Labor Notes from My Birth Doula

Parker's Birth Notes - February 26th, 2015

4:30-5 Gyro (Contractions started around 6 p.m.)
6:30-7 Pineapple smoothie

7 p.m. Water broke, lightly stained

7:21 Phone call from Jay, you'd like me to come. 

8:15 I arrive

8:30 I suggest we all leave you alone so you can rest in between. Contractions every 3 minutes, about 35 seconds. (Everyone except Jay, goes to the dining room to wait for labor to progress)

8:40 Casey leaves, says she can come back at any time.

10:09 "Last 8 contractions are lasting a minute or longer." - Jay 

10:17 Loud vocalization & I check in with you.

10:23 You want me to stay in the room with you.

10:35 I insist that you get up to use the restroom. You are not happy when I suggest you stay on the toilet for another contraction.

10:45 You say you're pushing during the contraction.

10:47 You request the tub, but I suggest waiting for Madeleine as I know she's nearly here.

11:09 Madeleine says baby is so low, you must be complete. Tammy suggest low sounds when you bear down.

11:10 Heart rate "Good!" Madeleine says

11:12 Madeleine suggest you make your hips wider as you push.

11:17 Madeleine says "He's right there"

11:26    "  asks if you want to touch his head, you do and exclaim "Oh my God!"

11:27 Heart rate check "great" Madeleine says

11:33 Madeleine attempts to feel for baby, you tell her not to touch & Madeleine tells Tammy she thought baby may be crowning

11:35 "I've never wanted anything out of my body so bad."

11:36 Madeleine: "This is great, he's just molding".

11:38 "I can feel him right there, it hurts so bad."

11:39 Madeleine dons her headlamp

11:47 Madeleine suggests getting out of the tub, maybe the stool? "Noooo!" You say. 

In between contractions you rest your head on your hands.

Extra long pushes.

11:51  You look at the clock & roll your eyes.

11:57 Madeleine suggests you hold the noise in, focus all your energy down.

11:58 Tammy suggests that you rock your hips.

11:59 "Gimme your hands" you tell Jay

February 27th

12:01 "I'm sorry"

12:02 Heart rate ✅ (Check) "He's very low in that canal"

12:08 "I felt like he was just going to come out" you say after this contraction. Jay says "That's good!" Madeleine again suggests changing position, perhaps the toilet, the hot water can exhaust you. "I feel like water makes them less intense" you say.

12:10 Change position, you move to sit on the tub "step" with Jay sitting behind you. Your wedding day picture mirrors the scene. 

Tammy: "I see his head, go ahead and feel him"

Jay: "That's all he was waiting for, the 27th!" 

Madeleine: "You're doing so great, He's right there!"

12:16 "it's cold" fan off

12:23 You ask: "Does he go back in?" Madeleine explains only slightly, to where he's comfortable.

12:25 Heart rate check, but stops as contraction starts.

12:27 Tammy explains that baby needs to come under your pubic bone, and to bring your pelvis forward . Heart rate good.

12:29 Madeleine suggests you change position, if only for a few minutes. You move to the birth stool.

12:32 "The urge to push is always there" you say, "I don't like this".

12:36 Heart rate check, "the heart rate is slow, let's get him out."

12:38 Move to the bed, with Jay sitting behind you

12:49 Baby born! "MOM!!!" you yell

1:27 Grandma (Gigi) gets to hold her brand new grandson 

1:28 Jay: "You smell like a bait shop!" - "I like you"

9lbs 4oz

22 inches long

-small tear

  Lidocaine used for repair

Congratulations!

❤️ Lea

20-21 Weeks

I just saw my PCM today after my ultrasound on Friday. Baby is doing great. My uterus is the size it's supposed to be for 21 weeks and everything sounds good with baby.

At 20 weeks and 3 days he was approximately 12 oz and 10 inches long. He's measuring about 4 days ahead of schedule but he has a really tall family so I'm not surprised at all there.

During the ultrasound, they noticed my cervix is shorter than they like it to be but still in their "okay" range. They want it to be no shorter than 2.5 but prefer it to be greater than 3 and I'm at a 2.6. I go back in on Friday to make sure it's not getting shorter because if it is shortening already that could cause some issues. It is one of the signs of preterm labor. The doctor was explaining to me today that if it is getting shorter, I'll have to go on bed rest and/or eventually have my cervix sewn shut to prevent preterm labor before baby is ready. Of course the one ultrasound is just a snap shot but the follow up on Friday should reveal whether or not I'm at risk. I'm curious if all of this is due to the stress I've been under plus all the traveling I've done the past month.

On the plus side, Parker is still doing great. He heart rate was strong today and I'm gaining weight instead of losing finally! I'm still one pound under what my pre-pregnancy weight was but doctor didn't seem concerned at all.

20 Weeks and going strong!

Until Next Time!

Be Still My Heart

After over a week of trying and searching for the baby's heart beat, I finally broke down and called Crystal to find out what exactly I'm looking for! I've read about it until I thought I knew what I was looking for but evidently I was wrong. I thought I was looking for a fast heart beat of about 150 to 170 bpm but I found out that it can vary depending on the age of the fetus and that as low as 90 bpm to 110 bpm is normal for weeks 7 - 8 but during week 8 it starts to pick up and by weeks 9 - 10  it should be up to 140 to 170 bpm. Of course we are no doctors and we may have even missed a few beats but I had Jay time himself and count the beats for a whole minute and it came out around 91-95 bpm and when we check my pulse to ensure we weren't accidentally listening to my heart beat, mine was about high 70's to low 80's.

Once we were pretty sure we had found the heart beat, we sat and listened for a while. I was the one holding onto the fetal doppler and the probe that locates the heart beat. I found a good spot and just let it sit there. While listening, I didn't move the probe at all and the heart beat started fading in and out and getting stronger and lighter. We were pretty sure by that point that it was baby and not one of my veins or arteries because they wouldn't move around like that. Jay was pretty excited.

For those that don't know, Jay and I have had two boys together but each time I found out I was pregnant Jay was on his way to Iraq. He's missed both pregnancies and births of our first two children and he has no idea what this is like at all. So last night, was his first time hearing one of his babies' heart beats from in the womb.  As we enter the time of midwife appointments, ultrasounds, and OB appointments, Jay will start to see some of the stuff I went through with both previous pregnancies. So far this first trimester has been a little of both my previous ones. With Jayson, I wouldn't have known I was pregnant besides the exhaustion. With Eli, I was sick as a dog most of the time and by the time the 2nd trimester came, I had lost a little bit of weight because of how nauseous I was. This pregnancy has had a little nausea here and there but sometimes I can't tell I'm pregnant except for I KNOW I saw the two lines and I haven't had my cycle since May! lol

I was supposed to have an appointment with the OB yesterday but they called and rescheduled it for August 5th since they want me to be past 10 weeks and I'm not yet. Today marks 8 weeks and 4 days so I will be 11 weeks on the day of my OB appointment. I also have a Midwife appointment on August 2nd and I have already scheduled our 3D/4D ultrasound (we didn't do this with the first two) to find out the gender at 15 weeks. Hopefully we'll be able to find out then, they said they can tell as early as 13 weeks but that seems way too early to me. I'm tempted to change our appointment so it's after I'm 16 weeks but I'm just too anxious to wait! When would you do it? After 16 weeks or after 18 weeks or just wait for the normal 20 week ultrasound?

Let me hear what you have to say!