Updated by Margot on 9/4/14. All updates in italics.
The birth of a baby is always breathtaking. But it is never easy. Margot worked so very hard and at the end of it all, we have a beautiful, and big, baby boy.
I will let the pictures tell some of the story, but a shout out to our doula Carrie Cohen, whose quiet strength and persistence to get Margot in different positions, helped us immeasurably and to our midwife Helen Welch, a energetic woman from Newfoundland who always believed in Margot throughout the toughest parts of the birth. We later found out that she delivered our regular midwife's (Geri Cullers) babies at home births over 30 years ago. Geri said,"She is my hero."
So here is the story: After inducing in the middle of the night, Margot had not progressed much by mid day with plenty of pitocin to get things going. We tried lots of different positions and walked a lot, but Margot was smiling and laughing the whole time and watched a bit of the movie Blended.
Margot got lots of compliments in her fashionista gown as previously reported.
Jon was in charge of making a mess with of the room. He did wonderfully.
These baby graphs are burned into our brain after focusing on them for the contractions. They even had TVs around the hallways so like a sportsbar, you wouldn't miss a beat while taking a stroll.
View from our window
Our doula Carrie.
Margot, getting her lunge on. After some hard work as pictured above, Margot had dilated to around 5cm and around noon or one the birth team and us decided to go ahead and break the bag of waters. We braced ourselves since it really got labor going like crazy for Henry. But Helen did a slow release technique, which was much more gentle then what I had remembered happening with Henry. We continued to work through the contractions, and Margot was a real champ getting into crazy yoga poses in the hallway. The nurses were like 'you go, girl' and 'I need to work out with her'.
Eventually, the contractions got more intense and the midwife and nurse sensed that it was time for the birth tub. We headed in to the tub in the nick of time and Margot began transition around 4pm. This was the toughest time of labor with one hour of grueling contractions and we stayed in the tub with her birth team surrounding her and getting her water, shoulder rubs, and an encouraging word after a each contraction, sort of like a boxer in the ring, with her team.
Eventually, we decided it was time to move to the bed for delivery around 5pm. The team helped Margot out of the tub and she began to push. My favorite part about this period is Margot using helpful mantra words to help her focus, like down or open, and even happy. Try chanting HAAAAAA-PPPEEEEE, while in excruciating pain. Wow! She told me later that these contractions were her most productive and were the least painful, and we kept reminding her (at her initial suggestion) to trust her body and surrender which of course is easier said than done.
At one point, it was hard to keep the monitor on the baby's heartbeat, and the MD monitoring the situation was getting uncomfortable. There was a hubbub of activity, and I swear the doc said "we need a scalpel on that" which I thought was medical speak for a c-section. Turns out, he was really saying a scalp lead, which is a little heart monitor attached to baby's head that assures hospital staff that he was ok. The good news is that baby was ok the whole time and not distressed, so we were able to keep laboring without much more intervention.
Unfortunately, Margot was still only 9.5cm dilated. Despite heroic efforts on her part confronting some intolerable pain, the baby was not quite ready to come. For some reason I continued to have an anterior lip of my cervix that was blocking complete dilation. They asked me to try not to push through a few contractions, which was challenging to say least, but it still wasn't helping get the baby out. We discovered later the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck so that was why he was not able to come down. Both mama and baby's vitals were strong so everyone remained hopeful we could still deliver vaginally, but we made the call to go ahead and get the epidural hooked up to give Margot a break, and let her rest.
With the help of Margot's electric tea lights and the amazing Otis Redding, we were able to cool the mood way down. I had a terrible chill from the tub and the epidural and was shaking intermittently and simultaneously had a fever, hence all the blankets.
Margot's cheerful disposition resumed.
Dusk was upon and we were all hopeful that baby was about to arrive.
Jon getting comfortable before baby's arrival.
About an hour after getting the epidural the midwife (we had a new midwife because of the shift change, her name was Chris and she was lovely too, but a little more conservative then Helen) checked me again and I was finally complete and ready to push. Something about the epidural and being able to relax completely must have allowed me to fully open up. There was and OB/GYN standing in the room during delivery ready to intervene or assist because the midwife was afraid my baby was going to be too big and get his shoulders stuck. After about twenty minutes of pushing, baby Strauhull finally arrived. Margot did wonderfully! I swear she barely broke a sweat at this point. Pain medication had really helped her to relax, and gave us the extra umph to get the baby out. The cord was so tight that we had to clip it with his head halfway out or he would not come down. Once we did that, he slipped out and we had to massage him a bit to get the characteristic baby sqwak/first cry. 30 seconds of coughing up and getting some blood flow, baby let out a big cry letting us know he was ok. It was an amazing moment and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. Here are some pictures of the first couple hours.
And then we found out that he weighed 10lbs 6oz. What a big baby! Without Margot's strength and courage, and our wonderful birth team, we could never have made it. But baby is here and everyone is healthy and happy. We are grateful and happy beyond words. A shout out to Otis for setting the mood proper.
The birth of a baby is always breathtaking. But it is never easy. Margot worked so very hard and at the end of it all, we have a beautiful, and big, baby boy.
I will let the pictures tell some of the story, but a shout out to our doula Carrie Cohen, whose quiet strength and persistence to get Margot in different positions, helped us immeasurably and to our midwife Helen Welch, a energetic woman from Newfoundland who always believed in Margot throughout the toughest parts of the birth. We later found out that she delivered our regular midwife's (Geri Cullers) babies at home births over 30 years ago. Geri said,"She is my hero."
Margot got lots of compliments in her fashionista gown as previously reported.
View from our window
Our doula Carrie.
 |
| the captain morgan hip circle stance |
Eventually, the contractions got more intense and the midwife and nurse sensed that it was time for the birth tub. We headed in to the tub in the nick of time and Margot began transition around 4pm. This was the toughest time of labor with one hour of grueling contractions and we stayed in the tub with her birth team surrounding her and getting her water, shoulder rubs, and an encouraging word after a each contraction, sort of like a boxer in the ring, with her team.
At one point, it was hard to keep the monitor on the baby's heartbeat, and the MD monitoring the situation was getting uncomfortable. There was a hubbub of activity, and I swear the doc said "we need a scalpel on that" which I thought was medical speak for a c-section. Turns out, he was really saying a scalp lead, which is a little heart monitor attached to baby's head that assures hospital staff that he was ok. The good news is that baby was ok the whole time and not distressed, so we were able to keep laboring without much more intervention.
Unfortunately, Margot was still only 9.5cm dilated. Despite heroic efforts on her part confronting some intolerable pain, the baby was not quite ready to come. For some reason I continued to have an anterior lip of my cervix that was blocking complete dilation. They asked me to try not to push through a few contractions, which was challenging to say least, but it still wasn't helping get the baby out. We discovered later the cord was wrapped around the baby's neck so that was why he was not able to come down. Both mama and baby's vitals were strong so everyone remained hopeful we could still deliver vaginally, but we made the call to go ahead and get the epidural hooked up to give Margot a break, and let her rest.
With the help of Margot's electric tea lights and the amazing Otis Redding, we were able to cool the mood way down. I had a terrible chill from the tub and the epidural and was shaking intermittently and simultaneously had a fever, hence all the blankets.And then we found out that he weighed 10lbs 6oz. What a big baby! Without Margot's strength and courage, and our wonderful birth team, we could never have made it. But baby is here and everyone is healthy and happy. We are grateful and happy beyond words. A shout out to Otis for setting the mood proper.
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