Alfie’s Birth Story
3/29/2017
11:46PM
8lbs, 11oz; 21 ¾” long
This Wednesday morning started out like any regular day with
me getting ready for work. One significant difference, however, started with my
breakfast. Rather than my typical cold cereal, on this day I prepared a
labor-inducing Internet find: castor oil scrambled eggs. It sounds horrible,
and it looked horrible, but, surprisingly, it just tasted like eggs! I know. The general recommendation is to not use castor oil for labor induction, at least not without discussing it with your provider first. So...don't be like Alyssa. After breakfast, off to
work I went, with my shift starting at 7:30.
Again following what I’d read online, I decided to take
another, smaller dose of castor oil around 9:00. I mixed it with Sprite,
chugged it, and then chased it with straight Sprite. It was fine! Somewhere in
the 10:00 hour I began to feel my first contractions. Over the next couple
hours I continued to feel contractions, but when I would look at the clock and
roughly time them, I didn’t find any regularity. My coworkers were getting
excited as I mentioned I was contracting. To help ensure that contractions
continued and that this was the real
deal, around 2:30 I repeated the castor oil/Sprite regimen. Over the next
couple hours I continued to have contractions at work. Still no consistency,
but they persisted. I wasn’t in severe pain, but I was uncomfortable. My back
was beginning to ache. Thankfully, it wasn’t a busy afternoon at work because
I was worthless! I don’t think I did any direct patient care the entire
afternoon. I normally clock out at 6, but even just shy of that at about 5:45 I
came out of the bathroom, uncomfortable and impatient, and requested to go
home. At this point, I was mildly disappointed. While the castor oil seemed to
be doing the trick, I hadn’t began active labor and had a baby yet, so I would
likely be laboring through the night and deliver in the middle of the night or
early morning. YAWN. Before leaving I
made sure to tell Adam, my call team leader (I was on call this day!), that I
likely would not be a reliable call person that night!
I got home at around 6:15 and texted Janis just to let her
know I’d been contracting throughout the day. She asked if she should come, but
I told her to wait. I wanted to properly time the contractions to see if there
was any regularity to when they were coming. I knew from Beatrix’s birth that I
didn’t want to wait too long before having Janis come, but at the same time I
didn’t want her to drive all the way to us only to be waiting around for hours
and hours. As it turns out, when I used an actual timer and paid attention to
the contractions, they were coming regularly and consistently. I was still
easily tolerating the pain, but because the contractions were close together, I
decided to have Janis head our way after all. I let my mom know what was
happening and she came over. Phill went to work getting the tub set up, then we
got the girls into bed. They were being SO CUTE. At times during the evening
Eleanor was shouting “Yay Baby!”.
Janis and Amber, the RN birthing assistant, arrived shortly
after 8. I was still doing okay, tolerating moderately difficult contractions.
We chatted while they got supplies around and set up. I went to the bathroom to
change into a swimsuit, came back into the bedroom, and, much to my surprise,
after just a few minutes my water broke while I was standing beside the pool! I
was not anticipating that at all. I
continued to labor for a while longer, intermittently pausing to work through a
contraction. Contractions slowly became more intense, but I don’t have this
sensation that they were ever very horrible. At some point during my labor Tash
arrived. This beautiful angel packed up her whole family that morning when I
merely let her know that I’d been irregularly contracting and made the long trip up from Nashville. She dropped
everything to be present for my birth. I love her always.
Once we confirmed that the tub water was the appropriate
temperature, I got in the tub for the remainder of my labor. Some time after I
got in the tub, Phill’s mom arrived. The weirdest thing about this labor was
how much time lapsed between each contraction. Even up until the end, I had a
good 5-6 minutes between contractions! This made it seem like a very long
labor, when, in fact, it was still quite quick. I think because I had these
lengthy pauses in between each contraction, it made each contraction far easier
to tolerate. If it
wasn’t for my impatience and Janis’ gentle encouragement to try pushing, I
probably would have labored for a few more hours.
This labor process also differed from my past birth
experiences because I didn’t feel a strong bodily urge to push. It was very
much an active thing. This is where the real work came in for this birth. I had
to work to push SO much harder than I ever remember doing with the girls. At
first, I felt like I couldn’t really push. It just felt ineffective, and, like
I said before, I felt like I could tolerate a little more time in this labor.
However, I was ready to be done. I wanted to meet this baby. Janis suggested
changing positions. She suggested I try standing. I did not like this
suggestion. Up until this time I had been on my knees, leaning forward onto the
edge of the birth tub. I tried sitting more upright on my knees and swaying. It
didn’t really help me progress or feel like I was able to push any better.
Finally, when things were really starting to get more uncomfortable, I took her
advice and stood up. Admittedly, part of why I delayed standing was from a
modesty standpoint. My mom and mother in law were present! I was standing and
swaying, struggling to work through the discomfort. I knew that with the next
contraction I was going to push as hard as I could. The contraction came and I
started to push. I immediately felt baby descend, and I dropped to one knee.
Baby’s head was right there at the vaginal opening. It was insanely
uncomfortable. I was so frustrated not only because of the discomfort, but also
because I had to wait for the next contraction (remember how far apart my
contractions had been?!) before I could fully push him out! But push (HARD!) I
did, and at 11:46PM No-Name baby Oprie was born! We discussed how special this
birth date is because it’s the anniversary of my Grandma Carmien’s death.
I honestly don’t remember who actually caught him and
brought him up. I’m assuming I did because I instinctively did that with
Eleanor and Beatrix. I immediately checked to see if he really was a boy
because I still half didn’t believe it! We then proceeded with the placenta
delivery and all the other various check-ups and instructions. Janis and Amber
left at about 2:30 and we were finally able to get some sleep. Tash slept in
the spare room. We all woke up later in the morning to get the girls around and
introduce them to their new baby brother! They were both immediately smitten. I
ate Johnny’s breakfast in bed (my after birth tradition!) and stayed in our room all day. A truly marvelous
aspect of home birth!
Alfred "Alfie" Kimball Oprie
