I woke up at 5am the morning after I
turned 24 feeling the need to urinate,
but it was different. That feeling
that you get when you're on your
period and a clot is about to come
out... that's the only way I can
describe it. When I went to the
restroom a trickle came out, but it
wasn't urine. I convinced myself I
had urinated, but after 15 minutes of
feeling very uncomfortable in bed, I
went back to the bathroom to sit on
the toilet. This time a small
gush... "That wasn't pee- my water
broke!" I told myself. Half excited
and half scared, I yelled to my
husband who was probably half asleep
still and I told him what had
happened. I decided to call my
midwife (we had planned a home-
birth). She asked me to describe the
fluid and said to keep taking my
temperature and come see her at 11am
and until then not to use any public
restrooms. We went to the store to
purchase food then prepped our
apartment for the birth of our
daughter with sheets, towels, and
everything else we planned on using.
Excitedly we visited our midwife. She
checked me and I was 75% effaced, 1/2
cm dilated and our little one hadn't
engaged yet. She gave us black and
blue herbs and said to purchase caster
oil and gave us instructions to get
this labor underway. After the visit
I had little contractions that were
erratic and everywhere with absolutely
no pattern and nothing to catch my
attention. I tried going for walks
and getting on my birthing ball...
anything to try and get labor going.
At 7 or 8pm- our midwife visited us
and checked me again... 90% effaced
and 1 cm dilated. She said to just
get some rest, do another round of
herbs and to called her if I started
feeling the urge to bear down. I got
3 hours of whatever rest I could
because I was extrememly
uncomfortable, but by then whatever
contractions I had had stopped
completely. Around 5:30am the next
morning (about 24 hours post-rupture)
I was checked again and absolutely no
progress. Around 7am our midwife
called the hospital and the protocol
was immediate C-section. So we prayed
together for peace, packed my bag, and
my husband and I met our second
midwife at the hospital. My husband
had physically become ill by the
prospect of going to the hospital, but
we got there, registered, and they put
me in a gown and sent me to triage.
It was there that they told me I was
pre-eclamptic (which was complete
nonsense- the situation had sent my
blood pressure up and the reason there
was blood in my urine was because my
water broke). They did an US and
there were still some pockets of fluid
surrounding our little one. My
midwife said she was the wiggliest
baby she had ever seen during labor!
Deciding that it was okay to let my be
induced- they gave me an IV, filled it
with fluid and antibiotics. About 3pm
I had only reached 4 cm, but was 100%
effaced. They then amped the pitcon
up all the way and after two
contractions my husband begged me to
get an epidural (it was excrutiatingly
painful and I was exhausted). They
gave me the epidural (unfortunately
they stuck it too far in and I had
spinal headaches for a week and a half
afterwards) and three hours later they
woke me up and said I was ready to
push. My daughter's heart tones were
perfect and she was still a very
wiggly baby. My midwife said my
daughter never reached zero station
until after I started pushing. Twelve
minutes later we met our little
girl... all 6 lbs 15.9 oz of her. I
had torn around my urethral opening
and the bleeding hadn't stopped. I
lost 1 liter of blood, but we decided
against a transfusion. After sewing
me up and making sure my blood
pressure was on its way down... they
handed me my daughter and I was able
to start nursing immediately. They
sent her to the nursery for a bath,
but when she was "hungry" they sent
her back to me. After a couple of
very difficult weeks (mostly because
of the spinal headaches) we felt like
the little family that we were meant
to be. My daughter and I came out
alive and healthy and THAT is what
truly matters. She is truly an amazing
blessing! My daughter Phoebe is now
almost 18 months old and I'm 23 weeks
pregnant with our second child- a
little boy named Stephen. We're
praying that we don't have PROM with
our son, but if we do... I kinda know
what to expect now and we have opted
to have a hospital birth this time
around. :-)
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