My little birth story

After a short 5 hours of sleep Amanda couldn’t sleep anymore and rolled out of bed at 4am. I didn’t realize she wasn’t there until 6:15, and I stumbled downstairs to check on her. She was on the computer, and I asked her if she couldn’t sleep…she said no, she was feeling “frequent cramping”.

“You mean ‘contractions’?”

“Oh, yeah, I guess that’s what it is. Go back to bed, you might need sleep to make it through today…”

Yeah right…so we were in labor. It didn’t take an hour before the contractions were a lot closer together. Heather and kids were on their way down to help take care of Corban, so we decided to stay at the house until they arrived. By the time they arrived we had everything ready to go. I had started giving pelvic counter pressure to Amanda around 7:30am…they arrived at 9:45. In between contractions Corban woke up, so I was feeding him and stopping to press on Amanda. Change Corban’s diaper, press Amanda. Feed, press, pack, press, get up to do something, don’t get up, press, press, press. You can see that the labor was progressing and I was only good for one thing…pressure. When Heather and kids arrived we started on our way to the van. Corban and Ellie were playing on the lawn and Amanda got nauseous during a contraction and vomited multiple times in front of both of them. They didn’t like that at all! Corban looked concerned for his mommy, but not enough to get any closer as he seemed disgusted by the vomit…and Ellie just looked shocked.
We got on our way around 9:45am and by the time we arrived at the hospital Amanda was dilated to a 7+. It was hard for the midwife to tell because the sack was bulging. Trisha, our doula, showed up around 10:30, and by then my arms needed a break. It was around 10:45 that her water broke, and by 11:00 she was fully dilated and the pushing began. Amanda was such a trooper. Totally made it without any drugs and was pushing so well. It was very painful and she was in all of the different positions that we could conjure up. This meant that I was in just as many positions trying to ease the pain, provide good grip, and assist by pressing her hips. Amanda only hit me once, gave me a wedgey a couple of times when pulling on my pants, and tried to pull off my shirt a couple of times…I survived. Amanda only once or twice whined and said that it was too hard and that she just wanted it to be over. She may have said the word “epidural” but I can’t be sure. What I am sure of is that it didn’t take much to get her mind back on track.
At 1:00 they told us that we would probably have to move down to labor and delivery. We were very bummed. The top of the head was swollen and they thought that with every push we might be aggrivating the swelling rather than progressing downward. While they called the doctors down there and brought in an IV to rehydrate my woman, we were still experiencing very close contractions and lots of pushing. At 1:15 they came back in and saw that we had made progress since they were gone. They still gave her the IV and then things progressed really well. Amanda didn’t want the mirror to see the progress, but I did. So she closed her eyes as she pushed with all her might. It was amazing seeing Malia emerge. I wanted to catch her, but when I made a move down there Amanda called for me and needed me to help her. Better to be at the side of your happy woman than at the feet of your unhappy woman. I jumped to her side and we made it through the last bit together. Amanda did reach down between contractions when Malia was crowning and felt her head. And then Malia was out on the next push. 2:00pm PST, she was 19 inches long and weighed 7 lbs 9 ounces. The perfect little angel! Her head looked funny, like two heads. She wasn’t in the best position for a vaginal birth. The midwife basically told us that her head was in the worst possible position. It’s the reason for the long pushing and for the delay in which they almost transferred us down to L&D. The midwife also told us that she had just had a patient with the same positioning who had decided to transfer early because of it and get the epidural. My wife is amazing. I love her. What a tough girl. Now, at 10:00pm Malia's head is almost normal shaped and we are looking forward to a good night’s rest and a brand new life with 2 kids.