Harper's Birth Story

Typically you expect your first pregnancy will be over due and hope your second will come early.  Madden decided to squash that theory when he arrived 3 weeks early (Madden's Birth Story can be found here) and ruined the hope that babe #2 would be early also. Since I was completely caught off guard by his early arrival this time around we made sure that everything was ready by 37 weeks just in case we had another early bird.

I got everything completed and and updated at work, bags packed, room complete, baby checklist completed, last minute errands ran, pedicure and hair freshened up, and Madden's bag packed. Then we waited.

At my 36 week doctors appointment for the Group B Strep test I asked to have my cervix checked as I wanted to compare where we were at this go around compared to with MJ at this same time. With MJ I was 3cm dilated and then my water ended up leaking only a few days later. This pregnancy the midwife said my cervix was soft, I was dilated 2 cm, and 70% effaced.

I've had contractions very sporadically over the past few weeks that I've mentioned in my previous Bumpdates.

On Sunday Nov. 1st I was woken up just after midnight to more contractions that lasted till a little after 3:00am. Unfortunately they again were very inconsistent with how far apart and how long each one lasted, and they eventually got further and further apart before stopping and letting me fall back to sleep.

On Monday Nov 2nd, at 39w3d I had my weekly chiropractor appointment. My chiro told me that my hips had definitely changed, stuff was happening and getting ready! She adjusted my pelvis to help make sure baby had optimal room through the birth canal if she decided to come that week. Typically after a chiro visit I do feel some increase activity right afterwards for a little while but nothing crazy. After this appointment there was lots of baby movement, girl was moving all evening long! She must have loved the additional room it gave her to wriggle and kick. I eventually started to have some contractions and pelvic pressure/activity downstairs after dinner. So while watching Monday Night Football I hung out on my the exercise ball all night in hopes to keep things going. 

The next morning on Tuesday Nov. 3rd I had my next doctors appointment. The midwife checked my cervix again and was in complete shock that I was at 5cm already!! But with having no contracts at the time informed me to go to the hospital as soon as I start having regular contractions or my water breaks. She still made me make the next weeks appointment but didn't think I would make it that far and baby would come in the next few days. So off to work I went!

Of course I told a few people I was 5 cm everyone started freaking out! Shocked I wasn't sent straight to the hospital or that I came into work. But like my midwife said, it could still be a few days and I wasn't having any contractions. My friend Tera I work with was on high alert, constantly watching me for any signs of contractions to start or my water to break. And I would get asked over and over by everyone how I was doing and feeling. Then of course get that look of pity and disappointment when I can into work Wednesday and Thursday morning. It was super annoying!

So once Thursday rolled around I decided to call my chiropractor for another adjustment before the weekend and to help keep my pelvis open for delivery if baby decided to come over the weekend. Adjustments not only helped me with my horrible low back and sciatica pain but they are suppose to help aid in a quicker and easier labor/delivery. They help keep the pelvic bones open so baby doesn't have trouble going through during labor or getting stuck because they must turn to fit through the birth canal. 

I got into the chiro that afternoon at 3pm and decided to go home afterwards. Since Monday I felt lots of movement and contractions after getting adjusted I was hopeful the same thing would happen and I didn't want to go back to work with any of that going on when everyone was keeping tabs on my every second of the day already. As expected I did start having contractions again shortly after, around 4pm. From then on they were every 8-15 minutes apart and inconsistent with length.  After a couple hours they were anywhere from 3-10 minutes apart but still all over the place. Since they were getting closer together I ended up calling the midwife on call to ask her opinion and she told us since I was already 5 cm to come to the hospital to get checked out as she would rather us err on the safe side. 

So about 8:00pm off we went. We dropped Madden and the dogs off at the grandparent's house since it was getting late and MJ really wanted to have a sleepover at papa's. We checked into triage, they monitored by contractions and baby's heart rate for an hour first. I was still at 5 cm, so no change there. Of course once we got to the hospital things started to fizzle out, contractions weren't that strong and further apart. After an hour of being monitored we walked the halls of L/D for about 45 minutes, during that time contractions did pick up a again but they were anywhere from 2-8 minutes apart and very irregular with length and strength. They gave us the option to stay for a little while longer to be monitored or to go home to hang out at home until they started getting much closer together and more intense. There wasn't enough change to keep us. Both Dave and I were extremely disappointed but decided to just go home. The nurse did mention that baby was very low, at -1 stage, that if my water did end up breaking to come back to the hospital as soon as possible because she would be a fast delivery and probably be born within 2-3 hours of my water breaking. And of course once we got home my contractions faded and eventually stopped. 

With that information Dave told me he did not want me going into work the next day. Thankfully my boss let me work from home just in case. So Friday November 6th I worked from the comfort of my home at the coffee table while on the exercise ball the majority of the time. I took a 20 minute morning walk followed by a nap. Dave had overtime for the week so he ended up coming home early. I took another afternoon walk then did some more work from the exercise ball and continued to get hassled by coworkers checking in all day to see if anything was happening yet.

At about 3:40pm my water full-fledged broke. Looking back I believe it actually broke about 5 minutes prior to that when I went to the bathroom to pee, I felt a small 'pop' but actually though it was just pressure from my bladder and the baby. I went back to work from the couch with a few minutes later I left the need to possibly pee again but as soon as I went to go to stand up I felt my water actually start coming and immediately sat back down. Dave was actually watching me and in the middle of offering me some candy he picked up when I gave him this look of disbelief and shock. He thought it was about the candy which made me laugh and then I told him "No, I think my water just broke!" I went to go stand up again slightly to see and felt another big gush starting and said "Yes, yes that is 100% my water breaking!" Dave ran off to get towels and I ran to get changed. We quickly rounded up the few things we had unpacked from our bags, I immediately made a call into my doctors office to let them know my water broke and we were on our way and we jumped in the car!

Thankfully Madden had stayed the night before already at Dave's parents along with the dogs so we didn't have to worry about what to do with either of them just to have his parents pick MJ up from daycare. I still wasn't having any contractions but started to get some cramping in the car on the way to the hospital and then mild contractions once we got to the parking ramp. I started texting my mom on our way to let her know my water broke and we would update her later but got distracted that I didn't get it sent, thinking we had lots of time. Thankfully the hospital is only about 10 minutes from our house, we got there about 4:00pm and checked in through the ER. A nurse escorted us up to L/D where my midwife Pam was waiting for us at the door. She hurried us into a room and we started talking about the events of the last day and a half and my first delivery while I went to change clothes. While changing I though I might need to pee again to relieve some pressure but when I sat down realized I did not need to pee, I was feeling a different kind of pressure. So I hurried to finish changing and to lay down in the bed to get checked and told Dave to finish sending my text to my mom.  

When I laid down to get checked I then had my first very majorly painful and extremely long contraction. Thinking that if contractions were going to feel like this and there was no progress still and it was going to be 2-3 hours before she was here I was definitely getting that epidural. As soon as my contraction was over Pam checked me and announced "Hold on one second, don't push just yet because baby's head is right here and she is going to be out in about one push! Dad, get ready to help delivery your baby" Yikes! Of course since we had literally just got to L/D, not everything was in the room yet. Pam excused herself for maybe less than a minute and came back with about 6 nurses with multiple trays and all the equipment. 

And then Little Miss Harper Rae was born at 4:25pm!!

Less than 1 hour from my water breaking, an extremely quick L/D that none of us were expecting! They laid her on my chest, cleaned her up from there and we then we given the "Golden Hour" which is an hour of skin to skin contact and left alone to bond. Because we literally hadn't been there for very long and L/D was a little busy, they actually left us for much longer which was nice. Just coming in to check on us for vitals.

I told Dave, even through we were both disappointment the night before being sent home it was actually a good thing we had gone to the hospital. If we had not known how low she was already and warned to get to the hospital ASAP if my water broke, I probably would have taken my time since I hadn't had any contractions yet and thinking we had a few hours. And thankfully Madden and the dogs were already at his parents house because we wouldn't have had time to drop them off anywhere. We would have been having a baby in the car!

I am still in shock just how crazy and fast it all went!

Madden and both grandparents were able to come up to the hospital later that evening to visit and meet Harper. Madden was very excited and so good with the entire ordeal. Now we are in the processes of learning to be a family of FOUR!