Jacob Asher
Labor started for me on Friday, September 18th. At my 38 week appointment, I was 2-1/2 to 3 cm and 70% effaced, and my doctor “skimmed” my membranes. He said that it could kick me into labor if my body was ready, but if my body was not ready, it would do nothing. I left and had some pretty severe contractions for the rest of the day. We went out with some friends that evening. I had pretty intense contractions around 10 minutes apart the whole night. We left fairly early and went to bed. That night was awful. I was awoken all night long right in the middle of severe contractions. We called doctor Pranger late that night. He told us to check back in the morning.
The next morning, the contractions were still coming, and I was severely sleep deprived from the awful night. When we called Doctor Pranger Saturday morning, he asked us to come into the hospital to be checked. At the hospital, they hooked me up to the monitor for around an hour, and the contractions pretty much stopped. They were around 15 minutes apart and not intense at all. I could have easily slept through them. I was only 3 cm dilated and 75-80% effaced. So there was a little change but not much. Doctor Pranger said that I could be in “latent labor” and if that was the case, the baby would probably come on Monday or Tuesday, and we should just try to relax. Otherwise, it was just contractions as a result of the membrane skimming and it would settle down and eventually stop.
We left the hospital feeling tired and a little defeated. We tried to go about our day as planned. The contractions ramped back up in intensity and by evening, they were just as bad as they were on Friday. That night, we went ahead with our date night that we had planned. I wanted one last dinner and a movie before baby came. At Peppers, the contractions were so uncomfortable that I would stop eating when they came. I was sitting on a wooden chair, and the seated position was the most uncomfortable. We made a few stops before the movie, and I just wasn’t feeling well. After the movie, I was getting really frustrated. The contractions were not stopping, but they were not necessarily getting worse, either. When we got home, I decided to take one Benedryl to try and get some sleep. It was another restless night. I awoke every time I had a bad contraction, and was going to the bathroom around once an hour.
On Sunday, we tried to sleep in, then we went to our Bradley class at 2:00. I was obviously distracted during the class, and kept having hot flashes. During relaxation, I had such a bad contraction that it brought tears to my eyes. We stayed and talked a little with Erin and Paul after class and let them know what was happening. After class, we were headed to our baby shower. I made Scott stop at home on the way and when I was in the bathroom I had another awful contraction and started crying. I was just wiped out emotionally and physically, and I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. Scott said that if I wasn’t up to it we didn’t have to go to the shower, but there was no way I wasn’t going to show up to my own baby shower!
At the shower I curled up in a ball on the corner of the sectional sofa. I tried to relax through contractions, which was very hard with so many people around. When we were opening presents (well, Scott was opening, and I was trying to act like nothing was wrong), my contractions seemed to be very intense. Everyone went outside to eat, and I stayed behind. I tried to relax a little, but I was not feeling well. After a little while, I went outside to join the others. Outside, I sat on the couch. My friendsd started asking me how I was feeling, and I tried to give short answers. After a few questions, I just broke down crying and had to leave the room. I went to the bathroom to let it out, and all the girls followed. I finally told them what had been going on all weekend, and they were all very supportive. One of my friends even got excited and kept saying, “you’re definitely in labor.” I tried to tough it out for a while and it was much easier not having to hide the fact that I was in severe pain every five minutes. We left fairly early and when we got home we decided to go for a walk and see if we could speed things up a little bit. We walked around our block for an hour. I was sucking my thumb to trigger the pressure point on the roof of my mouth. We stopped every five minutes for contractions. After a while nothing seemed to be happening. I decided to call into work the next morning. After no sleep the entire weekend, there was no way I would be useful at work. I emailed my boss to tell him I’d be in after lunch. Then I tried to sleep. What a horrible night. I was awake several times an hour, trying to use the bathroom and having contractions in the bathroom. I got less sleep that night than the others.
The next day, I laid in bed until around ten, then got up and did some research on latent or “prodromal” labor. As I read more about it, I learned that this type of early labor can last for days and the contractions do slowly affect your cervix. Many articles talked about the emotional connection to your baby, your pregnancy, and your body. Through my research I learned that for some women, labor is slowed or stalled because she is not ready for the changes that will follow childbirth. She may be worried about becoming a mother, her relationship with her spouse, etc. Until she fully accepts the changes that will take place, the labor can stay stalled. After emailing this research to Scott, I decided to do anything I could to make this torture stop. I either wanted the contractions to stop altogether, or give me a baby!
I light a bunch of candles and filled the tub with bubbles. As I sat in the bath, I concentrated on relaxing my entire body. I had a long talk with my baby and told him it was OK to come because I was ready for him. I told him I had been scared, but that I was very excited to meet him and as soon as he came we would still always be together. Then I read him “The places you will go” by Dr. Suess. When Scott came home for lunch a little while later, we had a long talk about our relationship and my fear that things would change between us. I was scared that we’d lose some of what made our relationship so special and that everything would be different. After a lot of reassurance from Scott, and my talk with Jacob, I felt much better. I kept telling Jacob, “It’s ok baby, move down.” I made a conscious effort to relax completely during each contraction. I treated myself to some chocolate, and tried to watch a movie. I found myself completely unable to concentrate on the movie. I was bouncing lightly on my birthing ball and when contractions hit, I would drop to my knees and bend over the seat of the couch. The back labor was very uncomfortable. I noticed my contractions becoming stronger and closer together. After a few hours, I decided to time the contractions. They were 4 minutes apart, then 3, then they started being closer to 2 minutes.
I knew Scott had a closing with a customer at 4:30, so I made myself wait to call him. At 5:15, I couldn’t wait anymore, and I called his cell phone. “Can you come home? I need you!” I said. He let me know that he was already in the driveway. When he came in, I was pacing the hallway, dropping to my knees when contractions would hit. I told him I didn’t want to slow down because I was afraid of the labor stopping again if we went back to the hospital. A few minutes after Scott came home, my water broke. Scott asked how I knew that it broke and I said it felt like a water balloon had popped inside of me and my pants were very heavy and wet. After my water broke, Scott called Dr. Pranger while I tried to get things together for the hospital. That’s when things got really intense. I was lying on my side on the bed in the Bradley position, propped up with pillows. While Scott tried to get things ready for the hospital, I was dealing with very intense contractions. I was very hot and sweaty but my feet were freezing. I told Scott that I couldn’t do it anymore and there was no way I’d get through the whole thing without drugs. Scott was very attentive and reassured me that I was doing great. I was shaking uncontrollably, I thought I might throw up, and was having double-peaking contractions around a minute or two apart. Scott asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital and I agreed to go. I felt a little defeated at this point because I felt like I gave in too soon. Scott packed the car and gave our doctor the heads up that we were leaving. When it was time to go out to the car I refused, saying that I just wanted to stay in bed, I didn’t want to go anywhere. (We didn’t realize it at the time, but this was transition and I had every textbook symptom!)
Scott got me laid down in the back seat and we took the ten minute drive to the hospital. Scott pulled up to the doors and got me a wheelchair. In the ER waiting area, the receptionist called down someone from labor and delivery to check me before I was admitted. Scott was filling out paperwork and the L&D nurse came down and saw me. I heard her say “I’m not going to check her here, this one needs to go right up.” They wouldn’t let Scott go with me, and I was very upset. When we got up to L&D, the nurse took me into a triage room and gave me a gown. I stripped off my clothes except my sports bra and tried to cover with the gown but another contraction hit and I threw myself over the bed. I heard the nurse say, “yep, we’re not staying here either, you need a room right away.” Back in the wheelchair, I was being wheeled down the hall and the nurse called out “which rooms are open?” I was taken into a delivery room and asked to lay on the bed. Because the back labor was so bad, I refused to lie on my back, so instead I fell to my side.
Scott flew in a few minutes later and was immediately at my side. I was 8-9 centimeters when they first checked me at 6:40 p.m. Here’s where it all gets a little fuzzy. I remember feeling like I had to poop, and I told the nurse. She said just wait…then my body started pushing on its own. The nurses kept telling me not to push, but I didn’t know how to counteract the pushes. I wasn’t pushing, my body was pushing. I couldn’t control it. They put the EFM on me, and when I didn’t hear the baby’s heartbeat right away, I got very scared. Someone strapped an oxygen mask onto my face and a strange older doctor came in. They made me lie on my back and then they were telling me to push. I told Scott, “this isn’t right, I can’t be on my back!!” I was thinking about my Bradley classes and the positions we learned. The only voice I heard at that point was Scott’s. They were telling me to focus all my energy on pushing and not to make sounds. This confused me, because I thought they were telling me I was being too loud and disturbing other people!! I found out later that they were just trying to get Jacob out as quickly as possible. It was very hard to know when to push because by this point, I wasn’t feeling contractions. I was just waiting for my body to start pushing–then when Scott told me to push I just pushed. After a minute, Scott said “I can see him!” I don’t remember much about this part. All I know is that I couldn’t see anything because I was flat on my back! After a few minutes, he was out and as they took him away, I saw his “boy parts” and turned to Scott–we both said “It’s a boy!!!!” at the same time and we were both crying. Jacob was born at 6:50–only 10 minutes after we first checked in. Then I kept saying, “I want my baby” and I didn’t understand why they had taken him away. I had wanted him to be placed on my chest after birth…At this point I was shaking a lot. Then our doctor–who missed the birth–arrived. I felt a very strange sensation and said “What was that?!?!?!” and the doctor said it was the placenta.
Then Doctor Pranger came in and I was given a shot in the leg. I tried to say that I didn’t want any drugs, but Doctor Pranger said that I needed it for clotting. Soon, Jacob was placed on my chest and Scott and I concentrated all of our attention on him as Doctor Pranger did my stitches. That is when I found out that when I was in the triage room our nurse, Tracy saw meconium staining in my pants. This along with the weak heart tones had everyone worried about the baby. When Jacob came out, he wasn’t breathing, so they had to cut the cord and take him to be stimulated in order to make him breath. They said he started breathing on his own right before they would have had to intibate him.
Jacob Asher
Born September 21, 2009
Weight: 7 pounds, 7 ounces
Length: 20 1/2 inches
The next morning, the contractions were still coming, and I was severely sleep deprived from the awful night. When we called Doctor Pranger Saturday morning, he asked us to come into the hospital to be checked. At the hospital, they hooked me up to the monitor for around an hour, and the contractions pretty much stopped. They were around 15 minutes apart and not intense at all. I could have easily slept through them. I was only 3 cm dilated and 75-80% effaced. So there was a little change but not much. Doctor Pranger said that I could be in “latent labor” and if that was the case, the baby would probably come on Monday or Tuesday, and we should just try to relax. Otherwise, it was just contractions as a result of the membrane skimming and it would settle down and eventually stop.
We left the hospital feeling tired and a little defeated. We tried to go about our day as planned. The contractions ramped back up in intensity and by evening, they were just as bad as they were on Friday. That night, we went ahead with our date night that we had planned. I wanted one last dinner and a movie before baby came. At Peppers, the contractions were so uncomfortable that I would stop eating when they came. I was sitting on a wooden chair, and the seated position was the most uncomfortable. We made a few stops before the movie, and I just wasn’t feeling well. After the movie, I was getting really frustrated. The contractions were not stopping, but they were not necessarily getting worse, either. When we got home, I decided to take one Benedryl to try and get some sleep. It was another restless night. I awoke every time I had a bad contraction, and was going to the bathroom around once an hour.
On Sunday, we tried to sleep in, then we went to our Bradley class at 2:00. I was obviously distracted during the class, and kept having hot flashes. During relaxation, I had such a bad contraction that it brought tears to my eyes. We stayed and talked a little with Erin and Paul after class and let them know what was happening. After class, we were headed to our baby shower. I made Scott stop at home on the way and when I was in the bathroom I had another awful contraction and started crying. I was just wiped out emotionally and physically, and I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. Scott said that if I wasn’t up to it we didn’t have to go to the shower, but there was no way I wasn’t going to show up to my own baby shower!
At the shower I curled up in a ball on the corner of the sectional sofa. I tried to relax through contractions, which was very hard with so many people around. When we were opening presents (well, Scott was opening, and I was trying to act like nothing was wrong), my contractions seemed to be very intense. Everyone went outside to eat, and I stayed behind. I tried to relax a little, but I was not feeling well. After a little while, I went outside to join the others. Outside, I sat on the couch. My friendsd started asking me how I was feeling, and I tried to give short answers. After a few questions, I just broke down crying and had to leave the room. I went to the bathroom to let it out, and all the girls followed. I finally told them what had been going on all weekend, and they were all very supportive. One of my friends even got excited and kept saying, “you’re definitely in labor.” I tried to tough it out for a while and it was much easier not having to hide the fact that I was in severe pain every five minutes. We left fairly early and when we got home we decided to go for a walk and see if we could speed things up a little bit. We walked around our block for an hour. I was sucking my thumb to trigger the pressure point on the roof of my mouth. We stopped every five minutes for contractions. After a while nothing seemed to be happening. I decided to call into work the next morning. After no sleep the entire weekend, there was no way I would be useful at work. I emailed my boss to tell him I’d be in after lunch. Then I tried to sleep. What a horrible night. I was awake several times an hour, trying to use the bathroom and having contractions in the bathroom. I got less sleep that night than the others.
The next day, I laid in bed until around ten, then got up and did some research on latent or “prodromal” labor. As I read more about it, I learned that this type of early labor can last for days and the contractions do slowly affect your cervix. Many articles talked about the emotional connection to your baby, your pregnancy, and your body. Through my research I learned that for some women, labor is slowed or stalled because she is not ready for the changes that will follow childbirth. She may be worried about becoming a mother, her relationship with her spouse, etc. Until she fully accepts the changes that will take place, the labor can stay stalled. After emailing this research to Scott, I decided to do anything I could to make this torture stop. I either wanted the contractions to stop altogether, or give me a baby!
I light a bunch of candles and filled the tub with bubbles. As I sat in the bath, I concentrated on relaxing my entire body. I had a long talk with my baby and told him it was OK to come because I was ready for him. I told him I had been scared, but that I was very excited to meet him and as soon as he came we would still always be together. Then I read him “The places you will go” by Dr. Suess. When Scott came home for lunch a little while later, we had a long talk about our relationship and my fear that things would change between us. I was scared that we’d lose some of what made our relationship so special and that everything would be different. After a lot of reassurance from Scott, and my talk with Jacob, I felt much better. I kept telling Jacob, “It’s ok baby, move down.” I made a conscious effort to relax completely during each contraction. I treated myself to some chocolate, and tried to watch a movie. I found myself completely unable to concentrate on the movie. I was bouncing lightly on my birthing ball and when contractions hit, I would drop to my knees and bend over the seat of the couch. The back labor was very uncomfortable. I noticed my contractions becoming stronger and closer together. After a few hours, I decided to time the contractions. They were 4 minutes apart, then 3, then they started being closer to 2 minutes.
I knew Scott had a closing with a customer at 4:30, so I made myself wait to call him. At 5:15, I couldn’t wait anymore, and I called his cell phone. “Can you come home? I need you!” I said. He let me know that he was already in the driveway. When he came in, I was pacing the hallway, dropping to my knees when contractions would hit. I told him I didn’t want to slow down because I was afraid of the labor stopping again if we went back to the hospital. A few minutes after Scott came home, my water broke. Scott asked how I knew that it broke and I said it felt like a water balloon had popped inside of me and my pants were very heavy and wet. After my water broke, Scott called Dr. Pranger while I tried to get things together for the hospital. That’s when things got really intense. I was lying on my side on the bed in the Bradley position, propped up with pillows. While Scott tried to get things ready for the hospital, I was dealing with very intense contractions. I was very hot and sweaty but my feet were freezing. I told Scott that I couldn’t do it anymore and there was no way I’d get through the whole thing without drugs. Scott was very attentive and reassured me that I was doing great. I was shaking uncontrollably, I thought I might throw up, and was having double-peaking contractions around a minute or two apart. Scott asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital and I agreed to go. I felt a little defeated at this point because I felt like I gave in too soon. Scott packed the car and gave our doctor the heads up that we were leaving. When it was time to go out to the car I refused, saying that I just wanted to stay in bed, I didn’t want to go anywhere. (We didn’t realize it at the time, but this was transition and I had every textbook symptom!)
Scott got me laid down in the back seat and we took the ten minute drive to the hospital. Scott pulled up to the doors and got me a wheelchair. In the ER waiting area, the receptionist called down someone from labor and delivery to check me before I was admitted. Scott was filling out paperwork and the L&D nurse came down and saw me. I heard her say “I’m not going to check her here, this one needs to go right up.” They wouldn’t let Scott go with me, and I was very upset. When we got up to L&D, the nurse took me into a triage room and gave me a gown. I stripped off my clothes except my sports bra and tried to cover with the gown but another contraction hit and I threw myself over the bed. I heard the nurse say, “yep, we’re not staying here either, you need a room right away.” Back in the wheelchair, I was being wheeled down the hall and the nurse called out “which rooms are open?” I was taken into a delivery room and asked to lay on the bed. Because the back labor was so bad, I refused to lie on my back, so instead I fell to my side.
Scott flew in a few minutes later and was immediately at my side. I was 8-9 centimeters when they first checked me at 6:40 p.m. Here’s where it all gets a little fuzzy. I remember feeling like I had to poop, and I told the nurse. She said just wait…then my body started pushing on its own. The nurses kept telling me not to push, but I didn’t know how to counteract the pushes. I wasn’t pushing, my body was pushing. I couldn’t control it. They put the EFM on me, and when I didn’t hear the baby’s heartbeat right away, I got very scared. Someone strapped an oxygen mask onto my face and a strange older doctor came in. They made me lie on my back and then they were telling me to push. I told Scott, “this isn’t right, I can’t be on my back!!” I was thinking about my Bradley classes and the positions we learned. The only voice I heard at that point was Scott’s. They were telling me to focus all my energy on pushing and not to make sounds. This confused me, because I thought they were telling me I was being too loud and disturbing other people!! I found out later that they were just trying to get Jacob out as quickly as possible. It was very hard to know when to push because by this point, I wasn’t feeling contractions. I was just waiting for my body to start pushing–then when Scott told me to push I just pushed. After a minute, Scott said “I can see him!” I don’t remember much about this part. All I know is that I couldn’t see anything because I was flat on my back! After a few minutes, he was out and as they took him away, I saw his “boy parts” and turned to Scott–we both said “It’s a boy!!!!” at the same time and we were both crying. Jacob was born at 6:50–only 10 minutes after we first checked in. Then I kept saying, “I want my baby” and I didn’t understand why they had taken him away. I had wanted him to be placed on my chest after birth…At this point I was shaking a lot. Then our doctor–who missed the birth–arrived. I felt a very strange sensation and said “What was that?!?!?!” and the doctor said it was the placenta.
Then Doctor Pranger came in and I was given a shot in the leg. I tried to say that I didn’t want any drugs, but Doctor Pranger said that I needed it for clotting. Soon, Jacob was placed on my chest and Scott and I concentrated all of our attention on him as Doctor Pranger did my stitches. That is when I found out that when I was in the triage room our nurse, Tracy saw meconium staining in my pants. This along with the weak heart tones had everyone worried about the baby. When Jacob came out, he wasn’t breathing, so they had to cut the cord and take him to be stimulated in order to make him breath. They said he started breathing on his own right before they would have had to intibate him.
Jacob Asher
Born September 21, 2009
Weight: 7 pounds, 7 ounces
Length: 20 1/2 inches
