Birth of Chrissy

Tuesday evening, 5 days past my EDD, I went to bed thinking this was going to be the night I woke with contractions. There had been no typical signs of impending labor, but I'd been having regular (painless) Braxton Hicks contractions for days. I also felt a very faint, constant crampy feeling. I figured it was wishful thinking!

I woke up Wednesday in the wee morning hours to pee (as usual), and I noticed right away that my Braxton Hicks contractions had a new menstrual cramping feeling with them. I remembered the cramping from my first labor, and I thought these were possibly real contractions. However, since early labor can go on a long time, or it could be prodromal labor, I tried hard not to get my hopes up. I wanted to continue sleeping and rest as much as possible, so I tried to ignore the feelings and go back to sleep. I couldn't. So about 5:30am I started timing them on my app, and they were coming about 7.5 minutes apart and lasting just under 1 minute. 

Nio (my two year old) woke up early for the day at a little after 6, and at that point I knew there was not going to be any more sleep for me. Besides, I was hungry. Unfortunately, when I got up and moving, the contractions seemed to fade away. I went ahead and unloaded photos from my phone onto the computer, which I'd been meaning to do before labor. For the next couple hours I fought a lot of disappointment and even cried a bit from the let-down. My husband Marty was having some feelings, too, though I think all I'd told him was that I'd been feeling some crampy BH but they had stopped. He had been feeling really anxious in general about the “it can happen any time now” aspect of being overdue, and that anxiety really peaked on Wednesday so that he felt he couldn't really even function and needed a break or something to recharge and relax. 

I ended up offering to nurse Nio (usually we only nurse if he asks, which is maybe once a day) to see if it would simulate contractions. In the last few weeks, I'd found that sometimes nursing would bring on painful/crampy Braxton Hicks that would stop when we stopped nursing. This time, it brought back that crampy feeling, and it actually continued after we stopped! I timed them, and they were at first every 5 minutes or so, but started to space out to more like 8 minutes apart by the time Nio and I were ready to nap. I made plans for friend and doula Kathryn to come over after nap time to go for a little walk, I put Nio down in his crib, I went to bed, and my husband went to a matinee. 

During my nap I slept lightly and could still feel contractions coming regularly though I wasn't timing them. They seemed to pick up some intensity as well. I was grateful for the rest (for Nio, who lately skips a lot of naps, and for myself). When I got up and timed contractions again, they were jumping around a lot between 6-12 minutes apart, but they definitely felt stronger. 

Kathryn arrived with her two youngest kids, and the five of us went for a walk “around the block.” I hoped the walk would get more regular contractions going, but as we walked I didn't feel that it was working. I only noticed four contractions on the walk. Two were weak, and two were very strong. When we got back home, I sat on the birth ball while we chatted a bit, and the contractions seemed more frequent! Right before Kathryn left to pick up her older kids from school, I went to the bathroom and had a bit of bloody show.

I spent the next couple hours remaking the bed with a waterproof layer, folding diapers for Nio, and doing various last minute things while listening to music with headphones and breathing through contractions. They were getting pretty intense, even painful. Marty was trying to clean out the hose that had ants (that's another story), get dinner ready, and prep some food for the birth team. He ended up leaving to run to the store with Nio and Amanda, our 16 year old niece who lives with us. By the time they got home with pizza I was really needing to stop and breathe through contractions. I could still kind of talk or walk through them if I had to, but I definitely didn't want to. The timing of them was all over the place. I felt they were trying to get closer together, but one might come 3.5 minutes later, the next 6 minutes later, then 5 minutes then 7 minutes, then 4 minutes. Not really what I could consider an “active labor” pattern, but in retrospect I think I should have asked my midwife to come, based on the growing intensity.

I had been keeping my midwife Ginger updated throughout the day. Around 5:30 she said she was skipping church and awaiting my call, and I felt bad! Told her I didn't think I was that far along! Of course, I was remembering Nio’s labor where I had hours and hours of painful contractions before getting into active labor, so I was really trying to hold off calling Ginger until I was getting them consistently 5 min apart or less.

After dinner, around 6, I decided it was shower time. I hoped the hot water would give a little pain relief. It didn't. After the shower, the same irregular pattern held, with painful contractions every few minutes, but the distance between still varied quite a bit. I asked Kathryn to come back because I was feeling overwhelmed.

Also, Marty had asked my sister Heidi to come to help with Nio (she had been on standby as well). She arrived first, and there was a calm time while I sat on the birth ball and we watched Marty and Amanda set up the birth pool. Once it was inflating, Heidi took Nio to do his bath and bedtime stuff. They came back to look at the pool and say night night before he went to bed.

When Kathryn arrived (7:30ish) we decided to do some Spinning Babies moves to help make sure baby was in a good position “before things got crazy.” She did Rebozo Sifting on me for I think 1 minute between 3 contractions. Then she and Marty helped me do some side-lying releases. Those were to be held on each side through 3 contractions. The first contraction that hit during this stretch was excruciating! I had to start vocalizing through for the first time. I told them I didn't think I could do any more, but they encouraged me, and I decided to try one more, then one more. They were just soooooooo painful! I got up after that and tried to rush to the bathroom to pee between contractions, but I couldn't really pee, and of course a contraction hit while I was in there. Then, we got set up to do the other side. More agony! After the first, someone said maybe we'd just do one more, and I didn't ask why or argue. I was ready to be done with that!

Even during the stretches, the contractions weren't coming with consistent timing! But, they were so intense and LONG (2 minutes!) I knew it would be time to call Ginger if they didn't let up once we stopped. So, first, I decided to try to pee again. (Maybe 8:45?) As I got to the bathroom, a really intense contraction hit. As i rode it out leaning on the counter, Kathryn asked if my husband should start filling the birth tub, and I agreed. I think another one came, and I started to feel sick, like I needed to vomit. When it passed, I quickly used the toilet, had another contractions in the bathroom, then moved to the kitchen.

It was about 9:00 at this point, and I managed to barely text Ginger between contractions to tell her to come, and said it was getting hard to cope (huge understatement!). There was barely any break between them. They were back to back. I couldn't just breathe through. I was trying to use low vocalizations, but I was having trouble keeping my tones low. I was having a lot of pressure, and I started to realize the baby was really moving down, and my body was maybe even starting to push. 

Kathryn was telling me to stay relaxed and not fight them, and I was sure trying, but I felt I could not relax my body at all! Hanging over the counter or a chair or kneeling on the floor were all equally excruciating, so finally Kathryn convinced me to hang onto her and “slow dance.” It was slightly better. Just enough better. I told Kathryn I felt like I was going to pee, and someone got a pad to put at my feet.  I think we did two or three  more contractions like that in the kitchen before hubby asked if maybe we could move (he added that if not he'd just work around us lol). He was boiling water on all four burners on the stove because the hot water heater had run out of hot water before the tub was even ⅓ full.

Kathryn and I went to stand in the dining room next to the pool, but standing and dancing stopped working for me, and I dropped to all fours. Kathryn went to get me a big stack of pillows, and I would push my face into them and groan through….but the groaning turned into growling, and then I really knew my body was pushing (and announced that I thought my body was pushing, to which Kathryn said that's ok!). During this, also, I heard Nio crying on the baby monitor, and I was like, “Ohhhhh Nio!” and Marty asked Heidi to go comfort him. She asked whether to try to comfort him over the monitor or in person, and I was able to say “In person!” lol

During my kneeling, growly contractions, I started to feel so much pressure I thought the baby was coming right then. I was afraid to reach down and feel, and I was still wearing my underwear and shorts. Then with one very growly/roaring contraction, my water broke! Felt kind of relieving! I believe my water broke at 9:27? I asked Kathryn if my waters were clear, and she said they were great. I (continued to) ask if I could get in the tub. I was desperate for the water. Kathryn kept asking Marty how the temperature was, and finally he said it was warm enough (it was half full and kind of lukewarm). At first I thought I couldn't move enough to climb in, but Kathryn said something like, “okay, we can just have the baby right here,” and I was like nope! I got real determined to strip and climb in before another contraction hit.

In the tub, I could REALLY feel the contractions pushing the baby down. The water did give a little relief. I was sort of in between all fours and squatting in the water, and really roaring through. Baby was coming. I said someone needed to call Ginger, and Marty did and found she was still 10-15 min out (there was traffic from a wreck). Also, Marty continued to pour hot water into the tub behind me. The warmer water felt better.

I don't know timing on these parts, but I know I started feeling the baby crown, and I reached down to confirm and told Kathryn the head was half out. Then I told her it went back in. Marty stripped to his underwear and got in the tub pretty quickly. I also remember looking at Kathryn feeling like my eyes were wide like saucers because I just couldn't believe this was happening so fast. There were a couple contractions where I didn't know what to do to help things progress. Marty was trying to feel what was going on down there, and I got kind of upset at him and told him to stop whatever he was doing. Then the head was halfway out again, and he was doing something, and I told him to stop because I thought he was making it worse,  but when he stopped I wanted him to go back to whatever he was doing because it felt worse without it! There was also a contraction where I instinctively stopped pushing and panted through. I think that with the next contraction the head was born, and Marty was saying to keep pushing to get her out, but my contraction was over and I was asking if I could wait. I thought it was okay to wait because baby wouldn't try to breathe yet while under water. In the end, I actually can't remember if I waited… I think I just went ahead and pushed the body out. Oh sweet relief! Lol

Marty caught her and brought her up out of the water, and I was saying, “Oh thank God” because the pressure and pain were gone and it was done! I had to bring my leg over the cord and turn around. Marty was worried about her starting to breathe, and I think he tried to give a little rescue breath. I don't think she needed it really, but I think we were both paranoid since we didn't have Ginger there. I said to rub her. She was handed to me and wasn't really crying, but she started to cry really quickly and pinked right up. So I was given a towel to cover her, and we just sat there taking it in! I was surprised to see vernix on her, as I was 40+6 (almost a week past my EDD), and Nio was born at 41+1 and definitely had no vernix.

She cried quite a lot, and finally I said to turn off the ceiling fan. That helped. The water was a bit chilly. I got the shakes pretty badly, and Kathryn reassured me it was all normal. I got a few contractions and tried to push out the placenta, but it didn't come. Heidi brought Nio out to meet baby sister (he had never gone to sleep, and in retrospect I wish I’d let him stay up). Then, Ginger arrived about 10 minutes after the birth! She looked us over and all was good. The cord was still pulsing a bit. I was soon able to push out the placenta and get out of the pool and even rinse off in the shower. Moved to the bed for breastfeeding, snack, mama and baby exams, etc. Elizabeth, the assisting midwife-in-training, didn't arrive till after I had moved to the bed. She and Ginger were both gone by midnight.

So, there we have the birth story of Christina Lynn Martinez! 8 lbs 8 oz, 21.5” long, 14” head circumference. Born on 2/8/17 at 9:33 pm.