Sibby's Birth

I wrote this for our birth class days after she was born...I am not going to edit it for the blog...so here goes!

Benson and I wanted to let you know that on her due date, 1/11/11, Sibyl "Sibby" O'Connor joined the Ward family during the height of the ice storm! More details will follow (unless I go on for a while), but I will say that everything we thought might happen during labor went completely out the window when we had a precipitious labor. We had our bags packed to spend days laboring with all of the accoutrements we expected I would need to get through a long and grueling labor. Instead I spent Monday with what I thought was normal mid-back pain and mild Braxton Hicks (I had not had any during the pregnancy really and was not sure) and went to bed around 12:30 after the national championship game. At 12:55 my water broke and we contemplated putting off calling the doctor since I had no other symptoms. We called anyways and the answering service said they would send him a message. Within 30 minutes Benson was timing my contractions which (there were only a few we timed before getting in the car) jumped around from 8 to 6 to 4 minutes apart. Frustrated we had not heard from the doctor yet, Benson called the answering service again at 2:00, and was put through to a doc on call who said to come on in. Still thinking I had 24 hours ahead for me, I took a quick shower but realized I was in way too much pain and we got in the car at 2:35 to brave the treacherous road to Emory Midtown. Normally a 20 minute drive, it turned into an hour long ordeal because on Monday night the highway was still just a huge sheet of ice. I think I went into a bit of a zone, but I do remember starting to get nervous that my contractions seemed one on top of the other and that I was in intense pain during them. This was not aided by the fact that the ice made the roads very rough and I was having to hold myself off of the car seat from the rough ride and squeeze my legs together because i felt the "urge to poop" -- which in the back of my mind I knew meant that I was basically ready to push, but Benson said I just kept mentioning between contractions how bad I had to go number two. Of course, this was a white knuckle experience for him, poor thing, trying to control the car and timing my contractions which were between 3-1 minutes apart during the ride. I also went through a short transition in the car, which maybe lasted 1 contraction and was super intense. It is odd, because I was quite aware of everything that was going on and I had two voices in my head....one was that this can't really be intense labor yet b/c of the timing and that I am obviously not going to be able to handle actual labor, and another voice monitoring the reality of the situation and fearing a birth in the car and knowing this was it! We made it to Emory at 3:35 am. We couldn't even use any emergency or valet entrance b/c of the ice and I had to walk from visitor parking. While Bens was signing a thing or two I went to the women's restroom in the waiting room to sit on the toilet where a nurse quickly found me and told me I did not want to have this baby on a toilet! Walking to the Labor & Delivery area, we saw Dr. Tate and I felt instant relief. We still had not heard from him and I was worried he might not make it. He said that the girl from the answering service who didn't return our call might be out of work soon... We went into a room, they stripped me in seconds, and he checked me immediately. The nurses barely had time to take a blood sample and I definitely didn't have anything else poked (no IVs, etc.)! I didn't quite understand when he told the resident that I was fully dilated and plus two...but then he turned to me and told me that with my next contraction it is time to start pushing. Dr. Tate grabbed a leg and told Benson to grab the other. In no time, I was ready and began to push. I had four sets of three pushes and she was born! We arrived at Emory at 3:35 and she made her entrance into the world at 4:07. She could easily have been born in the car! I guess what stopped it was me holding my legs together and tensing up so much holding myself up off the seat. During those 4 sets I went through a range of emotions....I was in shock and denial during the first two. Luckily I had the hang of it from the beginning...After the second push Dr. Tate said he could see the head and Benson saw a bit of the hair and I guess I then realized I was really having a baby! After the third, the baby was at the "ring of fire" which was so painful and it seemed an eternity that she was just hanging out there while we were waiting for the fourth wave of contractions. It was so surreal when she was born and we found out our "it" was in fact a she. I had a second degree tear which has NOT been fun. The placenta was not coming down as Dr. Tate would have liked and they had to spend a bit of time on me pushing on top of my stomach and reaching in to help get it out. I barely noticed though -- my baby had been placed on me! Benson really didn't have time to put many of his Bradley skills into practice but he has become the most hands on dad I can imagine. In a way I feel like I lucked out with a fast labor, but at the same time it was a risky and nerve wrecking way to come. From the little bit I've read since Tuesday, it is quite rare to have a labor like that but it is deemed dangerous and has added risks -- you are more likely to tear and hemorrhage because your body doesn't really have time to respond to the labor; the contractions are obviously shorter but they are supposed to be more intense and painful. I wouldn't know b/c I have nothing to compare them to! I was definitely in shock and not really emotionally ready for the birth! We are just so happy to have her here and are so thankful to Cheryl and everyone for helping us prepare! Benson did not use many of the physical coaching skills, but mentally the classes helped us immensely (Benson says that my talk of having to poop during the drive to the hospital freaked him out, because he knew from all the stories in class that this symptom meant it was time to push. He did not want to deliver our baby by himself on a snowbank on the side of I-85.)! Mom, Dad and Sibby are all doing great. Pictures to come...Betsy, Benson and Sibby