Lina's Birth Story

This pregnancy, the false labor contractions started as early as 30 weeks. I would labor with contractions 2-3 minutes apart, for 4-6 hours (once for 8!), before they would subside. They would sometimes get a little intense, but didn’t progress or make a change in my cervix.

My due date came and went, but the next evening, I started having contractions, not too close together. I tried not to get my hopes up. We put the kids to bed and even though part of me thought of telling Zoey we might not be there in the morning, I didn’t want to jinx it or disappoint her.

Things became a little more intense, but nothing more than they had been over the past 10 weeks. I figured it was more good practice, so I got out the birthing ball and tried different things before settling for kneeling over the couch, surfing Facebook to pass the time.

9:45 pm: Suddenly I had the weirdest sensation, as though I was flicked from the inside, or like Lina had jabbed me somewhere near my kidney, but when she was a lot smaller. I let out a “Whoa!” and when Gavin asked what, I told him I’d just felt the weirdest thing. But just as I was searching for the words to describe it, there was a gush of fluid and I just punched my fists in the air and shouted, “YES! My water broke!”

I was stoked! I had been told my membranes were very thick and probably wouldn’t rupture. They must have ruptured somewhere in the back, and I couldn’t have been happier.

The next hour was full of the rushing around and last-minute packing and phone calls that are always such a blur when I look back. Gavin was right on top of everything and a kind neighbor came and stayed with the kids while my aunt (also a neighbor) was heading over for the night.

11:00 pm: We headed out the door, with contractions just starting to get painful. Traffic was mercifully clear and I only almost swore once when a light changed red just as we got to it.

11:30 pm: We checked into labor and delivery and I changed and my cervix was checked. I was at a 6! Claudia (my nurse midwife) arrived soon after that, as well as my mom and my videographer friend and we got to work. I was surprised that the contractions seemed somewhat short, and between them I felt just fine. We had a nice time hanging out together and trying different things to help eliminate the pain. I used a birthing ball and counter pressure on my hips and knees and it made things very manageable. I kept hydrated and felt calm and upbeat.

1:30 am: We checked my cervix again and found it had only progressed a centimeter and a half. So Claudia had me lay on my side on the hospital bed to help move things along. It worked! After about 20 minutes or so of that I was complete, and in a great deal of pain. I flew right through transition and before I knew it, I was ready to push.

2:00 am: Gavin gloved up and I gave it my all. It only took two big pushes to get her crowning, but she got a little stuck. Her head came out, but then her shoulders got stuck. She was a little sideways. With Claudia’s help, I got her shoulders out one at a time, and then she got stuck again on her rib cage! Finally, she came rushing out and Gavin caught her. The relief was as poignant as the pain had been, though I was extremely sore.

 Everyone exclaimed about how big he was. (I heard one nurse say she was a chunk monkey.) She was put right on my chest, where we started trying to warm her and coax her to breathe. She seemed a little shocked. (Can you blame her?) They waited for the cord to stop pulsing and Gavin cut it. They whisked her away to weigh and measure her and to do her Apgar test. 9 pounds, 8 ounces… I birthed a 9 and a half pound baby!

She wasn’t saturating well, so they took her away to put her on oxygen. Thankfully, she only needed it for a couple hours before she could hold her own. She had a bit of a hard time with her glucose levels, but we sorted that out as well over the next 24 hours.

I had no tears and only took a few doses of Percocet, and then Ibuprofen to deal with the recovery pain, but no other pain meds. The whole thing was a little over 4 hours from start to finish and it was crazy how not crazy it all was.

The nurses who helped with the delivery seemed impressed. They said I was made to have babies. I didn’t feel like it at the time, but the recovery has been so fast and so easy I guess maybe they’re right. Looking back, especially considering how big she was, things couldn’t have gone much more smoothly. Claudia said I may have had undiagnosed gestational diabetes, which explains her size.

I keep thinking about how big she was and feeling grateful that we didn’t have any major complications (like, I didn’t rip in half and die), and that she is so healthy.

Lina is such a good baby, and we all love her so much. She is a good sleeper and a good eater. Zoey and Calvin are loving having a baby around. She is growing way too fast, and changing all the time. I’m not sure why my daughters insist on not looking like us (she is blond!), but I guess we’ll just add to our hair color collection. I joke that our next baby will be black.

Now we’re re-learning how to function as a family of 5. Life is hard, but it is so, so good. We love each other and are so grateful to be together.

If you would like to see our birth video (created by Stacey Peterson), you can see it here. It is very tasteful and modest and beautifully done.