Hadley's Birth Story - Part 1

On June 15th, 2004 we found out that I was pregnant with baby #2. Grady was 5 months old at the time we found out. My pregnancy was great and basically the same as with Grady. I continued to see the same midwife (the original one that was on vacation when Grady was born...she assured me that none of her other children were getting married around the time Hadley was due :-) ). We knew we still had hopes for an all-natural delivery, but also knew that we needed to do things differently if we were going to get it. We looked into the Bradley Method and a friend of mine from Bible study actually taught it, so we signed up. With Grady I wanted to do it naturally without the use of drugs, but I had no plan. Some people can just wing it and do fine, but I am not one of those people, as I wrote in his birth story. The way I dealt with the pain was by tensing up every muscle in my body and holding my breath...that didn’t help at all...in fact, it works against your body. The whole key to the Bradley Method is relaxation. We figured it was worth a shot and really felt like we were supposed to prepare in that way. (picture: Grady's favorite "stool" for a while)

As the Bradley classes went on, more and more we were considering a home birth. In the beginning I had thought about it, but Joel thought that it made more sense to progress slowly to that point. With Grady I had planned to deliver at the birthing center with the midwife. In the end I delivered at a hospital (thankfully still being able to use a midwife). We both thought that yes, that would be the logical thing to do...a progression from hospital to birthing center and then perhaps a home birth with the next baby. (picture: our Christmas card picture that year...2 months away from Hadley's birth) Well, the more we thought about my labor with Grady, the more we wanted to do a home birth. We both agreed that if I was going to have a natural birth then home would be the best place to do it. Although a hospital provides a great place for people to give birth naturally all the time, I just thought of it as so distracting and less peaceful. And although the birthing center is another great birthing option, it had proved to be not at all calming for me. With Grady I had gone to the birthing center only to be told to go home again because I was only 1 cm dilated. After 12 hours of strong contractions, 2-3 minutes apart for most of that time, I was vomiting and still only 2cm. Hello! Not fun. Still couldn’t stay at the birthing center. The drives there and back were horrendous for me while in labor. So, with relaxing being the key to what we wanted as our birth experience this time, we didn’t see how going back and forth to the birthing center fit in. That’s definitely not relaxing. I loved my midwife at the birthing center, but unfortunately the midwives there aren’t allowed to do home births. So...

At 35 weeks I switched. Kind of crazy to switch your whole birthing plan as far as your care provider and location that late in the game. But, we knew it was the right thing to do. We had an amazing peace about it.

Carol Denny, a midwife we had heard great things about (our Bradley teacher had used her, we actually used her office to have the Bradley classes in, and her oldest daughter was in our Bradley class), agreed to take me on. I had had good prenatal care up until that point and a very normal, easy pregnancy, so she said it would be no problem.

I got checked (internally) for the first time at 37 weeks. I was 50% effaced, but no dilation yet. She told me the baby was at a –2/-1 station...normal for 2nd pregnancies. Apparently it’s better if the baby is a little lower than that leading into labor with first babies, but with 2nd babies the baby can drop down at the last minute. Anyhow, given my progression, or lack thereof, with Grady (I was very slow dilating) she decided to try to start some dilation before labor. I took Evening Primrose Oil capsules (1500 mg/day), drank 2 cups of Red Raspberry Leaf Tea a day, and did 15 minutes of nipple stimulation 2 times a day. The herbs were fine...the other is definitely not my favorite. :-) (picture: WHOA!! what a great angle, right? :-) this was the night before I went into labor)

At my 38-week appt., I still wasn’t dilated a full 1cm. But, the neck of my cervix was open on the outside and really soft...still about 50% effacement. I started taking something called 5W...it has black cohosh and 4 other things in it. I also got sick that week (nausea, vomiting, diarrhea...not fun), but that’s beside the point. We upped the amount of the Evening Primrose Oil to 3000mg/day and I took 2 tablets of Red Raspberry Leaf Tea. I took 2 tablets of the 5W 3 times a day and also used 1 Evening Primrose Oil capsule as a vaginal suppository at bedtime to try to soften my cervix more. We weren't trying to start labor at all...just get me more ready for when it did happen.

At my 39-week appt. (February 16th), I was still 50% effaced and 1cm dilated. We were hoping for more dilation, but whatever...1cm was better than nothing. We were grateful for it.

On Friday the 18th I started losing my mucus plug. I wasn’t sure what it was because I had always heard it called a “bloody show.” I'd never experienced that with Grady either. There was nothing bloody about it for me though...just a white thick sticky discharge. But, I thought that it might be my mucus plug and went ahead and called Carol to let her know. That was the only thing that happened that day...bits and pieces of the mucus plug all day long...except that I had a hot date that night with my husband. :-) (the 2 pictures above, other than the Christmas card picture, were taken on the way out the door going on that date...I think we saw Oceans 12). Our anniversary is the 17th.

The birth...tomorrow.