A Birth Story

Lorenzo Quincy Pitcher

What a different birth experience from any of my others!  I had been having Braxton Hicks for the last week or two and was getting a little frustrated with it since I’ve never dealt with them before.  But this morning, Januray 9^th, at 2:25 I woke up with what I recognized to be real contractions.  It looked like my normal labor pattern again, 5 minutes apart and they stay that way for the next several hours.  We start off with a bang.  But these only stayed 5-7 minutes apart for about an hour and a half, and then started to get closer.  At 3:30 I woke Shawn up, intending to let him go back to sleep after he turned the hot water heater on and up (we have it pretty low for the kids, and it’s on a timer so it’s off at night, but I wanted to be able to fill the birthing tub up later and I wanted in the shower pretty soon).  But after he was finished with the water heater I decided I wanted him to set up the birthing tub.  By the time it was set up I decided I needed it filled!  It was 4:20 a.m., and my contractions were coming 2 minutes apart for 1 minute.  It was harder than I ever remember it being for that “early” on in labor. 

He watched me through a few contractions and insisted that I call the midwife.  I didn’t want to wake her so early, but he finally went and got his own phone to call her, so I did it.  She said she’d be over in about an hour and to call her if I needed her sooner.  I thought an hour would be plenty of time.  But about a half hour later I was suddenly moaning through contractions and worried about how on earth I was going to do this for another 6 hours or so!  I told Shawn I wanted to go to the hospital because I was sure I couldn’t do it this time.  (He just kept filling the tub and told me I didn’t really want to go to the hospital.)  I felt like I was being such a baby and a wimp because it was still early labor, but there was no way I could take those contractions for several more hours.  I tried to tell him he didn’t understand what was happening, and I didn’t think he liked me at all J.  I said a prayer, and felt somewhat better, and then suddenly realized I was feeling pushy. 

I told Shawn he needed to call the midwife right now and find out where she was.  She said she was 5 minutes away.  Then her aid walked in the door, looked at me, and called my midwife.  She ran out to help bring stuff in, while I kept pacing.  I walked through this entire labor until I got in the tub.  I’ve never known 5 minutes to take so long, and had just told Shawn I couldn’t wait and I was getting in the tub when she walked in the door (I wanted her to check me before I got in the tub).  I was an 8, with a lip (which I usually have).  I jumped in the tub the moment after she checked me, at 5:40, and couldn’t suppress the pushing.  It only worked when she breathed with me in the way she wanted me to.  I tried that through one or two contractions and then had her pull the lip back so I could push the baby through it.  It didn’t even hurt!  Usually that part is excruciating!  I was still slightly panicked and told her there was no way I could actually do this.  She just held on to me and told me I’d have a baby very soon.

I’ve never felt a baby actually moving down the birth canal before, but I could definitely feel this one, and in just one contraction.  I told her I was sure the head would be out in one more push and had her feel to see if I was right- I was so bewildered.  I’m used to having to push hard, and for a long time.  It was definitely a head, which was born with the next contraction.  She made me stop pushing so I wouldn’t tear and tried to help me breathe him out. The cord was around his neck, and I didn’t believe anything could be harder than the “ring of fire” but not pushing was harder.  I’m pretty sure I was screaming something about dying and that I couldn’t do it, but I don’t remember what exactly I was screaming even a few hours later.  He really did just slide out mostly on his own when I stopped pushing.  My midwife told me to push the rest of the baby out and to pick it up.  She had to hand him to me, but suddenly all the pain was gone, and I was holding the most beautiful baby in the world.  It was 5:59, 20 minutes after the midwife arrived!  They rubbed him for a few seconds to get him breathing, and I talked to him.  When I checked his gender all I could say was, “Oh no, you’re a boy!”  I didn’t mean that I didn’t want a boy, just that I had all the girl things out and hadn’t even bothered to wash boy clothes/blankets. A little later Shawn said, “We have 5.”  I said, “Yeah, 5 boys!”  “That’s what I was thinking,” he said. 

When they weighed him he was my smallest ever, at 7 lbs 9 oz., and the longest (22 inches)!  He is even more mellow than Xander so far, which is hard to top. Big brother Demetri got to cut the cord J.

I’m very grateful that it turned out the way it did.  Shawn was home instead of having to call him home from work.  He worked the whole time on filling the birthing tub!  I don’t know what I would have done without that tub.  It was so much better for pushing.  He made me call the midwife.  If he hadn’t been there, both of them would have missed it.  I wouldn’t have called anyone in time.  And I didn’t have to worry about what to do with the kids, as they were still in bed.  (At 4:30 that was my main concern, what on earth we were going to do with the kids when they woke up for breakfast…)  A 3 ½ hour labor, and I’m feeling great, and frustrated that I’m supposed to stay in bed for the next several days.  Lorenzo Quincy has pretty much been sleeping since the minute he was born, waking a little to eat and then going right back to sleep.  The boys have been taking turns holding him all morning and even little Xander keeps trying to hug him and hold him.

The whole thing was so fast I’m sure I’m forgetting some details, but shell-shocked as I still am, I’m incredibly happy J.