Congratulations Libby, Erin, Heidi, and Alicia! I just saw that you are all expecting! I am so happy for you all! I decided to write down my birth experience before I forgot what it was like. It was a wonderful day and an amazing experience. I look forward to hearing about all four of yours as the day gets closer for each of you!
Throughout the day of November 30th, I began talking to my little boy and telling him it was okay for him to come tomorrow. I don't know why, but even though I wasn't due until the 12th, I just knew in my mind that Reef was going to arrive on December 1st. Around 4:00 pm Samil from the birth center called to confirm my prenatal check-up for December 1st at 10:00 am. I asked her which midwife was on-call. It was Colleen, the one I knew I wanted at my birth from the first day I met her. I then proceeded to ask her how long she was on-call for and she said until December 6th, so I told her..."I have until Sunday then." All throughout the day I noticed my lower back aching and I kept feeling nauseous. I went for quite a few walks with Chloe and kept doing hip rotations on my exercises ball. I was so uncomfortable by this point and I could feel Reef was very low and getting ready.
It was the around 2:00 am December 1, 2009, that during one of my many trips to the ladies room I noticed an extra little something greet me (the show). It was the one thing I always checked for before departing back to bed. I took a deep breathe and said to Reef "Okay baby boy let's do this." From that point the rhythmic cramps began. I was sleeping on the futon in the babies room that night because it was just easier for me to get in and out of bed and I didn't want to keep disturbing Keith. At about 2:30 am I walked into our bed room and told Keith "I think it's happening now." He didn't really believe me at first, but got up anyway and started getting everything ready. At 4:00 am the contractions were about 3 to 5 minutes apart, so Keith decided to call the birth center. Our midwife Colleen called us back to see how I was doing and then told us to start making our way to the birth center. Before getting off the phone Keith asked her if she wanted us to bring her a coffee...she must not get that question very often because there was a bit of silence on the other end of the line. In the end she said "Sure!" I remember trying to constantly talk to Chloe (our dog) before leaving the house by tell her "Everything is okay, we'll be back in a little bit." She seemed a bit worried and concerned with the way I was acting.
We headed off to the birth center by about 5:00 am. We turned on my meditation music in the car and I remember telling Keith in between contractions "I just hope I don't cry." I don't know why I didn't want to cry. I guess looking back, to me that would show a breaking point and I really wanted to successfully give birth to my child without any medication. Keith was driving very cautiously, which was sweet, but by the time we got onto the freeway I told him in a bit of an aggressive tone "You don't have to drive so slowly." I think that did the trick because then he stepped on it and we were there in no time...even with our stop at the gas station to buy coffee for Keith and Colleen.
Once we got there, we took all of our things to the room that we knew we wanted to use during the birth. It was decorated in aqua blues and white with the birthing tub in the bathroom. I got on the bed and Colleen check how far I had progressed. I was dilated to 3 cm and completely thinned out and the baby was doing great. We filled up the birthing tub, turned on my meditation music, lit a candle in the tub, and the adventure began.
The entire birth was a bit of an out of body experience. I had no sense of time and I took it one contraction at a time. The one piece of advice I heard from everyone woman I spoke to about natural labor. I spent about 90 percent of my time in the tub as it really helped me to relax me. Keith was amazing the entire time. I couldn't have done it without him. He said very little and just helped me breathe through every contraction. Keith was so excited that I think he sent a text to everyone we know telling them that I had gone into labor. Unfortunately hours later while I was still laboring everyone kept texting back to see if I had had the baby yet. I have never thought of a cell phone to be more annoying in my life. While in the tub and right before a strong contraction I said to Keith "Turn off all the phones!!!!"
After what seemed to be for ever, Colleen came back in to check my progress. To my surprise I hadn't progressed at all due to some scar tissue. Once she massaged that out I went to 5 cm. The contractions were getting even more intense, closer together, and my chanting moans began to get deeper. I kept thinking this must be it, this baby should pop out any minute now...right? Colleen had me get out of the tub as she was afraid I was getting a bit over heated, so I sat in the rocking chair for while and drank some raspberry leaf tea with honey in it just to get some calories in me. I stayed hydrated by Keith continuously giving me coconut water to drink and I nibbled on a few belly bars and some fruit as I didn't feel like eating much.
After a while I went back into the tub and tried a few more different positions like squatting. I remember noticing at one point that my contractions got further apart and my body had more time to rest in between. I mentioned this to Colleen and she said that I had probably completely dilated to 10 cm. I was so relieved, because so many people said that pushing was their favorite part, so I thought it must be close.
Since my water never broke, Colleen asked if I wanted her to break my water. I didn't really didn't mind either way, so she broke my water and out came what Keith said looked like jelly fish...hope that wasn't too much information for you. I thought okay if she does this then things should start speeding up. Well, not quite. After a while, I got out of the tub and onto a birthing stool. I wasn't there for very long because it was very uncomfortable, so I went back into the tub. The contractions out of the tub seemed so much stronger. Unfortunately since things were not progressing very much Colleen had me get back out of the tub and onto the bed. She checked the baby and he was doing great, but he just didn't know which way to position his head to get through the birthing canal. She had me lay on my side and push while on my side with one leg in the air. This was the most uncomfortable, and exhausting part of the labor. This is the only part where I let out a little whimper after one of my contractions because I was just so exhausted. I then repositioned on my back with my knees pulled to my chest. A couple of times the assistant midwife had to push on my stomach to help me push the little guy out. It was 19 hours later at 8:56 pm, with two and a half hours of that pushing, our big headed Reef finally emerged and was greeted by his dad who pulled him out. Colleen and Melissa both said "Cherrise look!" As I looked down the only thing I thought of was "I can't believe he was inside of me!" I was so relieved it was over with and so proud of myself for accomplishing a natural birth. He wasn't born in the water, which is what I was hoping for, but at least I was able to labor about 90 percent in the water.
They placed Reef on my chest and a few minutes later I delivered the placenta. With it still attached to Reef, they covered it, set it next to me and left the three of us for a while to bond as a family. The poor little guy's head was pretty bruised from getting stuck. After about an hour of cuddling and feeding, Colleen and Melissa came back in to let Keith cut the cord. They bundled Reef up and Keith took him in to get weighed...7 pounds and 13 ounces! Definitely bigger than I was expecting!
By the time everything was all done it was about 1:30 in the morning. Colleen and Melissa helped us out to our car as we placed Reef in his car seat for the first time. We said our goodbyes and drove off home as a family! It was a long, hard, exhausting, yet beautiful day! We were so happy that everything went well and we were able to experience this wonderful event at the birth center. We are so blessed to have little Reefy in our lives!
Reef Anthony Pawlak
Born December 1, 2009 at 8:56pm
7 lbs 13 oz
