Precipitous Labor
Yep, that’s what it’s called when labor is less than three hours, or in other words, much faster than expected.
My son, Nathanael Joseph, was born on Wednesday, June 24, 2009, at 2:28 pm. The only ones present were me, him, and God. Was I scared? Didn’t really have time to be. Am I superwoman? I just did it, it’s not like it was planned, or that I had a choice, he was coming and coming now.
I started having irregular contractions at 7:50 am, they were definitely contractions, but they were at least 10 minutes apart and didn’t last very long. I called my midwife, my husband, and my mother, then went about my morning. Kahlen and I did craft time, started dinner in the crock pot, and had a snack. I had plans to go swimming at our pool with a neighbor, then we had lunch at her house. It was about 12:20 by the time we got back. My contractions were consistently 10 minutes apart and building in intensity, but still manageable, so I didn’t really think anything of it. Kahlen watched a video until 1, then I put her down for her nap. I went to lay down too, thinking I should get some rest if these contractions were going to continue like this for hours. They were still regular and 10 minutes apart lasting less than a minute.
At 1:45, they got closer together and more intense, five minutes apart lasting one minute, but I still didn’t feel like they were anything all that exciting. The best way for me to cope with them felt sort of like pushing (which it was), but I doubted my own sense of things since they hadn’t been going very long and they were still very manageable. At 2:15, I felt like I had to go to the bathroom, so I did just that. I called my husband and my midwife from the bathroom, letting them know it was time for both of them to come. After I got off the phone with my midwife, I left the bathroom, but didn’t make it very far. There’s a glider with an ottoman in my room, and it looked comfortable, so I went on my knees with my arms resting on the ottoman. I put a towel down in case I started leaking goo. Two contractions later, I felt something changing. I cried out to God to be with me, and He was. The baby was crowning at that point and I realized that I was going to birth my baby alone. The only fear I had was that the baby would get stuck like my first, and I wouldn’t be able to do anything until help arrived. It was a fleeting thought though because within the next minutes, I pushed twice and there was my son!
My water broke as he was coming out. He cried almost right away. The first thing I checked was boy or girl? The second thing I checked was the time. Next I had to figure out what to do. Conveniently, the place I was on the floor was right next to the basket that had all the birth supplies in it. I grabbed a chucks pad and laid it under me. Then I wrestled open a shower curtain and laid it open behind me. I knew I was going to start bleeding and I was determined to at least do a little bit to contain the coming mess. I sat down on the shower curtain with Nathanael on my legs and prayed help would be there soon.
It was. My midwife and her assistant/daughter arrived shortly after I sat down. She galloped up the stairs when she heard crying. A few minutes later, the placenta was delivered with no trouble. My husband arrived right after that, and was shocked to hear a baby crying. The only thing he could think to say was to apologize for not being here.
Unfortunately, I started feeling a little shocky at that point. The decision was made to call the paramedics in case things got worse. I did not pass out, but came very close to it.
Once the paramedics arrived, I tried several times to sit up with no luck. Every time, I would feel like passing out, so I laid back down. After about an hour, it was decided to transport me to the hospital accompanied by my husband and son and followed by my midwife.
Sometime during that hour, grammy came to pick up Kahlen. She got to see me and the baby before leaving to spend the next couple days with grammy and grandpa.
The paramedics carried me downstairs on a stretcher, loaded me on the gurney, and away we went. In transit, they started an IV and drew my blood. I had a conversation with the EMT on the way there, so clearly I was lucid, I just couldn’t sit up.
We arrived at the hospital and I was wheeled into the ER, where they tried to figure out what to do with me. I was given another bag of saline and checked on by several doctors, nurses, and other staff before they decided to admit me to Woman’s Care. Once there, we basically hung out for four hours before they drew my blood again to check my hemoglobin and hematocrit. Once the results came back, and they had us wait another two hours, I was released. My midwife drove the three of us home and got us all settled in for the night.
What a day! Now we are a family of four with a girl and a boy, which I never expected. We’re all doing well, trying to get adjusted to this new stage of life. Tim is home for at least a week, Kahlen is back from her adventures with grandparents, Nathanael is sleeping and eating as well as can be expected from a newborn, and I’m well on my way through recovery.
So much for getting caught up on blogging before the baby came. Oh well, I may just have to go back and post some pictures from the last few months anyway, there are some good ones!
P.S. 9 News got ahold of my story, so here's a link to my two minutes of fame. I also made it in the Coloradoan
