Birth Story: Sunday

Axel, 2012

By the early hours of Sunday morning, things were getting really tough. Will had been up with me for the majority of the night, and the contractions were getting deeper and stronger. I’d heard of people being in labor for 24 or 36 hours, and I was counting ahead from Friday at 2:51 a.m. and trying to gauge how much longer I had to go. The scheduler and control freak in me felt like I needed a time frame to be able to keep doing this. 

Even though my plan all along had been to labor at home for as long as possible, I started to feel like maybe we should head to the hospital soon to get things going. Will called the doula and she said she’d be right over. 

When she arrived at our apartment at around 7 a.m., I was lying on the living room floor in a cotton robe, crying, while Will was looking on a little unsure of what to do or say. She was instantly very soothing, but when she told me I was in “early labor,” I couldn’t quite accept it. Really? This is early labor? If that’s the case, I thought, then I don’t know how I am going to get through this. 

She had me take a tincture of black and blue cohosh, which is supposed to make contractions more regular, and suggested some castor oil. I was really reluctant to take that, as I was feeling badly enough as it was without adding digestive issues to the mix. I was starting to have my bloody show, and it was a relief to have her there to have a peek because otherwise I would have been more alarmed by the extent of the bleeding. 

The three of us walked down to the river again and stopped into Modca where I got an iced latte. When the doula said we still had some time to go, I was in a little bit of disbelief, but I figured that she knew what she was talking about and I had no other choice but to trust her judgement. At around noon, she left us to it and said she’d be back immediately if we found things were really picking up. 

Will made me a grilled cheese and some freshly cut up watermelon which was delicious. I went back to bed and then at 3 p.m. contractions started happening at a definite 5-minutes apart. We were trying to get to 3 minutes apart, for at least a minute, for an hour (3-1-1) before we left home.