THE GOODS BLOG: Supplemental ~ Archie’s Birth Story

**WARNING!**CONTAINS GRAPHIC PHOTOS AND CONTENT!!!**

You guys asked for graphic photos and you shall have them! Seriously, brace yourselves. I don’t recommend looking at this if you don’t want to see blood and stuff. There is a photo of a baby literally exiting my vagina. (Except you can’t actually see any vagina.) You can’t un-see this. The majority of you have given birth yourselves, so I expect that it probably won’t phase you.

You have been warned!

As usual, this blog entry is closed to you ladies only. I might post a less TMI version for the regular people to read. But as always, you guys get the good, truthful stuff. :) The events leading up to Archie’s birth started on Saturday the 14th. I was getting increasingly anxious about being overdue because I did not want to have to start discussing induction or anything else that I was hoping to avoid. So on Saturday I convinced Tim that we should have sex, since I know that this is one of the best ways to naturally induce labour. We also went out to dinner that night to Satay Brothers, a Singaporean restaurant, and I ordered the spiciest thing on their menu, the laksa! I joked that the baby should be blasting out in no time.

On Sunday the 15th I was feeling pretty “off” all day. I was tired and randomly crampy, but I didn’t think much of it because I’d been feeling a lot like this for days, if not weeks. I spent most of the day taking it easy. It wasn’t until the evening when Tim was preparing dinner that I started to pay closer attention to the crampiness that I was experiencing. None of it ever felt like a “contraction,” so I kept thinking that it couldn’t be anything. There was also no sort of rhythm to what I was feeling at all. I tried timing the pains a bit, but they were all over the place. We sat down for dinner around 6:30pm and by then I was having a very difficult time eating and my pains were becoming a lot more frequent. I got Tim to start timing them, and by this point we were pretty convinced that I was in labour. The contractions were already lasting for over a minute long and were about three minutes apart. We had no idea how things had escalated so suddenly! I kept saying that it must somehow be wrong that I was already in full-blown labour with very little lead-up. Looking back, I must have been in early labour for most of the day and not realized that that’s what it was. We contacted our doula and our midwife (who ended up being Nathalie - my favourite!) and they both seemed to think that it was really happening. The midwife recommended that I get into the bath for 20 minutes, and then to go lie down in bed for 20 minutes. If at that point the contractions were still steady, I was supposed to call back. While I was in the bath, Tim was running around packing up the last of the things that we wanted to bring with us to the birthing center. I felt pretty awful by the time that I was in the bath, with very little relief from the contractions at all. Getting out of the tub I noticed that my mucus plug had come out. I wanted to wash my face, brush my teeth, and put my contact lenses in, since I hadn’t done any of those things yet that day. I also got myself to have a poop, hoping to avoid pooping during the delivery! It was so difficult to get those things done in my pained state and I even threw up while brushing my teeth. I got into bed and was in a ton of pain. The midwife said that we could head to the birthing center right away, however if I was less than 4 centimeters dilated, that I would have to go back home. She also suggested that she could simply come to our house to check me, so we agreed to have her come and do that. Once at our house, she checked the baby’s heart rate, which was normal, and then waited until I was between contractions to give me a vaginal exam. I was 3cm, almost 4cm dilated, and 100% effaced. She said that she was going to head to the birthing center to start getting things ready and that we should finish getting ourselves ready and leave as well! Tim says that I was at my “meanest” around this time, ha ha. It was because he kept asking me questions about different things to bring and I was in no mood to answer any questions or make any decisions. I tried putting underwear on, but they were way too uncomfortable, so I just went commando under my pants. I hobbled my way to the car and it was so painful and uncomfortable! The car ride was the WORST. Every bump in the road was terrible and I spent the whole ride moaning and trying to concentrate on getting through it. As soon as we pulled up to the birthing center my water broke!! My pants were soaked and I can only assume that the car seat was as well! I hobbled inside and went up to my room while Tim parked the car. The birthing center has four rooms and no one else was there, so I got to have the room of my choice! My favourite was the Mont-Royal room. Once in the room, they put absorbent pads all over the bed, I took off my wet pants, and laid down. Who needs bottoms at a time like this?! I kept leaking tons of amniotic fluid (and some blood) all over the place. Tim set up the room with all of the things that I had wanted; low lighting and Christmas lights, my Saje diffuser making everything smell amazing, my voodoo birthing stones, and he put on my Baby Birthing Music playlist. It was filled with songs that make me happy and was almost eight hours long. Our doula, Laurel, also arrived.

At this point, the contractions were so strong that I never really felt like I got a break from them. They never completely stopped! They would just get bad and then slightly less bad, and then bad again. It was very, very painful and uncomfortable, like the worst cramps ever. People tend to describe them as “waves,” but for me it was more of a constant, relentless sensation. But I have to say, I never once asked for or even thought about an epidural or any other sort of pain relief at all. I just never thought of any of it as an option, no matter how bad that things got. I really got through it by going away into my own “zone.” I mostly kept my eyes closed, breathed heavily when things were the most bad, made low moaning sounds, and kept telling myself positive affirmations such as “my body was made to do this, I can do this, I can put up with anything for 10 seconds at a time.” It was a lot like meditation. I didn’t ever cry and I really don’t think that I ever yelled or said anything mean to anyone. I also didn’t throw up again (other than that one time at home).

I attribute a lot of this strength to knowing that I had a whole lot of womanly power backing me up. ♥

The midwives are pretty “hands-off” when it comes to labouring. They want you to do whatever you need to do to get through it and are only there if you need them. Nathalie came in to check the baby’s heart rate with a hand-held monitor about once an hour, but other then that I did not feel like a “patient” at all. There were no machines, no hospital bed, nothing like that. I laboured in several positions and was so surprised at how difficult it was to get myself to move around. I was hoping to be “active” during labour, which I suppose I was, but it was very difficult. I spent a bunch of time on all fours, leaning/sitting on a yoga ball, sometimes laying down, sometimes on the toilet, and finally in the bathtub. Everyone kept getting me to take sips of water and coconut water, even though I didn’t really want them. Laurel and Tim rubbed my back a lot too.

After spending some time in the tub, Nathalie came to check the baby’s heart rate and found that it had dropped a bit. She said that this is usually a sign that the baby is ready to come out. She did a second vaginal exam at this point, I was 10 centimeters dilated, and she said that the baby’s head was right at the exit. She said that I could start to push! I was completely nude by this point and did not care. I tried pushing on my hands and knees for a while on the bed. This resulted in me pooping on the bed. I thought that I had taken measures to avoid this, but no. It was distracting! They suggested that I go to sit on the toilet for a few contractions so that I could pee and poop and they encouraged me to continue pushing on the toilet as well. I ended up pooping every time that I pushed!! I was such a poopy baby birther!!! I found that my contractions had really slowed down by this point. I tried pushing as best I could, but I was exhausted and it didn’t seem like much was happening. I was starting to get nervous that it was taking too long. I didn’t want them to send me to the hospital after everything that I had already been through. I really just wanted for it to be over and for the baby to come out. Eventually I got off of the toilet and Nathalie suggested that I try laying on my side on the bed with my top leg up on her shoulder. I was feeling pretty determined to get it done at this point! Every time that I had a contraction everyone really encouraged me to push as hard as I could. I squeezed the crap out of Tim’s arm and bared down and pushed as hard as I absolutely could. It didn’t hurt that much but was incredibly hard work. Soon Nathalie was saying that she could see the baby’s hair and she encouraged me to reach down and touch it. It kinda freaked me out. Soon my pushing got the baby’s head out about halfway and they were saying that they could see its ears. I remember Tim sounding really excited at this point. This part also hurt A LOT, like total awful stinging and burning. This really encouraged me to get it all over with!! A few more pushes and the head popped out! Tim went around to catch the baby, guided by Nathalie. He put his hands on the head and was told to help pull and ease the body out. Finally the body came out at 3:30am and it was THE MOST relieving sensation that I’ve ever felt!!! It felt like I was emptied out and I was so glad for it to be over! The contractions and unpleasant sensations were immediately gone!

Why did I even bother blocking out my nipples at this point? The whole pushing part took about two hours, which really surprised me. I expected it to be the fast part! It was a lot of painful, exhausting, hard work for a really long time. Once out, the baby made a few little cries but was mostly chill, and was put on my chest right away, still attached to the umbilical cord. I was making jokes (“what are we going to do with a baby??!,” etc.) and was instantly in great spirits and acting like myself. Midwives don’t typically announce the gender of the baby, instead they leave that up to you to discover for yourself. So I excitedly took a look at his junk and said “it’s Archie!!” I had felt that he was going to be a boy right since the beginning of the pregnancy, so it was awesome to find out that my gut feeling was correct! I was encouraged to hold Archie skin-to-skin for 1-2 hours.

During this time we had to get the placenta to come out, which turned out to be pretty uneventful. I was told to give a few small pushes and Nathalie pretty much just pulled it out. I barely felt anything. After about half an hour it was time to cut the umbilical cord, and Tim went ahead and took care of that! I was very impressed with him, because we all thought that he would probably pass out at some point during this experience (him included), and he did not. In fact, he purposely looked at and saw everything. This is also when I was assessed for tearing, and it turns out that I tore on two different layers but that they were only about level 2 tears. So Nathalie froze the area and gave me some stitches. This wasn’t pleasant and it took quite a while, but compared to everything else it wasn’t a big deal. They brought me a lovely post-birthing fruit plate to enjoy! I was then told that I could go and take a shower, which I desperately wanted (RE: so much poop) and Tim took over having skin-to-skin time with Archie. While I was in the shower the entire room got cleaned and the whole bed was changed out so that everything would be clean and all of the blood and guts would be gone.

Then Archie had his whole health assessment done where he was weighed and measured and checked out for everything. We declined putting the Ilotycin eye drops in his eyes but he did get the vitamin K shot in his upper leg. He got a perfect Apgar evaluation score. A perfectly healthy 7lbs 12oz baby boy!

They also showed me the whole placenta, which was fascinating! I saw the whole amniotic sack that Archie lived in and everything! They asked what I wanted to do with the placenta, and luckily I found someone to turn it into capsules. So they put the placenta on ice and agreed to let me take it home! It’s pretty funny storing your own organs in your own freezer...

After all of this they were finally ready to leave us alone and let us sleep! We put Archie in the bassinet and got a few hours of sleep. Although I was so high on adrenaline that I barely slept much. When we woke up later we were served a nice breakfast. Midwives came in to show me the basics of breastfeeding and they also did another health check on Archie. We spent most of the day in bed resting. Finally around 7pm we were told that we were free to go home whenever we wanted to. I didn’t feel pressured to leave and I was certainly comfortable at the birthing center, but we figured that we might as well head home! It was so strange to walk out of that place with a baby! And so that’s it! That’s the entire story as best as I can remember it!

It was an extremely challenging experience, but I sure do feel amazing for getting through it, just as any woman should! My initial reaction was that I never wanted to go through anything like that ever again... But I think that my mind is already starting to block out how bad it was.

And now we have a baby!