The Baby Monster's Birth

The Baby Monster's (who will be refered to as TBM) birth was one of the most interesting moments of my life. I was completely different from what I expected, and really bore very little resemblence to anything I had imaginged before hand.

Her due date was November 28. I stoped working on November 10 in order to rest up and get ready. That was enough time and I was happy as the date grew near. Somehow in my mind I thought that 10am on the 27th would be an awesome time to go into labour. I wanted to go into labour in the morning so that I would have lots of energy. 10am came and went and no surprise - no baby...

What I didn't expect is when things would start. That night (or very early the next morning) I woke up having felt my water break. At 12:15 am on November 28 - my water broke. I was really really excited. All the brith stories I had heard from the women in my family contain fast (in the global scheme of things) labours which progress quickly especially if the water breaks first. Andrew and I got up and were really excited. We made sure that everything was ready to go - the gatorade was in the mini fridge, the pool was still fully pumped... Since there were no contractions we put a disposable bed pad on the bed and tried to go back to sleep. I woke up at 2am feeling my first contraction. I wasn't too bad. 15 minutes later I had another one. it was harder to go back to sleep this time. 12 minutes later another one. At this point I got up and started walking around. The contractions vanished... After 30 minutes I gave up and went back to bed.

Maybe 20 minutes later I had another contraction. 10 minutes laster another one. These were strong enough to wake me up - but they weren't too intense. I tried to sleep through a few and gave up. I started walking around the bedroom again. And once more the contractions vanished. We repeated this pattern all night. I would sleep until the contractions were regular and 10 minutes apart. Then I would get up to see if they would get stronger with a bit of movement and they would completely go away.

What an exhausting night. The next morning our housemates (my sister, BIL, and their 3 small children) vacated the house and I tried going for longer walks all around the house. the only which seemed to keep the contractions coming were stairs. But that got tireing very fast. We were in touch with our midwife occationally through this. She kept saying to just wait. But patience isn't my strongest thing - and this labour was going about as differently as possible from what I had been visualising.

At maybe 11am I finally gave up. Andrew and I decided to order some pizza and play video games. And as I settled onto the couch and played FFXII - the contractions slowly increased. As long as I didn't get up and move - they got closer together and more intense. We finally asked our midwife Barb to come at around 4pm. When she arrived I froze. This was probably the most frustrating part of the entire experience. Before she came the contractions were starting to be right on top of each other. There wasn't more than a minute or two between them. And then when she came they went back to being more than 5 minutes apart and completely manageable.

She went to another part of the house to give us some space and I lost it. I felt like a huge failure. Nothing I did was helping my baby come. Nothing I did was making me get any closer to getting to meet my baby. I started to cry. I'd basically been up for a day and a half and I was exhausted. Andrew went and got Barb who was very encouraging and supportive. With my spirits renewed and some birth tincture (I know...) I lay back on the bed and regrouped. The contractions came back (at this point I wasn't conviced they would), and things really started moving around 6pm.

Transition wasn't fun. Barb didn't want me to get into the pool too early - it can hinder labour. So I was straddling a chair looking at the pool trying to get through each contraction - because each one I got through would get me closer to getting in the pool. I remember very clearly the frist push. I had gotten off my chair and suddenly I squatted and everything felt different. The pain of the contractions had lessened. And the feeling was wonderful. I new that this meant the end was near. I remember very clearly looking across the room at Barb who was making some notes on her clipboard and yelling (soory for yelling) "I think I'm pushing". That still makes me smile. No woman who has ever given birth can mistake what a push feels like.

At that point I got in the pool. My husband says it was more of a dive than a graceful entrance :) The relief was wonderful. The weight of my belly was taken off my back and everything relaxed. Each push was getting me closer to holding my baby. I pushed with everything I had. I was done with labor. I was mentally and physically exhausted and I just wanted my baby. I wanted to hold and cuddle the little life who'd been living inside me for 9 months. I could feel the head decend and I remember trying with all my might not to let it rock back up. I remember making very low growl noises because those were the ones that made the pushes feel like they did the most.

When she crowned it was awesome. Unlike the pain of contactions it was the type of pain I handle very well. So I pushed right through it. And then with a mighty push I felt her head come out and then I added a little extra to the end of that push and got the rest of her out too. Barb very quickly unwraped the cord from around her neck as I rolled over (I'd been on hands and knees) and placed my baby on my chest. Hearing her cry for the first time was truly amazing. It was 8:41pm November 28, 2006

It tooke a few minutes before we confirmed what I had felt all along that she was a girl. And Natalie Margaret was born.

20 hours and 26 minutes after my water broke, 18 hours and 40 minutes after the first contraction, I finally held my little tiny baby named Natalie.