Baby Micah

Micah Wolf
Friday, March 21st at 12:28pm

Our son arrived five days past his due date. Other than a few practice contractions, I hadn’t felt any signs of labor starting. I tried helping things along that week by walking and dancing under the moon light, etc., but I was still waiting. At our weekly appointment with Dr. Terbell, she referred us to Dr. Soffici to do fetal monitoring and a fluid level check. As suspected, they found the fluid levels were low and Dr. Soffici recommended that we pack our bags and induce immediately with Cervadil because we were at a higher risk for, as he kept telling us, “bad things happening.” Of course we were concerned, but we decided to hold off and first talk to our doula team (Jenna Humphreys and Sarah Skogberg…best doula team ever!).

After thinking things over, we decided to try everything we could to induce naturally and if nothing worked after a day or two, we would reluctantly go to the hospital to start the induction process. We got the recommended supplies at Lazy Acres, and I took a tincture of blue cohosh, homeopathics, did breast pumping, rubbed my belly with castor oil, and took a long walk. At about 9pm, after doing all these things (a lot of them all at the same time), I had to rip off the breast pump because the contractions unmistakably started. By midnight, it seemed to all happen at once as I experienced the bloody show, my water breaking with a huge gush, and tons of other bodily fluids were flowing constantly. The contractions were ridiculously intense.

After a few hours of strong contractions, we needed more support. One of our doula, Jenna, arrived at about 1am. Jenna really helped me focus on how to make it through each contraction by using super low guttural sounds instead of high pitch yelling, and by keeping my lower jaw loose and my body relaxed. At this point, I was shaking/shivering uncontrollably. With Geoff’s support mimicking the low, sustained “groaning” sounds, he really helped. It was interesting because I didn’t take a bath, listen to music or do the other things I had thought would soothe me during labor. All I could do was lay on my side in bed and try to stay hydrated with coconut water and water. I labored lying on the bed until 5am, about 8 hours, with my eyes closed the whole time. It was a total blur and I had no concept of time. At this point, I just wanted to be at the place where I was going to give birth because I couldn’t imagine trying to ride in the car while dealing with the contractions that were four minutes apart and the endless stream of bodily fluids. I did end up having two contractions during the car ride and one in the hallway of the hospital birth center.

When we arrived at the hospital, I had my first cervical check during my entire pregnancy and I was fully dilated, complete and ready for the next stage of labor. We arrived just before the shift change (7am). Fortunately the new nurse, Heidi, had worked with our doulas several times and was very supportive of natural birth. I was attached to the fetal monitor and was given a hep-lock. At this point there was a transition in my labor where the contractions began to decrease in intensity and frequency (about 7 minutes apart). I started opening my eyes and becoming more aware. My mom used a mini cheese grater to grate orange and grapefruit for awesome energizing aromatherapy. I found the toilet to be the most helpful place to progress the labor and eventually the nurse encouraged me to start pushing even though I didn’t have the urge to push. I pushed off and on for about five hours. I tried different positions and learned how to push. After maybe four hours of pushing, Geoff asked the nurse how long this could go on and this was the first time the nurse mentioned using Pitocin if we couldn’t make progress in the next hour. Fortunately, the contractions started to come closer together and we started to see the head come out a bit and then recede again many times. I was having a slow time of passing the baby around the pelvic bone.

Sarah and Heidi really helped me through this pushing stage by using warm compress and oils, massage, and they also brought over a mirror so I could see my progress. When the baby’s head was crowning, the doctor was called in (Dr. Nomeland, part of the Sansum rotation who we hadn’t met before) and I pushed for another 30 minutes until the baby was born. I did experience some tearing. I did get an episiotomy, which was not in my plan, it was super last minute and a difficult decision to make, but with the doctor directly in front of me making that recommendation I said okay and feel fine with the decision now. The moment of birth was incredible and happened in slow-motion. Geoff cut the cord, and the placenta followed maybe four minutes after delivery. After a blissful time of bonding for almost two hours and having him latch right away and breast feed, we were moved to the recovery room. We stayed at the hospital for two days. All the nurses were extremely helpful and the two days was well worth the time because I had time to adjust and we learned a lot about breast feeding and caring for the baby. I’m so happy that I had this incredible birth experience and now we are at home with our new family!

Sophie, Geoff and Micah