“A wizard is never late, nor is he early. He arrives precisely when he means to.”- Gandalf
It seems to me wizards and babies have something in common.
In the days past my due date, we had tried pretty much every home remedy natural induction technique. Evening primrose oil, raspberry leaf tea, walking, pineapple, sex, chocolate cake, yoga ball, acupressure, Chinese food — but nothing had worked. I had made the choice through my pregnancy not to have any cervical checks so I had no idea how “ready” my body was getting, apart from lots of Braxton Hicks and prodromal labor, although the Doctor had concerns that I may not dilate properly due to a previous LEEP surgery.
On Tuesday evening (10 days late), we decided to try the final induction technique that I had been avoiding — castor oil. It was a last ditch try as the doctor and midwife had scheduled a medicated induction for Thursday evening. Four tablespoons in pineapple juice at 6pm, and two hours later it took effect.
On Wednesday 31st July (11 days past my due date and Harry Potter’s birthday) at 4:40am I woke up, coughed and felt a small gush. I clenched and rushed to the bathroom and declared that either my water had broken or I had peed my pants. It didn’t seem like anywhere near enough fluid to be all of my water.
I got back into bed and tried to rest a little, until 6am when the bad cramps turned into real contractions. I showered and the hot water felt really good on my back. As a couple of harder contractions hit me I got on my hands and knees in the tub letting the shower run on my lower back. After my shower I decided to text my birth support friend Maureen to let her know something might be happening that day.
At 8am my husband Dan called the midwife, and she told us to keep on labouring at home and let her know when we wanted to transfer to the hospital. It turns out she was just heading home from a late night delivery there. We began to time contractions; they varied from five to eight minutes apart. I practised deep breathing through my contractions, inhaling through my nose and exhaling with a humming chanting vocalisation.
At 8:30am my birth support friend called to see how we were doing. When I had to hand the phone over to Dan rather than talk to her myself she knew that today was definitely the day! She called out of work and came straight over. My contractions continued to increase in frequency and strength although they never hit a regular timetable pattern. I got through each one rocking on my yoga ball, chanting, holding my husband’s hand and pushing my head into it while he rubbed my back or held a hot pack onto my lower back.
My due date of April 2nd came and went with little fanfare. I'd somehow gotten it stuck in my head that my due date was... Read more
I started to get double contractions: the first would hit and then just as it would begin to ease off, another surge of strength would take over and I was hit with another contraction. Although these contractions didn’t fit into our plan we decided to head to the hospital so I could use the birthing tub for pain relief. Dan spoke to the midwife at 10:20 to let her know we were going to the hospital, and she said she would meet us there.
It took us a little while to get the last of our stuff together and for me to get dressed and into the car (as I was trying to wait til one contraction finished before I stood up to walk), but the double contractions were hitting hard by this point. We only live five minutes from the hospital and arrived there quickly. We got up to the labor and delivery ward and the nurses began running the tub and preparing the room.
By this point my mood had changed quite a lot; I was trying to overcome my anxiety and panic attacks of medical interventions/being in the hospital. I could not find any position to be in that helped the contractions — even my yoga ball was not working for me anymore. The tub was ready and the midwife still hadn’t arrived yet, but the nurse said she would have to check me before I got in the tub — so I agreed.
I climbed onto the bed on my hands and knees using the back of the bed for support and let the nurse check me. My husband says her face went from all calm to a “Oh shit, I guess we’re doing this ourselves” slightly panicked face when she checked and I was a 10 with his head right there! Unfortunately I wasn’t allowed to get in the tub now, because the nurses were unable to do the delivery there. The nurse called for help in the room and told me to just do whatever my body wanted to do and very shortly after I started feeling the urge to push.
I didn’t count how many pushes I gave, but Dan estimates it was less than 10 minutes of pushing. I had lost most of my ability to speak, but Dan was amazing at reading my body language and hand gestures, including my “no scissors” hand motion to ensure that no one did an episiotomy on me.
Between contractions Dan gave me Capri Sun pouches to sip and during contractions he rubbed my back and talked me through it. I swore a lot and twice declared that I couldn’t do it, but Dan kept me calm and told me that I was doing it already. The ring of fire was painful and during a big push I felt his head crown — I thought that this was it, but he went back in. Apparently there was a look of shock on the nurses faces when I yelled “You little fucker, you’re not supposed to go back in.” A couple more pushes with more positive statements from me in between, like “Come on Xander, we can do it, down and out” and his head was out.
Xander quickly coughed up a huge lungful of fluid in the direction of Maureen who had to jump out of the way to avoid getting covered in it. His cord was wrapped around his neck twice, and they had lost his heart rate on the monitors as he came out so quickly that they had me flip onto my back to deliver the rest of him. He came out very purple followed by a huge gush of fluid which spilled off the table and into my husband’s shoe! Alexander Stuart was officially born at 11:38am, 7 hours after my water broke and less than 40 minutes after pulling into the hospital car park.
They immediately handed him up to me and laid him on my chest for skin to skin cuddles, and we asked that cord clamping be delayed and once it stopped pulsing Maureen cut his cord. My water birth plan went out the window but luckily, thanks to my preparation and education from classes, my son and I both had a birthing experience we were happy with.
Many of the details were different, but I also had an overdue unmedicated hospital birth and reading your story felt delightfully familiar. Congratulations on the birth of your son!
Thank you for sharing my story 🙂
I agree with comment above–I was 8 and 10 days past due with both of my babies, respectively, nervous with a looming induction date fast approaching both times, and experiencing lots of prodromal labor both times before finally having both babies in the hospital in wonderful hospital births that were unmedicated and without any kind of interference. I was more fortunate in that I was able to use the tub at the hospital both times to labor in but less fortunate in that my labors were 28 hours (first) and 14 (second) so I can’t imagine how ecstatic I would have been to be fully dilated at first check in the hospital! Great job and great story!
Thank you for sharing, love the quote!
Awesome birth, even if you didnt get the tub 😉 Hope night feeds are going well.
Night feeds are ok 🙂
Unfortunately this week he has decided to be a “normal” baby and wake twice a night rather than the once I was used to
I love that quote – We printed it out and hung it from my son’s incubator in the NICU.
Also, beautiful story.
What a perfect place for the quote 🙂
I hope your little wizard is doing well
this sounds very similar to my second birth, except my water didn’t break until I was pushing. I was 5 days overdue, so no looming induction date, and I was in conscious labor for less than 6 hours (although I was dreaming about having contractions before I woke up). Did they unwrap the cord from his neck? My daughter had her cord around her neck so they cut it right away before the rest of her was delivered.
I, too, was swearing up a storm, and even though I knew it was crazy, was asking to go home and saying I didn’t want to do it anymore. It was all happening so fast (my first labor was 31 hours), that I was a little freaked out.
Luckily they were able to unwrap his cord and bring him to my chest.
We delayed clamping and cutting for a few minutes til after the cord stopped pulsing
Oh god, I laughed so hard at the “You little fucker” line. There was almost dinner everywhere.
Coffee for me! That was priceless!
I’m also glad I’m not the only one that swore in between pushes. After nearly 24 hours of labour (3rd baby!), I frustratedly shouted “Fucking hell kid! Just come out already, we want to meet you!”
@Mich: Congratulations on the safe arrival of an awesome baby, hope your nights get easier soon.
Ooh, sorry.
I apologise for the spilling of dinner and coffee!!
Looking back now I’m glad his ears were still inside – imagine that being the first words you ever said to your child?! Lol
Hahaha yeah. I wanted to do the Squishy speech from Finding Nemo, but I blanked.
That would have been awesome!!
I actually have no idea what my first words to him were.
Probably just “hi little boy”
Oh wow, I need to put that quote somewhere where I can see it, like written on my glasses — today is my due date and after a “whopping” three days of maternity leave, icky weather keeping me indoors, weeks of occasional Braxton-Hicks contractions and 2 nights of “IS THIS IT?”, I’m going NUTS! (I, uh, am not that good at waiting. Or at relaxing on days off. I know that I am abnormal for not enjoying what is basically vacation.)
But you’re of course right, baby will arrive precisely when she means to. I hope my labor goes as quickly and smoothly as yours. I have a feeling I’ll be doing my fair share of moaning and swearing, too.
Congrats on your happy birth!
Post it note it on your bathroom mirror!
And on your Facebook wall, the 2nd worse part of being overdue was the constant “have you had the baby yet?” messages. I managed to quieten most of them with a humorous morning update about still being pregnant