The Growing Chens: Terran's Birth Story (Part 1)

**Warning: This blog entry make contain TMI (too much information) for some.**

Wednesday night (well technically it was early Thursday morning, June 24, 2010) at 3:00am I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed a trickle of water run down my leg. I wasn't for sure if it was just pee or my waterbag breaking. I went back to bed. I started having lower abdominal cramps on and off the rest of the night. At 5:00am, another trickle of water--again went back to bed. At 6:45am, multiple trickles of water ran down my leg and I had a small amount of blood-tinged mucus. Now I knew it was my water breaking. (The uterus has two layers of water sacs. The outer layer contains less water, so I was assuming just that one broke). The stomach cramps (mild contractions) continued but actually became weaker when I got out of bed. At 7:33am more trickles ran down my legs. At 8:00am I paged my midwife. When I was on the phone with her I had more water come out, this time it was a small gush that created small puddles on the bathroom floor. The midwife asked me to come to her office to get a nonstress test and to confirm my water had broke.

Calling the midwife Thursday morning (8:00am, June 24, 2010)

At 9:00am, Andy left to go to a work appointment and I went to the midwives' office. As I was walking through the parking garage, a huge gush of water flooded out of me. It soaked through a super-size maxi pad and made puddles on the concrete. I backed up between two cars, and held my dress away from my body trying to keep it dry. A couple people walked by, and I smiled at them. The stress test showed the baby was fine and the fluid tested as amniotic fluid, which confirmed my water had broken. Only 15% of women have their water break before active labor, and typically for those women 90% are in active labor within 24 hours. However, since my contractions had actually slowed down since the first trickles, the midwife gave me a list of natural ways to try to induce labor. One option was acupuncture. I made appointment with an acupuncturist that specializes in woman's health for the evening with the plan to cancel it if my contractions naturally progressed.

Andy and I met back at home and spent the afternoon together--taking long walks and joyfully anticipating labor to progress. My contractions only got slightly stronger throughout the day. Thursday evening we went to the acupuncturist. I didn't know what to expect, but it was a lovely experience. My contractions started getting stronger in the session, and I developed a consistent cramping in my lower abdomen (which is a good thing). I scheduled a follow-up appointment for the morning in case I had not progressed enough through the night. We took another walk through a beautiful block in Lincoln Square after the session then went out to eat. The stronger contractions continued throughout the night, but the constant cramping subsided about an hour after the session.

At The Nest in Lincoln Square getting acupuncture.

When I went to bed Thursday night, I anticipated that I would be in active labor in the middle of the night. Contractions woke me every 10 to 30 minutes the whole night. They were had irregular spacing--a sign that I was still in Early Labor. It was disappointing to have such a sleepless night but not have progressed more than I had. However, the contractions started getting stronger and closer together when I got out of bed that morning. Andy called and canceled my acupuncture appointment thinking I did not need it. He helped me use the relaxation and hypnosis techniques through the contractions . My midwife called at 9:00am to check on me. I told her I was having a contraction every 6 to 8 minutes. She recommended I still go to the follow-up acupuncture appointment, so we quickly rescheduled. It was another wonderful session--this time much longer, and the contractions got closer together and stronger. We went to lunch in Lincoln Square. I had a contraction just as the waitress came to take our order. I think I scared her (this is just the beginning of me laboring in public). The contraction were coming every five to six minutes now and the food made me nauseous. We had our food wrapped up and I called the midwife. She said to come in so she could could do another stress test and check my dilation.

Laboring Friday morning at home.

We arrived at the midwife office around 2:30pm Friday. The stress test showed the baby was fine and I was dilated 3 cm (you need to be 4 to 5 cm dilated to be admitted into the Alternative Birthing Center). The midwife recommended more walking or even going to go see a movie (the Oak Park theater was close by). I did not feel like going home--contractions in the car were miserable. I didn't think I would be comfortable sitting in a movie so we decided to walk. We walked all over Oak Park starting at a park. I had to stop every five minutes to hang on to Andy, a tree, bench, or whatever was near to get through the contraction. Andy was wonderful guiding me through them. Laboring in public was quite an experience. Some people stopped to see if I was okay. I think I startled others. At one time we were in the Children's section of the public library because I wanted to show Andy some Todd Parr books that I want for Terran, but we left after a couple of contractions because I was worried about scaring the children. In one neighborhood, a women taking a walk with her baby, recognized I was in labor and stopped to talk to us. Around 5:00pm when the contractions were 3 to 5 minutes apart, we called the midwife again and she said we could come into the birthing center.