The Story of Owen's Birth

Disclaimer: The following is as much detail that I can remember of my labor and delivery so if it is "too much information"....well, just don't read it. :) I want to remember this. It's important to me. Oh and this is gonna be long. I have almost 20 hours to account for, here. All very busy.


As we laid down in bed and said our goodnights it occured to me that we wouldn't be having a September baby like we originally thought. In fact, both of the boys were due in September but Carter came in August and Owen was obviously going to come in October, since it was 11pm Sept 30th already. Oh well.
I had been feeling generally crappy all day and my back was hurting and not an hour earlier I was IM'ing my doula and telling her that I was a "walking crabass" and that "I didn't expect labor any day soon". Haha.
Well, I had just dozed off when the first contraction hit.....hard. Owww. Wtf? It was sharp and low-frontal. Not at all what the internet or any book says "Real" labor contractions feel like. (makes me wonder if I had some issues from previous cesarean...scar tissue? I dunno) In fact what I was experiencing sounded an awful alot like "False" labor. Who the hell knows why.
They started at about 8-10 minutes apart and I was unable to sleep through any of them. Hurt like the dickens. Very soon (within 1 hour) they were consistently every 5-6 minutes. This is when I move to the couch because I can't keep quiet or keep still. My darling husband says "Are you in labor?" and "Try to sleep". I say " I have no freakin idea" and "Yeah right".
At around 4:50 am I text my doula "FYI: I’m gonna lose my mind. Contractions 5 min apart since 12, very very painful. No sleep yet 2night. They were more like 8-10 earlier. Some still fluxuate. But they are all lower pelvic ones. ‘Real’ or not? Internet says not…"
She responded right away (I love this woman) and thought I should try a warm shower and just resting....thinking it was probably labor but the pain (kinda like someone carving out innards with a spoon while stabbing me in the gut) and location (cervical) sounded odd. So I took a shower and felt a wee bit better......for a minute. At around 6am I dragged husband out of bed and said I can't do this by myself anymore, "I need you". This is all very boring. Me moaning and doing this low throat hum thing through each one, watching t.v. and talking about whether or not this was labor. Can you believe I still wasn't sure?
So at around 8:30 am I'm talking on the phone with my sister. I hang up, stand up from the couch and I feel "POP" in my abdomen and then a spreading warmth. I freaked the f*&^ out.
This is me: "Oh my god. Uterine rupture! Get Carter. Drive. Drive now." (small explanation here: I had read that a uterine rupture is accompanied by an almost audible "pop")
So I'm standing there trying to figure out what the hell just happened, Kevin takes towel he has had slung around his neck this whole time and whips it under me. I don't have any pain like a rupture would have so I'm just standing there as my water is breaking over a towel. Very odd feeling. It's all clear so I'm starting to relax slightly. Still kinda freaked though. I call Amy, my doula, and she says she will be over shortly and to try to stay relaxed.
Strangely enough, after my water breaks my contractions start improving. I thought it was supposed to work the other way....I am totally backwards.
Amy comes over and Kevin calls his Dad (who just happens to be working a job in Hattiesburg that day...weird) to come and sit with Carter. Good timing Baby!
The contractions are now more manageable and I move to the couch in the living room where we checked the baby's heart tones. I pretty much stayed in there the rest of the time. I tried different positions (wall, birth ball, couch, all fours, kevin support) but I just liked sitting on the loveseat and bracing my arms during each one. I dunno why.
They are now coming every 3-4 minutes and I'm kinda thinking I wanna go to the hospital now. So around noon we head up there. Ugh. Traveling during labor sucks. It's a good thing we only live 5 minutes away. :)
They check me at 12:30 and I am 1 cm dilated and 100 % effaced. I'm like "You've got to be kidding me!" How the hell have I labored 13 hours and only gotten to 1 cm. Oh crap.
They contractions are strong and at 1:45 pm they check me again and I am a whopping 2 cm. Oh My Freaking Lord! Get on with it! This is totally disheartening. The only thing that was keeping me going was the fact that I knew it would be harder for me to dilate in the early part because of cervical scarring and that once I got to 3-4 it would speed up. Everyone told me this but I was still a wee bit bummed considering I felt like I was working very very hard and should have been approaching transition, or something. Good grief.
They officially admitted me anyway because they thought I was having pretty good contractions from what the monitor reported. Uh duh. I could have told them that. Or moaned it in agony :).
I start trying different positions but the best position seemed to be seated on the side of the bed (which worked well since I was hooked up to the monitor constantly being a VBAC) and then a little bit later the bed turned into a chair kinda and that was my fave. I really needed to brace my arms during each contraction and the rails seemed to be my lifeline.
At 3:45 my contractions are hard double-peak ones every 2-3 minutes. The check me again at 4 pm and I am at 5 cm and I also got the green light to get off the monitors for a hot shower. Yeah me!!! I got about 20 minutes of free time in there but I think the shower and me being dilated to 5 cm speeded things up because I was all of a sudden not having a good time in the warm water. The doc (O'Neal) comes in and checks out the situation. I like this guy and I'm glad he will be there all night for the delivery.
I am flippin' out by this point. I hate to say it but I was doing the whole "I can't do this!" and "I wanna go home!" labor-rant. Apparently the nurses were impressed that I was handling the very strong double-peak contractions. However, I felt like I was losing my mind. Everyone said how calm I looked throughout. I even have pictures and yes, I do look calm but very, very serious.
At 5:45 pm I was feeling very "pushy" as Amy says. I mean my body was already pushing down and I couldn't stop it. This made me panicky because I knew I didn't want to push against a cervix that wasn't fully dilated. So I begged them to recheck me. Our nurse said that I was at 7 cm but I was so thin that she honestly wasn't sure and she needed another opinion. I was telling/yelling/growling that I was definitely more than 7 cm and that I needed to push very very soon. So at 6:15 another nurse finally came in and agreed that I was totally complete and that I could begin pushing. I knew it, damnit! Of course, I could start pushing after they set everything up......hmmm, lemme tell ya....nature doesn't really want to wait while you "prep the room". However, once I started pushing the pain really disappeared. It was great.

Well, I pushed through about 6-8 contractions and birthed my sweet baby boy at 6:59 pm, October 1st. I was exactly 41 weeks.
Owen Aimery McMahon was 8lbs 10oz and 21 inches long. His Apgar scores were 9 (1 min) and 10 (5 min). Kevin cried...alot, and got to cut the cord. I was drenched in sweat and was so damn happy to have him out. My goodness, what a relief it is to push your child out of your body!

I had no IV, no medication or epidural and the labor/delivery staff was very respectful of my birthplan. Dr O'Neal even took a minute right before the birth to reread it so that he didn't violate my wishes.
I had a couple of small tears but no episiotomy. They did not clamp the cord right away but let it pulse and they let Owen lay on my chest for a couple of minutes while they rubbed him down. It was wonderful. He didn't get any eye goo for an hour or so, so he was totally checking everything out. I asked dumb, demented questions like "Why are his eyes so puffy? Does he have Down Syndrome? What's wrong with my bottom?" (mirror's are not your friend at this point)

I honestly owe so much to my doula and husband who were my support through this experience. I couldn't have done it without them and I couldn't have asked for a better experience. Well...unless I was one of those lucky ones that didn't have much pain..... that would have been nice. ;)
I really can't describe the pain of childbirth and even now it has faded from my memory. I think your mind naturally forgets the trauma of it all to make sure you go an do it all over again.
I am just glad that I have had such a positive experience and that I achieved something that I have wanted to do for almost 3 years now. I feel triumphant and strong.