On Wednesday, October 6, 2021 I had my 39-week appointment during which I had my OB strip my membranes. Due to my having had gestational diabetes, and the toll pregnancy was taking on my body, I didn’t want to go past my due date. I also wanted to avoid induction in the form of Pitocin, cervical balloons, etc. I decided membrane stripping would be the best and most “natural” way to go.
Starting the next morning, I began to have mild contractions. I was walking around a lot and squatting in the hopes they would become regular. Starting at around 2 PM that day I was able to get my contractions quite regular. Having plans to have an unmedicated birth using hypnobirthing, I decided I wanted to labor from home for as long as possible since I knew that would be the most comfortable.
Around 1 AM on Friday, October 8 I called my Doula, Michaela to come to our home for support. Michaela was really great and would apply counter pressure during each contraction and I would focus on relaxing and just taking a deep slow breath.
At roughly 8 AM that morning we left to go to the hospital to see how I was progressing since I’d been contracting regularly for at least 6 hours. With this being my first full-term pregnancy/labor and delivery I didn’t want to push anything too close from home, plus we were about 30 minutes away from the hospital.
Once at the hospital, I got checked in and observation began on Kimberlee’s heart rate and my contractions. When we first arrived I had been dilated to a three and 100% effaced. They wanted to see how long it would take for me to get to 5cm and then break my waters if I was progressing quickly enough.
I spent the next two hours squatting, walking, and dancing to country music… needless to say, it was effective. I made it to 5cm, was admitted and they broke my water. My labor continued to progress and the hypnobirthing and counterpressure techniques were working perfectly. I felt very optimistic until things really turned.
I couldn’t tell you what time it was or how long this next stage lasted, but I reached a stage when I was in an incredible amount of pain. Kimberlee was posterior which was also causing very intense back labor while simultaneously preventing my body from progressing. I changed positions multiple times and Anthony was absolutely amazing. I reached a point I felt I couldn’t keep going unmedicated and he encouraged and coached me for at least another hour. It was a beautiful bonding experience for us and made all the pain worth it just to have that.
It was almost 7pm and my body hadn’t progressed at all. My doula, Michaela thought I had entered transition because of the different visual and audible cues (shaking, breathing, deep sounds etc.). After at least 7 hours of being stuck at a 5, contractions growing in intensity, I felt an epidural was now necessary. I was grateful I made that call because I labored for another 11 hours.
Unfortunately, things didn’t suddenly go smoothly after receiving the epidural. Instead, a whole new set of complications arose.
For whatever reason, the epidural made my contractions so close together that there was no break at all. This put Kimberlee into distress, causing her heart rate to drop and so they quickly gave me a shot in my leg to stop my contractions. Once stopped and Kimberlee was stable, they administered Pitocin to get things going again.
It wasn’t long before Kimberlee was in distress again. Her heart rate would drop as low as 40 or so. This was concerning for several reasons, including that she could not survive with such a low heart rate and it could also cause brain damage. The nurses and doctor were calm and did a great job explaining what steps they’d be taking.
They stopped the Pitocin, inserted an internal heart rate monitor to track Kimberlee’s heart, and made us aware that if she didn’t improve we’d be doing an emergency c-section. I was terrified and was holding back tears, but all I could think was that we were going to lose another baby. Anthony was experiencing similar thoughts and emotions. Once she stabilized me everything looked good, Anthony left the room for a few minutes to walk off that emotional rollercoaster.
The next item of concern was trying to get her to turn anterior. We tried putting me on my side with a leg up in a stirrup and also tried using a peanut ball … but this girl was NOT moving. It was becoming more and more likely the doctor would have to turn her.
My nurse checked me at 9.5cm and Kimberlee was still posterior. Then, magically at 10cm Kimberlee turned! I couldn’t believe it because there were maybe 5 minutes between the nurse checking me. I felt relieved.
The time to push came and I was ready. I was so done with this birthing experience, I was determined to hone my mother’s pushing skills and get this baby out. After 8 pushes I was told to stop because one more push and Kimberlee would come out, but the doctor was not yet in the room. Well, Kimberlee wasn’t waiting because she slid right on out of me, forcing the nurse to catch her. I guess she was as done as I was 
After over 40 hours of labor, Kimberlee was born October 9th at 6:06am weighing 7lbs 3oz and 20 inches long.
I lost a lot of blood and had a 2nd-degree tear while also tearing in a star formation so I was stitched up for a long time … and then I also spiked a fever at the end from having had my water broken for so long. In order to slow my bleeding and prevent infection in my uterus, all kinds of fluids, medications, and antibiotics were pushed into my body.
In the end, I came through healthy with no further complications. Kimberlee ended up passing her blood sugar tests and after two days under lights, her bilirubin levels went down plenty for us to take her home without the lights (she had Coombs due to our incompatible blood types as well as high bilirubin levels).
Kimberlee’s birthing went NOTHING like I’d hoped or planned for. In fact, it was traumatizing, long, and so emotional. Almost everything that I planned didn’t happen for reasons completely out of my control. At the end of the day though, I was willing to accept whatever was necessary to get our beautiful baby girl in our arms safe and sound.
I’m so grateful to the hospital staff, my husband, and my doula for their support as well as my Heavenly Father for protecting both her and I.
