Full Circle Midwifery

(First time mom, high blood pressure = hospital birth) 

4/12/23

Wednesday 

Past our due date of April 8th Cameron and I went to a routine office visit with Patrice and Barb. 

My blood pressure that day before going to the office was tracking up, we were discouraged. 

When Barb checked my BP at the office visit she looked at me sweetly and said “I’ll just check that again later.” 

I knew it was bad, Patrice knew it was bad, and we then moved the convo to what would happen next because BP numbers were obviously tracking up. 

Patrice called Gerber and sent us in that night for a non-stress test. 

My BP was highish at the check, enough to be hypertension but not preeclampsia. 

Labs we’re all good. Dr Bane wanted to induce me that night but we declined and went home with plans to keep tracking BP. 

And extremely kind nurse gave us a tour of the L&D floor just incase. (She was then there for the birth :)) 

We were shaken up and discouraged, knowing in the back of our minds that hospital birth was probably inevitable but we were going to give it another shot.

4/13/23 

Thursday 

I had a chiro appt in the morning, mom came over and we relaxed and went to estate sales all day. 

Cameron got home off of work early and we got to sit and tan in the sun, I think it was in the 70s 

Cameron’s coworker Matt shook his hand before he left that day and said “good luck, I’ll see you in two weeks” he had a hunch today was baby day. 

I was showing zero signs of labor so we did not think it was baby day. 

After mom and I came home from an estate sale, we took my BP and it was too high. Nearing the danger zone of 160/110. I think it was something over 106. 

Extremely discouraged, we decided to still visit Mick and Pam for drinks to see if that would calm me down and check BP after. 

I did not calm down, I began to accept we would have baby in the hospital and I was really upset, having to let go of my home birth we had been planning for the entire time. 

I couldn’t even visualize me in a hospital bed, Cameron in the hospital, mom in the hospital, where would they stand? The bathtub they showed me at the hospital was a little dingy and hard and I had planned on a warm soft water birth. They said “it has jets!” But could you imagine using a hospital tubs jets? No. 

After taking with Patrice, we decided to call it and let Gerber know we would be there between 10/11pm. 

Now it was a mad dash of packing a hospital bag for Cameron and I and getting 50 min away to Gerber. I was of course crying a lot, letting go of home birth and trying to accept we were going away and coming home with a baby. I had been showing NO signs of labor and thought I would go another 5 days. 

I didn’t want to be induced, I was scared of pictocin, scared of hospital horror stores. 

Patrice was so kind, getting Gerber prepped for us, and left me with the instructions to keep her updated on what was happening. 

We (Mom, Cameron, Winsome) left for Gerber, called family to let them know details and that baby was coming. 

Gerber staff greeted us and showed us to our room, we were introduced to our team for that night. We weren’t fans of the cnm but delt with it. Super kind nurse that night. 

We did the balloon induction at 11 or 12 that night. Then I took a cervix softening med. 

I had mild contractions throughout the night. Cam stayed sleeping in his bed, I was in and out of the tub (unlimited hot water was amazing, I just didn’t think too hard about the state of the tub or the jets, the water felt good enough) 

Mom got a hotel room for the night with plans to return early next morning or if things quickly started happening. 

I got zero sleep but I remember contractions being difficult but not unbearable. 

4/14/23

Friday 

We decided to check the balloon that morning because it didn’t fall out, Emily was the new cnm, we liked her. Rachel and Monica were our nurses, Monica had 4 home births with Patrice. 

Rachel was in training but she was with us the entire time, not so much Monica. I learned Monica was also helping update Patrice with my progress, very thankful for that. 

The balloon was just sitting in my vagina, it had fallen out and that meant I was at 4cm! Emily swept my membranes while she did the check, I feel “ehh” about that because she didn’t really ask, but I was indeed there for an induction. 

Contractions picked up, I denied pictocin, I accepted a check and water break, contractions really picked up. I was in the tub so many times. Patrice was there helping me through contractions. Rachel had the adjust the wireless baby/contraction monitors over and over it was driving me crazy but she was very sweet and gentle. 

Baby’s rates would dip during contractions, I guess the nurses and Patrice already suspected that might mean she had a cord around her neck or something. This is funny because throughout the pregnancy, the baby’s name was “dippy.” 

We wanted contractions to pick up without the use of pictocin and to keep baby’s placement good, so I got on the bed with the peanut ball in between my legs and did a windmill rotation. This was excruciating. I hate the words “peanut ball” now. Patrice and Rachel coached me through contractions, Cameron and Mom comforted me. I think this is when my sister and Parker came, we couldn’t believe she made it, she was in Nashville that morning and almost missed her flight. 

Parker Lee waited in the waiting room the whole time, he watched the movies on the screen in Spanish. Ratatouille and Rocky II. 

I tried the gas pain relief method around now but I couldn’t get the mask to work right and felt no relief from it when I would get it semi right. 

I was feeling extremely exhausted, I could hear my mom worrying about me being so tired, I kept saying I was so tired. Cam was with me the whole time, I squeezed his hand really hard one contraction and cracked all his knuckles, I apologized so much mom said I made him cry. 

Emily did another check after the windmill and I was at a 7, this was not good for my brain, I couldn’t believe I still had so far to go. 

I got back in the tub, Patrice kept the hot water running and sprayed it directly on my pelvis every contraction, Cam did this for a while too. 

Cam gave me so much water and made me eat a banana one bite at a time. I heard him laugh once at noises I made through contractions and got so mad at him. 

I kept saying “open, open, open, down, down, down” with lots of vibrato apparently. 

In the tub I made the decision to get the epidural so they could administer pictocin, and stop having to adjust my wireless monitors. 

They got me out of the tub to wait for the anesthesiologist. He came and talked us through the process, pausing with my contractions. I remember it being jarring having a new bright eyed person enter our birthing room. But he was patient and professional. He was also young and mom made a joke about him hopefully administering more than 3 of this before. He assured her he was very good at what he does. 

Cameron had to physically pin me in the c curl position for him to get the right placement. Parker watched the whole thing without flinching, he had to do it twice, l felt only a bit of stinging. He made the joke, “well congrats on being my 4th official epidural!” And that made everyone laugh. I somehow didn’t have a contraction the whole process. 

The epidural worked quickly, I reached a point where I literally came back into myself, opened my eyes what felt like the first time in hours and said “hi guys” to my family and Cameron. Pictocin started doing its thing. I could feel contractions but only pressure, things were going well so I didn’t do another check immediately for my mental game, Patrice went home for dinner and assured us she would come back for pushing. I took a nap for I think 2 hours. Cam slept beside me in the recliner. 

We did another windmill rotation, and I felt contractions get stronger, but felt no pain. I used the “extra dose” of epidural meds twice during this time. One position in the windmill was me sitting upright like Buddha in the bed and I was giddy with how good I felt, we were all laughing and joking. Emily actually came in after my nap and saw us in such good spirits she reminded me that first time moms on the epidural can come times push for 2-5 hours. I was mentally preparing for work ahead and nervous I would begin feeling pain again. I didn’t! 

After some more pictocin, chatting, resting, Emily came and did another check, I was complete! Things happened quickly after that. Everyone was there, new nurses came, Patrice came back at the perfect time. 

They showed me how I would begin pushing on my back with my legs braced. Emily would put her fingers just inside me where I could feel them and tell me to push her out. This was exactly what I needed to coach me through the pushes. 

I tried pushing through the next few contractions and couldn’t believe it when Emily had Cameron come see the top of baby Cameron’s head. So fast! 

I pushed and pushed, Parker held my legs sometimes and sometimes Cameron, but he ended up right next to my head telling me I was doing such a good job the whole time. I kept thinking someone was going to tell me to start really pushing because I felt like I was just pretending! I laughed at one point and felt baby move in and out with the laughs. I was so grateful for every person standing in that room, I told them all over and over. I started to feel some pinching and burning when she was really close to coming. I kept pushing hard until I left stinging at the top of my vagina, I was scared I would feel myself tear, this held me back for a few pushes until I let it go mentally. They did oil me and keep placing hot compresses on my tissues so I wouldnt tear. 

Patrice told me to pant and how to breathe through pushes. 

I finally bore down and pushed out her head and then swiftly came her body. It felt like a huge gush of hot water and release of pressure. I heard them say something about the cord around her neck, I had my hand on her but didn’t pull herself to me until I heard Emily tell me they wanted Cameron to cut the cord quickly so they could take her to the warmer. She wasn’t into herself yet, no noise, but I didn’t want her taken away. Patrice grabbed the cord and it was still pulsing, she told me to take my baby and I did. It was a little bit of a battle between the midwives, Emily was upset and tried to put Patrice “back in her place” politely but I’m SO GLAD Patrice spoke up. 

I grabbed Cameron and rubbed, rubbed, patted her back into herself. I spoke to her and heard her cries and she came into herself. She had a double cord around her neck, just needed a little encouragement to come to us. Cameron was next to me crying and placing his hands on her. 

I heard and saw my sister say she was a girl. Cameron said “she’s Cameron” through tears. I told everyone that was her name. I pushed out the placenta, it left like nothing, and they had Cameron cut her cord. Emily did put me on a pictocin drip after birth, not sure that I needed it at all. I hardly lost any blood. We had them stop the drip when I remembered it was even there/going. 

I thanked Patrice, she kissed me goodbye and told her to keep updated after our great escape, because they wanted to keep me for monitoring for 48 hours but we planned on leaving the next morning. 

I don’t remember much other than soaking up Cameron with Cameron. 

My family left at some point and our overnight stay began. I remember being uncomfortable in the bed and having to get up a bunch to go to the bathroom and check my BP. 

4/15/23

Saturday

Cameron was adamant on getting us out the next morning. Mom was with us for the morning too. We had the pediatrician visit, and chatted with Emily, signed the paperwork and went home.