The Story (aka the tmi post)

So my perfect home birth didn't go quite as planned. My midwife (Heather) can deliver up to 43 weeks so I wasn't all that worried that I'd have to go to the hospital. I had a non-stress test at 41 weeks that looked good. I had a second one at 41 weeks 6 days that also looked good. At 42 weeks my midwife needed a physicians consultation for me to keep going, so I went and got an ultrasound. Everything looked good except that the ambiotic fluid was a little low (a 5) and Mima decided not to show any breathing movements for the 35 minutes they were looking at her. The fluid isn't the best thing in the world, but the breathing movements aren't really something to worry about. The ultrasound tech kept going back and remeasuring Mima's diaphram and it always measured around 37 weeks when everything else was measuring around 40 weeks. I asked why things were measuring smaller than the 42 weeks I was and she gave me some kind of noncommittal answer.

Turns out she was really concerned about it. She asked what my midwife could do about inducing, but left it at that with me. She apparently was freaking out when she talked to Heather, though--very concerned about the measurements not lining up because it is a sign that the baby is losing weight. Anyways, Heather recommended we go to the hospital to be induced because there was nothing she could do at home since there was nothing going on with my cervix. She recommended going to the University of Utah hospital and I'm very, very glad we did.

When we got there the midwife (Lisa) recommended using Cervadil to ripen my cervix and see if that started labor. It's basically some prostiglandins that they stick up next to my cervix and leave there for up to twelve hours. Most people start having contractions around five hours later. I started having contractions about twelve hours after they put it in. My contractions got progressively worse during the day. I had constant monitoring since fairly early on the cord would compress with every contraction. They started hinting at things like c-sections, so I was a little worried. Heather had said that if the cord was getting compressed she would just have me try different labor positions, but they didn't seem to do that at the hospital. I found that sitting was better than standing for the compression, but I hate sitting during labor. Lisa suggested trying the birth ball and that was a good compromise--the compression wasn't as bad and I could still move around rather than sitting in one place. I like to move my hips during labor. I get grouchy when I can't. They had me use the wireless monitors so I could walk around, but they picked up my heartbeat/footsteps rather than the baby's heartbeat so that didn't work too well. I was also on oxygen most of the time to try and help the baby out. Heather had told me that as long as the baby recovered quickly after each contraction there wasn't all that much to worry about. Lisa and the nurse didn't seem to agree, though.

It was nice to have Heather there to reassure us about what was normal and how much of a concern the things they were concerned about were. I didn't like that she took Peter's chair though. It bugged me probably way more than it should have. And when I needed Peter to give counter pressure she tried to do it and I kind of threw her hands away and didn't speak to her for a while. I was trying through a few contractions to figure out how to politely ask her to leave, but then I realized that it was good for Peter that she was there and she seemed to help him be more comfortable, so I let her stay. I'm glad she was there. She acted as an interpreter for me to Lisa, which was nice.

I got to the point where I couldn't labor on the birth ball any more so I stood for a couple contractions which was heavenly. Lisa wasn't comfortable with the compression with me standing, so she suggested kneeling on the bed and leaning on the birth ball. I was mostly okay with that because that's what I did toward the end with Benton. I was getting close to being pushy even though Lisa didn't seem to think so because Peter and Heather and I were laughing so much between contractions. I'm downright funny during labor. About two pushes before Mima was born Heather told me to listen to my body. I said that my body was saying, "run!" Maybe you had to be there. It didn't feel like I was pushing all that long, but maybe I was. Note to self: don't be constipated when trying to give birth.

I couldn't quite figure out how to turn over when they were trying to hand Mima to me. They kept referring to the baby as "he" until we realized that no one had looked, so I did and we found out it was a girl. That was pretty fun. I'm glad she's a girl.

The best part of the whole thing (you know, other than getting Mima) was that they fed me during labor--like, Lisa told them to feed me and they did and the food was good. I like people who feed me. And giving birth makes me really, really hungry. I got to eat when I had Benton, but that was just because I was home. When I had Brita I was only supposed to have ice chips, but I made Peter sneak water for me. I seriously prefer not giving birth on an empty stomach.

Heather tried to get us out of there that night, which we should have done. The hospital people said that they'd get us out first thing the next morning if we stayed so we said yes. We got out about 2:00 the next afternoon. It was pretty atrocious. When the nurse finally got back to us it took her about three minutes to do what we had waited five hours for. So annoying. We had to find someone to watch Brita and Benton for us since Monica had to be at work for that day and it was just a mess. Luckily we have really nice friends.

Anyways, that's pretty much how it happened. Good times.