Today my little girl is three years old! We had a pirate party for her yesterday, and it was so much fun! I have been thinking back about what we were doing last year on this day. We were sitting in the hospital with our birthday girl, who was hooked up to an IV, not allowed to eat or drink anything (including “milkies”), and preparing her body for a colonoscopy the next day. Wow. That sucked! We made the best of it though. The hospital staff brought her some birthday gifts, as did some family and friends, and we watched movies and played with new toys all day. I am so thankful to not be in the hospital with her this birthday! I was thinking about it the other day, we spent her birth in the hospital, but planned on having her at home, had her first birthday at home as planned, had her second birthday in the hospital, but planned on having it at home too, and now we’ve evened it up! We had her third birthday at home, as planned! So thankful for a healthy at home birthday girl this year!
Three years ago today I was totally in it! Labor, that is. I’ve been reminiscing about that experience, along with last year’s hospital experience, and I thought I’d share Rowan’s birth story here today.
We had waited as long as we could. Monday morning I woke up with mild contractions that continued about every 30 minutes, but then stopped after seven hours. We had been using essential oils and herbal tinctures all day to try and keep things going. The next morning, I woke up with more contractions. This time they were a bit more intense in feeling and were every 10 to 15 minutes. We continued oils and herbs, but after seven hours everything stopped again. I was so upset. At this point I was 42 weeks, 2 days pregnant. My husband and I had to make a very hard decision that night, which was to accept that our homebirth plan was no longer an option and that the next morning we would make the transfer to the hospital to get some help with progressing my labor. We packed our bags that night to get up early the next morning to head for the hospital.
We met our midwife and my mom there, checked in, and got moved into a labor and delivery room. Luckily there were two certified nurse midwives on staff that day, and they helped me try a few different things to get my body into labor before introducing Pitocin. However, we ended up having to use Pitocin to be induced because I was still progressing very slowly. I was hooked up to an IV with antibiotics (because I had tested GBS+ earlier in pregnancy) and then Pitocin. I had two big bands around my belly, measuring contractions and baby’s heart rate.
I labored for several hours and managed my contractions really well. I was at 4 cm dilated for a long time, then my waters broke and things picked up a tiny bit. The Pitocin was really bringing on the contractions, stronger and closer together as the hours tick by. Finally once I was receiving about 14 ml of Pitocin and at about 4 o’clock in the morning, they checked me and I was only 5 cm dilated! The contractions were so intense and close together, I ended up needing an epidural. Once that kicked in, I was finally able to get some relief and rest. But soon after, my right side was not numbed anymore and I was feeling really intense contractions again. They came in and “topped off” the epidural. I took a little snooze and prepared for Rowan’s arrival.
They had to break a forebag of water for things to pick back up again, but once I heard that I was at 9 1/2 cm, I knew I was going to meet my baby soon! My epidural started wearing off right as I was ready to push. Perfect timing, that way I could feel what I was doing. Once I was fully dilated, they asked if I wanted to do some “practice pushes.” I had the urge to push, so I did. They quickly started gathering supplies to get ready for the delivery. Our homebirth midwife took over holding my left leg so my husband could catch Rowan. My mom took over holding my right leg. In less than an hour of pushing, I gave birth to Miss Rowan! A mirror was set up so that I could witness her arrival into her daddy’s hands. Once my husband caught her, he placed her on my chest where we both just marveled in amazement at her. She was finally here! She was the most beautiful and perfect thing we had ever set our eyes on. Such a surreal and blissful moment.
Rowan had taken in some meconium during delivery, so my husband cut her cord and supervised as they took her across the room to suction that out. As that was happening, I watched my placenta being birthed. (So freaking cool!) Rowan was soon back in my arms with my husband by our side. I nursed her for the first time, threw on a big sleep shirt, and in came all the visitors. We had lots of family and friends in the waiting room excited to meet little Rowan McKay!
We transferred into another room and ended up staying for two more nights because Rowan was a little jaundiced and they wanted to monitor her. We were beyond ready to be home at this point! When they finally released us, we gathered up all our gear and headed home to start our journey as a new family of three!
Since Rowan’s birth, I have learned so much more about pregnancy, labor, birth, postpartum, fertility, menstrual cycles, and my own body. There are so many things I have learned about having a say in your pregnancy, labor, birth and postpartum experiences. (Really excited to share more on all of this later!) I am thankful for the experience I had with Rowan’s birth and have learned lots from it. There are things I wish I would’ve known beforehand, but know that it played out exactly as it was meant to be.
Our girl came into this world her own way with a strong spirit and a beautiful soul, teaching us along the way to accept the unexpected and know that love is the most important and precious gift.
Camp Finley 