Peanut's Birth Story--Part 2

The saga continues...read part 1 here

We had an appointment with our midwife on Monday, June 14th and discussed our options. Everything seemed fine and we weren’t worried about your health even though we were starting week 41 on Tuesday. Our biggest concern was that Aunt Sarah and the cousins were planning to come from Arkansas on the weekend and we didn’t know if they should. Also, starting on Sunday Daddy was going to be gone every day for a big part of the day doing festivals and libraries. If we got to week 42 and they started talking about induction we would have a real challenge on our hands. And even if things were going well I would be home with your brother and no vehicle if I went into labor. We had a three day window (Thur-Sat) that were quiet and we really hoped you would be here or come on those days. In the end you did just that!

At our appointment with Debby she gave us some B&B which was an herbal concoction that helps to encourage labor. Starting that day I took a dropper of it 5 hours in a row and pumped for 10 minutes each time to encourage the hormones that would help labor get going. I would feel contractions, but nothing too intense and they wouldn’t roll into anything once the 5 hours were up. We continued to walk a lot and do everything we could to encourage you to come. Daddy had a library to play on Wednesday and we decided that if you had not appeared by then we would strip my membranes that afternoon to see if that would help. Tuesday was the same as Monday and Wednesday was too, so Debby came over on Wednesday afternoon and proceeded with the plan.

When she stripped my membranes I was dilated to a 2 and over 60% effaced so we still had a ways to go. After she left I had a really strong contraction, but the rest of the evening was pretty normal. I baked a Birth Day cake to encourage you to come celebrate a birth day and we enjoyed a piece after dinner. After our walk we all headed to bed and as I laid down at 10 I started to have a few contractions, but by 10:30 they had stopped. I slept until 12:30 and was awakened by a contraction for the first time! The rest of the night I would dose off and wake up to contractions. Sometimes they came fairly often, sometimes I would only get 2 or so in an hour. They were all fairly intense and I would find myself waking up very tense. I just did my best to relax through them and didn’t do anything to wake up your Daddy. I was so hoping that they would continue and that things would move along!

At about 6 your brother woke up and I got up to get us breakfast. I decided to call Debby and let her know what was happening as well as get advice as to how I could encourage things along. She suggested doing the herbs and pumping, going for a walk and then resting as I didn’t get a lot of sleep that night. So, we did just that! We also called Coral (our doula and birth center owner) so she would know that something was happening, but nothing too urgent. As the morning continued I would have a few contractions an hour, all strong, but nothing seemed to be getting into a rhythm or progressing too quickly. We talked to Debby at noon and decided that if nothing had picked up I would take castor oil before 4 pm with the hope that it would kick us up enough to bring you. I was not looking forward to it, but since time was running low we thought we’d give it a shot.


More soon! Part 3 here.
Heather