So it’s already been more than three weeks, and I just wanted to get this down in writing before I forget how our day went on September 23, 2009, so we can tell Maya one day. Stop reading now if this is more than you want to know!
I slept surprisingly well the night before. The week before had been a pretty rough one. I was so crampy, sore and hurting in the hips so badly that sleep was hard to come by. But the night of the 22nd I slept better than I had in weeks and wasn’t hurting at all for the first time in weeks. We joked when we got up that morning that maybe Maya was giving me a break for a night because she was going to make her appearance finally. Well, turned out we were right!
I woke up at 6 a.m. and the cramps were back, but nothing more than I ‘d had pretty consistently for a week or so, so I didn’t think much of it. By 7, when Jason got up for our daily walk with Bailey, I was feeling bad enough that I sent them off without me. I decided to try a shower to see if that would make me feel better. By the time they got back I knew I was feeling bad enough that I wouldn’t make it to work. I was definitely having more pain, but still no contractions where I could tell a distinct start and end. (This never really changed for me until I was in real active labor.) We tried to time when they were coming, and all we could figure is that every five minutes or less I was having pains that were distinctly worse than my usual cramps.
So we called my doctor and they said to come in and get checked. We were pretty certain this was the real thing, so we grabbed our bags for the hospital and started getting ready to head to the doctor. Then, Mr. Bailey decided he’d try to steel the show by jumping through the screen door and making a run for it. Only our dog! So Jason chased him down, locked him securely in the back yard, and we headed toward the office. By this time I was very uncomfortable.
We got to the office at about 9 a.m. and the doctor checked me. I was in labor and already dilated 5 cm! All along I had hoped to labor at home as long as humanly possible, so we were pretty excited I had done that without hardly knowing! The doctor said they were going to call the hospital and we should head right over there. She also said that I was welcome to have an epidural if I wanted, but if I wanted to give a natural birth a shot, I had a great shot at it because I was already so far along and handling the pain pretty well so far.
All along I had really hoped to do this without any drugs. But at the same time, I had no idea what it would be like, so I was going in with an open mind not wanting to be disappointed when I couldn’t take the pain. So I never created a “birth plan” and really didn’t talk to the doctor about what I wanted much at all. Jason and I knew what our ideal situation would be, and we just decided we’d do what we could to make that happen at the hospital, but we knew a lot of luck was involved too, so we’d just have to wait and see. As long as we ended up with a healthy baby, we’d be ecstatic. Why no drugs? I completely realize some people think that’s a crazy prospect! (I kind of did too…) But I wanted to have the best chance possible to avoid a C section, and from all of my reading a preparing decided that was one of the best ways to do that. And I wanted to be able to feel and experience Maya’s birth without pain medicine if possible. And most of all I wanted Maya to have the chance of being born without the effect of the epidural on her if I could bear it.
So we checked into the hospital at about 10 a.m. I wasn’t too excited to be hooked up to an IV, but they didn’t give me a choice! I’m sure I irritated our nurse a little though because I wanted nothing to do with bed. It made me so much more uncomfortable to be laying down or sitting for that matter. After a little persistence she allowed me to be up and only monitor Maya intermittently. They brought me a ball, which I labored on for quite awhile. Contractions were getting stronger but not unbearable. At some point I did get back in bed and was never able to get myself back up.
At about 1 p.m., my doctor came to check on me. She broke my water and said I was dilated to about a 7. I had started to consider an epidural at about this point, mostly because the idea of doing this for hours upon hours was starting to worry me as contractions got stronger. Jason did his part, like I’d asked him to, and encouraged me to keep going and to be sure I really wanted the epidural before I took it. This was what I needed since I was handling the pain fairly well still, but just feeling a little weak here and there! I asked the doctor after she broke my water if she thought I should hold out. She said she thought I’d have a baby in an hour or two either way but that she didn’t think I needed the epidural. (But could of course have one if I wanted.) I can never stand to lose a challenge, so in a way I think this helped to push through the end! My doctor also said I was having the labor many women dream of, which I think is true and I’m thankful for. I got so lucky to have things move along so quickly, which is not usually the case for first babies.
Things got a little rough at this point. Contractions got a lot stronger after my water was broken, but I was lucky that until the end they managed to stay a decent ways apart, so I had time to rest in between. From what I remember I had probably three really bad ones before I felt ready to push. So the nurse checked me again and said it wasn’t quite time, but she was going to call the doctor and by the time she got there she thought I’d be ready. So the end was in sight!
A short time later the midwife who works in my doctor’s practice showed up. She checked me and said it was time to start pushing. So I did! The doctor got there a short time later. I felt like I had to push forever. We can’t remember how long it was. But it was by far the hardest work I’ve ever done and took every ounce of energy I had in my body. I remember that everything around me was a little bit of a blur, I was really just in my own world, eyes closed most of the time.
Her head of black hair is what everyone started to see first. And when I was finally able to push her out, it was the greatest relief and feeling ever. And she certainly made her arrival with a healthy set of lungs! Jason cut her umbilical cord and soon she was in my arms! So at 3:37 p.m. Maya Makenzie Crane was born, and we couldn’t be happier or luckier to have her in our lives. She weighed 8 pounds 14 ounces and was 19.5 inches long.