Day 3: Tuesday, April 24, 2012
After (another) long night of no sleep and lots of contractions, morning brought us Tuesday. Donna thought that I should have been almost fully dilated after more than a full day of steady contractions. Another cervical check told us that, alas, I was STILL at 4 centimeters (I was going to come to despise hearing the words “4 centimeters” over the course of that day). Bre went to buy us some breakfast (have I mentioned yet that I loved how much my midwife fed me?) and we all sat in a circle and ate. We had been cooped up in the house for two days, so Donna decided that Andrew and I would benefit from some fresh air and a long walk. One long hot shower later, the two of us set out together.
There was a school tour going on that day, and I didn’t want to be laboring in front of 200 happy kindergardeners, but trying to be quiet and inconspicuous was really difficult! We tried to stick to the areas where there were no kids, but they seemed to be following us, and I’m sure someone noticed me and how loud I was being. We stopped by the ice cream shop, and sat by the pond together, and relaxed in the warm morning air. It was nice to get out of the house and away from the crowd for a while (there were 10 people coming and going all the time!), so we stayed outside for as long as we could before I couldn’t bear to walk anymore.
We went back inside for lunch (chicken salad courtesy of my wonderful mother-in-law) and ANOTHER cervical check. Donna told me I had progressed to 5 centimeters, but I remembered stories from other mamas about her fibbing just so I wouldn’t get discouraged. I harassed and harangled her and and Andrew for the next hour, until Andrew finally admitted that I was still at 4. That was all I could take; I broke down and sobbed. I was so exhausted, and overwhelmed, and I was truly, honestly scared. I didn’t know if something was wrong with me that was causing me to stall, and honestly I wasn’t even sure if I did want to keep going, because I had no idea what was going to happen when the baby finally did come, and I had no idea how to be a mom. Thank God for Donna. She knew that everything I was feeling was normal new mom anxiety, and she knew how to calm my fears. After lots of hugs, reassurances, and distractions, I was back in a laughing mood and ready to get the show on the road. Donna broke out the big guns and pulled out her bag of ‘witch medicine,’ as I called it. She gave me some homeopathic herbs that were supposed to help speed up my labor, and she made me drink a tonic called black and blue cohosh. She also made me do lunges and elephant walks all around the living room, which felt really dumb and I’m sure looked really silly! I was skeptical, but by the time supper rolled around, I felt like we were making more progress than we had been. As we all sat around and ate tortellini prepared by my mom, I bounced on my yoga ball and breathed through contractions.
After supper, Donna checked me again and finally, FINALLY, she told me that I was 6 centimeters. I know that doesn’t sound like a major achievement, but after being at 4 for 24 hours, I was ecstatic. Donna said it was time to get the ball rolling, and broke my water around 8 pm. We were all sure that this was it, and the time to push would be upon us at any moment. We filled the birth pool again and I got right in and started swimming around while I moved into the transition stage of labor.
Transition was rough. Everyone had told me that it was the worst part of labor, but I wasn’t prepared for how quickly the pain went from tolerable to agonizing. I kept wanting to lay down on the bed, because I was so, so tired, but laying down made everything ten times worse. Donna kept me up and moving: hanging off a rebozo on the bedroom door, kneeling, crawling, walking, and even sitting on her lap. I yelled and screamed my way into Wednesday morning, which we all knew would be bringing us a little angel before dawn.
I don't have any pictures of Tuesday since Sarah left, but fear not, there will be more tomorrow :)
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