Sunday, November 6, 2011

39 Weeks and 3 Days: Bria's Birth

After the longest pregnancy in my history of pregnancies, Bria was finally ready to appear.  I know for some people it would be a relief to deliver as early as 39 weeks instead of 40 or even 42 weeks.  I have been spoiled to only be pregnant for 38 weeks in the past.  In my own defense, I am small, so delivering small babies has been in my favor.

This pregnancy has been different all around for me.  It was the first time I guessed the gender until I met my baby.  I was measuring giant by 30 weeks instead of small.  I grew out of all my maternity clothing and spent about a week and a half borrowing my husband's clothing.  All I can say is I was humbled by the fact that it does not matter how many times I am pregnant, every single child is different, so every single pregnancy is as well. 

Just when I thought I could not possibly be pregnant anymore my desire to clean the entire house finally kicked in.  It always does somehow, but this time I questioned if it would because I would usually have my home prepared for a birth a week in advance.  This time it was just hours before Bria's arrival.  My husband seemed to start nesting along with me as we finally decided to move our deep freezer out of the kitchen and into the garage.  This triggered the need to mop the kitchen floor and it all began.  Before I knew it I was dusting, cleaning bathrooms, putting our birth sheets on the bed and thinking about filling up our birthing tub.  This was kind of in faith because I was not sure if the mild contractions I was experiencing all day were the real thing yet. 

As we put the kids in bed I could tell something was different about that day.  I had a sense that I was in labor.  It always frustrated me when people would say, "You just know you are in labor," but it is true.  After so many practice contractions I thought it would be hard to "just know."  A few hours passed and things began to pick up.  One thing I have not experienced is a text book contraction pattern.  My contractions tend to be everywhere from three minutes apart to fifteen even near the end of labor.  For me it is all about the intensity.  By the time I would normally be considering going to bed, we were filling up the birth tub and I was getting into it.  Things were still moving along and I began to feel like we should tell our midwife I was in labor.

About two more hours went by before we called and requested the midwife show up at our house.  She lives about a half an hour away so I did not want to wait too long, but I was enjoying the labor being just my husband and I at that point.  She took her time coming over and when she arrived I feared my labor would stop.  This has happened to me in the past and taken a few hours to get going again.  Things did not stop, but my contraction patterned continued to be irregular.  When I was checked for the first time I was already at six centimeters, but I felt like it was all going so slowly this time.  I have also been spoiled with pretty quick labors.  This one was feeling long. (It actually was not very long, maybe 5 hours total). 

I paced around my living room and kitchen, spent time in the shower, napped for about two seconds on the bed before my contractions became more intense.  Now things were really going and I went through a stage of feeling very discouraged.  I just wanted it all to be over.  This contraction business had gone on long enough.  Finally, when things felt unbearable, I got into the birth tub with my husband.  I am so thankful he is willing to be in there with me because his presence really helps me relax through all of the contractions. 

My water broke in the tub, it felt like a balloon burst.  That next contraction was it.  I was on to the pushing phase.  Little did I know that pushing, was really going to mean pushing for me.  In the past, my five pound babies have arrived in about three pushes total.  This baby was bigger.  In fact,  I had to concentrate on controlled pushing.  My body wanted to push as much as possible, but I might have torn badly had I taken this approach.  As my midwife encouraged me to lay my head back and pant I felt a giant head arriving.  This baby would be much bigger than my others.  The body did not feel like a frog coming out of me, I had to push it out little by little.  I felt spent at the end as my midwife placed my beautiful baby girl on my chest. 

It would have been easy to think now I am done, but there was still the placenta to push out.  I had just been watching a video clips about the third stage of labor on www.oneworldbirth.net.  This is an important stage of labor that is often forgotten about.  Maybe I had been watching these clips to prepare myself to push when I really did not want to anymore.  My placenta came out pretty easily in the end, but when I was done, I was really done. 

I had hoped that I would have been able to enjoy this labor a little bit more than I did.  I know that sounds like a crazy comment, but there is something so amazing about labor even in all the pain.  It is a mystery why this pain feels great even when it is the worst it is going to get.  I remember thinking, when I did not want to keep taking on contractions,  I still do not know the gender of my baby.  This was exciting.  I always have looked forward to seeing my baby, but this time it was much more than that.  Who would my baby be?

Her name is Bria Esme Ruybalid and she was born at 5:56 am on November 4, 2011.  She was a very big baby for me, 7 lbs 11 oz and 20 inches long.  Her hair is thick and jet black, her eyes are dark brown, and personality it peaceful.  Even though I felt frustrated about waiting so long to meet her, I would not take back one minute of my pregnancy or labor.  I still cannot believe she is here and I am thankful for each moment we have enjoyed together so far. 

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