This was written in June of 2010, but I wanted to go ahead and post it.
Liam James Reaves's Birth Story
I'm sorry it has taken me so long to write this. It has been a struggle to find a time to write it all down with now having 4 kids. My oldest graduated from 5th grade and then left for a week to go to Washington, DC with the other safety patrols from her school. The last almost 2 weeks has been a blur. But without further ado, here is the best I can do right now of Liam's birth story.
With my 3 other children, I had had no early labor, no noticeable Braxton Hicks, and went straight from no signs of labor to active labor. My labors had been 6.5 hours with my oldest daughter, 6.5 hours with my son who had double nuchal hands, and 3.5 hours with my youngest daughter. This labor would be completely different.
After 3 weeks of on-again-off-again minor contractions, I had a night or two of pretty good ones. On the morning of June 8th, I woke up at 6 a.m. to get my oldest daughter up for school. Still no baby, still no labor. I bawled my eyes out for an hour. At 8 a.m., all of a sudden, contractions started and stayed, 2 minutes apart to 3 minutes apart, about a minute long. They were exactly the same as they were with my last labor (the really short, no one but my mom, daughter, and husband here labor). So, I called my mom who got a sub (she's a teacher), checked my daughter and niece out of school and came running. I was having back labor at this point, so I leaned while my mom put pressure on my back. After about an hour of that, baby obviously flipped and the back labor was over. We had called my midwife and because of my previous labor, she came running too. Everyone managed to get here and then, labor began to fizzle out. I kept saying the entire time that it was too weird to me to be laboring during the daytime. By 3 p.m., I was completely frustrated, the contractions had moved out to 5 to 7 minutes apart. So, I gave in and asked Lynne (my midwife) to check me. After all that, I was only 3 cm. So, we decided that everyone would leave and we would see how it would progress. My mom took my 3 home with her, and everyone left.
Over the next 5 hours, I took a nap on and off, watched TV, and then about 7 p.m., I took a long shower. At 8 p.m., as the sun was starting to go down, all of a sudden, the contractions jumped back to 2 to 3 minutes apart. I called my mom, and then I called Lynne. I was exhausted. I leaned; I laid down on my side. Finally, I was so tired, I asked Lynne for the second time to check me. I told her if I was still 3 cm, something was wrong. She said nope, that I was nearly complete. About then, I decided to stand up, but I had to have my mom hold me up one side and my husband on the other. Occasionally, throughout the parts of my labor when people were present, they would check the heartbeat with the Doppler. At this point, they checked, and the heartbeat had dropped way down. I heard it and thought "that's not good." So back down on my side I went. I remember looking at the clock at 11:17 p.m. and thinking I have less than 45 minutes until it was no longer 6/8. They had decided to give me oxygen, but in the next minute or so, my water exploded. I never did get the oxygen. I knew that he didn't really need it. That little bit of me standing up was probably the only compression his head got which caused the decel. Anyway, Lynne tried to tell me with the next contraction to push. I yelled back at her that I didn't know how to do it that way, just wait and my body would do it for me. Sure enough, my body's urge to push kicked in and away my body went pushing. Lynne tried to tell me to stop, I yelled at her that I couldn't. Once it starts, I have no control. Turns out, he had a nuchal hand (hand on his cheek) which was why he hadn't been engaging earlier. He had his other hand up by his neck. So, when he came flying out, there was no neck to just have the head out sort of thing...head, shoulders, torso all came out at the same time. Poor little guy had absolutely no chest compression so for the next 24 hours, he vomited up amniotic fluid. He was born at 11:27 p.m., exactly 10 minutes after I had looked at the clock. Anyway, as soon as he was born, my mom caught sight of his "junk" and got to make the announcement that he was a boy! I was so thrilled to have another boy. A bit later, my oldest daughter got to cut the cord.
My sister got the birth on my flip video camera for me. My oldest had been supposed to film for me, but my sister decided to pay me back for taping 2 of her births for her. Mara was a bit sad, but then I had told her she was exactly where I needed to be and then I nearly broke her hands. :)
This was not the birth I thought I would have. From start to finish, including early labor, I was having moan-worthy contractions for 15-1/2 hours. Of course, Lynne only counted my active labor, from when we called her the second time that day, so it goes down officially as 3 hours 25 minutes.
I had always said after my previous labor that I had no idea how interventive my midwife would be had she been there, and now I know. She sat back and watched. The only time she bothered me at all was to get a blood pressure reading which was rare, and to get the heart tones about once an hour until they dropped so badly then every few minutes, but they were respectful with those. She never asked to check me. The only 2 times I was checked, I asked out of pure frustration.
Overall, it was definitely my hardest labor, but I think that was more from my preconceived belief of what my labors were like. However, it was also wonderful, because I did have my family there. My son watched his baby brother be born. My mom, dad, sister, brother, SIL, 2 nieces, 2 nephews were all here. My brother had been worried that I would have the baby while he was in the hospital, but Liam waited not just until he was out of the hospital but until he was able to leave his house. So, baby Liam James was welcomed into his complete family on the date I had predicted when I found out that I was pregnant.
I now have 2 girls and 2 boys, and it looks like I will have 2 blue-eyed (1 each), and 2 brown-eyed (1 each) because it sure looks like Liam will have brown eyes like his oldest sister. He was 7 lbs 12 ounces according to Lynne's scale, but I'm not totally sure her scale was right because by day 2 he had lost 1 lb 1 ounce and only weighed 6 lbs 11 ounces, but he was back up to 7 lbs 3 ounces at his 1 week appointment.
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