The Hillian Collection

I woke up at 1am on Monday, June 6^th initially thinking I had wet myself, but the near immediate onslaught of moderate contractions every half hour awakened me to the fact that we had entered into labor.  Sure enough, I continued to get 30 second contractions throughout the rest of the night. 

After having only moderate success at sleeping for the rest of the night, we decided to get up at 7am and head to Publix in order to get some chicken breasts to grill for breakfast.  That’s right.  I had grilled chicken for breakfast on the day Samuel was born.  We wanted to make sure I was eating foods that would sustain my energy levels throughout the labor. 

On this Monday, I was 38 weeks, 1 day pregnant, so my 38-week appointment at the Birth Center of Gainesville was already scheduled for 9am that morning.  We decided to keep it, although we had planned a home birth and were near certain we were in labor, so that our midwife, Sarah, could confirm that my water had indeed broken.  

Once at our appointment, we informed our midwife that we believed ourselves to be in labor.  She checked my fluid (I had an incomplete water break with continual leaking throughout the morning), and confirmed that it was amniotic fluid but that I wasn’t dilated very much, if at all. 

Florida law requires laboring mothers to be in active labor (contractions coming every 5 minutes, lasting 1 minute each, for at least 1 hour) by 24 hours after their water breaks, and by the time we went to the appointment it had already been 8 hours since my water broke with no dilation at all.  This, of course, worried both myself and my midwife.  She assumed we would have to assist the labor by various methods, advising us to go on a walk, stay hydrated, think positively about the birth, and try various homeopathic treatments, specifically black and blue cohosh. 

The instant we got home, we started to prepare for the birth.  We had planned a home birth, so we had some industrial strength plastic covering for the carpet to lie down as well as an inflatable birthing tub to set up.  After ensuring the house was in order, we went for a walk.  We were gone a little over 30 minutes.  Contractions were intermittent and moderate at first, but by the end of the walk, I was getting contractions lasting nearly a minute every 5 to 10 minutes. 

The rest of the time at home passed in a blur.  I found that laboring on the bed, lying on my side, was very comforting, so I stayed there for around an hour, with Sean by my side to press into my back or allow me to squeeze his hand during the contractions.  My mom had graciously traveled down from Tallahassee early that morning and was recording my contractions faithfully until she decided to give us some privacy and allow Sean to record them while she prepared the post-partum stew we were planning to have that evening. 

By the time she came back, she realized it was time to call the midwife and inform her that we were ready for her to come over—I had entered active labor.  This was about 1pm.  At this point, the midwife informed us that there was another mother attempting to enter active labor and could, at any time, call and need a midwife to assist in her labor as well.  So instead of the home-birth we had planned, we headed over to the birth center (in the pouring rain) so that the midwife, Sarah, could be available to both me and this other mother if it came to it. 

The car ride was as unenjoyable as I’ve heard car rides during labor can be.  I had four contractions in the 10-15 minutes it took us to drive there.  Being caught behind a city bus on a single-lane road did not help our frustration with the transition from our home to birth center. 

As soon as we arrived at the birth center, we entered into the birthing suite, with dimmed lights and gentle music (which drove Sean crazy) and the sound of the tub filling in the other room.  It was wonderful.  Sarah checked my progress, and was shocked to discover that I was 9 cm dilated.  She joked that she didn’t know anything about labor anymore since I was a first-time mom flying through labor. 

I was so comfortable once I got into the warm tub.  My labor actually slowed down at that point, which was fine with me.  I needed a bit of a break.  Sean stayed by my side the whole time, making sure I didn’t breathe too quickly during contractions or waste my energy by tensing my body or squeezing his hand.  He was very encouraging, telling me that I was doing a great job.  I had read about laboring women relaxing when their husbands complimented them during labor and thought that it was silly, but I absolutely loved hearing sweet compliments from Sean and found my mind no longer focusing on the discomfort from the contractions.   

Even though the warm water felt like bliss because it took the weight and sensations of labor away from me, it also caused me to miss my transition.  Although many women would probably love to not feel transition, it made me miss my cue to push.  Sarah told me after one contraction to try pushing with the power of the contraction.  I did what she said, but I couldn’t feel myself pushing Samuel.  I had to keep getting confirmation from my mom and the midwives that I was indeed making progress with my pushes (Sean was still by my side).

Sarah decided that a transition to the bed would help me to push Samuel down.  She was ready to tell me exactly how to walk and swing my hips to push him down when she turned around to see Sean carrying me to the bed with Samuel’s sweet head crowning.  As soon as I had stood up in the tub, I felt this overwhelming sensation to push him out, and Sean picked me up realizing that I needed to push instead of walk.  Sean was very pleased with himself afterward because Sarah told him that he was my knight and that she had never seen that before. 

Once we were on the bed, the pushing only took a few more minutes before we were finally able to see our son.  Still, Sean was constantly by my side, reminding me to push with my stomach, not my throat (I was forgetting not to waste my energy by yelling).  Once his head was out, they realized that the cord was wrapped around his neck.  They told me to slow down at this point so they could untangle it before I pushed him out completely, but I wasn’t able to keep myself from pushing.  I remember their surprise as one said, “Oh, well here he comes.”

And then we met him.  While he lay on the bed, with the midwives wiping him off and checking him, all I could do was stare at him.  I hovered my hand over him, wanting to touch him, but not sure that it was okay—how could I now have a son?  Sean told me he was glad to have waited until that moment as well to see him because it was so meaningful to meet him entirely in one moment, together.  It was 3:48pm.

Immediately we started breastfeeding.  It’s amazing how God has provided them with a suckling instinct so perfect that Samuel knew exactly what to do.  Sean was allowed to cut the cord, although it was very difficult.  The midwives commented on how they needed a different pair of scissors.  The placenta was delivered very shortly afterward.  They allowed it to detach by itself, so I was surprised by how quickly it was all over. 

When they examined me to determine the “damage,” Sarah immediately said, “Oh my gosh,” which of course made my heart stop until she laughed and said, “Thanks for being so healthy.”  For some reason, tearing/episiotomies were my biggest labor fear, not the pain, and I’m very thankful to not have experienced either of those.  It made the recovery so much easier.  In fact, I was surprised that the sensations of labor were more uncomfortable than painful.  Everyone always talks about how much pain labor is, but to me it was more work than I expected—that was the hard thing about it.

Then for perhaps an hour, we were left simply to bond.  Every 15 minutes, they checked our vitals, but they saved the newborn exam for later.   I was glad for that.  It was really wonderful to just be with our new favorite person in the world for a while.  He weighed 5 lbs, 15 oz.