Hadley's Birth Story - Part 2

Saturday, February 19th, at about 4am I was dreaming about being taken captive and taken to Africa (along with Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston...still married at the time) when I was in that semi-sleep state. I kept thinking “I’m leaking. I need to go to the bathroom.” I finally woke up and went and had a little gush when I sat down on the toilet. When I went back to bed I told Joel what had happened...that my water had broken. He went ahead and got up and started setting up the birthing tub (we had rented one from Carol, the midwife). Around 6am I still wasn’t having any contractions and we decided to go back to sleep and get as much rest as possible. I dozed a little, but not much. My mind was racing...I was too excited. Grady got up around 7:30 and Joel got up with him. When the phone rang around 8 or so, I just went ahead and got up.

We finally talked to Carol around 10:45 and she told me to do more of my favorite...yes, nipple stimulation. :-) I was to do that for an hour and then call her. I did that and nothing changed...still no contractions to speak of. She told me to take 3oz. of castor oil with ¾ cup orange juice and ¼ teaspoon of baking soda. I ended up taking that around 1:20pm (we had to go get some), then doing nipple stim. and walking back and forth through the kitchen and living room from 1:30-2:30, squatting through any contractions I had. I wasn’t haven’t many contractions though...they were very random. The ones I did have were pretty strong and lasted a long time.

I waited to take any more of the meds. until after the castor oil kicked in...that happened about 3:20. About 4pm I took more tea and 5W and I actually started having some contractions, coming every 3-4 minutes and lasting about 1 ½ minutes...they were pretty strong, but still not really hurting that bad. Around 4:30 or 4:40 I had a big gush (I had been having little gushes and trickles all day long...my water didn’t all come out at once). It was everywhere so I headed to the shower. After the shower our friends were there to take Grady and babysit him for us, so basically with all that, my contractions had stopped unfortunately.

About 6pm I got back to bed. I was hoping the contractions would start back up if I was relaxing on the bed. They did...they started right back up again. They were 3-4 minutes apart again, but not as strong as earlier and only lasting 30 seconds – 1 minute.

At 7:40 I talked to my midwife again and to try to make my contractions stronger she wanted me to walk and do nipple stimulation for another 30 minutes. I walked from 7:40-8:10 and had several really strong contractions during that time, but the walking just made me really uncomfortable and I think it wasn’t necessarily because of the stronger contractions but because I had intestinal cramps and such...residual effects of the castor oil probably. When I went to the bathroom my contractions stopped again. What I was doing obviously wasn't working since I'd been doing it for hours on end. I called Carol about 8:45 and she said she had no idea what my body was doing...that she was coming over.

Carol got to the house at about 9:30. She checked me immediately and said that my cervix was “extremely posterior”...hence the irregular contractions. Oh good...an answer to why this was happening. I was already 3cm dilated though, even though I had had such irregular contractions...and 80% effaced. I was thrilled at the dilation. Carol held my cervix forward for about 5 contractions (about 30 minutes) while stimulating contractions (she would rub my cervix and also there are certain pressure points on your body). After that I was up to 5cm dilated (almost 6 Carol said) and my contractions were feeling stronger, like they were starting to do something. I was like, "can you just keep your hand in there?" :-) That was some great dilation in just 30 minutes. She opted not to though. :-) Ha ha. (picture: so happy to be at 5 cm...and finally having regular contractions; obviously this was taken in between contractions; contractions were coming every 3 minutes after Carol got done with her tricks and labor was on)

At 10:40 I got in the birth tub. At 11:10 I went to the bathroom and then got in the bed in the side-lying relaxation position (left side). That actually kind of slowed my contractions down a little, but I was able to doze off a little in between them...had basically been up since 4am working really hard to get contractions going. Unfortunately, I was already completely exhausted at this point. (picture: laboring in the birth pool)

At around midnight I sat up and had a large gush of water. At 12:30am Carol checked me again and I was 7+cm dilated. At 12:40 I went to the bathroom and then got in the tub. I remember I was just so out of it...probably because of just shear exhaustion...I wanted to go to sleep so bad, but it just obviously wasn't an opportune time for that. :-) At 1:30 I went to the bathroom again and back to bed. This whole time my contractions were consistently about 3 minutes apart and getting stronger and stronger. At 1:50 I was 8cm and I also vomited...did that with Grady too (if you'll remember I vomited when still only 2cm...but, I also vomited at transition/almost pushing time). At 1:55 I started squatting (on the floor at the side of the bed) through the contractions to try to help me open up and bring the baby down more. At 2:30 I was back in bed and only the rim of my cervix was left so Carol let me push with each contraction while she held the rim open. By 2:40 I was completely dilated and baby was at +1 station, at 2:50 baby was at +2, and at 2:55 baby was at +3. At 2:58am (by our clock; Carol said that the correct time was 2:53...our clocks were fast), Hadley Cloteal Ebersole was born. Joel told me “It’s a girl” and then he cut the cord (my placenta came out right after the baby). She was beautiful. She weighed 8 lbs. 4 oz. and was 19 ¾ in. long. (pictures: 1 - what I look like in labor...completely focused and concentrating; 2 - Hadley's first picture...and our first picture together...both exhausted, but happy to see each other)

The labor was uncomfortable, but nothing like the 1st. The Bradley Method (for us) was the definite key. It was hard work and I was SO exhausted (mainly because of the circumstances...I am always exhausted after labor, but not to that extent...had just been awake and working too long). But, it was definitely do-able. The thought never even crossed my mind to ask for any pain medicine or anything.

I had really bad back labor. In the Bradley book ("Natural Childbirth the Bradley Way" by Susan McCutcheon...I highly recommend it, even if you don't plan a natural birth...just some GREAT info.) they talk about how your coach (Joel in my case) should be ready to constantly give a "backrub" for "backaches." Well, it's not actually a backrub...more like Joel has to spread his feet apart and push on my lower back as hard as he possibly can. Believe me, labor is hard work for him too. :-) We work really well together though. (picture: Hadley's weigh-in)

Also, the pushing part was very hard...the whole transition time actually. For one thing I was just so exhausted (by the time I started pushing, I had been up for 22 1/2 hours...working hard) and then of course the leftover problems of the stitching with the first birth. Yeah, pushing with Grady and Hadley was the worst to be quite honest...the worst pain I'd ever experienced. In fact, in my journal I described it as "excruciating" (and I never use that word...little too dramatic for my tastes...but, for this subject, was the best word to describe it). But, again...with each baby I've learned new things. Before I had Eissa, I learned some very important things about pushing that I think would've probably saved me some of the "excruicating" business had I known it at the time. (picture: Hadley, just a few hours old)

But, man oh man, what a difference. My birth experience was GREAT. I LOVED having a home birth. It was SO peaceful and quiet and relaxing. Not that it was painless or anything. It’s kind of hard to explain, but even with the pain it was a very relaxing way to give birth.

The whole thing was just incredible to experience, esp. after the experience of my labor and delivery with Grady. Joel was great...such a great help and support...we make a great team. At one point in the afternoon I began to get really discouraged. He prayed with me and encouraged me a ton and I felt so much better. Not only that, but after he prayed is when my contractions started up again for a while. He was also super during the active labor, being so attentive to my every need at all times. He would sit with me and make me take sips of water so I wouldn’t get dehydrated. He helped me so much by doing counterpressure...the back rub thing (a lot, and really hard). Not to mention the fact that he waited on me hand and foot for a couple of weeks afterwards. He’s the best. (picture: Joel and Hadley, a few hours old) And Carol was great...amazing midwife...I couldn’t believe the knowledge she had and the ways she knew how to “fix” things, an example being how she held my cervix forward for 30 minutes straight in order to get it to stay where it was supposed to be. It was just such a great experience and now we have such a great little girl. We are so thankful. God has truly blessed us with sweet joy in Hadley.

The recovery process was much better too...I'll explain more later.