oh geeze. Where to begin...
At 10 am on Sunday morning my first contraction woke me up. I had just gotten off of my graveyard shift at 6 am so at this point I had gotten about 3.5 hours of sleep. I wasn't really sure if these hurty feelings were real contractions or not because, duh, I had never had a baby before. Three days earlier my midwife said I was 90% effaced and dilated to a 4. Scarlet wasn't due until the 18th but I wasn't shocked that she might be coming early.
She heard her dad begging her not to come until her due date so he could finish his finals so she thought it would be hilarious to come during finals week instead.
After about an hour, I woke Tyler up and told him I thought maybe I was possibly having contractions. He grabbed the laptop and Googled the phrase "False Labor" trying to convince all of us that it wasn't going to happen this day. He tried to get me to time the contractions but I hate math and I couldn't figure out how. Guessing is always good enough for me. Finally after him telling me over and over again that I was experiencing false labor I said, "Tyler, this baby is coming today". Then I went to go pack the hospital bag and to text my mom for the tenth time to see what I should do next.
At noon my mom told me since my contractions were around a minute apart, I should go to the hospital. So we did. As we were driving there, I realized I didn't have my ipod with me so it was pertinent that we turn around and get it. Apparently I forgot to charge it so it didn't even matter.
We arrived at Orem Community Hospital in record time. 4 minutes. Doesn't hurt that we live a mile away. Before they took me back into my room, the lady made me stop laboring so I could read and sign something. People can be so selfish sometimes.
They checked me and said I was dilated to a 4 1/2 and 100% effaced so I could stay. Contractions were bad at this point but I wasn't feeling like going crazy. Yet. Tyler asked me if I wanted him to call my mom so she could come. He did and she was already in the waiting room. hahahaha. Oh mom.
It's hard to say exactly what happened next because I declined any pain medication and, yep, I was feeling some pain. I had seen millions of natural child birth videos online so I thought I knew my stuff. I even took a class about how to labor naturally and what the most effective tactics are. There's one problem. Once your actually in labor and you feel like dying would be easier, you're not thinking about birthing balls and baths anymore. I had my mom and Tyler there tirelessly trying to remind me to breathe through each contraction. I was convinced they didn't know what they were talking about. There was nothing that could ease this pain. I tried yelling. That didn't work. I tried swearing and although psychologically it helped, physically, it didn't do a thing. After a few hours, I finally figured out what it meant to breath through the contraction. I had to completely go inside myself and shut everything else out. Intense man. Intense. Meditation style intense.
We also tried playing my "Birth Playlist". I don't what I was thinking when I made that list. FYI- hard rock music makes you feel insane when you're choosing to labor without drugs. So I would say it worked but could have been better.
I don't remember the exact sequence of things but sometime between 2 and 5, my midwife, Jennifer Cook showed up. Oh dear was she amazing! So motherly and had such a calming presence. Again, the timeline of things aren't clear but she checked me and I was a six and stayed that way for an hour or two. My bag of water was so ready to break but since it hadn't yet and I wanted desperately to progress, they broke it for me. Never in my life had I felt such relief in wetting the bed.
At this point I was feeling delirious with each contraction-which were almost on top of one another. Jennifer asked if she could try some counter pressure on me to see if that would help. She moved the bed so it was as if I was sitting on stairs and my feet were resting on the step below the one I was sitting on. Does that even make sense? With each contraction, she would push my knees into the back of the bed. Sounds weird but it was instant relief. For the next 3 hours it was either her or Tyler that had to do this through each contraction. Poor Ty was doing it so long that his muscles were shaking just trying to keep me sane. My midwife and everyone else left the room and left me and Tyler alone for 2 hours to let us have some time together. Within that 2 hour gap I dropped the F bomb and told Tyler I wanted to die. It was magical. During my labor, I seriously considered getting an epidural but the thought of sitting still long enough for anyone to touch me made me want to go on a murderous rampage. So that was out of the question.
Maybe it was before the counter pressure that Jennifer pulled out her essential oils. I was skeptical at first but Citrus Bliss was my new BFF through the rest of labor. One whiff of this goodness and my hyperventilation stopped dead in it's track. At one point, I tried a few different labor positions and if possible, I wanted even more to die. I got back into my sitting-on-the-stairs position and then decided I'd try lying on my side to see if baby would turn so we could get this show on the road. It was painful and I felt like barfing but she turned and things were moving along even faster! The nausea wore off after a sniff of some Peppermint oil. People listen, you might think those folks that try to sell you on buying essential oils are nut jobs but it's because they KNOW that this stuff works. Listen to them and use them.
About an hour before showtime, I got up to go to the bathroom and saw that my sister, Meagan had shown up to see the miracle of natural labor( sorry I traumatized you for life). The nurses really wanted me to pee but I couldn't-she was just standing there staring at me! Since I wouldn't put on a show for the nurse, they punished me by making me use a catheter. I felt like one of those people on those weird catheter commercials. Turns out their punishment didn't have the effect they wanted it to because it didn't even hurt so there!
My midwife checked me right before going to the bathroom and I was dilated to a 9 1/2ish so she said once I'm out, I could start pushing. I started feeling the need to push which I always thought was fake. Turns out, it's not. I started to push but didn't really know what it meant to push so I'm pretty sure for the first 15 minutes I was just making push faces. I loved how gently Tyler was yelling at me to push. It actually felt good to push. I don't remember even feeling pain when she came out. After I got the hang of what it meant to push, the Mom and Scarlet Team were unstoppable!
Scarlet Jarman was born at 6:08 p.m. I wanted to do skin-to-skin right after she was born and it was heaven. When they put her on me she was the tiniest, warmest, most beautiful thing in the world. The nurses commented on how alert and present she was. I was so elated and had so much adrenaline running through my veins, I couldn't even cry. Which is fine because my sweat had already wiped off most of my mascara.
The look I saw on Tyler's face was my most favorite thing. He loved her instantly.
As wonderful as I've made the natural route sound and after going through 8 hours of it. I really wouldn't have it any other way. I am so proud of myself and I now know how strong I really am. My baby and I listened to each other and truly worked as a team to get her here. I think every women should go through this at least once. The most empowering feeling you will ever have.
Plus, it feels so good to say "In yo face!" to everyone who thought I would't do it.
As nuts as some may think it is, I might even do it again.
