Loving the Drug Free Birth

I have had 4 kids. All of them were natural but only one of them was DRUG FREE! Yep. No drugs. Not even Tylenol. My 4th kid came out quick and without any drugs! This is the story of her amazing birth:

My labor story actually starts a week before I had the baby. Around mid-night, exactly one week before our baby #4 arrived, I starting having contractions. I knew I wanted a drug free birth, so I waited for the contractions to become closer together. The hubby and I got out our handy iPhone app  and began timing those suckers! We were so excited it was time for our baby! The excitement began to dull around 5:00 in the morning and by 8 a.m. we had decided it might be a false alarm since the contractions were not getting closer or stronger. We are pretty stubborn, apparently, because we refused to give up! We dropped off our other three munchkins at Grandmas house and walked the neighborhood. I ate spicy food. I bounced on the birthing ball. We did other things (wink, wink). By the time evening rolled around I had convinced myself and the hubby that we had succeeded in our efforts to start "real" labor. My contractions were actually getting stronger and closer!!! Yay! We got in the car and happily drove to the hospital. On the way there though, those darn contractions quit on us. I arrived at the hospital as a 38 week pregnant girl with sleep deprivation and utter disappointment, but not at all in labor. The 30 minute ride home was miserable. The hubby and I fell asleep the second we got home. My huge pregnant body ached from all the crazy stuff I had done during the day and all I wanted to do was sleep for a REALLY long time. Sleeping wasn't in our cards, though. Remember those kids that we had dropped off at Grandmas house? Well, one of those kids got sick and needed to come home. Thankfully, God gave me a pretty spectacular husband and he took the bad end of the deal. He got up. He picked up our child. He stayed up all night AGAIN while our kid threw up. All so his very pregnant (and very disappointed) wife could sleep! Once I woke up though, I was on throw-up duty. The kid puked for the entire day. Finally, she started feeling better...... just in time for sick kiddo number two to come home! It was two and a half days of constant puking children. It wasn't fun. By the time both of them were better, I was exhausted. And still not in labor. Thank goodness, because by day three it was my turn to be sick. And sick I was. This little stomach big meant business. Do you know how hard it is to jump out of bed and run to the bathroom when you are 38 1/2 weeks pregnant? Well, there is no jumping. No running. I could barely roll over. So, you can imagine me trying to maneuver my body every time I had to throw up. It was not easy and I'll spare the details. When I finally recovered, I was "sick and tired" of being sick and tired. I was also getting more and more anxious for the baby to get here. I had graciously realized why my false alarm labor had been a false alarm (God knew that our sweet baby needed to ride out the stomach bug wave inside the protection of my body), and I was thankful for His timing. However, I knew there were more victims left for the virus to attack and suspiciously felt like this baby was on her way, with or without, all victims claimed and virus-free. The next day was spent on pins and needles. Nothing happened. Neither the hubby or my son got sick and I remained contraction free. (Actually something DID happen, I was almost hit head-on while driving to my 39 week prenatal appointment. The car swerved to keep from hitting me, lost control, and rolled over before crashing into a railing. I cried the whole day and will always wonder if that person was ok). The next day, however; everything happened. This is where I get to tell my ACTUAL birth story.
I was awake all night with contractions. They were strong but far apart. These contractions lasted ALL night. Every time I had one it would wake me up but since they were sooooo far apart (about 20 minutes) I knew these strong contractions HAD to be just the beginning of labor. However, I wasn't happy labor was starting. Why, you ask? Well, the hubby had been hit by the stomach bug and he was SICK! I couldn't have my hubby throwing up while I was in labor!!! I began to actually hope it was another false labor. As I got up to begin my day, the contractions lingered at the same rate. I dragged my three kids to Walmart and as I (barely) walked around shopping for a birthday gift, I KNEW baby time was close. It felt like a TON of pressure accumulating in my uterus after each contraction.  I was just hoping to make it out of Walmart without my water breaking! I called a few people on the drive home from Walmart letting them know that the father of the baby might not be at the birth, but instead at home throwing up! Thankfully, the day progressed right along with the contractions. Somehow, I took my kids to a birthday party and out to eat, all the while contracting. Evening came and my body was tired. I had been contracting for almost 20 hours. Night finally came and I was beginning to have to concentrate on the pain of the contractions. It was getting intense. Funny enough, I still wasn't positive if this was the real deal. I begged my hubby around 10:00 pm to get better because even though the throwing up had passed, he was still very sick. The next hour the contractions became so intense they were almost unbearable (or I so naively thought). Around 11:00 pm, I told my hubby to get dressed and ready because, sick or not, we were soon-to-be hospital bound. At midnight, I turned a 180 and decided I was, indeed, NOT in real labor. I forced my family to go back to bed and let me rest through the contractions. However, THE MOMENT I laid down in bed...........I heard it. POP!!! The sound of my water breaking. Strangely, very little water came out but there was some blood. It was like instant chaos in our house. My hubby was freaked (but still really sick), my kids were extremely excited, and I was in pain. We rushed around to get everything and everyone out the door. Within 20 minutes we had the kids dropped off and we were on our way to meet our new baby!!!! We had a 30 minute drive to the hospital and each contraction along the way brought on a whole new wave of pain. By the time we reached the hospital at 1:00 am I could no longer walk and just barely talk. I was wheeled into triage to make certain that I was in labor before I was admitted. Let me tell you, I hadn't known pain yet until I was checked. I was at 4 centimeters and I was certainly in labor.  By 2 am we had finally made it into a laboring room. That hour had been pretty intense. The pain was escalating and my sweet little moans were turning into grunts. I had been training myself with the Bradley Method, but complete muscle relaxation was IMPOSSIBLE for me. There was no time between contractions and my body movements almost seemed out of my control. Each contraction doubled me in half and it seemed like grunting was an involuntary reaction to the pain. Once in our room, I was checked again and told I was around 6 centimeters. However, my body was telling me to push. Pushing was just happening inside my body without my consent. By now, my grunts were full blown screams. As in, I had to be freaking out the other patients and staff. One nurse peeked her head into my room and told my nurse to check me again. We found out I had gone from 6 to 10 centimeters in no time. 

Just contracting away!

They warned me that my doctor had been woken up (remember it was 2:30 am) and was on her way, but it wasn't certain if she would make it on time. Another nurse was ushered in to give me an I.V. "Hold still. Just breathe. Don't move at all," these Natzi nurses told me.  Ummmm.....I was literally pushing a baby out of me and their demands were ridiculous!!! I screamed at them that, "I AM breathing! And holding still isn't gonna happen!" My doctor came in around this time and I gained my composure long enough to apologize for waking her up in the middle of the night. Take that Natzi nurses, I LIKE her!!! (For all the nurses out there, I love y'all and appreciate everything y'all do. I just reeeeaaallllly didn't at that moment). So there I was finally ready to push my sweet baby out. I HATED being on my back, it was fiercely painful. My body was working on its own and, without consulting my mind, it decided to push this baby out in a squatting position. I squatted on my hospital bed and PUSHED!!!!!! Normally I would be worried how I looked, what the nurses thought, or if my doctor thought I was strange. Nope. My brain was thinking one thing......Get. Baby. Out. I did the only thing that felt right and that was to squat on my bed and push like I had never pushed before. I've pushed three other babies out (with epidurals) and they were hard work.  This time was different. This time it was a primal, out of body, and instinctual kind of work. My body knew what to do because it had been designed to do it and it took over doing it. Also, during the pushing I could feel my baby push herself down to help things along!! This pushing part was far less painful than I had imagined. It was much better than the contractions. Don't get me wrong.....this all hurt. However, I knew I was at the VERY END of this tunnel and my work was almost done. I pushed a few more times until I heard my doctor say, "Sorry, girl. I have to push down your anterior lip. This is gonna hurt." You see, there was a very small amount of cervix left that had not fully dilated. It was just a small part of the cervix still covering the head and my doctor needed to put her hand inside me and lift the cervix away so the baby could come out. She wasn't lying.......I was told that was when I screamed the loudest. However, it was also when I got to see my baby. I experienced "the ring of fire" for almost 5 seconds and the next moment my baby was out. At 3:05 am on November 18, 2012, I became a mommy again. Without ANY drugs. 

She arrived! 7 lbs 5 oz

Delaney Love