Everett Randall Sodini
June 10, 2021 11:35pm 12lbs 1oz 22” long
Estimated due date: May 30, 2021
Braxton Hicks contractions began around 20 weeks and were pretty consistent and annoying. I constantly was reminding myself that this was my body preparing for birth. Around that same time it became increasingly uncomfortable to recline at all. Even the slightest recline resulted in pretty intense contractions. My little man just didn’t enjoy that position.
With all of that, I was hoping that Everett would decide to be born around 39 weeks. I was feeling pretty large, uncomfortable, and very achy. Sleep was difficult. I had lots of insomnia. And, on top of that, I was experiencing prodromal labor off and on.
On May 15th I began having some pretty intense contractions. I was timing them and chatting with Patrice, my midwife, and we were pretty sure it was going to turn into something. My mom came to take the boys for the day.
But it fizzled out. I rested and just had a low key day.
May 26th also brought some excitement. This morning reminded me of the morning of Theron’s birth. I slept great the night before. I was a little nauseated but also hungry and having good waves of contractions every 15-20 minutes that were more intense than I had felt yet. But they became less consistent and less intense as the day went on.
By the next morning they were sporadic.
I didn’t feel any consistent contractions again until June 5th. They lasted through the evening and we ended up with the whole midwife team here around 11:30pm. They stayed with me until about 2:30am when they got a call for another mother in labor. We all felt comfortable with them leaving because I was not progressing in labor symptoms, contractions were getting less intense again and baby stats were looking great. The next morning and afternoon, the sporadic, inconsistent contractions continued.
On Tuesday, June 8th, I woke with stronger contractions, but still not a regular pattern. His positioning felt different. And I made the drive to see Patrice one FINAL time before baby arrived – I hadn’t planned or desired to have a 41 Week Appointment. 😉
Wednesday, June 9th was uneventful as far as my pregnancy goes, but my oldest son Michael celebrated his 21st birthday that day! He and I talked throughout the day and he wanted to make sure he didn’t have to share a birthday with his baby brother.
The morning of Thursday, June 10th I sent this message to my midwife:
“I don’t know what’s happening.
I have clusters of 2 min apart contractions for 5 or 6 cycles then it stalls for 10 ish minutes and then does it again.
Had three cycles like this.
They’re definitely more intense though.
Feeling super emotional and like I have no idea what I’m doing. 😬😞”
After that I did the Miles Circuit with the stair lunges.
Around 2:30pm I informed the midwife that I didn’t need them to come. Nothing was really happening and I was discouraged. I asked about considering a membrane sweep if we hadn’t had any more consistent action soon.
That early evening I saw the chiropractor and had a great adjustment. He released a lot of tension in a ligament in my hip.
By 6:30 I was having more regular contractions. My message to the midwife was,
“I don’t feel like I can trust what’s happening anymore because of all these false starts BUT just letting you know I’ve had 8-10 minute apart contractions for the past two hours, SUPER intense and low. Cannot walk or talk through them.”
Within an hour the contractions were every 3-5 minutes and more intense. So we called the midwife and the team headed our way!
My labor record starts just before 8pm with contractions every 3 minutes. I was sure this was the real thing by this time. Pete began to fill the pool.
With Theron’s labor, getting in the pool provided almost instant relief and calmness. I did not experience this with this labor. I could not get comfortable and felt really agitated. I was changing positions often. I was in and out of the pool multiple times, and trying to find something less uncomfortable. I tried laying in bed, I tried multiple positions in the pool, I tried standing and leaning over the bathroom counter while swaying back and forth and just could NOT find “peace”. I got back in the pool and labored more.
The contractions continued to intensify and get closer. Then, just after 11pm, one contraction came while I was leaning back in the pool and as it started, I KNEW I did not want to be in this position for this contraction. So I started to get up to lean over the edge of the pool and experienced spontaneous rupture of membranes (my water broke)! Reflecting on this moment now, Pete says that my whole demeanor changed at this time. Like it all just got SUPER real. No more false starts. This was the real thing.
Pete called for the midwives who were downstairs. He let them know my water broke and they all came into the room. They checked the baby’s heart tones every couple of minutes as I began to feel “pushy”. I stayed leaning over the edge of the tub and Pete sat down by me and took my hands.
I felt surges of intense contractions that were “pushing” the baby down the birth canal for me. I was doing my best to just breathe and let my body work. The surges were coming right after another.
At one point, I felt him really moving down, and then when the surge paused, I thought I felt him move back up. In my head – and maybe even out loud – I said, “Oh no… I can’t do this!” I thought I had so much work to do and that I was going to be pushing for a long time!
At 11:32pm, we had a full crown and I was able to reach down and feel his head. I could feel that he had a lot of hair… and started to talk to him. I remember saying that he was almost here and we were going to work together to do the rest.
During the surges I was letting out deep groans, but Barb and Pete were pretty intensely coaching me to have “blowing” breaths. They wanted me to pant and blow quick short breaths to stop from doing any actual pushing. We wanted my body to slow the process down and just let him come on his own. This reduces the risk of tearing and the longer the baby takes to come out, the more fluid is ejected from their lungs. They had my best interests in mind, but it was so hard to just blow! Also, Patrice was providing tissue support from behind to really help my body and reduce risk of tearing. Super helpful with such a large baby!
Just two minutes later, at 11:34pm his head was born… and then his arm came out immediately next! Baby rotated as needed.
At 11:35pm Everett Randall Sodini was born.
Instinctually, I reached down and grabbed him from out of the water and brought him to my chest. Then I laid back in the pool and was given a towel to wrap him in. And I began to soak in all of that moment and felt the massive surge of oxytocin. I felt so grateful, so alive, so primal and capable! I also noticed he was a BIG baby… but so was Theron, so I guessed he was about the same size. Somewhere around 11 pounds.
I stayed there in the birthing pool for a few minutes and thought I’d stay there to birth the placenta, but started to feel uncomfortable sitting. Since maneuvering with a baby attached to me is a bit complicated, we waited a bit longer – until the cord stopped pulsating – and decided to cut the cord before I moved. Midwife Kelsey clamped the cord and Pete cut it. Then we wrapped up Everett and handed him off to Pete (who snuck into the bathroom to see if he could get a weight with him and guess his size… STINKER!)
I was able to get up and out of the tub easily and transferred to the bed where we had a bunch of blue pads down. I was given a smoothie and water and drank it down quickly as it provided an energy surge I didn’t know I needed from what I had accomplished and what was about to be another large accomplishment.
As I laid there, time must have passed quickly, but I wasn’t aware how much time. The midwives were checking Everett over – weighing, measuring, and assessing him. He was perfect. And weighed in at 12 pounds, 1 ounce, was 22 inches long, and a head circumference of 15”. YIKES.
I was still sipping on my smoothie, and midwife Kelsey said I needed to try pushing a little more to get the placenta out. It had been about 45 minutes already! I never really felt contractions… I was SO tired and so worn out. So I just pushed when I could and nothing was happening. The closer we got to an hour, the more discussion there was about needing to get this moving along. We discussed using an herbal tincture, but did not have what we needed on hand. Discussions of a hospital transfer were happening, and I began to feel a bit worried.
Apparently, the cut off for home birth regulations and delivery of the placenta is 2 hours. So at the one hour mark, we got more serious. With my boys sleeping in the next room – meaning Pete would have to stay home with them – I did not want to go. I didn’t know what would happen with Everett or if I’d end up in surgery… I simply did not see transfering to the hospital as something that I could let be my reality.
I told Pete to grab the homeopathy book and look up “retained placenta”. So he ran downstairs to grab it and came back up – he had found 3 remedies that were a possibility. We read about each and decided upon one. Sepia 30c – the description fit me best. So I took one dose every 15 minutes for 3 doses. That put us at the one hour and 40 minute mark. Then I decided I needed to pee, so I went to the bathroom and sat on the toilet. My mind started racing again about the logistics with a hospital transfer and I knew I did not want that. Finally, I was able to pee – and then I started to feel a contraction, so I pushed… and out came the placenta! Finally! Apparently my full bladder could have been the bad guy here.
I got help getting back to bed and got to hold Everett again and just soaked in all of the blessings and goodness I had just experienced.
Finally, the midwives had a chance to examine me to determine if any stitches were needed. We were all SO tired – it was after 2am at this point. Patrice determined that a couple stitches might be helpful for the healing process, but that they needed rest before moving ahead with that. So they went downstairs to sleep in the living room and planned to come up in the morning. But those plans didn’t last long. Around 3am, they got a call from another mother in labor, so they let me know they would be leaving and coming back as soon as they could.
Big brothers Fischer and Theron came in to meet Everett around 7am. We were so exhausted but it was such a joy to see the boys so excited that Everett was finally here.
The midwives ended up back around 8am after the other mother had labored and stalled, and they got some rest at her house. Patrice put in 3 stitches and I was told to be in bed with minimal activity for at least a week in order to properly heal. It’s been a challenging recovery with a two story home, but I can’t say I’m not enjoying having breakfast in bed almost daily.
