Iva Matilda Romney

Guest post by Mommy:

The Labor Story because everyone loves the gory details right?

Monday morning (11/11) I decided to keep a doctor's appt that wasn't really necessary because I had seen him four days earlier.  Pete and I had long discussed how AWESOME it would be to have our babe born on 11/12/13.  It wasn't really looking that was going to happen.  My body didn't seem interested in going into labor so I was scheduled for an induction on Wednesday, 11/13.

Dr. Clark checked me and I was dilated to 3 cm and was very soft and stretchy.  (I am so sorry.  That seems like a strong over share...you should probably not read any further if that's true for you.)  He "swept my membranes" in a valiant effort, but we both figured he would see me Wednesday morning as scheduled.

I went about my day just doing the usual things.  The occasional contraction, but that was really par for the course for me.  Our little girl's head was nice and high so she really wasn't engaging.  I ended up over at my mom's house as she had the twins over and always likes the company.  My contractions started coming more regularly once I actually paid attention to them.  Starting at about 3:30 pm, I was getting them every 3 minutes and they were lasting 40 seconds or so.  They didn't hurt, but some were pretty uncomfortable.  My sister, Angie, had a meeting over at the hospital and told me that she was going to make me come in because she was pretty sure they would keep me.  I had my mom go get Pete because I didn't really feel like driving and at about 6:45 pm we headed to the hospital.  The girls were so excited.  When I kissed Siena good bye and told her that I was going to have daddy take me to the hospital to see if we could have our baby, she grinned huge and asked "for real life?" I was pretty nervous that they were going to send me home though.  I just had that feeling that she was still high and I wasn't really changing.

Angie met Pete and I in the labor triage area and I got all strapped up for my 1 hour observation.  The screen showed that I was having very regular contractions and so I got my hopes up a little bit.  At the end of the hour though, I hadn't really changed.  I texted Dr. Clark and asked him to keep me anyway.  (I might have begged.)  I was in luck.  He was on call anyway and decided to keep me as long as I was willing to go on pitocin to push that little girl down.  DONE.  It looked like I was going to have my 11/12/13 baby after all.  It was already 8 pm and it took them until 9 pm to actually start my pitocin.    I was thrilled to find out that they weren't going to break my water until I was farther along.  I had a fabulous nurse named Christine.  I said I wanted to go unmedicated and she said that she would do absolutely everything to help me with that and she would not ask me again if I wanted pain control via epidural or medication unless I specifically asked for it.  Side note, you should know that my motivation for going unmedicated is always about not wanting to pay for it.  So funny but it's true.  Plus I was cringing at the thought of sitting still long enough to have them put a needle in my back!

Angie and my mom showed up to "hang out" with us for part of the labor.  Little did they know how scarring that was going to be!! I found that I enjoyed sitting on a labor ball and bouncing thru my contractions.  Because damn.  They got nice and intense once that pitocin kicked in.  They down right sucked.  I get loud during this part.  I groan and growl.  In fact, I made my mom cry.  Each contraction was a bit hard for her to watch.  Pete sat at the end of the bed with me and held my hands.  My amazing nurse rubbed my back.  I felt so attended to.  The best part was that my contraction would end and I would snap back into the real world and laugh and tease and apologize for losing my mind.  I kept putting off getting into the tub because I was pretty sure it would get worse and I didn't want to use that method too soon.  It came time to see if we should break my water at about 10 pm...I had changed to almost 6 cm dilated and she had dropped down enough.  Just checking me took the labor up another notch.  The contractions became FIERCE.  I was REALLY loud now.  So loud that the other nurses started to come in and set up the delivery trays.  I was laughing and they said "Oh honey, we know those sounds.  Your baby is close."  In fact, Dr. Clark walked in and said "well that doesn't sound like 6 cm at all."  He checked me and I was almost at an 8 but she was still fairly high.  He broke me water and she barely dropped. This was at 10:30 pm.  Talk about discouraging.  This is where I TRULY LOST MY MIND during contractions.  Christine did her best to get Pete at my knees pushing counter pressure while I focused on his face.  She and Tonya the labor tech stood by my sides and I'm pretty sure my mom and Angie were wishing they could die.  It seemed like I was so close so they felt like they couldn't leave!  In fact, we realized pretty quickly that unless I got an epidural this baby was coming on 11/11.   They had me flip over on to all fours which I preferred but I started crying for the epidural because I could tell my progression was slowing because she hadn't dropped.  Christine and Dr. Clark were great.  He checked me during a contraction (and I told him not very politely to STOP IT) and asked me try and push her down past my cervix.  He was excited and said "Oh yeah, you can do it.  We're having this baby now. Flip over let's deliver her!"  I could barely flip myself over.  I was shaking and afraid of each contraction.  But oh.  I had forgotten how good it feels to push.  Kind of.  The pain in your uterus goes away.  It just concentrates itself in a very different place!  This part gets very hazy for me.  It was hard for me to focus.  Best I can tell from everyone else's descriptions, I essentially pushed for maybe 10 min.  Three contractions.  I was even able to pause and let her stretch me out (again GROSS OVER SHARE) but I didn't do that really calmly.  And then at 23:23 my baby girl came into this world.  I was SO HAPPY THAT IT WAS OVER.  I mean it.  I knew I would love my baby, but I was so happy that labor was over.  Not quite two and a half hours from when pitocin was hung, I brought a third princess to the family.

My doctor gives credit to my continued teaching of classes as the reason I could do what I had done.  I was strong.  I had the ab muscles and the leg muscles and apparently the arm muscles (since they were also sore) to push that baby out when she didn't want to.  My mom said that she was holding on to the umbilical cord as she came out.  Apparently she REALLY didn't want to leave!

Iva Matilda Romney (took us until the next morning to pick that) was 6 lbs 12 oz and 19.25 inches long.  Oh and we love her.  The girls are smitten. But more on that later!