Birth story

I had been into my doctor for contractions and a cervical check Friday afternoon the 20th and been told I could have the baby "any time within the next 24 hours" or still be pregnant for another 2-3 weeks. I was very soft, 50% effaced, but still only fingertip dilated. But as Friday evening wore on, the contractions became more and more intense and by 11pm I really did not think we would make it to daylight Saturday morning without checking into L&D. Then, at 11:30, contractions stopped cold! I told Rick that I now doubted my own ability to know when it was the "real thing" because I had been so sure it was headed toward birth only to just stop on a dime without any reason or warning.

After a long weekend of stop and start contractions, I woke up from a sound sleep at 2am Monday morning. I had been dreaming about something (don't remember what) when the dream froze and turned brilliant bluish-white and I sat straight up in pain from a hard contraction. Though I wasn't sure what the dream had been, as soon as I was awake enough to understand what the pain was, I was immediately aware that this was not my first strong contraction of the night and that by the pattern of the dream I had already slept though several prior ones.

I got up, nibbled a banana and timed contractions (anywhere from 20-60 seconds, mild to moderate on pain, usually coming right at every 5 minutes) for the next hour and a half. I tried to go back to bed about 3:30 and as soon as I laid down the intensity picked back up and I sat up too uncomfortable to try to sleep. When I sat back up it woke up Rick and he asked what was up. Don't know why I felt this was any different from all the other sets of contractions over the past days and weeks, but for some reason I answered, "I think we are going to have a birthday today."

I took a warm bath, kept timing contractions, and tried not to get overly excited. About 4:30 I went to the bathroom and felt my cervix...I could feel it very, very low and soft and when I pulled back my hand the entire mucus plug was laying on my finger. I got online and tried to research loss of plug and onset of 3rd labor, but couldn't find anything helpful. I thought I remembered that after first pregnancy that you usually don't loose the plug until the start of labor, so this actually had me hopeful, but I still wasn't sure. I called the on-call doctor and he was rather unimpressed. While my contractions were no stronger, and still not consistently longer, they were now coming at 2-3 minutes usually (with a random 5-7 minute variance) and for some reason I just really felt it was time to get checked. So at 5am we got up, got dressed and started calling our neighbor to watch Joshua and Ruth and calling our parents. We left for the hospital around 6am.

When we got there they had a double shift of nurses (ours had been called in at 4am) and were so full that they had NO BEDS in the labor ward! They put me on a cot in the hallway next to the OR automatic doors and the fire escape, behind a foldable screen, and my sweet nurse, Brenda, checked my cervix and said I was 50% effaced and dilated between a 3-4. So she hooked me up to monitors and called my doctor. He came maybe around 8:30 and said I was barely a 3 and 40%. (Don't you love how I lost 10% effacement between Friday and Monday? I never realized how subjective this "science" is!) He said to walk the halls for an hour then get checked again to see if I would be admitted or sent home. It didn't help that the contraction monitor was picking up Jeremiah's heartrate well, but the TOGO count wasn't picking up any contraction activity.

So we walked for an hour, came back and the nurse said she didn't feel much cervical change but that she was still saying I was at least 50% effaced and, not to contradict the doctor, but if not yet at 4, definitely a "generous 3". But she also said she could see physical changes in me (for instance, my face was now very flushed) and that she trusted my instincts. If I thought baby was coming today (and by now I was quite certain this was indeed the real thing because of contraction intensity and consistency) that she would recommend to our doctor that I be admitted.

We finally got a room around noon. Getting hooked up to a working contraction monitor, it was immediately evident to all the I was definitely in true labor. My doctor was back within half an hour and broke my water at 12:30 saying I was at a 4 1/2. I labored consistently but fairly comfortably for the next 2 hours, and at 2:30 requested another cervical check because I was getting quite uncomfortable and beginning to consider pain meds. I was at a 6 and 60% effaced (as per the nurse's measurements). I chose not to do meds because I really figured that at a 6 I would have the baby within the next hour. (With both Joshua and Ruth, once I hit 7, I was pushing and delivering within 15-20 minutes!) If I had to do things over this time, I would have taken the meds at 2:30 after all!

- warning: it gets a little scary here, so if you haven't delivered yet, you may want to skip -

I can't really give you a clear timeline after that. Jeremiah was born at 4:14, but after 2:30 it was just a blur of pain. Basically, to make a very long, scary, intense story readable, my cervix just never quite responded the way it should have. As far as Rick and I both understand, I actually delivered only dilated to 8 and 80% effaced! There was much concern that my cervix was going to rupture because I could not control my intense urge to push and was baring down with each contraction when my cervix was far from ready. Rick had to literally get in my face and yell, "Jenni, for Jeremiah, stop pushing!" just to get through the pain barrier that was keeping me from comprehending anything other than utter pain. Seeing the terror in his face helped me register for just a moment how critical the situation was and to try my best to breath through the contractions. By God's grace there was no cervical damage and both Jeremiah and I came though this experience alive...If my cervix had ruptured, best case would probably have been an emergency hysterectomy, worst case I could have quickly bled to death.

When Jeremiah was laid on my chest he was covered in a thick coat of chalky white vernex and looked horribly blue to me. After all the trauma we had just endured, I panicked that he might be stillborn and started screaming, "Breath, baby, breath!" But then he took a breath and let out this precious little "meow" and it was the best sound I have ever heard in my life.

The NICU team took him right away (because he was a 36 weeker) and he soon was crying good strong cries from the table at the side of the room. His APGARS were 9/9! He had to have some fluid drained from his lungs because of his fast entry into the world and he swallowed some blood during delivery so he was pretty vomitty the first 24-hours, but otherwise, he has been a dream baby. He sleeps well and caught on to nursing within about 36 hours. We were both released from the hospital about 43 hours after birth. He has some slight jaundice, but hasn't even needed Billie-lights. He was 5 pounds, 15 ounces at birth and only lost down to 5 pounds, 7 1/2 ounces by last Friday. His head was 12 1/4 inches at birth and already 12 3/4 by Friday, also having already grown nearly an inch in length in just those 3 1/2 days! It will be interesting to see where he is at by his due date.

I had a 2nd degree tear and am still very, very, very tired, but otherwise my recovery is going well. I've had a headache and somewhat blurry vision since birth, but this seems to be improving. I'm still pretty achey and feel like my hips still haven't gone back in place, but really my main complaint is simple fatigue. Considering what the outcome could have been, I feel very blessed by these relatively minor issues!!!

The morning I was laboring in the hall, we overheard conversations from two delivery rooms - one was a situation where twins were being adopted at birth, and the other was a surrogacy birth where baby ended up in NICU. Also, Tuesday night, a lady delivered a fullterm stillborn baby there in the hospital. It is amazing how many different kinds of fertility challenges touch lives around us ever day, even in a labor and delivery ward. I am still in awe that after 7 years of PI then a SI journey too, I just gave birth to my 3rd living miracle. Praising the Lord for his protection and for carrying us both safely through my hardest delivery. God's grace overwhelms me.