However let's recap....back to the days when I felt exhausted...just in a different way :)
The second trimester was fairly pleasant all things considered and I even felt fairly decent a large portion of the final trimester too. The most challenging aspect of the final trimester was that my body didn't hold up quite the way I'd hoped. By month 7, my pelvic muscles would start to "lock down" if I walked over a mile and my SI joint ached after almost any yoga, so months 8-9 contained almost no physical activity. In the final 1.5 months heartburn also caught up with me to the point of interrupting sleep some nights. While these were two aspects that definitely were not fun to deal with, I will forever be grateful that my sleep was never super negatively impacted during pregnancy. In fact, during the final weeks, I spent a LOT of time sleeping. I also never had much issue with swelling nor any issues with muscle cramps, which I still attribute to the epsom salt baths.
I think it was around 28 weeks that I finally realized that the medical group I'd been going to most definitely did not align with my desires and values, thus I actually marched out of a required group visit over a dispute on C-section rates and at that point started looking for a new provider. At 30 weeks, I'd discovered a naturopathic delivery center but after reading shaky financial reviews and having a negative response time from their billing department, I decided to keep looking. I finally discovered another midwifery option with good reviews and had my consultation with the woman who became my midwife at 32 weeks.
At 36 weeks, I was praying that lil man would stay put as I still needed to get my students through their final projects. At 38 weeks and after passing the mucus plug, I let the midwife initially check me before driving the hour down to my parents house for a potentially final good-bye visit with my granny who was being put on hospice. At that visit I was told that my body had enough signs that he could start to arrive at anytime. Since I still needed to grade 20 group papers and get winter term grades in, I was praying all that week and the next while being super stressed out about an earlier arrival than what would work best with my schedule. Thankfully he stayed put....and then he stayed put....and stayed put. Ha! At 40 weeks, my body still showed signs that anytime could be go time and I had researched average gestational periods for biracial babies. At 41 weeks, I was required to have a follow-up ultrasound to make sure all was still okay in there for him to be able to keep going, but post-ultrasound I elected to a) have my membranes stripped and b) to schedule an induction. I wanted to give him time to come on his own post-stripping of the membranes, so I elected to schedule for when the midwife would be on-call about four days away. While I had some contractions that night, no labor started.
The next day my mom (who was staying with me that week just in case) and I drove the hour or so to the Woodburn Tulip Festival to try to distract away my frustration. While the trip didn't get him to arrive, it was an absolutely beautiful day!
We ended the day with yummy fajitas at a nearby Mexican restaurant. That night I had one of the most uncomfortable ones of the entire pregnancy (which I've reflected upon this many times in the months since for reasons I'll share later). I couldn't sleep at all and it felt like he was just wanting to crawl out of his own skin in there. He couldn't get comfortable, I couldn't get comfortable, no sleep was happening, my anxiety was up, and I was wishing I would have scheduled the induction earlier.
I don't remember much about Saturday, but it was during a deep sleep that night that I was awakened about 330am by the dogs wanting to go out. When I went to the bathroom I felt extremely nauseous and couldn't stop shaking. About 45 minutes after that I woke my mom up to keep me company because I felt so weird...and after laying in my king sized bed with me for 15 -20 minutes she decided that I was in labor and that we should go to the hospital. A little after 5am we were on the way to the hospital and my contractions were six minutes apart. I was checked in around 6am and then labored for several hours in the shower before eventually transitioning to the hospital bed.
Ironically we had gone into labor the morning of the induction :) Little guy arrived on his own time and I truly can't complain about my L&D experience. They followed my desired birth plan to a T and my L&D nurse was truly remarkable. I labored naturally the majority of the time until I finally decided about 2.5 hours prior to delivery that I "didn't need to be anyone's hero" so I asked for some initial level pain relief.
The biggest things I remember from L&D: I wanted complete silence during contractions (and ironically both my mom and sister are super chatty but soon respected my wishes), I worked through contractions in the same way that I work through running by either zoning out or repeating mantras in my head, I counted down the final 10 minutes until they could administer the next pain meds for the 5 rounds that I received them, I vomited on three occasions until I decided they could give me the anti-nausea meds after all since I went with the pain meds, I wanted to push before I was officially ready and in the end they gave me the green light ahead of time to move the baby down anyway (he never "fully engaged"), pushing felt way different than I could have ever expected, labor felt way different than I could have ever expected, my biggest pain was the muscle cramps that happened in my quads & glutes which are always my problem areas, and I'll never forget not even realizing he was out and following the instructions to look down....and discovering my little man laying on my chest :)
I truly lucked out....my sister was an incredible labor support, we were immensely blessed by my L&D nurse, my labor was 8ish hours and I pushed for 10-20 minutes, baby boy was healthy at 8lbs, 2oz and 22 inches long. All very good things indeed!
What I don't remember? Apparently yelling that I never needed to have sex again. Haha!
What advice would I give for the hospital delivery?
Bring Chapstick. I'd read online to take chapstick...and it's a must have!
Best things to labor in? A tankini for the shower and a short tank dress/beach cover-up for the bed.
A nursing tank and a pair of shorts were all I needed until I went home.
Truly there wasn't much we needed in the hospital. An outfit to labor in, the items to lounge in, a weather appropriate going home outfit for me and him. Toiletries to shower and that's it. Granted we only stayed one night and I tend to be super minimalist about that type of stuff, but we way overpacked for both him and I.
When they offer you the granny hospital panties, ice pads, tucks, and water spritzing bottle...use and take all of it! :)
Write out your birth plan. That's sort of a given, but it was great to have it read by my mother, my sister, and photocopied into my medical chart.
Always remember you are your own best health advocate. Granted you need a team to help you but advocate for what you want. I wanted to go home early and I stated that as soon as it was apparent that we both were a-ok. From the moment we were wheeled downstairs, the entire team knew we were working toward an early release. (Interestingly in checking the numbers later, only staying one night also probably saved me another $1000 or more....)
Write a thank-you and take flowers to any awesome providers. We made our L&D nurse cry in return, but we couldn't have had a more incredible support than through her being a part of our team.
When they offer you as much food as you want for free? Order and eat all of it. There are so many calories to replenish! Also order as you for whoever spends that first night with you! I ate a TON and drank a total of about ten juices to help replenish lost electrolytes.
I'm hopeful to recap some other helpful pieces in future posts as I start getting back into blogging (hopefully), but the reality is each birth story is a unique one! As much as I love my baby, I'm truly hopeful that was the only birth story I'll ever share-ha.
These first few months have been rough and beautiful in their own right...but those stories are still to come too...... :)
