Birth Date: August 24th
On the evening of August 23rd, we were celebrating Matthew's 14th birthday and I was glad I had not gone into labor yet! Well, about 7-8pm I started feeling...off...just weird. I wasn't contracting yet, but I knew by the way I was feeling I knew it would be any day now. We finished up presents, cake, and ice cream and sent the kids to get ready for bed. Alaia and I went for a walk around the neighborhood to see if things were going to pick up and I felt like I needed to move about. While we were walking I had a few contractions, but I'd been having contractions in the evening all week so didn't think much of it. We went back to the house and I still felt really off. Around 9pm contractions started coming regularly and we decided to time them. After about an hour we noticed they were coming regularly every 9-10 minutes. I decided to do laps around the family room. I just couldn't sit still! The contractions started getting longer and stronger, and eventually were about every 6-7 minutes apart. Around 11, Matt called the midwife to let her know what was going on. I was on the fence about calling her cause I wasn't convinced I was truly in labor yet. Everyone else thought I was, but I took a little more convincing! lol So, I spoke to Nanci, the midwife, and she said she would be leaving soon and be there in about an hour. Contractions kept coming, I would go between walking laps and squatting and being on my hands and knees. I tried laying down, but again, I just couldn't seem to sit still for very long so resting just wasn't gonna happen! Nanci arrived around 1am. We decided to have her check me and that is where things got interesting! She was having a hard time finding the opening of my cervix. She did eventually find it off to the side! She "walked" it back to the center (OUCH!) and I discovered I was only at 4cm. After 3 previous quick births, this was a new experience for me. Not too long after she arrived Matt ran a bath for me and I got in the tub. It felt so nice and relaxing! I believe around this point Nanci called her assistant to head over. I was still not convinced, btw. I was told there was joking that I would finally believe I was in labor when she was crowing (*ahem* Alaia!) I didn't stay in the tub for long because it seemed to slow my contractions down. I labored a lot hanging in Matt's arms, swaying my hips. Did some squatting and labored on the toilet with a stool. I didn't care for the latter, but I know it helped. I tried getting in the tub again, but it slowed my contractions down, again, so I didn't stay in too long. At some point I asked to be checked again and was upset to find out I was only at a 5! My cervix had moved again, but only a little, and she just "walked" it back to the center. After that I labored a lot on the toilet. After awhile I started feeling a LOT of pressure and almost kinda pushy so we thought I was close. I moved to the bed and we waited for a contraction to hit. And waited. And waited. They slowed way down again once I was on the bed. She checked me and I was still at a 5! We discussed it and she stretched me open to an 8, pretty quickly, too! After that she spent some time stretching me open to a 10 between contractions. At this point I still wasn't feeling the urge to push and contractions were still slowed down, so I asked her to break my water. She checked me again sometime after that and discovered I had a cervical lip. Let me tell ya, that was not fun at all! The assistant had to hold the lip up while I pushed to get her past the cervical lip. After that things started picking up more and I finally got the urge to push! At one point I had to stop because my cervix was coming down with her and they had to get it back in place. After probably about an hour total of pushing, Savannah Rose Florence Wallace was born at home at 8:50am weighing 7lbs 8oz and 22" long.
Even though her birth had it's interesting moments, I loved having her at home! It was a very relaxed environment. I was able to move around as I wanted, interact as much or as little as I wanted, and just do what my body needed to do. I had wonderful support with my midwife, hubby, and Alaia! Even with Matt running on very little sleep in a 2 day period he was awesome and very supportive! Not that I ever spoke in some demon voice, like a certain someone (Alaia) claims I did at one point *innocent smile*
