By Cassie Garcia
Mina’s birth was somehow both the longest and quickest labor I’ve had! The last couple weeks of pregnancy I had been increasingly uncomfortable, more so than any of my other pregnancies. Nothing was physically wrong – I was very healthy, and so was baby. But I was having more Braxton Hicks contractions, and she was just so very low, I couldn’t get comfortable.
Sunday morning, two days before her due date, I woke up to contractions! I started timing them, and when they kept up for a couple hours, we started calling people. Tony’s parents came to get the boys, and my mom joined us at our house. Tony made me a fantastic breakfast in bed, but I was much too nauseous to enjoy it. I relaxed, timed contractions, stayed hydrated, and snacked as I was able to. Tony and my mom took this time to crazy clean the house, get all the laundry done and put away, mom even shampooed the carpet in the whole house! She brought snacks and drinks for our birth team, and we settled in to wait for active labor to kick in – but it never did. The contractions fizzled out by the afternoon, and I was disappointed to realize we would not be welcoming a baby that day. Tony’s parents brought the boys back home, and we went to bed.
The next morning, I woke to more contractions! Things seemed a little more serious, and I started timing the contractions and monitoring other signs of labor. After a couple hours I told Tony, I think this is it? I felt less sure of myself after the false alarm the day before, but we called our parents again. His parents came back to get the boys again, and my mom arranged for a substitute so she could join us again. We gave our birth team a heads up that things were happening, and settled in to wait for active labor.
Mom joined us later in the morning, and my grandma came a little later, and they did what they could – but honestly, everything was pretty much ready from the day before! It was a very relaxing and honestly enjoyable morning and afternoon. We watched Star Wars, played Uno, and talked. The house was cozy and clean and quiet. But I could feel myself getting a little nervous that this would be another false alarm, and that I had inconvenienced everyone unnecessarily. I was fighting discouragement that I would have to do all of this yet again another day.
Around 5pm a contraction hit that was different than what I’d been feeling all day long – I couldn’t focus on anything else, I could feel the heat in my face, and I knew. After it passed, I told Tony to call the birth team.
People slowly began arriving after 6pm – both midwives, my doula, more family and friends stopping by to bring things or check on us. I could hear low conversations in the kitchen and dining room, and in the back of my mind I wanted to go socialize, but by this point the contractions were much more intense.
The midwives prepared for the baby, and checked on me and monitored the baby’s heart rate periodically. Meanwhile Kailyn, my friend and doula, and Tony spent the next few hours helping me stay as comfortable as possible. Through these intense contractions they were holding me up, putting counter pressure on my back, helping me get to the bathroom often, holding a fan to my face when I got hot, making sure I drank a little, and otherwise supporting me. In between contractions, I could hardly keep my eyes open or my head up – maybe a combination of exhaustion from the past couple of days and reserving energy for what was ahead.
As the contractions got closer, we made our way to the bedroom, and for a while I could not find a position that felt manageable. I was standing in front of the bed for a while, and each time a contraction would hit Tony would end up totally supporting all my weight with his arms. He tells me later that I bit him twice, and pulled some of his hair out! Oops! As I was standing there, I asked the midwife if everything was ok, or if I should be doing something different. I’m not sure why I felt so unsure about things, but she was very reassuring. They used a sheet or towel or something to wrap under my belly and hold it up for a while, to support it so that the baby could get in a better position if she needed to.
With help from the team, I finally laid down on my side on the bed, using the peanut ball to keep my legs apart. While this was painful, it felt more productive. After just a few contractions here, I felt a change, and the noises coming out of my mouth sounded more like I was pushing before I even realized I felt like pushing. The midwife commented from across the room “That was a good sound!” And they switched from standing by and intermittently monitoring the baby’s heart to being more hands-on, one of them keeping a constant track of the baby’s heart rate. I actually don’t know exactly what was going on at this time. I was trying to mentally prepare for the pushing part of labor – with Zeke it had taken over 2 hours, and with Gabe about 30 minutes. Each of the previous times, it was such a relief to be in that part of labor, even though it was still painful. But this time I just could not get myself to want to push, even as I felt it happening.
With the next contraction, my water broke! I doused my poor midwife with amniotic fluid for the second time (the same thing happened last time with Gabe!)As with Gabe, the relief of pressure when my water broke was short lived, and that next contraction came quick and strong. I didn’t know at the time, but at some point here they lost the baby’s heartbeat and were having trouble finding it again. Where they would probably have otherwise had me slow down to prevent tearing, they let me push through that contraction. I heard them say “there’s her head!” and in disbelief I said “Her head is already out??” I did not expect that in one push. I relaxed a bit, because I knew the most difficult part was over. With the next contraction, she was out and they were assessing her breathing as they brought her to me.
Every bit of nervousness, worry, anxious thoughts, all the things I had been fighting this whole labor, it all left as I held her. The whole labor I had felt as though I could hardly keep my eyes open, and all the sudden I was totally awake and alert, and almost giddy. I couldn’t stop talking about how quickly that went to everyone that started coming in! All the grandmothers came in the room, as surprised as I was that she was already in my arms.
After Tony and I had some time to ourselves with Mina, and she had a chance to nurse for a while, they let Tony cut the cord and briefly took her for some more in-depth checks. Her breathing was a little rapid, so they gave her a few puffs of air to help clear things out. They weighed and measured her, did all of their other assessments, and returned her to me. She was 8 lbs 13 oz, and 21 inches long!
Our friends and family that had been hanging out at the house filtered in to say hello, and then everyone went home. She was born at 10:08pm, so it was a late evening for them – but the midwives stayed until after 2am. With all the blood loss, my blood pressure had gone down, and my heart rate had risen, so they stayed until everything was going back in the right direction. Our photographer even stayed almost as long as they did and helped them clean up!
I am again overwhelmed by the care we received from the midwives – they were over-the-top qualified, prepared, professional, and gave such individual attention to our family. But I am also overwhelmed by the love from friends and family who jumped in eagerly to help with anything we needed before, during, and after the birth.
Our family is so beyond blessed to have such incredible people in our lives!
