I have been asked my a few people to share the story of Gloria coming into the world. I am not sure where to begin. I had been praying for weeks that she wouldn't come late for many reasons. we were up against a deadline...a BIG ONE! My official due date was July 9,2011. Mike's military contract expired July 21, 2011 at MIDNIGHT, which meant that if she was late she could only be 12 days late at the most. I love my midwife...she is the most amazing person ever, and while she had done a good job calming my fears for weeks, my due date was coming...FAST! I was beyond frustrated by the time my due date came and went...I was in pre-term labor at 33 weeks. I went to the hospital...which was a big deal since I was using a midwife, and they had to give me drugs to stop my contractions...at 33 weeks. both my midwife and I were convinced that this baby was going to come early. I didn't want to do anything that might hurt my chances of having this baby on time by prohibiting what was happening now...but we still had to make it to 36 weeks to deliver at the Birth Center.
Now, I feel the need to give a bit of history here. My first born was an agonizing 26.5 hours of hard labor with NO DRUGS. I was young, naive, and too arrogant to really do any research about birth. So i ended up with a natural, stuck in the bed, delivery...and SWORE i would never do that again. My 2nd and 3rd babies ( Max and Isabella), were both inductions with epidurals. When i got pregnant with Gloria, I was really torn as to which way I wanted to go. I knew that labor was easy with epidurals, although both Max and Bella were still long... 8-10 hours each. I felt more mature and spiritually ready to take on natural labor again, giving that it was an opportunity to offer up my suffering for the Lord. I was ecstatic when I found out that our insurance would accept the Birth Center as well. Given my history, and that this was my 4th baby...again, i was SURE she was going to be on time.
Apparently, she has other plans. I was frustrated as my due date came and went. We were charting so I was positive as to the accuracy of the EDD. I definitely understand that even with charting, THIS is still just an estimation. I was about 36 weeks along when I was informed that I was 2-3 cm and about 50% effaced. Now, I also understand that this means NOTHING in terms of when you were going to start labor, but I was truly thrilled with the fact that my body was doing SOMETHING on its own. I lived in fear that at the last minute my uterus was going to decide it didn't want to expel this baby, and literally had nightmares about it. I continued to have contractions pretty regularly for weeks, but nothing that became real labor. Nothing I did increased the intensity, or even made them come closer together. I was using a hypnobabies program in order to remain as calm as was possible during labor. I was looking forward to this experience, and wanted it to be the best it could be. I was looking forward to using the water tub and just being relaxed and in peace for the birth of this sweet baby.
Finally, as we approached 40 weeks...things really started to SLOW DOWN...yes ....slow down. The contractions stopped altogether at 40weeks 1day. well, I was exasperated. My midwife was going to be out of town the following weekend, and my body still had not changed since my checkup at 36 weeks. I was out of time. I prayed continuously for that week for Gloria to decide it was time. I sent emails upon emails asking for prayers that she would come soon, and that I wouldn't miss the insurance date and wouldn't end up being sent to the hospital ( after 42 weeks, most midwives will refer you to an OB and ultimately a hospital for delivery. I was terrified that after 8 years of healing, I was going to miss my chance of having a natural birth. I know due dates are just estimates, but I needed her out NOW. I was convinced of what my Hypnobabies CD's had been telling me for weeks..."baby are born on their birthdays, not when doctors say they are". I had a history of late babies ( my first was 42 weeks 2 days) so why was I still so unprepared for the feelings I had being "overdue"...she only had 12 days to be overdue. The whole next week I tried everything; walking, swimming, eating spicy food, all my natural remedies...and I even began getting frustrated with my midwife who insisted on waiting until 41 weeks to try anything to augment labor...I DIDNT HAVE 41 weeks...lol! ( again, i remind you that i LOVE my midwife, and now know she KNEW exactly what she was doing)
Finally, July 16 cam around...exactly 41 weeks. I did my normal routine that day. Nothing out of the norm. Mike and I actually had a HUGE argument over something silly...aka...me being hormonal. He left for confession and Mass at about 4:00pm. I thing my contractions started about then, but they weren't really worth noting until about 5:30. I wasn't convinced it was labor so at 5:30 I made a quick call to the midwife on call, since mine was out of town...figures. She didn't answer so i decided to take a shower hoping that staying upright would keep the contractions coming. After about an hour, I called again ( 6:30 pm) and spoke to the midwife. She said I didn't really sound ready to come in since I was still fin between contracitons and that I should call her back in a bit and keep her posted. Mike was still at Mass, and I was getting worried that he wasn't going to make it home to take me to the Birth Center. I didn't notice the time but somewhere around 30 minutes later, I was no longer able to talk between contractions. I wasn't in horrible pain, but i was unable to get into my hypnobabies zone, and therefore felt everything. I am not sure why my techniques weren't working, but I feel like part of it was that I was still trying to tell myself it wasn't real. I truly couldn't bear the thought that this was still false labor and the baby still wasn't coming. From here my memory kid of fades in and out. I think sometime around 7:45 I called the midwife again, and said that I REALLY wanted to be at the birth center. Given that my other labors had been long 8-10 hours...I wasn't in any hurry, but something told me i didn't want to be at home anymore. We packed up our stuff...I used the restroom and we were in the car by 8:15...Now, during the last 30mins, my contracions had picked up and were very intense. I felt the need to stop doing something during a contraction, and only move if I had to, which did make getting to the car quite difficult. Finally we took off about 8:15. It was a 20 min ride there so the midwife said she would meet us there in about 25 minutes. at this point i turned into the "screaming lady" i had worked 9 months on NOT becoming, but Gloria was coming. I told Mike about 10 minutes into the ride that he needed to get there and get there NOW. I was shocked when I felt like i wanted/needed to push...I tried not to but it didn't work. I was totally panicked thinking I was going to have this baby in the car. How could this happen? I worked so hard on preparing for this gentle, relaxing birth, and this was just chaos. We made it to the parking lot at 8:42 ( i know this because I texted a friend to let her know she needed to HURRY if she wanted to be there) Mike ran inside and told the midwife that I couldn't get out of the car, and I literally couldn't. She was coming and there was no stopping it. I stood up in the front passenger door way to try and get out, and was struck by an intense contraction in which i was pushing and there was nothing I could do...my water broke right there in the car. I thought " are you kidding??? she is a week late and now I'm going to have her in the car". Sometime in the next 3 minutes, the midwife, Michael and myself managed to get inside ( i left my bottoms in the care), lay down , and push once and there she was...Gloria Camille Mayulianos. In all the chaos, NO ONE LOOKED AT THE CLOCK until about 15 minutes after she came. The only reason we have a time of birth at 8:47 pm is bc the midwife's teenage daughter just happen to send a text message right when she was born and that's how we got a time.
No comments:
Post a Comment