Although some of you have undoubtedly heard a version of Mina’s arrival already, here’s the story for those of you that haven’t.
Since Mina hadn’t come as of the 24th, when Pete and I went in for the weekly check up with the midwives, we met with Maureen (the director). She did another exam, told me that I could stop taking the EPO since my cervix was completely ripe and asked if I wanted to have my membranes swept. Although it sounds a bit extreme, it was actually a really gentle procedure – at least in the hands of Maureen. I only felt a little discomfort, and I’m a really big wimp!
We went home, and starting that night my contractions started to get more regular. I went to bed at 11.30, thinking that maybe I’d go into labor the next day. Once again, I was wrong.
I was woken up by contractions about every half an hour. Around 1.30 I felt the need to get up and walk around. Around 2.30 I woke Peter up because I needed company. I called the midwives and told Jewell (the midwife on call) that my contractions were pretty strong and about 6-7 minutes apart. I confirmed with her that I should call back when they were about 3-4 minutes apart for an hour. By 3am my contractions were there: about 4 minutes apart and sometimes less. Peter called Jewell back and she told us to leave for the birth center in about twenty minutes. He woke up Amzie (she was TOTALLY excited) and took her over to the next door neighbors. Fortunately for us, the Maynors are awesome and agreed ahead of time to make up a little bed for Amzie and put her on the bus in the morning if I went into labor in the middle of night…
So off we go to the birth center. Peter had the presence of mind to finish packing the car with the cake that Sarena had made for us, as well as to take the path to the birth center that DIDN’T include the speed bumps in our neighborhood – goodness knows I hate those even when I’m not in labor!
We arrived at the birth center sometime close to four and went inside. The contractions were coming on stronger and I did my best to walk around as much as I could. Jewell and Peter did an awesome job of coaching me through the contractions when I’d start to breathe too quickly or too shallowly. A lot of things at this point are kind of a blur for me…I know that I was in the tub for a little bit, but I hated having parts of my body out of the water since it made me cold and the cold made me shiver and the shivering made the contractions stronger. I remember being asked if the water should be warmer, but I was so hot that I wanted luke warm water in the tub – I only wanted my whole body to be submerged. I also remember being pretty nonverbal most of this entire time…the most I remember saying was “No” to a couple of things and moaning through some of the stronger contractions.
At some point, Jewell was trying to get me to eat something, which I REALLY didn’t want to do – but managed to get down three or four pretzel sticks and a piece of a Cliff bar. Jewell kept asking if we brought any fruit or could make a smoothie and I was really confused by these questions. I packed pretzels, sesame snacks, Cliff bars…you know, things that wouldn’t spoil because I had packed them WEEKS ago. I also remember really hating fruit punch Gatorade, and the smell of 80% cacao chocolate on Peter’s breath (his energy booster for labor).
Around 7.30 or 8 (I think, my timing’s probably a little off here), the contractions were just about unbearable and I thought, “I must be in transition labor.” I think I even managed to mumble that to Peter. He went out to the midwife station and Maureen had just come on shift (yay!). She came in and managed to check my dilation while I was standing up (what a pro) and said, “Um, yeah! Why don’t you get in bed? You can start pushing soon.” Better words were never said!
I climbed into bed and vaguely remember being surrounded by Peter at my head, and A LOT of women. Maureen was checking on Mina’s progress and assessing what was going on with the amniotic sac (yes, my water still hadn’t broken). Her niece, who is studying to be a midwife, was (thankfully!) massaging my right hip and leg (I was lying on my left side). There was also Cheryl, the nurse and Jane, a student nurse from UNC and maybe one other person…I can’t remember and frankly, my eyes were closed most of the time. Once I was settled in and breathing well through the contractions, Maureen told me that I could start pushing.
The first order of business was to push out the sac, since Mina was literally right behind it. From what Peter said, everyone standing around me was cowering with towels like they had front seats at a SeaWorld show… Fortunately, I did manage to push hard enough that the sac broke without the waterworks explosion that everyone was expecting. Once the happened I could feel Mina’s head coming immediately afterwards, and I had one thought: this baby is big. I did manage to push her out in about 20 minutes, with some great help from Maureen et al, as well as Peter’s awesome coaching. She was born without complication, other than the expected mild tearing that comes with a ten pound baby that comes out fast and furiously. When she was placed on my chest, Peter and I looked at her and looked at each other. My first thought was, “Holy cow, I just delivered a three month old!” She was born at 9.24am.
The rest of the morning and afternoon are also something of a blur – there was some paperwork to complete, medical things that needed to be done for Mina and I. Peter ran out and got some food for us sometime after noon. And we slept. All three of us slept a really good sleep in the bed that I gave birth to her in. It was awesome.
We left the birth center around 4.30pm and came home. Amzie went to stay at her friend Zack’s house for the night, and Peter’s mom and dad just *happened* to come down on the same day. They arrived about 10 minutes after we got home, and stayed with us for a week, which was really cool.
Welcome home, Mina!
