The Birth Story of Aydia Rae King
As written by her mother, Shana Marie King
Born 2/28/2009, 1:24 AM, 8lbs 9.4 oz, 21 inches long, 14.5 inch head circumference.
As written by her mother, Shana Marie King
Born 2/28/2009, 1:24 AM, 8lbs 9.4 oz, 21 inches long, 14.5 inch head circumference.
On February 27th Brandon and I were both excited for several reasons. First it was Brandon’s birthday and second it was Aydia’s due date! I had no indication that labor was close as at my appointment just two days before I was almost 2 cm dilated, 75% effaced and Aydia was still at -1 station in my pelvis. I didn’t feel like I had a full waddle even. However we were anxious to meet our little girl so I decided to do a partial dose of castor oil to see if it would bring on any contractions. I did 3 tablespoons instead of 4 over the course of 3 hours from noon till 3:00. It was disgusting! I threw up once but that seemed to be all that happened. I drank a lot of water to in order to make sure I was staying hydrated. Once Brandon got home from work we decided to go celebrate his birthday by going to Angelo’s pizza. Nothing was happening so I gave up on the idea that the castor oil was going to do anything for me. My parents happened to call right after we decided to go out to dinner and we invited them along with us.
After dinner we all came back to our apartment to play cards and got back here around 6:30. I still wasn’t having any contractions but I did have to use the bathroom several times. We played cards until about 9:00 when my parents decided to leave. Once they left Brandon settled down on the couch and I sat down with the laptop to check out some stuff online. About fifteen minutes later I went to use the bathroom and felt a slight pop near the top of my uterus but no gush of water or anything. I thought it was odd and didn’t mention anything to Brandon yet. I sat back down at the laptop and felt a contraction. 3-4 minutes later I felt another. I decided to go use the bathroom again in case it was just stomach cramps. I sat down and had a slight tiny gush of water come out. I came out and said something to Brandon that I thought something was going on. I started timing contractions and they were lasting for a minute just over 3 minutes apart. Ten minutes later I used the bathroom again and experienced the same little gush. At this point the contractions were getting stronger but still 3 minutes apart and I was having to kind of bend over to get through them. We called the midwife group at this point, it was just about after 9:30 PM.
The midwife on call, Carrie Frantzich, was hesitant to bring me in since we had just started the contractions but since I felt my water had broken she decided she wanted to get me checked out. We called our Doula at this point and apologized since we had only been having contractions for ½ hour but that we felt it was already time to head to the hospital. Megan agreed to meet us at Woodwinds and we also gave our birth photographer Melissa a call to give her the heads up. We arrived at Woodwinds right around 10:30. At this point the contractions were coming about 2 minutes apart and I was using my HypnoBirthing breathing to get through them. The nurse checked me at 11:00 PM and I was still only 2 cm and Aydia was still at -1; however I was 100% effaced. Because of those numbers we figured we were in for a long night. Megan suggested we go for a walk at this point which I first agreed to. I asked that a bath get ready for me though and they started running water in the tub. A few minutes later I was feeling quite a bit more through the surges and decided I couldn’t do the walk and requested to just get in the bathtub. Both Carrie and Megan didn’t think it was a good idea as I wasn’t dilated that much and a bath could slow labor. However I was pretty insistent and ended up getting in.
I was able to focus through those contractions and relied heavily on my breathing. Brandon and Megan took turns applying cold wash cloths to the back of my neck during this time. I’m not sure exactly how long I was in the tub for as I kind of went within myself at this point. After a while the contractions were getting really intense and I had to get out. They started coming on top of each other and I tried several positions to relax through them, the easiest being basically hanging off of Brandon or sitting on the toilet in a reclined position. The contractions were all in my lower stomach and I had Brandon lifting up on my stomach during the contractions. I started to lose focus at this point. I knew it had only been a short time since I was last checked and feared I still had many more hours to go. However it was becoming very painful and I was crying through them. I kept telling Brandon that I couldn’t do it anymore and that it hurt too much. He kept telling me that I was doing it and what a wonderful job I was doing. I started to feel a lot of pressure and the nurse decided that we should check me again even though it was only 1:00 AM and I was only 2 cm 2 hours ago.
Big surprise, I was complete already at 10 cm and Aydia was at +2 for station! I heard the surprise in her voice when she said that and she said I really brought that baby down! They asked if I wanted to get into the water birth tub at this point but I didn’t feel like I could walk down to that room plus I knew it was going to take at least 15-20 minutes to fill up. The only position at this point that somewhat helped was actually lying on my back in a semi-reclined position. Carrie came in about 10 minutes later and was surprised as well that I was ready to push. No one prompted me when or how to push but I definitely felt the urges to breathe her down. At this point it wasn’t so painful anymore and felt like a relief to push. Brandon was up near my head and kept reassuring me that I was doing a great job. I really focused in on getting Aydia out and then Carrie told me to reach down and feel Aydia’s head as she was crowning. Several pushes later and Carrie told me to reach down to grab my baby as her head was out and all I had to do was get those shoulders out. One more push and I pulled her up onto my chest and started crying immediately and so did she! She turned pink almost right away and looked absolutely perfect to me. It was 1:24 AM when she was born, just missing her Daddy’s birthday! The entire labor from when I first thought my water broke until she arrived was just under 4 and a half hours and I only pushed for about 20 minutes. I fell immediately in love with her and each day I love her more. I’m absolutely in love with being a mom.
