Charlie's Birth Story

DISCLAIMER: Please do not read this unless you are prepared to learn some intimate details of my life. I am writing this for my own benefit and publishing it for the purpose of sharing my experience of natural child birth, and to possibly inspire someone else to try it for themselves. Do not read this if you feel uncomfortable with the words nipple stimulation, cervix, gush, dilation, placenta, etc. Please do not read this if learning the details of my birth would make it difficult for you to be around me in the future. That being said, I hope you enjoy reading about Charlie's birth.

Where to begin? Do I start with the moment that I looked at the pregnancy test and saw that it was finally positive? How we shared the news with my family over our Labor Day weekend family reunion? How I started bleeding at six weeks and thought I would lose him, but amazingly getting to see his heartbeat during an emergency ultrasound. How I told my boss that I was pregnant again and wouldn't be returning to work the next school year? How, in January, I fell flat on my stomach and had to be monitored for four hours in labor and delivery, ending up with a healthy prognosis? How worried I was that I would go overdue again, and would have to be induced and deliver an enormous baby? How much I agonized about the actual delivery in the hospital and decided to hire a doula?


It may seem strange to say that I think about Charlie's birth every day. Not about any of the things I mentioned in the previous paragraph. In fact, I'd forgotten about a couple of those events until I sat down to write this post. But I think about the day of his birth quite often, and I can honestly say it was probably the most amazing experience of my life. I think the reason I find myself thinking about it so much, is that it is very rare in life that we get exactly what we want, and that was a day when Heavenly Father blessed me with what I had been praying for since before I even found out I was pregnant.

On the night of Sunday, May 7th, my doula, Stacey, came over to meet with me the last time before the delivery. My due date was that Wednesday and she was sure that I would go into labor before then. I was not convinced. When I was pregnant with John, I was 10 days overdue and ended up getting induced due to his size. I didn't have much confidence that I could go into labor on my own. I had planned to go to work the next day (even though the Friday before was to be my last) because there had been a crisis over the weekend and I wanted to help, so I went to bed early thinking about what I could do to help the kids who were hurting the next day. During the night I woke up to contractions that were pretty painful, but after about an hour I fell asleep. When I woke up in the morning I just felt different. I even had Mike put my suitcase in my car in case something happened, but I really didn't want to get my hopes up. We both drove to work (Mike dropped John off at my sister-in-law's), and in the car I kept wondering if "today was the day."

At work, things were hard. Not only physically -- I was having difficulty walking -- but emotionally, as there were so many upset kids. It was so sad to have to watch them go through that. Even though it hurt, I was walking around the school trying to track down certain kids that I was worried about. While I was walking around I had a feeling that might be losing some bladder control. It sure didn't feel like how people described their water breaking. I would feel a slight trickle, run to the bathroom, and nothing. I was very confused. I didn't feel any contractions. Finally, around 11:00 am, I was standing and talking to my secretary, and a felt a very noticeable gush. I still wasn't really convinced. I called my doula and she said that she was positve the my waters had broken and that I should probably call the midwife office. When I called there they told me that they wanted me to go to labor and delivery even though I wasn't having contractions.

I got ahold of my mom and Mike to let them know what was going on. I decided to delay going to the hospital at least until 3:00 pm to see if I could get some contractions going. Mike was worried about me waiting, but I wasn't eager to get to the hospital so they could hook up my IV and possibly give me pitocin. Two of my co-workers decided to escort me home (sweet ladies) in case something happened during the 30 minute drive, and Mike was already home when we pulled into the driveway. At home, I changed my clothes and put on my walking shoes. I decided I was going to try to walk to start contractions. But after 45 minutes of rigorous walking, I had only had a couple of very weak ones. It was almost 2:00 pm and I was getting nervous. Was I not going to go into labor on my own? I called Stacey to get some ideas, and she suggested nipple stimulation. I pulled out my electric breast pump and used it for about 10 minutes. Immediately I developed pretty strong contractions. They weren't very regular and I thought about using it one more time before we left for the hospital, but changed my mind as 3:00 approached and I started to feel pretty uncomfortable. Off to the hospital we went.

It took quite a while to be admitted. I remember the admit woman calling a nurse to come get me, saying that I was "uncomfortable". As long as I wasn't contracting I felt totally fine. It was strange to go through 60 seconds of intense pressure and then feel totally fine for about five minutes. I was brought to my room, given a gown and instructed to change. Because I was Strep B positive, I would have to be given an IV as soon as possible. I had a lot of anxiety about this because of my experience when having John. My veins are small, and I knew they would have difficulty getting a line started. My goal was that it would only take one try (instead of nine times, like my first delivery). They called the IV technician and she was able to get the IV in after one try, although there was a little scare when the nurse started the antibiotic and nothing would go through the line. She tried flushing it, and that did the trick, thank goodness.

After the IV, around 5:00 pm, the midwife (my favorite one, Margaret) arrived. She wanted to check my cervix to see how far dilated I was. I was amazed when she told me that I was already at six centimeters, with baby at minus two station. I really wasn't in that much pain. The contractions were very intense, but once they were over I was able to talk to everyone. I found that if I focused on a point on the wall or the ceiling and hummed, I was able to focus through the contraction, and it wasn't that bad. Even though I found out that I was truly in labor, I still wasn't totally convinced. When Stacey asked me if I wanted to get into the bathtub I said I was concerned it would stop my labor. She and the nurse laughed at me, saying that nothing was going to stop things at this point. They filled up the tub and I got in.

The water was amazing. Even though it wasn't really warm it allowed my body to float somewhat and totally relax. The bathroom was dark and my doula, Stacey, stayed right next to me coaching me through each contraction. I could hear my mom and Mike chatting on the sofa. It sounded like they were having a great time. For me, things were getting more intense. I was able to feel my cervix stretching with each contraction and a lot more pressure. It was getting harder to handle the pain. I started using some visualization techniques that I had read about -- visualizing a tight budded rose opening to full bloom. It seemed to help, and I knew that I was getting close. After being in the tub for about an hour, Stacey thought I could be fully dilated, as I was feeling so much pressure. My midwife asked if I wanted to get out of the tub to get checked again to see how much progress I had made. Stacey warned that when I stood up that I was probably going to have my most intense contraction so far and that I mentally needed to prepare for it. She was right. No sooner had I stood up than I almost felt like my knees were going to buckle underneath of me. I had to lean against the wall for support. Somehow I made it to the bed to be checked. Margaret told me I was only eight cenitmeters, and asked if I wanted to get back into the tub. In my heart I knew that I would be giving birth before I would even be able to make it to the tub. During the next contraction I could feel the baby descending and felt an uncontrollable urge to push. My body just started pushing -- there was no stopping it. When it was over Margaret checked me again and said I was fully dilated and at a plus two station. I gripped onto the side-rail for dear life. The pain was nearly unbearable. I had never experienced anything like it before. With the next contraction I pushed again, and could feel his head crowning. I didn't think I was going to make it through to the end, the burning was so intense. Slowly she had me push his head out and then his shoulders, and then very quickly, with a loud yell from me, Charlie was born and placed on my chest. It was 7:30 pm, only four hours since checking into the hospital. It was amazing! I was filled with so many emotions: joy, happiness, pride, gratitude. It just was a totally amazing feeling.

So there he was on my chest. The first thing I noticed was that he was so much smaller than John was -- just a little guy. The other thing I noticed was that he had a set of lungs. He definitely came into the world screaming. The nurses were wonderful and had him stay with me for nearly an hour before they took him away. He wasn't super interested in nursing, but I could tell that he liked being near me. When they finally took him I found out that he weighed 7 pounds, 15 ounces, a pound and a half less than John did at birth. He got a 10 on his apgars, and the nurse told me it was only one of three 10s that she had given out during her career. I was already a proud parent.

I was able to get up right away to clean up and use the bathroom. I really felt so good. I didn't feel any pain, and I felt one hundred pounds lighter. I ate right away and just felt so happy. It was wonderful to have my mom and Mike there, to have them be as excited as I was. I was able to talk to my sister and my father briefly on the phone and share the news with them.

After two days in the hospital we were able to go home to be a family of four. John really missed us, as we had never been apart that long, and wasn't sure just how long Charlie was going to be around. We had a lot of visitors, and I just loved sharing my birth experience with everyone I talked to. People are probably sick of hearing about it, but I am so glad that I have finally written it down so I can go back and read it again and again. Being alert and aware during all of labor and delivery was such a wonderful gift. I am so grateful that I got to experience it without any drugs or interventions. It was everything that I had hoped for, and more.

PS: I wrote John's birth story a couple of months after I had him, through a website that I often looked at before he was born. Click here if you would like to read that one.