chris and he told the nurse. The nurse came in the bathroom and told me I could either get on the bed now or wait until the midwife got there, which would be within the next five minutes.

I decided to wait for my midwife but after three contractions in the tub I decided to make my way to the bed. As I got out of the tub I needed Chris’s help to get back in my gown but he was grabbing a towel out of the tub that had fell in. I told him I was a little bit more important at the moment than the towel, I was having a contraction and needed his hand to hold onto! What I didn’t realize and Chris told me later was that I kept dropping the towels into the tub and I was almost out of dry, clean towels. Since I had kept my eyes closed most of labor I was not aware that I was knocking the towels in the tub. Once I got on the bed my midwife had arrived and the nurses installed the squat bar on my bed since I had stated I wanted it. My midwife said that whenever I felt the urge to push I could and that would help baby make her way into position, even though I was not completely dilated yet.

Chris’s job during labor was to massage my lower back. I had so much pain in my lower back and by having him massage it helped me to make it through each contraction. After squatting and pushing for awhile by back was hurting too much to stay in that position so I got on my hands and knees on the bed. This position was better on my back and after awhile my hands got tired so a nurse put the exercise ball on the bed for me to rest my chest on. This helped my hands out greatly and after pushing for quite some time they had me go back to squatting. At some point I decided to ask the midwife a question, I knew this question was ridiculous but the pain was intense and I was looking for ways to be done with labor. I asked the midwife if she could just pull the baby out and the midwife nicely said she could not and that she knows it is hard but that I could do it.

At this time I heard some people at the door and realized my mom and dad had made it. I opened my eyes to see my mom walking towards me, and she took to my right side holding my hand and helping with my back. Chris leaned in and said “Look who’s here.” I had already looked so I just nodded my head in agreement.

After several minutes the midwife said the baby was turned sunny side up, which meant we were back to back and we need to be tummy to back. In order to get her to turn the midwife had me lay on my right side. Every time I would move it would hurt so of course lying on my right side caused me to be in pain, but I knew I had to do it. I laid on my side for ten minutes or so and pushed. At this point I could start to feel her head engage in my lower pelvic area, and I was pushing hard to get her out! Since she was close to coming out my midwife had me lie on my back so I could push harder and grab my legs. Again, rolling to my back hurt but again I knew it was what I had to do.

Once on my back I started pushing hard again and the midwife said she could see the head and the baby has a head full of dark hair! In my mind I was thinking “What the heck! My child is supposed to have RED hair!” I was rather furious my child did not have red hair and was even wondering “Is this my child?” Of course I knew she was mine since I was pushing her out as I was thinking this, but I still did not understand why she did not have red hair. My midwife had me reach down and feel her head as she was getting close, and the feeling creeped me out and gave me the motivation to push her all the way out!

 I gave a few more pushes and even though it was burning I kept going. Soon I felt relief as her head came out but the midwife told me to stop pushing and I saw her dive under the squatting bar, grab a tool and head back over to me. I figured the cord was around her neck and this was later confirmed. After she cut the umbilical cord from her neck she had me give one more push, and it felt like a rush of warm water and there was no pain with this final push. It also was not hard to not push while the midwife was cutting the umbilical cord from her neck because her head was what was causing me all the pain and it was finally out! With that final push the rest of her body came out and she was immediately placed on my belly.

 I looked at this child thinking “Are you really my child.” It took me a few minutes to bond with her since I was still in shock over the hair color. But looking at her she was so cute that it was hard not to be attached to her. I wanted to spend quality time with her before we named her so we spent the first hour with her on my chest just admiring her features. She then was taken to be cleaned up and measured, and during this time Chris and I finally had alone time to discuss her name. We had four names picked out with two being at the top. I had originally thought she would get the other name, but I always associated that name with red hair. Since she was born with dark hair and both our moms have dark hair, we decided to use the second name on our list which was in honor of our moms, Tricia Cathleen.

Since I did not have an epidural I was able to get in the shower and clean up while my bed and room were cleaned up. As I looked back in the room I stated “It looks like a crime scene in here.” This made Chris laugh and I think others as well. I was very light headed after giving birth so Chris stood right by me but on the outside of the shower, just in case I would pass out. Fortunately I made it through my shower but was feeling worse at this point. They decided to give me fluids through my IV in order to help with my lightheadedness. I was also given Pitocin in order to help my uterus start shrinking back down. It took a good week for the lightheadedness to go away and two weeks before I felt 100%.

The first night at the hospital the nurse was in the room looking over Tricia, and Chris and I were standing there watching. All of a sudden the nurse started telling Tricia that she needed to breathe and she grabbed a suction device and got mucus out. She then hooked Tricia up to a monitor to see how much oxygen she was getting and she was getting 100% so she said that we just need to be aware. During that night we had to suction her mouth four times to get mucus out. It was scary and hard to sleep that first night, but somehow Chris managed to sleep the whole night. Tricia had jaundice as well but fortunately it was not bad enough to need any treatment, but we did have to come into the hospital three times the first week home in order to make sure her jaundice was getting better.

Tricia was born with a short tongue and a high palate so she would not nurse. Anytime we tried to nurse she would fall asleep. We ended up having to give her formula the third day at the hospital and I was pumping to help my supply come in. We are still working on nursing and making progress but my milk supply is low so we still have to supplement with formula (boooo). Tricia has been such a blessing to our family and we are so excited to have a daughter. The day we found out we were pregnant we started praying for our daughter, knowing the little bundle was going to be a girl even though it was months before it was confirmed. I think it took about 2 weeks before the pain of labor was forgotten. I had wanted a natural labor and I made it through, I was also blessed to only be in labor for less than 8 hours. I pray I will be able to have the rest of our babies naturally since the healing process was quick. I also did not tear but my midwife said anyone else would have wanted to cut me but I ended up with a “skid mark” which she said is similar to a rug burn, just in a very sensitive area. It took about 3-4 weeks for me to no longer feel the skid mark. I must admit that because I felt so good so soon after having Tricia I decided to go for a 1 mile run 2.5 weeks after she was born. It felt amazing to run again and I have finally worked back up to my normal running routine! She is such an easy and happy baby. We have truly been blessed and she makes our lives so much better!