Birth Story of Bailey Marie Williams

I would like to share the entire birth story of my sweet little bailey girl. It may be TMI for some of you so I apologize in advance but I have dreamed of writing this story since we first found out we were pregnant.

As most of you know Trever and I had decided that we wanted to have the most natural birth as possible and took a 12 week long Bradley childbirth class. Anyway, my birth went nothing like what I expect and didn’t really follow what I thought “textbook” labor would be like. I am sure that none do!

Anyway, I was due on December 12th and always felt that Bailey would come late but Trev’s prediction of the 18th came and went my prediction of the 20th came and went Christmas Eve came and went and then Christmas Day came. We decided that we would lay low on Christmas day and not go to my sister’s house as well always do and we really weren’t in the Christmas spirit. In our minds we always thought that she would be here to spend the day with us. So, we relaxed and went on hike thinking maybe we could stir something up. I had been having menstrual type cramps for a couple of days that never really went away. About 6 p.m. I noticed that these cramps seemed to sort of be al little more painful but decided that it couldn’t be contractions because I couldn’t find a beginning and an end to them. I got out our childbirth book and it said if you think you might be in labor then change activity, eat, take a nap, go on a walk, etc. So, I decided to have some dinner. Then at 7 I told Trev that I thought that the pain of these cramps seemed a little more but that I still could not distinguish a beginning and an end to them. At 8 again, the pain seemed a little more and I told him that maybe we should try to walk. So, out we went into the dark of night. Before I was ½ way across our yard I had to stop and breath through the first thing I could find a beginning and end to and I thought ok this might be the real thing. By the time I was out of my front lawn I had to stop again. I thought man can this be real. I think this is a contraction but according to the textbook they should be sporadic and at the least 5 minutes apart and that couldn’t have been more than a minute. So, we pressed on and the rest of the walk was sort of like that. I decided to get home and sit down a bit and then if nothing changed I would call Tina, our doula, and see what she thought. I tried to watch the clock and time the contractions but I felt like the pain was just increasing and still having a hard time finding the beginning and the end. So, at almost 10 I decided to call Tina to see if this was real. While talking to her for 6 minutes I had to stop and breath through 3 contractions. She told be that this was defiantly labor but was concerned that it was late in the evening and that if I could I should lay down and try to rest between contractions and that my body would let me know if that was possible. I decided that a warm bath might help. Trev went into frenzy mode and decided that maybe he really should pack his suitcase. He came in while I was in the bath and started timing the contractions that were coming at the most 2 minutes apart and at the least 45 seconds apart and were hard and strong. I was now having to moan through them. I told him that I felt like we needed to go to the hospital and he said he thought it was to soon. They tell you that you shouldn’t go until contractions were 5 minutes apart, 1 minute in length and for 1 hour. I told him to call Tina and see what she thought we should do. We had originally planned to labor at home with her. So, he calls her and she can here me moaning in the background every minute or so and she said that she felt we should just meet at the hospital incase things are happening quickly. So, we grab all the last minute stuff and are on the road to the hospital at 11. The ride in the car was hell because there wasn’t much more that I could do other than lay on my side and grip onto the seat belt and moan. Trev being concerned would ask me every now and again if I was sure that was another contraction because it was only 1 minute since the last one. We arrive at the hospital where we are greeted by Tina and my midwife Lindsey. We quickly get to a room and Lindsey checks me and to much of my horror I am only 2 cm which is what I was on Monday in the doctors office. On top of that Lindsey says she is bringing in the sonogram machine because she isn’t sure that what she just felt was a head. So, in rolls the sonogram machine and I am thinking nothing is going like I ever thought it would. The sonogram machine confirms that it is her head but that it is likely Bailey’s face she was feeling so after they get a base line on my contractions and her heart beat then I need to try some different things to get her to turn. Soon, I am up moving around and trying all the methods that we learned in birth class. The contractions were still close together and very strong. They would come in clusters where as soon as one contraction ended another one would begin and there could be like 3 of them in a row. About every 30 minutes or so the contractions would space out and give me a small 4 minute break between them. During those times I thought I can do this but it would only last for about 2 or 3 contractions and then they would be back into there irregular pattern of either one on top of the other or maybe only 45 seconds in between. We tried everything possible to cope…the birth ball, squatting, dancing, on all fours, a bath and when they were that close together I really felt like nothing helped and with little or no break between at about 4 am I was telling them I couldn’t do it anymore. Lindsey came in and checked me and told me that I was 4 cm (actually she lied to me and I was only 3 cm but she knew I would lose it and was thinking pain meds and figured that if I decided I needed something at 4 it would be the same at 3). Anyway, they talked to me about my options for meds. I had decided a long time ago that if I couldn’t do it then I would just go straight for the epidural instead of trying narcotics that make you drunk and since it was nearing 24 hours without sleep then I felt it was my best option.

The doctor came in to do the epidural pretty quickly and soon I was comfortable and we all were able to take a nap. I knew that choosing the epidural could soon bring about other interventions but all I could do at that point was hope for the best. At 6 am she came in and checked me and I was 6 cm which was great news because I was now progressing and wasn’t going to need more drugs.

At 1:30 it was time to start pushing. We had learned in class and Lindsey explained again that we could be at this for 30 minutes or 2 hours. So the pushing began. After a little more than an hour there seemed to be little progress in pushing Bailey out. Lindsey checked again and felt that Bailey was trying to make her entrance face up instead of face down and was getting stuck up under my pubic bone. I am lucky to have the care provider that I did because many doctors would have put me into the OR and I would have been told she couldn’t come out. Lindsey said she knew she could come out but that it was going to be a lot of work and that she was going to talk to the doctor about helping out with other things as well but that if I thought that I could keep doing it on my own then I was doing fine and Bailey was doing fine well of course other than she didn’t want to actually face the world! The doctor came in at close to after 2 hours of pushing and checked me and he said that he didn’t think she was face up but was face down but was still stuck up behind the pubic bone. He then said that he could help me get her out with some forceps if I wanted but that he didn’t want me to keep pushing and exhaust myself and then want forceps and not be able to get her out because I was to exhausted and then end up with a C section. I decided I needed to dig down deep and get this baby out to avoid the section and the forceps. So, back to the pushing we went. The thing that seemed to be helping the most was pulling on a sheet made like a rope while someone on the other end pulled. My arms and probably Lindsey and the nurses arms where about to fall off. They had the mirror out and eventually I began to see her little head and felt more motivated to get her out. Finally at 4:18 pm out popped Bailey weighing 7 pounds 14 oz and also revealing why she was having such a hard time getting out. Apparently Bailey still didn’t want to be born because she had her left hand on her right cheek and her elbow sticking straight out! So instead of pushing out a little head I had to push out a whole head arm and elbow! Lindsey said she thinks that is why my labor was so intense yet it seemed to progress so slowly. I am happy with the decisions that I made in my birth. I feel that if I had continued without the epidural and Bailey would have still been in her arm up position I am not sure I would have had the energy to have pushed her out. She is the most beautiful thing in the entire world and I was so happy once she was born!

On a final note Trever was the most wonderful husband and birth coach through the whole thing. During out birth class he could hardly stand the birth videos but after 3 hours of pushing Lindsey said she thought he was going to reach down and pull out the baby and was even pushing along with me! Here are a couple of pics. The first two are pre epidural and the next is post epidural.