Indigo Marlene: A birth story

Indigo Marlene born December 11, 2016 at 7:16pm.  She was 6 lbs 12oz and 19.75 inches long.  

37 weeks and two days.  Reading through James and Graham's births and letters this week, I realized Graham was actually born at 37 weeks, not 36 like I had remembered.  So our little girl holds the longest gestation by mere days.

Leading up

We were scheduled to be induced Sunday evening Dec. 11.  It felt so weird to me that we were starting an induction at night since this would be our third labor.  But since most labors are at random times, I figured oh well.  Saturday was interesting as we packed our bags and spent time together as a family - decorating a gingerbread house/eating copious amounts of candy when the house collapsed, listening to Christmas music, playing on the floor with trains and toys, having late lunch/brunch.  It was beautiful.

Sunday morning, we skipped church in order to collect and store as much rest as possible for the evening.  11am a voicemail beeped on my phone and it was the hospital.  They wanted to know if I was still planning on getting an induction that day because I was scheduled to start 2 hrs prior!  If I wanted to be induced that day I needed to get to the hospital immediately so that they could start the process.  (the hospital/clinic scheduler was a newbie and made some assumptions that didn't get passed along)  Needless to say, I went freaked out kicked it into high gear and quickly got us ready to go.  Thankfully Nana and Grandad were in town already so James was able to settle with them.  He was a bit confused and scared at why were were suddenly flying around the house...he didn't want Mama to go to the hospital.  Tears were spilled, hugs and kisses were had all around, and we departed.

Inducing

The doctor on call for my clinic that day was actually a midwife.  She was great.  Very relaxed, positive, proactive and ready to get us our baby.  I know that the doctors/midwives at the clinic were hopeful for a boring delivery since both my previous were traumatic in their own ways.  So we set our course knowing that convincing a body it needed to evict a resident is no easy feat - I was ripe so we jumped in with a pitocin drip being increased every half hour.  I remember being surprised at her confidence that we'd have a baby by early the next morning...even though that was what we were there to do.   At that point we had been betting on when I would deliver...my guess was around 3am Monday and Brad was voting for after that.  But after 2.5 hours of nothing happening even remotely we decided to try something else.  

We talked about the lack of progress and decided to try breaking my water with the warning that it could really speed things up due to this being my 3rd delivery.  Brad and I nodded (both thinking - uh huh, sure...we'll be here until Monday at least)  We agreed an epidural was definitely the plan since it was so magical last time, and we'd wait to see how this attempt took.  She broke my water around 5:15pm.  

Labor

Twenty minutes later, I was on my knees squeezing Brad's hand so tightly I thought it would break.  We were getting an epidural, right?!  The midwife's words kept ringing in my ears, some women can dilate from a 5 to a 10 in under a minute.  Sweet mercy labor is painful!  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.  Things started ramping up very quickly as my pitocin drip continued, and then relief arrived.  Between very close, very strong contractions, I sat at the edge of the bed willing myself to sit still out of fear of being paralyzed.  I remember seeing him rush out of the room, but was busy simply trying to breathe and focus on Brad's face.  It was only a half hour of laboring...15 minutes of excruciating pain...as soon as my epidural was starting to take, they told me they actually did a spinal bloc first because I was clearly needing something for immediate relief.  Ha!  The midwife checked me, and laughed because guess what, I was fully dilated and ready to push if I wanted to start.  Of course!  Of course I got an epidural while transitioning.  We decided to wait a bit to let my body do its thing.  In another half hour it was time to start pushing.  She asked if I'd like a mirror, and I did.  I figured it might be fascinating and who knows this may be our last pregnancy.  I pushed for 10 minutes and watched myself birth our baby girl.  Perfect, pink, and healthy.  It was nothing short of miraculous.  My body held another person, another soul.  Its actually held several.  How amazing is that?!  It would be another day before we'd realize what such a ravenous and speedy delivery did to my body - a separated pelvic bone...she's worth it.