Anyways, Tania, the midwife broke my water sometime in the early afternoon. Maybe close to 2pm or so. We all felt sure this would definitely speed things along and bring this baby home!!! I kept thinking to myself, “Surely he will be here by _____.” Fill in the blank with a time. I must have thought it at least 5 different times and sadly, I kept having to push back the number. I have to give a quick shout out to our photographer. She hung out with us ALL day waiting for Topher….she was there about 18 hours start to finish. Talk about a dedicated photographer! : ) Once my water was broken, my pain just kept increasing. I tried to change my position often, hoping it would progress my labor. Will was AWESOME and I didn’t want anyone to touch me but him. Mostly he massaged my back, held my hand, and encouraged me lots. Tania, our midwife, was also amazing. She spent lots of time with me and rubbed my back during contractions and rubbed pressure points in my feet. Another sign my choice to birth with a midwife was the right one for me! At one point she told me I was neck to neck with several other women and we were all likely to deliver soon. Each time she came back I knew that one of the other women had their baby. Finally I told her this made me the winner since I was laboring the longest. Ha. I was much more in control this time around than I was during Liam’s labor. Maybe it’s because I knew more about what to expect. Or maybe because I was in a much more supportive environment. The nurses and midwives were AWESOME. I should talk a bit too about how Topher was doing through all this. His heartrate remained consistently slow throughout the labor. Of course this worried the nurses and they required that my heartrate be monitored as well so they could be sure that the Topher’s heart rate was being picked up at all times. My heart rate was actually about the same as Topher’s. At times it was actually faster. This made the nurses crazy nervous, lol, but they hung with us anyways.
At one point when things were really dragging on, I asked that the pitocin be turned up. I hated that I had to have it, but I was ready to get this kid out and he was taking his time!! They cranked it up and I continued to manage the contractions without any pain meds, though it was ridiculously difficult. Probably the worst part of labor without an epidural is needing to get up and go to the bathroom. Trying to move in between contractions and make it to the bathroom, then dealing with contractions while on the toilet. So not fun…. Plus the fluids they were giving me made me have to pee a lot.
Finally, around 7 or 8pm I was dilated to a 7. I was really struggling at this point and was feeling exhausted. After talking with the midwife we decided to turn off the pitocin so I could get into the tub. Without the pitocin I didn’t have to be hooked up to the continuous fetal monitor. The tub and warm water saved me. The water seemed to make the contractions less strong, but I could tell they were still productive. I grabbed Will’s hand every contraction and my mom would rub my back. At one point she walked off and I yelled for her. Any change in my support threw me off, lol. I definitely wouldn’t have made it through without Will and my Mom. I tried to change my position from time to time, sometimes standing and swaying and others on my hands and knees. I could barely stand to be out of the water much at all though. Every time I got up my contractions became back to back and felt 10 times stronger. I was simply too tired to handle them well, so I would slide back into my comfort zone of the tub. I kept telling myself to relax and I could literally feel Topher getting lower and lower with each contraction. Will thought I was never going to get out. I stayed in the tub for over 3 hours. We simply kept refilling it with warm water and I was literally asleep in between contractions. I kept asking Will what time it was and the clock kept on ticking. Then the unthinkable happened, he told me it was just after midnight. Topher’s birthday was now a whole day later. Man. At that moment, I turned to Will and said, that’s it, I’m getting out of this tub. I felt like the longer I stayed in the tub the longer it would take for him to come. I was ready to deal with the stronger contractions so that Topher could make his arrival. Somehow I made it back into bed. Tania was there to check on me and told me I was dilated to a 9. She told me she was surprised that I wasn’t trying to push yet. I responded with “I could definitely push.” I thought I was supposed to wait for permission, lol. She asked me if I wanted to just try it. So, lying in bed with Will holding my left leg and my right foot pushing against Tania who was sitting in the bed I started pushing. Evidently I pushed well enough that they called for whatever kit they needed for the actual birth. It was finally time. My mom was still in the room and standing just beside me and Carleen had her camera ready for Topher’s arrival. I’ve been told by multiple women that pushing without pain meds is better than just having the back to back contractions. That was so not the case for me. In everything I’ve read, pushing and delivery is also described and “the ring of fire.” Oh….my…..gosh. So true. Worst pain of my entire life. I just needed him to be outside of my body and in my arms. At one point I got to reach down and feel his hair before I got him all the way out. I kept pushing, and crying, so ready for this to be over and so exhausted. I pushed for a total of maybe 15 minutes or so. Topher was born at 1233am. I remember the second he came out. I looked at him and he took one small breath in, and that was it. No crying and no regular breathing. Instead of getting him put directly on my chest, he was whisked away for intervention. Will didn’t even get to cut the umbilical cord. At first I thought, he’s fine. I think I even said it out loud, mentioning how Liam had some trouble at first too. But time just seemed to stop. I closed my eyes and just started to pray out loud. My mom became faint and had to sit down on the floor. I heard everyone talking about Topher; I just kept praying. I finally heard them say he was pinking up and then came the miraculous sound of his cry and I knew he was going to be okay. I didn’t get to hold him for a little while but was so happy to know that he was finally here and was healthy. At one point I heard him say his heart rate was completely normal. Thank God. What a miracle baby he is! He weighed 8 pounds, 11 ounces and was 22 inches long. Those extra 2 weeks inside gave him plenty of growing time! As exhausted as I was, none of that mattered anymore because my sweet Topher was finally here, two weeks late, 16 hours after starting pitocin and 28 hours after being admitted to the hospital. He is worth it all, every bit of pain, worry, and stress. We are so in love and blessed to have a second son join our family. Thanks for letting me share his story.
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