Birth Story Contest Entry

Here’s my birth story. I, personally, think it is the most miraculous. Here’s a bit of back story to help you understand why Helen’s birth was so miraculous: Chris and I have basically been trying to have a baby since we got married 5 years ago. We actually haven’t had any trouble getting pregnant; I just haven’t been able to carry to term. So, after 5 miscarriages we learned we were pregnant again in January of 2006. After a few weeks it became clear that this pregnancy was unlike the others. So, fast forward 9 months and…..

On Monday the 4th of September (Labor Day, isn’t that cool?) I was cooking lunch when I started to feel a kind of trickle of water. I paid attention to it but we had guests over so I wanted to wait until they left before I said anything about it. They left around 2 and at about 3 I told my husband, Chris, that I thought my water had broken. I called the doctor and he said he thought it sounded like it so we went to the hospital. It was weird; I was expecting a gush but really just had smallish trickles from time to time. I wasn't really having any contractions at the time.



So, we got to the hospital about 4 or so and they put me in the labor/delivery triage place. The nurse and resident doctor who was on that day didn't really think my water had broken so they did some tests and etc for a couple of hours. Finally they decided my water had, indeed, broken (what, did they think I’d wet my pants?) and moved me to a delivery room. Still no real contractions. Since I was group b positive and I have a mitral valve prolapse, they started me on antibiotics and set me to walking around the hospital trying to get things going. Nothing really happened, I had contractions but they weren't regular and they weren't really painful.



At about midnight my doctor decided to start pitocin to help jumpstart things. That was the beginning of the longest night of my life. Throughout the night my contractions got progressively stronger and I got very little sleep. At around 2:30 my water started gushing so maybe I just had a smallish tear earlier. I noticed that the contractions were even stronger after the gushing water. By the morning I was in pretty significant pain and my contractions were about 2 minutes apart. I really thought we were getting pretty close. When my doctor came in at 8:30 he checked me and I was at 3 cm...exactly where I'd been when I came in and for about a week before that! Believe me, I felt very frustrated.



At that point I was very tired and really didn't know if I could handle the pain so I opted for an epidural. Part of me is glad that I got it because it was a real relief. The other part of me hated it. I didn't like having it put in...I didn't like the way my lower half felt after I got it and I didn't like not being able to get out of bed. Still, there were some benefits. The epidural was in at 9:30. At 10:30 my nurse checked me because I was really shaking and throwing up and I had progressed to 7-8 cm. I couldn't believe how fast that happened. I wonder if it would have been so fast without the epidural? I'll never know! At noon I was checked again and was 10cm and ready to push. Of course, my doctor was at lunch so they ran around trying to find him and made me wait for a while. Once we got started I pushed 4 times and Helen slid into the world at 12:52.



She was perfect. 6lbs 9oz, 19.5 inches long and her head was 12.75 inches. She was very alert right from the beginning, looking around and crying but quieting down pretty rapidly when she was in my arms. Chris was a wonderful coach, very encouraging and very surprised by the depth of emotion he felt when she was born. It was all very amazing and, actually, I can't wait to do it again (crazy, I know).

Helen Naoma: born September 5, 2006 (my parent’s 31st wedding anniversary) at 12:52pm.

There are some recent pictures of her elsewhere on this blog. Here is a picture just after she was born...my precious miracle.