Sarah's Birth

SARAH HARTZELL THOMAS
Born 11/4/08 at 8:30am
7lbs 10oz; 20in

At 12:30am, after turning over for the third time that night to get comfortable, I felt my water break. Quickly I jump out of bed and ran to the adjacent bathroom before I could ruin my bedding and the carpet. I could feel the fluids running down my pant legs and fervently hoped that I make it to the bathroom before anything escaped my clothing. Luckily I made it to the toilet before the next gush. Sitting on the toilet, I was wondering how this labor was going to progress since previous labors have been more painful after my water breaks. I was also a little worried that I was only 37 weeks along. This would be the earliest I had ever delivered. After feeling a bit more confident that I wouldn't gush all over the room, I went back to the bedroom and got out my birthing supplies (this was a planned home birth). I laid a path of chux pads on the floor leading from my bed to the bathroom. Then I laid one on the bed so I could try to rest. Still no contractions. I woke Alex to let him know that my water broke. Gladly he called work to let them know he wouldn't be coming in at 4am. It was cold and I was worried that I would get my blankets messy if I got under them, but I'm not wearing pants anymore so I try. Finally I had a contraction. Not too bad. I waited for the next one, but it didn't come for another 30 minutes. So, I put a towel between my legs and went downstairs to get a few things-the camera, a drink and tp (we hadn't brought the tp upstairs yet ;p). I also took extra red raspberry leaf to try and get some contractions going and to keep the pain down, then headed back upstairs. I labored for a few hours while Alex went in and out of sleep, checking to see how things were going. By 2am I felt like calling our sitter to let her know that we will probably need her in the morning. I have no idea why I called her so early, and feel kinda bad that I did. I just hope that she got some sleep that night. A few more hours, I just go back and forth from the bed to the bathroom. The contractions keep the pattern of one or two with about 20 to 30 minutes in between. And with each contraction I feel like pushing a little-enough to bring the baby down a little further. By 5am the contractions got a little stronger and I was VERY tired and VERY cold. I just wanted to lay down and sleep-to have it all done with. So, I got into the shower to relax and warm up. Alex got up to call work again around this time and decided to take a shower downstairs before all the hot water was gone. Since he was using up the hot water downstairs, I figured it might be good to put the plug in the tub. The hot water was soon gone and Alex came back around the time I gave up on the shower. I was so upset that I can't use the shower anymore and battled within myself. I knew it won't be good to labor in the bath since my water was already broken and chances were good that I was GBS+. But comfort won out and I sat in the tub to labor in the warm water. The next two hours are just a blur of waiting for contractions and moving around in the bath trying to find a comfortable position to deal with the pain. Alex was so considerate and started boiling water after the hot water gave out so I would have hot water if my bath got cold. By 7am Alex's focus was getting the other children fed and dressed as they slowly woke up for the day. I was perfectly content to have no one in the room while I labored. Every time Alex was in there I felt like a watched pot. So he called the sitter to come and pick up the kids while making sure they were fed and stayed out of 'my' bathroom. By 7:45 he had all the children off to the sitters and came up to help me out in any way. I had finally hit transition at this point even with the contractions only coming every 15-20 minutes. At 8am I couldn't stand being in the tub anymore. So I moved to the bed. Alex moved the blankets out of the way while I demanded to have a towel under me. At first, I started pushing like I had been with each contraction. I couldn't tolerate the pain, so I yelled with it "IT HURTS, IT HURTS, OWWWW." For three contractions I did this, and then I could feel the baby starting to descend. Then the real pushing started. It hurt and took more pushing than most of my children. But she took her time and came down slowly. Once she crowned I put my hand down to feel her head and make sure my perineum was stretching and not tearing as she came out. Slowly it stretched over her head and she came out in one last push. She had spun as she came out and ended up landing on her back, looking up, and screaming. It was 'love at first sight.' After dealing with some hemorrhaging and retained placenta, things settled down and we were able to get to know our little Sarah better. She is a quiet and patient little girl and is loved by all her brothers and sisters. No one could be more loved than she is right now.