April 30, 2013
Birth of Zachary

I have to admit what we learned in class really kept me going through the whole labour. I woke up April 29th at 4am with contractions about 6 mins apart (start to start) and within 7.5 hours of peeing every 30mins to 1 hour, and drinking lots of water and eating as much as i could, as well as getting into every position possible every 30 mins, I was happy to hear I was 5cm dilated and contractions coming every 2-3 mins apart!
Unfortunately by 1:30 that afternoon, we decided to break the water (we were scheduled to do a home delivery) and there was meconium in it so we had to transfer to the hospital. I couldn’t stop thinking about trying to stay in the zone and keep my oxy flowing and knowing that i was going to have a small disruption in my labour pattern with the shift in scenery.

I spent until 7pm that night with contractions 3.5-4 mins apart and unfortunately no change in my cervix. We had to be transferred to the OB’s care and be put on the oxy drip (bummer). Zachary was tolerating that well and by 12 midnight i still had no change and would not give in to an epidural or anything. (i’m sure my OB thought i was crazy at this point!) He wanted to section me from 6pm that night! He had to put a cathedra in to measure the strength of the contractions as well as pump some fluids into my uterus to hopefully help with any potential cord compression. He gave me another 2 hours!

At 2am April 30th after 22 hours of fairly hard mostly active and intense labour i still had not progressed any further than 5cm, even though we had sufficiently strong contractions some of which were coming on top of each other at this point, but it looked as though Zachary was twisted slightly and could descend any further into my pelvis. So with the OB insisting and my midwife telling me at this point and with the amount of dips in Zachary’s heart rate it was time to have a C-section!

Totally bummed and defeated after so many hours of pushing through and not giving in i kept thinking of what you kept saying in class that any amount of natural labour is good for us to experience! (I won’t lie i was cursing that saying after 22.5 hours of it, being wheeled to have me be cut open) But afterwards, i realized how incredibly strong and capable I am. I’m not hesitating to go back to Annemarie, Sarah, and Laura in two years and try it all over again! I know what to expect and that I can do it!

In the end poor giant Zachary’s head was simply just twisted a 1/4 turn which made his head present length wise instead of width wise! And even to Annemarie’s surprise, being 8lbs 3oz could have contributed to it! I had only gained about 18 pounds with the pregnancy and she was certain I would have a 6.12- maybe 7.1 or 7.2. lol. But i followed your nutrition class pretty close to a T. 🙂

Anyways we are all doing really well, and just taking it easy recovering from surgery! Breast feeding has been a breeze and so grateful i had taken that class as well. Thought you’d like to hear our journey and experiences.

Thanks again for all your classes wisdom!

Ashly, Gregory and Zachary