Gaylea-best money ever spent!
Dr Finke with his two Barrett boys he delivered
Several of you wanted a play by play... here it goes.
Saturday, April 2nd, around 5 I started to have more and more cramps/contractions. We decided to still go to our friend, Anna's birthday party because we had had several false alarms and we thought it would get my mind off of it. Jack cut our hedges earlier and he was having one of the worst allergy attacks he's ever had. We had a great time at the party even though I was contracting through the whole thing. At about 8:30 the contractions were full blown and concentrated in my back. My water broke about 9 and my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart, lasting for about 1 minute. This was pretty much the pattern the whole time. We notified our doula our progress and we dug into our pain relieving trick bag-shower, rocking, bible verses, the pretzel, music... I won't bore you. The point is these worked for about 5 minutes and then we'd have to go to the next because my pain was already about an 8 out of 10. Side note: I made a music mix for labor, lots of classical music, but one had this opera song on it. Don't do this. I about busted the ipod.
By 2, Jack was out of ideas and unsure of what to do because my contractions were still close and long, so we called Gaylea, our doula. She is also a labor and delivery nurse, so we felt very at ease that she was going to be helping us (jack was very relieved!) through the labor. She was at the house for about 2 hours and Jack felt like we needed to do something different, so we headed to the hospital. I was in the front seat laying on the console, trying to survive. It's funny the random things I remember from the whole process, for instance Jack saying in the car "Honey, we're about to pass your favorite place, the Hustler".
We arrived at the hospital about 4:45 and I am expecting to be dilated at least to a 7... nope it was a 5. We all charged ahead, no one commented, we just kept working. They moved me from the ob ER to the labor room. I also remember the nurse saying my mom and dad were there-oh brother-why are they already here when I could have a long time to go?! This stressed me out at the time, but I quickly forgot about it.
I digress... I labored for several more hours and they checked me again, this time they didn't tell me but told Jack. He said "You're making progress". I knew what that meant, I was a 6. I took several showers, got in the pretzel position to try to turn him, and did lots of stand rocking (I also remember NPR on in the back ground). The next check Dr Finke-my wonderful OB/gyn who delivered Jack- found my water had not broken all the way. He broke it and Gaylea told me this would speed things up, but may make it more painful. The next check I was a nine and so I was hoping at the next check that it would be time, but instead I had gone reversed! (The nurse said "oh crap" :)) I remember looking at Jack with such despair and saying, "I'm not sure I can do this". Which is funny because what was I going to do? And hadn't I been doing it the whole time?! They tell me this is very common. Jack and Gaylea gave me great words of encouragement and I believed them. Later Jack said he wasn't sure why I believed him because he wasn't sure either, but told me he was. I do remember at one point seeing tears in his eyes, but he kept being so encouraging.
My nurse for the day was amazing. She had lots of experience with natural labor and she was excited to help us. So she stepped in and showed me a breathing exercise to focus and it is the reason I got through. It was a "c" and a breath. Since my body wanted to push SO BAD I had to focus not to. This was the reason I went reverse. I wasn't ready but tried to push so my cervix closed up. I finally focused on this breathing exercise and it worked. Jack took over and he was wonderful. The nurse also busted out the labor bar and labor ball, which helped tremendously at the end.
Dr Finke came in and said I was ready! Jack and I were so relieved. Now we could push... which in the back of our minds we both feared we had two or three more hours for pushing. Everyone had said their first baby took 2-3 hours, so we talked later about how we feared we would have even more work to do. Instead it only took 33 minutes start to finish. I probably pushed about 12 times (3 times at each contraction). Again, Jack was so amazing during the pushing and his face seeing Dalton's head and then the birth was completely amazing. They let me see him coming out and then at the next push, he was out. Dr Finke and held him up and they all said "It's a boy!". They put him directly on my chest, Jack cut the cord, and we balled our little eyes out. Jack and I kissed and hugged, crying, and just could believe the miracle we just witnessed.
I have to say this was the hardest thing I've ever done, but one of the biggest blessings I've ever been a part of. It brought Jack and I closer than we've ever been and to God, who designed my body to do this and was the only strength that got me through. It makes me think of my past patients who would repeat "thank you, Jesus. thank you, Jesus." all the time. It got on my nerves at times, oh but you know I was saying that during the contractions!
We had an amazing experience, which I know not everyone had, nor did I expect. I thought a lot about my expectations of this whole birth and I'm so thankful God chose to let me have it this way. Enjoy some pics from the birth! 9 lbs, 6 oz 22inches
