Reuben's Birth: Part 3

Saturday, October 6^th (41 +2)

So it's after midnight, and I'm still chatting with Christine (I also chatted with Nichole earlier, but she was sick so she went to bed early). Joel had gone to bed (he slept in the guest room for several weeks because I had trouble falling asleep). Ashley was back online after going to the Greek festival (she had invited me to continue walking with her, but I declined) and we made plans for her to come watch my kids while I went for my BPP on Monday afternoon. We were both hoping she wouldn't need to come, but I was glad to have a friend who was willing to help me out! At 12:15 AM, I finally got a glass of wine. I decided I should start updating my birthy groups, so I sent this message to my HBAC group at 1:08 AM:

“Since I've never really gone into labor on my own, we'll see how this pans out.
But my doulas are optimistic....I have been having contractions about every 30
min or so since 4 PM............so about 8-9 hours now. I am 41w2d. Please send
your good vibes! So far my membranes have stayed intact and I am so hopeful they
stay that way for a long time!!”

After I posted that, I took a shower (and noticed some stringy mucous discharge – yay!), and I finally fell asleep watching “I Love Lucy” at 2 AM.

I woke up around 4:45 AM to contractions (whoo hoo, a whole 2-1/2 hours of sleep!). I timed them for a while (because what else does one have to do at 5AM?) and found them kind of all over the place, but in general about 8-10 minutes apart and lasting anywhere from 20 seconds to a minute (most 45-50 seconds). The strength and length of each one seemed to depend on how long it had been since the last. It didn't really matter to me, though, I was just excited that things were progressing (albeit SLOOOOOOOWWWWLLY). At 5:47 AM I took another trip to the bathroom and noticed a large amount of slightly tinged mucous. Perhaps some plug? (Commence celebration that SOMETHING was happening!)

At 6 AM, Eli (my oldest) came into bed with me, just as he had been doing every morning for a couple weeks. We cuddled together, and I told him that it might be Bucky's birthday. He told me we needed to make a cake, but we never did. While we were laying in bed, I sent Christine a text at 6:40 AM giving her an update on what was going on. She encouraged me to try to go back to sleep, and she tried to do the same.

At 7 AM (when my daughter woke up) I decided I didn't really want to hang out with Eli anymore and took him to my husband. Since things had progressed, I finally told Joel I was likely in labor, and had been since the afternoon before. He seemed excited (I think). He called his coworker to tell her he wasn't going to be coming in on Monday or Tuesday and took the kids downstairs for breakfast. It was nice to not have to worry about anyone else. I stopped for another bathroom break on my way back to bed and noticed more pink discharge – whoo hoo! I sent a text message to Katie to let her know what was going on, as well. Christine never made it back to sleep, so she checked in with me at 7:26 and I updated her on the mucous situation. She enthusiastically replied, “Let's have a baby!” (Yay!) I asked her if she thought it was safe for me to post an update to the ICAN board (she did), so I started my popcorn thread and made everyone promise not to say anything on Facebook. She also made sure I had informed my husband of the current situation, and asked me how I was doing. I told her I was still in denial – except when I was having a contraction.

Nichole checked in with me at 9 AM and I gave her the update. She said she was feeling better and had back up with her at her class in case she needed to leave. She encouraged me to keep resting, but to make sure I was eating and drinking even if I didn't feel like it.

Christine and I made plans to meet up at 10 AM at Touch-a-truck, and she let Sarah know to meet us there. I texted Tinika to let her know what was going on in case I needed her later and went about finding something to wear (which proved to be slightly difficult because it had suddenly turned cool outside – 60 degrees that morning!) ate a snack, and got everyone ready to go.

Touch-a-truck was a good distraction. Talia had fun, Eli refused to go in any of the trucks, and they both enjoyed the time we spent on the playground at the church preschool. I don't remember much about the contractions I had while we were there. I know they were happening, but I also knew they were slowing down some. We left around 11:30 and went home to feed the kids lunch. I ate a small snack and left to go get my massage.

This was my second massage with Becca, my first was two weeks earlier. Ashley recommended her to me, and I was happy to discover she gives the best massages of any I have ever had! I was hoping the massage would relax me and allow things to continue on, but instead they stopped completely. I DID fall asleep during it, which was really nice since I hadn't slept much. After my massage, I stopped by Kroger to get a few things before I went home.

At 2 PM Christine checked in via text to see how I was doing. We discussed the baby's position (which I was pretty sure was LOA/OA since he had stopped rolling from side to side), Since those are pretty much as good as it gets, she encouraged me to try to nap and we'd check in later. I took a shower, climbed into bed, and fell asleep.

I woke up around 4 PM and sent Christine a text letting her know I had slept. She told me to call her if I needed her in the next hour because she was getting a massage, too. Apparently it was a good day for massages! She checked in with me at 5PM and I was really disappointed to report that there was still nothing going on. She tried to encourage me by reminding me that what was happening was much better than 55 hours of PROM. I knew she was right, but it was still upsetting to watch everything stop and know no amount of wishing and hoping would make it come back.

While all this was going on, we were having trouble with our router, which did nothing but frustrate me. I decided to let Joel try to fix it while I took the kids for a walk. I was hoping that dragging 50+ lbs of kids up and down hills in a wagon would maybe stimulate something. It didn't. Bummer. By the time we got home, Joel had fixed the internet, so I went back to sitting around and chatting with my friends which was the only thing I wanted to do.

Christine and I chatted and she shared a theory with me that since I was induced for PROM the first two times that this labor was maybe trying to act like a first-time labor. I liked that theory. I will probably get a lot of weird looks for this, but I LOVE being in labor. I can't really explain it, but I feel like there is no greater time of anticipation, excitement, and connectedness. I feel like it's the greatest work I could ever do. My first VBAC was only 4 hours of actual labor, and it always felt too short. I wanted more time to savor the experience. I had developed a sincere fear of a precipitous birth (as mentioned above in my conversation with Katie), and I brought up to Christine, again. I was begging the universe for a slow and steady labor. When the contractions stopped, I worried that when they started back up they would be fast and furious. She reminded me that things would happen as they were going to happen and there was nothing I could do to change that. I suppose that was both reassuring and disheartening at the same time.

We did our normal evening routine, and then Joel and I decided to play Dominion again (getting in as much “us” time as we could before Bucky arrived). I posted to my HBAC group again at 8:38 PM:

“Everything stopped around lunch time. :( Hoping things will pick up tonight. And
slowly. I have an apparently decent fear of a fast and intense birth.”

Christine checked in with me via Yahoo! messenger at 9:50 PM and I was happy to report I had three contractions over the previous hour! Yay for slow and steady! I was kinda bummed that things were picking up just as I was getting ready to settle down for the night, too. Christine jokingly predicted that things would pick up right around the time she was supposed to meet some of our friends for brunch the next day. Yeah, I doubted that.

We continued chatting for a few hours while I watched TV and had contractions. I was so tired, but laying down was just so uncomfortable. At midnight I finally fell asleep out of pure exhaustion.  

Reuben's Birth: Part 4