I had some expectations of how I wanted my labor and delivery to go, however; I had read in "Ina May's Guide to Childbirth" not to put too much weight on a birthing plan because there is no way to truly know what will end up working for you. After my experience I can say that statement is so very true. I wanted to deliver my baby through water birth, I was going to decline the eye antibiotic, and I wanted to deliver my placenta while it was still attached to my baby. Of those three things, I did none of the above. I wanted to share my experience to let moms know that it may not go as planned, but that doesn't take away from the beauty of your experience, no matter how tough it is. I never thought as I was going through everything, this is not what I wanted. I was having my baby in a safe and supportive environment surrounded by loved ones and that, most importantly, is what I wanted.
Pre Labor: At 3:00 am on Tuesday morning I woke up in pain. I went to the restroom to find that I was in the very beginning stages of labor. I was super excited at this point knowing that it was finally happening though I didn't know how long I would be at this stage. The next day, I didn't tell many people due to not knowing how long I would be in pre-labor. I went for a walk outside in the Texas heat, bounced on my exercise ball, ate pineapple with the core and everything imaginable to try and keep this progressing. I was afraid it would stop, however, my midwife assured me that real labor doesn't stop and that I needed to get rest. It was hard to rest because I was so excited, the contractions continued the whole day and were very mild. I kept my midwife updated through text as I felt any changes. At 4:30 pm I sat down and thought my water had broke, but it was more consequence of the cervix thinning. At around 8:50 pm I was having pretty consistent contractions 4-5 minutes apart lasting 30-45 seconds long. She told me when my contractions were getting too uncomfortable to be at home, usually lasting 1 minute and 3 minutes apart to call her and I could come in. I tried to sleep and couldn't, the contractions picked up and were lasting about a minute and were 2-4 minutes apart. To me at the time they seemed intense and I thought, "okay, this is it." So at 12:50 am Wednesday we went into the birthing center. When I got there, she checked me only to discover I was only dilated to 2 cm. I was so disappointed. She went back to bed and we decided since we were already there we would stay at the birthing center and try and get some rest.