The Birth Story

Warning: If you had a difficult, long exhausting labor and delivery, you might want to skip the following story, as it might possibly make your blood boil.

I awoke on Monday morning to the sound of Elise crying. I looked at the clock, which said 5:00am. This completely confused me because while Ellie is a relatively early riser, she rarely wakes up before 6:30. Since waking this early is not norm, I decided to go in her room to see what was wrong. When I got out of bed, I felt a very distinct “release of fluid”. To be honest, I had no idea if this was my water breaking or if I was having a random bladder control problem. When my water broke with Ellie, there was absolutely no mistaking that’s what it was – it was a huge gush. This was more like a slow leak.

So I went into Ellie’s room and asked her what was wrong. She said “I want to wake up” and I told her it was too early so she needed to go back to sleep. She asked me to pat her back, so I sat for a few minutes patting her and realized that I was having contractions. They weren’t strong or painful at all, just a little cramp about every five to seven minutes. I went back to my room and laid down and kept track of the contractions while getting a little more rest. When our alarm went off at 6:15, I told Marty that I’d been having contractions every 5 minutes for about an hour and that it was possible that my water broke. I’d had some Braxton Hicks contractions on a few other occasions, but because of the possible water breaking issue we thought we should probably proceed under the assumption that this was the real deal. We went about our day, taking showers, eating breakfast and getting Ellie ready for daycare.

I called my midwife around 7:30am when the contractions went to 3 minutes apart (but still weren’t painful). She said that if I wanted pain medication, I should go ahead and come into the hospital, but if I wanted to labor at home, I should plan to come in when the contractions were painful and it felt like I should be in the hospital. It was the moment of truth for me – to medicate or not to medicate - this time I could actually decide! I’d been telling everyone from the moment I was pregnant this time that I was going to run to the hospital at the first contraction to make sure that this time I wouldn’t miss out on my epidural. However, here I was faced with the opportunity to get the epidural I have been dreaming of for two years and I surprised myself by deciding against it. Yes, I am insane. But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea of feeling so alert and great after the birth and the baby being so alert too. Plus, they say that your second labor and delivery is always much faster than the first and I made it through without drugs last time right?

Around 7:45am Marty took Ellie to day care and I settled in with a book. Then I realized that my contractions had gone from 3 minutes apart back to 7 minutes apart. Either I wasn't really in labor or it was slowing down because I wasn't doing anything. So I went ahead and started cleaning the kitchen in hopes of speeding things along. Our neighbor Karen came over to keep me company while Marty was gone and she made me stop cleaning. By the time Marty got home and Karen left at 8:45, the contractions were back to 5 minutes apart but still not painful.

The painful contractions started very suddenly and intensely at 9:00am. Marty was making fun of me because in between painful, face contorting, bent over moaning contractions I was putting coupons away. Hey, just because I'm in labor doesn't mean I don't have things to get done! But by 9:30 I wasn't doing anything but writhing around in pain, yelling at myself for passing on the epidural yet again. I am a fool! People shouldn't choose to put themselves through excruciating pain like this! The contractions were now 3 minutes apart and very, very intense. Marty suggested that we go ahead and get to the hospital. Everyone says that your second labor is much shorter than your first, but I had really only been in labor for about a half hour. Since I'd passed on the medication, I was worried that I'd get to the hospital at like 4 cm dilated and be hooked up to machines and not be able to walk around and go through this pain in a place that's not as familiar or comfortable as my own home. I had one more really, really horribly painful contraction that turned the tide and I finally agreed with Marty that we should go ahead and go to the hospital.

Luckily the hospital is only about 2 miles from our house and after a short but painful trip (cobblestones may be nice to look at but man do they hurt when you're bouncing around on them when you're in labor!) we arrived at the ER at 9:50am. Marty parked the car illegally and rushed me into registration. He kept telling the woman at registration who was asking me questions about verifying my address and phone number that I was about to give birth in the next four seconds and we needed to get this show on the road. She didn't really take him seriously and frankly I didn't either. I told Marty to relax because it wasn't that imminent but Marty insisted until another nurse believed him and got the midwife, Erica Keller. Erica asked if I felt like I could make it upstairs or if I wanted to try to push right there (in the lobby of the ER!?) but I told her I'd be ok - let's get upstairs. At this point, the security guard came in and told Marty to move the car. Marty argued that I was about to have a baby and he couldn't leave me but the security guard didn't seem to care. Marty went to move the car and Erica put me in a wheelchair and literally RAN up and down the hallways to the elevator into the birthing room.

They helped me into the bed and checked my progress - DEJA VU - I was fully dilated and the baby's head was crowning. It was time to push! Again, I had no time to officially check into the hospital and this time didn't even have time to get on a hospital gown. But I immediately panicked because Marty was not back from parking the car. Erica said that I could try to wait if I wanted to, but if I had to push I should. I was determined to wait for Marty so I breathed through it until Marty rushed into the room at 10:03am and I began pushing. After three big pushes, Lucas Wolfe Molloy came out at 10:09am! One hour of hard labor and six minutes of pushing - I am definitely from good peasant stock built for birthing babies!

Lucas came out looking very purple (but breathing fine) with a head full of strawberry blond hair and huge navy blue eyes, alert and happy. He weighed in at 7 lbs 14oz, was 20 3/4 inches long and cute as can be!