Penelope Jean
At about 8:30pm Monday night, October 26th, (my due date!), I was sitting on the couch catching up on my Dr. Phil episodes when I sneezed and felt a gush of fluid. Thinking I peed my pants, I waddled to the bathroom and sat down on the toilet and it just kept coming. I called my doula and she told me to hang out, let her know when the contractions started up, and try to get things going on my own. Christopher literally had just gotten home from work as I was squatting over the toilet, the first thing he said was “ARE YOU GIVING BIRTH?!” What a thing to come home too ;). I called my midwife around 9:30pm and she told me to hang home as long as I wanted, but since my water broke to start making my way to the hospital within the next 4-5 hours if things didn’t pick up sooner.
Fast forward a couple of hours, we tried laying down and sleeping since we knew it would be a long night, but we were too excited, so we got up, made a pizza, watched a movie and I bounced on the yoga ball for awhile. I wanted to get my contractions started but I didn’t want to use up all of my energy since it was literally already past my bed time at this point. By about 12:30am, we called my mom to come over to hang overnight while Nora (our 3 year old) was sleeping so we could just head into town before contractions really picked up since we live about 20-25 minutes away from the hospital.
We went to the hospital at 1:30am, my two doulas met me there and I went to triage for about 30 minutes to monitor babe – they checked me and I was at a 4, and at this point the contractions were 5-10 minutes apart. Some were super random and they barely hurt, so after we got checked into our room and I changed into something more comfortable, Christopher and I walked the halls for a good half hour and that got things going a little more. After walking, at around 3:30am, I decided I wanted to try and rest, I was literally exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open, so my doula suggested I get on the bed and lay down with this big peanut shaped yoga ball between my legs. The second I did – I got a really strong contraction! So basically I got to lay down and rest AND I was still getting things moving along. Christopher sat in the chair next to me and just held my hand through each one. Pretty soon I couldn’t lay on my side comfortably anymore, so I got on my hands and knees on the bed and rested my arms and head on the peanut ball and pillows in front of me while Christopher rubbed my back, and my doulas, Melissa and Annie, used the rebozo on my stomach and hips. It was seriously amazing and I labored like that for a couple of hours, until about 5:15am. I got up to use the bathroom a couple of times, someone came in to draw my blood (which was actually a good distraction for me), and I spent the next couple of hours going back and forth on the bed between hands and knees and laying on my side.
Linda, my midwife, came in at 7:30am to see how things were going. I was secretly praying I was close because her shift ended at 8 and she really wanted to be able to be there for me to push! My contractions were very strong at the point, about 2-4 minutes apart. I was shaky and felt nauseous but the contractions felt so natural and were actually really short, so when she told me I was probably in transition I didn’t believe her! She checked me and I was at an 8/9 and extremely soft. I had to use the bathroom so I got up and went to sit on the toilet and my doula suggested that I sit through a couple of contractions on the toilet to really get things going. Sitting on the toilet was the absolute most uncomfortable and painful contractions I had, but when I got back to the bed from sitting there for about a half an hour, I laid down on my right side and instantly felt the urge to push. At this point only a half hour had passed since I was dilated to an 8.5, but at 8:00am my midwife told me to just do whatever my body told me to do, so with the next 2 or 3 contractions I pushed, basically I didn’t have a choice BUT to push, my body was doing it on its own, and I could physically feel Penelope moving down.
I was still laying on my right side, but hanging off of the bed, with Christopher propping my head and arms up. My left leg was on Annie (one doula’s) shoulder and my other leg was laying on the bed. My midwife was at the foot of the bed and I just remember them telling me to push whenever I felt I needed to. I felt the burning sensation of her crowning and pushed literally as hard as I physically could because it was the most painful part that I’d felt throughout labor. All I remember is just hearing everyone telling me they could see her hair and reminding me it was almost over. I remember giving one final push and felt her come out and heard her SCREAMING. Our oldest daughter, Nora, made zero sound when she came out but Penelope cried for what felt like hours. They put her on my chest immediately and Christopher and I just cried. I couldn’t believe it was over already and I actually did it! From the time I felt the urge to push (8:05am) to the time Penelope was born (8:15am) was all it took to push this little miss into the world! It was fabulous. The placenta came about 10 minutes later. I didn’t have any tearing! She latched on and nursed for a good hour before they took her to do all of her vitals. And she weighed 8lbs 1oz, and was 20 inches long :)
Penelope Jean
October 27, 2015
Fast forward a couple of hours, we tried laying down and sleeping since we knew it would be a long night, but we were too excited, so we got up, made a pizza, watched a movie and I bounced on the yoga ball for awhile. I wanted to get my contractions started but I didn’t want to use up all of my energy since it was literally already past my bed time at this point. By about 12:30am, we called my mom to come over to hang overnight while Nora (our 3 year old) was sleeping so we could just head into town before contractions really picked up since we live about 20-25 minutes away from the hospital.
We went to the hospital at 1:30am, my two doulas met me there and I went to triage for about 30 minutes to monitor babe – they checked me and I was at a 4, and at this point the contractions were 5-10 minutes apart. Some were super random and they barely hurt, so after we got checked into our room and I changed into something more comfortable, Christopher and I walked the halls for a good half hour and that got things going a little more. After walking, at around 3:30am, I decided I wanted to try and rest, I was literally exhausted and could barely keep my eyes open, so my doula suggested I get on the bed and lay down with this big peanut shaped yoga ball between my legs. The second I did – I got a really strong contraction! So basically I got to lay down and rest AND I was still getting things moving along. Christopher sat in the chair next to me and just held my hand through each one. Pretty soon I couldn’t lay on my side comfortably anymore, so I got on my hands and knees on the bed and rested my arms and head on the peanut ball and pillows in front of me while Christopher rubbed my back, and my doulas, Melissa and Annie, used the rebozo on my stomach and hips. It was seriously amazing and I labored like that for a couple of hours, until about 5:15am. I got up to use the bathroom a couple of times, someone came in to draw my blood (which was actually a good distraction for me), and I spent the next couple of hours going back and forth on the bed between hands and knees and laying on my side.
Linda, my midwife, came in at 7:30am to see how things were going. I was secretly praying I was close because her shift ended at 8 and she really wanted to be able to be there for me to push! My contractions were very strong at the point, about 2-4 minutes apart. I was shaky and felt nauseous but the contractions felt so natural and were actually really short, so when she told me I was probably in transition I didn’t believe her! She checked me and I was at an 8/9 and extremely soft. I had to use the bathroom so I got up and went to sit on the toilet and my doula suggested that I sit through a couple of contractions on the toilet to really get things going. Sitting on the toilet was the absolute most uncomfortable and painful contractions I had, but when I got back to the bed from sitting there for about a half an hour, I laid down on my right side and instantly felt the urge to push. At this point only a half hour had passed since I was dilated to an 8.5, but at 8:00am my midwife told me to just do whatever my body told me to do, so with the next 2 or 3 contractions I pushed, basically I didn’t have a choice BUT to push, my body was doing it on its own, and I could physically feel Penelope moving down.
I was still laying on my right side, but hanging off of the bed, with Christopher propping my head and arms up. My left leg was on Annie (one doula’s) shoulder and my other leg was laying on the bed. My midwife was at the foot of the bed and I just remember them telling me to push whenever I felt I needed to. I felt the burning sensation of her crowning and pushed literally as hard as I physically could because it was the most painful part that I’d felt throughout labor. All I remember is just hearing everyone telling me they could see her hair and reminding me it was almost over. I remember giving one final push and felt her come out and heard her SCREAMING. Our oldest daughter, Nora, made zero sound when she came out but Penelope cried for what felt like hours. They put her on my chest immediately and Christopher and I just cried. I couldn’t believe it was over already and I actually did it! From the time I felt the urge to push (8:05am) to the time Penelope was born (8:15am) was all it took to push this little miss into the world! It was fabulous. The placenta came about 10 minutes later. I didn’t have any tearing! She latched on and nursed for a good hour before they took her to do all of her vitals. And she weighed 8lbs 1oz, and was 20 inches long :)
Penelope Jean
October 27, 2015