Birth Story - Audri Alisz

bethanyturon · February 2012

I wanted to take a moment to share the story of giving birth to my beautiful baby girl - Audri Alisz. She was born 2/13 (1 1/2 weeks after her original due date of 2/3).

I was definitely getting antsy for Audri to come, and feeling like maybe it was never going to happen. We had tried all the OWTs in the book, short of drinking castor oil - to no avail. DH and I began to recognize that Audri would come in her own time, and that she was already teaching us the lesson of patience.

On the morning of February 13th, at about 4:15 AM, my water broke. I wasn't sure that's what it was, because I was able to hold it in until almost when I got to the bathroom, and there was no pop, and not a large amount of liquid. So I stood there unsure what to do for a little, then went back to bed to see what would happen. Liquid began to pool up again, and I went through the same routine, and I noticed the puddle was kind of syrupy. So I called my birth center, and they said it was my water breaking, and I would have 48 hours to go into active labor. At this point, I had no contractions.

Over the next 30 minutes or so, I began to feel the beginnings of labor. I let my Mom and doula know, and then took a shower and went to lay down to sleep and get as much rest as possible. Watched a little TV, and timed my contractions - which were 11 minutes apart. I fell asleep until about 10 AM, at which point the contractions began to be too painful to sleep through. I got up and took another shower, and it seemed that the contractions were still 10 minutes apart (as I timed the next 2). Except, then the next 2 were 6 minutes apart. And the next 2 were 4 1/2 minutes apart. So thinks progressed pretty rapidly at that point. I woke DH and asked him to make me some breakfast so I would have energy to labor, and then everything was happening SO quickly! I never did get to finish eating my breakfast, because then I was trying to make calls to the birth center and doula and update my Mom...and contractions were now 2 3/4 - 3 minutes apart. Birth center required them to be 3 minutes apart for an hour, and the doula was going to take an hour to arrive. I must say, I was completely unprepared for how painful the contractions were. They were fine when I had time to rest and recuperate between them, but when I only had a minute rest, it just didn't bode well. I must confess that I screamed very loudly toward the end of this phase of labor. I also found that the toilet (?) was the most comfortable place to handle contractions!

Finally, the doula arrived. I had just asked DH to call the birth center and told him I really needed to head in. He got them on the phone, and our doula agreed that we needed to go, so we headed in. The 30 minute car ride was very uncomfortable to handle contractions in, but they fortunately slowed down a little bit at least. We arrived at about 3 PM.

I got in the birthing pool, and they checked my dilation level - I was 6 cm! That was reassuring, and I felt good to know that I had chosen to come at the right time. I began to labor in the water, and this drove me nuts! I said a few times I couldn't do this - but was met with the response of those around me that I WAS doing it. I felt like the pain went shooting out of my hips like lightning bolts in the water, and it magnified the intensity. Later on, my doula said I was the first person she saw swim in the birth pool. I tried to get comfortable, but could not. So I got out and labored on the toilet for a little while. Then I moved to the bed, and just lay there through contractions, trying to relax as much as possible. Every so often, DH would offer me a drink to keep my hydrated. It was very quiet as everyone watched and waited.

After awhile, I asked my midwife to check me again. She seemed a bit hesitant, but I wanted her to. She said I was at 8 cm, and again seemed surprised that I had come along so quickly. Before too long, I told everyone I was feeling the urge to push during my contractions. They said to go ahead and do that, and I went about in that way for awhile, until the midwife checked me one last time. She said I was fully dilated, but a lip of the cervix was coming down with the baby's head. So the pushed it out of the way, and then I began to push for real.

I pushed for about an hour. First in bed on my side, with my doula helping me hold my leg up. Then it seemed like things weren't moving that quickly, so a different position was suggested - the birth stool. At first I was resistant, but then I agreed. And that is where Audri was born - at 6:49 PM! They placed a mirror underneath, so I could see all the hair she had as she was coming out. And DH was able to catch her - being the 1st person outside of me that she ever touched! We laid in bed together with her for an hour or so, establishing breast feeding, and then he cut the cord. At first, Audri seemed like a stranger to me. I kept thinking how much she looked like DH. When he got to hold her, as I went to take a bath and get cleaned up, the two of them together just brought tears to my eyes.

At about 11 PM, we were released from the birth center, and sent home to establish our new family. It was a wonderful feeling to be done with pregnancy, and officially ready to start the next phase of our lives together.