Blissed out, despite 36 hours of hard work
T’was the night before Christmas…
Dannie was experiencing contractions as she was nearing the end of her pregnancy. It was around 4:30pm when we decided not to go to the Christmas Eve service that we were hoping to attend. Dannie said she was not feeling well and her contractions were getting stronger. Her mom came over and had dinner with us; we opened a few gifts and went about the evening.
We tried to ignore the contractions but around 6pm. I could tell Dannie was having a hard time ignoring them. I decided to time the contractions…
There seemed to be an irregular pattern of contractions but progressively getting stronger. With the pattern of contractions that were happening, Dannie’s mom and I thought for sure there was going to be a Christmas Baby.
A little before 8 O’clock, Dannie’s mom headed home and I started a bath for Dannie. As she was continuing to do her best to ignore the contractions, I could definitely see it in her face that it was getting harder to stay relaxed. She got out of the bath and got ready for bed. As she started falling asleep, the contractions became intense and would wake her up. This stayed consistent throughout the night as I would wake up with her and write down the time of the contraction and how far apart they were from the previous one.
By 1 o’ clock, I decided to call our midwife, Theresa, and tell her what was going on. She told me to continue to do what I was doing and hold out for a long as we could. She also talked to Dannie to see how she was feeling.
The night went on and the contractions were more intense and continued to make it very hard for Dannie to sleep as well as myself. By 5:30am Christmas day, I called Theresa back and told her what was happening after our conversation hours ago. She said it was time for us meet and to be at the birth center at 7am.
As Dannie lay in bed, we already had everything packed and ready to go at our front door. I warmed up the car and loaded it. Got Dannie ready and we headed out. It was 6:30am.
At exactly 6:30am, her contractions became text book consistent. Every 3 minutes, lasting a minute for about an hour.
We arrived at the birth Center at 7am and greeted by our midwife (Theresa) and two assistants (Alison and Anna). We were told were our room was and proceeded to settle in. Dannie lay down while the birthing team started to put together the birth tub.
Theresa checked Dannie and said she was 4 centimeters dilated and had made a lot of progress since her 36 ½ week check up. She asked if we were willing to go home and labor for while. She was confident that we would be back sometime this very Christmas day. We talked about and headed home.
We left everything needed for birth at the birth center, knowing that we would be back. We arrived at home around 9am which is when Dannie really began feeling the effects of her contractions. We tried many relaxation positions, a bath but it could not help ease the pain.
At 1pm, we called Theresa and were at the birth center by 1:30pm. I was not speeding by the way….
Everything was ready to go when we got to the birth center and Dannie was checked to find that she was 6 centimeters dilated. Nice Work Dear! She began in the pool, would walk around, lie down, do lunges and try different gravity pulling positions but nothing…. This seemed endless as I would watch the hours go by. Hoping the baby would come any minute because I could see how tired and exhausted my wife was.
I must admit, in the midst of the intense contractions that only got worse with time Dannie and I were able to work together to help her stay relaxed. She was such a trouper and I was very proud of her.
The baby’s heart beat was checked about every 20 minutes and the midwife and assistants would be in an out to write down what was going on and to assist with helping Dannie stay relaxed.
While at the birth Center, it was mainly the two of us in our environment. There were moments I prayed over her and for her. I read some Bible versus and text messages sent by friends.
At around 9pm, Theresa checked Dannie again to see if she had dilated even more. Nothing!! Still at 6 Centimeters! We were given some options: break her water, try some homeopathic remedies and a few different positions. We tried everything and at 11pm, decided to break her water. Once that happened, her contractions only became more intense and closer together. This is what we were waiting for.
Again, Dannie would be in an out of the pool, lie down and try different gravity pulling positions and constantly had to go to the bathroom. At around 1:00am, I took an hour nap while the assistants (Alison and Anna) were there to help Dannie.
I woke up to find that Dannie’s contractions had slowed down. One every 5-6 minutes! I began thinking that something was wrong. Theresa decided to check Dannie again.
With all of her hard work, Dannie was only at 6.5 centimeters dilated at 2:30am. Options followed, due to how exhausted Dannie was and how she wanted to give up and could barely keep her eyes open.
The options that we discussed were to transfer her over to UW and receive a dose of Pitocin (which we declined), try different positions and use homeopathic remedies. We tried everything to the point of which Dannie could handle. We were in and out of the bathroom and hung out in there because Dannie felt comfortable sitting on the toilet.
4AM: I decided to have Alison bring Theresa into the bathroom to discuss the scenario of what might happen if we transfer. We talked about it and decided to wait for about an hour. After 20 minutes of looking at my wife, I decided it was time to go.
Theresa phoned UW and they accepted transfer of care. We started getting the car packed with the help of Theresa, Alison and Anna. They agreed to meet us there. While we were in the car, I called Dannie’s mom to meet us there. We arrived at the UW medical facility around 5am and met our team there. Dannie’s mom followed. Once there, we were greeted by the RN and doctor who had gone over our paper work. They spoke to us about wanting to help us fulfill our birth plan. Thank the Lord that the Doctor in charge that night happened to be our ND’s cousin.
They started Dannie on an IV because she was dehydrated and talked about internal fetal monitoring to get a good scope of how the baby was doing. We declined, and they hooked her up to an external fetal monitoring system. And also did an Ultrasound to confirm the baby’s head was down.
About 20 minutes after, they started Dannie on the minimum amount of Pitocin. By that time, Dannie’s contractions were very painful and she was having a hard time relaxing because she was exhausted. She was in so much pain that we were given options for pain relief. We discussed it amongst our team and decided to go with the IV drug which stays in your system for 40 minutes (Demerol). She got two doses of that because she knew she had to relax in order to dilate. She was still having trouble relaxing, even with the pain medication…
The whole team was exhausted but kept a close watch and Dannie. Since Dannie’s mother was there. I decided to take a nap. It was about 8am when I woke up and Dannie’s contractions were getting even more intense and closer. She was ready to push. I assumed my position again as coach.
At that time, there were no doctors around because of major medical situations going on. I asked Theresa to look under the blanket and she saw a head. She immediately rushed to find a doctor. In the mean time, Dannie just kept saying, “I want to push!!” Finally, a doctor came in to check Dannie. He said she was 10 centimeters dilated and can push.
At that moment, Doctor Anna Scope who was our ND’s cousin came in and Dannie began to push. It was amazing from my end! Within 25 minutes of pushing and seeing the head little bits at a time, the baby was out.
Anna gave me the head and told Dannie to give one more push. And… the next thing you know, we have a baby. At the moment we didn’t know if it was a He/She. The baby coughed some fluid, cried for a second and immediately was placed on Dannie’s chest. I thought I caught a glimpse of something and said it was a boy. Someone asked me to double check. So, I did. It’s a boy!!
I looked at Dannie and asked her what she thought. She said, “Titus”. I liked it! It fit after the whole experience. He wanted to make an entrance…
Titus, brand new