Sunday, August 31st.

We had a relatively light schedule at the Inn.  We had a full house, but only one room checking out, so after our late Sunday breakfast (9am instead of 8am), we did the one room over.  We had guests checking into that room, but it was their wedding night and mom was picking up the keys around noon so they could not worry about checking in at any particular time.  The mom came and checked in for the couple, and we decided to head downtown for lunch.

We had lunch at Peppers, chicken chimichangas, not really a spicy lunch, but a very tasty one.  Since we didn’t have anywhere to be we decided to drive further downtown and walk to see the salmon run and then hit Harbor Days and see if we could see the Tugboat Races.

The salmon are indeed running and we actually saw them and a seal going up the fish ladder, it was the first time I have seen them actually using the ladder.  From there we walked along the boardwalk and through the vendors at Harbor Days.  We missed the tugboat races, but there were still plenty of pirates around and the tugs were pulling back into the harbor so we were able to see them including a tiny wood strip one that was barely big enough to fit one person.  It was adorable and beautiful at the same time.

After walking up to Harbor Plaza we walked back toward the car and a vendor caught my eye, it was an author from Puyallup who was there selling his second children’s book and doing book signings.  It is a very cute book about Elf Night and has lots of information about Christmas and Santa.  So we purchased a book and had it signed.  Then we meandered through downtown into the antique shops looking at different things, all in all it was just a great relaxed day.

We came home and decided to relax and watch some TV.  I had been having practice labor off and on for several days, nothing to write home about, just those surges that come and go every now and then in anticipation and preparation for the real thing.  Dr Bell always asks if they were regular in spacing, intensity and I had never really timed them but really they were pretty sporadic.  But while we were watching Blazing Saddles on TV I could also see the camera monitor which has the time and seconds on it so I thought I would time a few just to see where the surges were at.  First one came and it was about 60 seconds long.  Second came ten minutes later, 60 seconds long.  Third one again ten minutes later, 60 seconds long.   Fourth one…eight minutes later.  So I casually turn to Nathan as he is fast forwarding through commercials, (we love Tivo), and say, "My contractions seem to be about 10 minutes apart for the last hour."

That got him moving for sure.  He called the on-call number because we knew that Dr Bell was on call as when we went in on Wednesday for my Group B Strep retest and found that I was 1cm more dilated than the day before he told us he was on call on Sunday and Monday and perhaps we would see him then.  The on call service gave us the number for labor and delivery at the hospital and instructed us to call them.  The hospital looked up our chart and told us that when the contractions were consistently 6 – 8 minutes apart to come in as at that point after the one that was eight minutes later it went back to being ten minutes.

So while I cooked dinner of penne pasta with alfredo sauce, Nathan busily packed the last of the stuff into the van, and called our backup for inn and his parents as they were due to leave for the airport the next day.  We ate dinner, watched more TV and I told Nathan when a contraction started and ended and he took over timing them.  It didn’t take long for the contractions to be consistently 6 minutes apart.  Nathan called the hospital, told them we were going to be there in 10 minutes, and off we went at about 8pm.

After checking in at the hospital we discovered that they were virtually empty.  There was one other woman in a labor and delivery room, and us in the exam room.  They checked my cervix and I was still only 3cm dilated but was about 75% effaced which on Wednesday I was only 50% so there was some progress there.  Our nurse told us to walk around for an hour, keep track of the contractions and they would check me again to see if they would keep me.  So off on a walk around the maze that is St Pete’s.  They have been doing a lot of construction and there is just an amazing web of hallways.  As we were walking I was using the blooming rose visualization from HypnoBirthing.  Imagining my cervix was the rose and slowly blooming and opening, but in the back of my mind I still wondered if it was real labor or not.  I wasn’t in any pain, just a tightening sensation in my abdomen.  Honestly I have had menstrual cramps stronger.

After walking the halls we returned to our exam room and I knew that I was going to be more dilated as the contractions were getting stronger the more we walked.  Upon rechecking I was 100% effaced and dilated 5cm.  The nurse finished the exam and said, "Well you aren’t going anywhere until you have a baby."  We were transferred to a labor and delivery room with a large chromatherapy tub.  Nathan called our backup again to tell them we weren’t going anywhere and asked them to call his parents to let them know that Katie or Abby would pick them up at the airport.  Nathan also called our Doula Barbara to let her know that we were back at the hospital one year later.  She as everyone else said, "Are you serious?"  Nathan jokes with a lot of people, but usually doesn’t make random calls at 9:30pm.

While we were waiting for Barbara, our nurse MaryLou tried to start the IV for my antibiotics, but with the swelling I had she couldn’t find any convenient veins that weren’t in the back of my hands and since I was going to have the thing in me until after the baby was born they didn’t want to use my hands so they were free while I was laboring.  IV therapy came down and tried to find a vein too, but they didn’t have much luck either, the best she could find was in my inner upper bicep which is now sporting a lovely purple, green and yellow bruise.  Once the antibiotics were in, which give you a lovely taste in your mouth by the way, and Barbara arrived I got into the tub to labor for a while, I thought it would probably help with the swelling in my feet and legs as well.

Nathan turned on our music, we chose a large selection of CDs that we use at the inn, mostly piano music, no singing, and all the lights in the room were turned down low, it was just the kind of relaxing environment we were looking for.

We figured out how to control the lights in the tub, and I turned on the violet light (the red and yellow were a bit disturbing), and I labored in the tub for probably close to two hours.  I am not normally a tub person, nine times out of ten I would choose a nice steamy shower over a soak in a tub, so when the water started to get cool, instead of refilling it with hot I decided I was done with the tub and I needed to be up and moving.

At this point my surges or contractions were getting a lot stronger, but still not what I would call painful.  I continued to rock and walk around the ward for a while and then in my room where I could hear the music and focus more.  We did a combination of scripts from the HypnoBirthing and I focused on my breathing, baby, and relaxing.  As a strong surge would come on I would breathe and recite in my head that my body was designed for childbirth and to let it and the baby do what they needed to.  During this time I was sitting on the birthing ball, but during the surges I had hip pain so I abandoned the ball.

The nurse came in and said that Dr Bell had been notified that I was at the hospital and he was on his way in.  Nathan asked if I wanted to try and rest (aka sleep), and I told him that I didn’t think there would be time, she, the baby, had other plans.   During one particularly strong surge I told my doula that I felt like if I squatted down that the baby would come.  So she said to go with that urge and on the next contraction I squatted at the end of the bed and at the end of the contraction Nathan noticed that we were both standing in a puddle.  My water had broken.  After squatting for several surges Barbara suggested using the birthing stool.  I was still sitting on the stool when Dr Bell arrived.  After quickly checking my progress I was 9.5cm dilated and I knew it wouldn’t be long until our little girl arrived.  At this point we knew we weren’t going to get in the three rounds of antibiotics we were hoping for, but as labor was progressing quickly it probably wasn’t going to matter.

Barbara asked Dr Bell if he had a problem with me delivering on the stool or squatting on the bed, and he said that if at some point he was uncomfortable he would let us know, but that he was going to continue to let me do what I was doing because I seemed to be in pretty good control of the situation.

I stayed on the stool for quite a while, but I think it was either too high or too low for my hips to be comfortable and even with applying the counter pressure they were very sore during the surges.  Barbara suggested getting on the bed, with the back (or head) fully raised and kneeling facing the head of the bed so my upper legs and hips would be straight and I could use the bed to support my upper body.  At this point I saw a glimpse of Dr Bell and I started to laugh.  He looked like he was going snowshoeing, big blue scrubs, puffy white shoe protector things, big gloves and a face mask.  Nathan asked him if he needed to do anything and he said no, he was just going to wait until he was needed because I still had things well under control.

He did ask for a hand mirror though because from this position he couldn’t see if the baby was crowning unless he laid down on the bed and looked up, which I think he contemplated and decided a hand mirror might be a better option.  About 30 minutes after assuming this position the surges were very intense and almost right on top of one another.  I kept on with my breathing, making sure the baby was getting all of the rich oxygen I was taking in and letting my body do the pushing.  I remember saying, "Here she comes" and Dr Bell saying that I was right he could see the head when I had a contraction.  He then started to massage my perineum so that it would relax further and in two more surges baby Lauren’s head had come out and Barbara announced, "She has hair!’

On the next surge she was fully born at 3:16am and I was overwhelmed with happiness to hear her cry. I still couldn’t see her at this point because she was underneath and behind me and Dr Bell said, "Whatever you do, don’t sit down."  He suctioned her nose and mouth and told me to lean back and they passed Lauren under and up to me.  After the cord had stopped pulsing, Nathan cut her cord and then I somehow got turned around so I was laying in the bed.  Barbara and the nurse gave her a quick wipe down and after Nathan asked if anyone had checked to make sure it was a girl, I checked and yes indeed she was a beautiful baby girl.  Wide eyed, dark hair and perfectly peaceful.

As the three of us were cuddling, I delivered her placenta, fully intact and healthy.  I also started breast feeding and she took to it like a champ.  Dr Bell then did an inspection and said there was no tearing, just a small abrasion which was probably from her hand as she had it on her chin when she was born.  He also then said it was one of the most amazing births he has ever seen and he was so honored to be a part of it.  He also said it was his first HypnoBirthing birth and first upside down and backward birth, (from his perception anyhow).

Lauren was weighed, etc after an hour and a half or so, perfectly calm and alert.  She weighed in at 7lbs, 8.6oz and 19inches long.  Actually we think she was longer than that but she was so wiggly and strong that we think that was as close as the nurse could get, Lauren kept stealing the stethoscope and tape measure.  Her head was 12.75 inches in circumference and her feet, toes and fingers are very long and graceful.  All the nurses kept commenting on how strong she was and she still is.

Our nurse, doula, and doctor were amazed by her birth, and I know they were telling other people as every time a new nurse came in one of the first things they said was that they had been told we had an amazing delivery.  I was up and moving around about two or three hours after her birth and she was still alert and awake just taking in her surroundings.  We asked to be discharged from the hospital early as none of us were sleeping that well and both Dr Bell and Dr Harvey (Lauren’s doctor) said they were fine with that.  So on Tuesday, Sept 2nd we came home and arrived just after Nathan’s parents who were picked up from the airport by Katie and Beckett as we were otherwise occupied!

We are at home now and Lauren is thriving, and is a great joy in our life, every day she changes a little and we are just happy she chose us as her family.  Oh and her name…Lauren was the only girls name we came up with when we were pregnant with the twins and I liked it because it has a tree relation for its meaning (laurel).  Maxine was my father’s mother’s (Grandma Max) name and Beryl was Nathan’s father’s mother’s (Beach Nan) name.  The name suits her perfectly too!