The 3rd best day of our life… the birth of Marvel was so special in so many ways. As I approached my due date there were a couple of things I hoped for during the delivery. First, I wanted to go into labor naturally. With Leon I had a c-section at 39 weeks because he was breech and with Galilee I had a…. ahem…. castor oil self induced labor at almost 41 weeks to avoid a repeat c-section. So for this birth, I just wanted to see what it would be like for my body to decide when it was ready to have the baby. Second, I wanted to feel the urge to push. With Galilee, I had my epidural pumped up so high that I gleefully pushed her out without feeling a thing. Which in many ways was nice, but this time I just wanted to have more control over the whole thing.
Okay so the labor.
May 28th: For basically my entire pregnancy, the baby felt very low. I was always very sore and just uncomfortable because he was so low which I guess is common the more pregnancies you have. And this just got worse and worse the closer we got. I had a doctors appointment on Tuesday, May 28th. I had not been checked prior to this to see how dilated I was but since I was almost 39 weeks I figured I would have the doctor check. She told me I was 4cm and 60% effaced which was a surprise to me. She asked me if I wanted to have my membranes stripped and since I was already 4cm I said sure why not. For the rest of that day, I had contractions every 15 minutes that were much more noticeable than the braxton hicks contractions I had been having throughout the pregnancy. That night I would wake occasionally with contractions so I felt like I might go into labor at any time.
May 29th: I decided to stay home from work because I was so sore and thought maybe I would go into labor that day. I spent the day walking around Ikea where I bought new rugs, plants, storage boxes, and other things to spruce up our basement (yes we have a basement in Florida). I loaded it all into my car myself including a very heavy 8x10 rug, hoping this would bring on more contractions (also, not like I had much of a choice because not a single person at Ikea offered to help the 39w pregnant lady load her car, typical). Then I went to Target to try and walk more and get more decor for the basement. I was having regular contractions throughout this day. All around 15 minutes apart. They were not painful, but they were intensifying to the point where they grabbed my attention for the whole contraction, again much different than the braxton hicks ones that just kind of went on in the background. That evening I bounced on the ball and drank tons of red raspberry leaf tea. Contractions would get closer together, like 8m apart and then go back to 15m. Similar to the night before, some wakefulness at night from the contractions.
May 30th: Stayed home from work again and went on a walk. Maybe a mile because I honestly couldn’t go any further my whole pelvic area was so sore. I came back and bounced on the ball while drinking tea and my contractions sped up to 4 minutes apart. I had told Townsend I wanted to get lunch together but then said nevermind I can’t go to a restaurant like this, they are too close together and entering the realm of not being able to talk through. I started to pack my bag thinking we would be going soon. Then they slowed again, back to 15m, but still just as painful. That night they were hurting really bad. I thought I’d wake up in the middle of the night in labor, but instead I just woke up every 15 minutes moaning through contractions that were now very much so painful to the point where I could not sleep through or talk through them.
May 31st: The next morning I decided to go into the doctor because I was so uncomfortable. They checked me, still 4cm and 80% effaced. They sent me home and I was pissed! All this pain and discomfort for the past 2 days and I’m still only 4cm? WTF? I got home from the doctor around 11am and tried to take a nap. The contractions were so bad that I couldn’t fall asleep so I decided to take a bath. While in the bath they sped up to 6-8 minutes apart. But as soon as I got out they were back to 15 minutes apart. I was in so much pain, I called Townsend again and said, take me to the hospital I dont even care what happens but I cant sit here anymore. As we drove to the hospital the contractions basically stopped, I had one 20 minutes later and not another until 38 minutes later! I was so worried that the triage nurse was going to send me home. It was about 2pm when we got to the hospital. The triage nurse checked me again and I was 5 1/2cm and 90% effacted. I was so happy that I had progressed so quickly in the past 3 hours compared to the very slow movement over the past 3 days!
It wasn’t until about 4pm when I finally got the epidural. The one good thing about this labor versus my labor with Galilee is that I had breaks in between contractions. I would feel it start, wait for it to reach its peak and then feel it start to taper off. With Galilee, labor started so rapidly because of the castor oil (I think) that I had no break between contractions. I literally had constant pain and blacked out from it because it just never stopped. With Marvel, it was so much more manageable. The contractions really sucked, but in between them I could talk, laugh, have normal conversations and then it was just a minute of intense pain and back to normal. It was so much more pleasant!
Okay, back to the story. So a little after 4pm I got the epidural and the midwife came in to check me. I was 7cm and 100% effaced. She said the baby was so low that he would be coming quickly. And she was right, not even 30 minutes later I felt the urge to push and it was intense. The midwife came back in and said I was 10cm and it was time! Well, remember back at the beginning of this post where I said I wanted to feel the urge to push? Yeah that was a terrible idea. Pushing was so painful I swear I felt everything. I kept saying, “I cant do it anymore, I’m not going to push anymore!” and my midwife finally grabbed my hand and said you feel this, this is his head, he’s right here, just a few more pushes! So I agreed to keep going and at 5:06pm, little Marvel Edmund was born with his full head of beautiful red hair! What a joy! Not even an hour later, his older brother and sister were there to meet him.
Also, the last two pics below were taken by my Leon, the budding photographer :)
