By Leah
Reichardt-Osterkatz
Kaspar Reichardt-Osterkatz
Born December 7, 2015 at 6:47am
For several days, I had
been telling friends and family that something different was happening in my
uterus. Saturday evening I started to feel discrete contractions, but they did
not feel painful. After going to bed, I was up with a contraction every 10
minutes through the night. They were not so intense that I needed to wake
anyone up (wanting my support people to be rested for what was to come!), but
they were intense enough that I got up out of bed with each one to lean over
the counter and wiggle my hips around. They continued like that until mid-day
Sunday. Once Nils, my husband, was awake, I was able to stay lying down through the
contractions, because holding on to him made the pain less intense.
The contractions started
to come closer together in the afternoon, but were not progressing in a
consistent pattern. This, in combination with the fact that I was feeling a lot
of pain in my back, was a clue that his head was not in an ideal position
(which my midwife Maureen had predicted a few weeks earlier). I spent a lot of time in my
parents' hot tub, which made the contractions almost painless at that point. My
husband and I took a long, slow walk around the property. While we were walking
the contractions were coming about every two minutes. With each one we would
either hug with me kind of hanging from his shoulders, or he would hold me from
behind and lift my belly up, or I would lean forward and he would rub my back.
We went back to the house and spoke with Maureen on the phone. The contractions
had then slowed down again, so she suggested that I try to rest however
possible and we would check back in soon. I went into the bedroom, but didn't
like the idea of lying down because I always felt the need to get up during
contractions. I tried resting in child's pose for quite a while, scooting off
the end of the bed with each contraction, sometimes holding onto Nils and
sometimes leaning over the bed with my mom and my friend stroking my back while
I swayed my hips back and forth. I also tried sitting on the birth ball.
Somewhere in there, in the early evening, we spoke to Maureen again and decided
thing were getting serious enough to head to the birth center. My dad drove one
car with Nils and me in the back. My mom, Svea, and Rachel followed behind. My brother
stayed back to get a bit of sleep before coming later.
We arrived at the birth
center around 7 or 8 PM. I was about 4 centimeters dilated, and Kaspar's head was
transverse. I wanted to get into the tub right away, as the water had helped so
much earlier. For whatever reason, I did not like it at that point and got out
after trying several different positions. Soon after that I decided to get a
short acting pain medication with hopes of getting a little bit of rest, as I
hadn't really slept the night before. I was given half a dose, as it seemed
possible that things could progress quickly after that (we were optimistic!). I
lay down with Nils and everyone else left the room for a couple hours. Maureen
rubbed my lower back for a long time. The contractions still felt quite intense
during that time, but I was able to stay lying down the whole time and the
massage felt very nice!
When the medication
started wear off, the pain started ramping back up and my other support people
came back into the room. I was then lying down between each contraction, and
sometimes even falling asleep for a minute, as I was so tired. With each
contraction I would jump out of bed and hang from Nils while various other
people stroked my back and arms. For much of the time I was unaware of who was
doing what! My mom made sure that I was constantly drinking. I drank a lot of
coconut water, a calcium drink and a special labor tea that my sister-in-law
had made.
Maureen checked me again
and discovered that he was posterior -- he had turned the wrong way! At that
point Maureen started pulling out all of her tricks to get him to turn all the
way back around. I was in and out of the shower several times, doing the
"hoochie coochie" dance. I did hip circles on the birth ball. Maureen
then suggested a saline injections in my back. She said that it would hurt a
lot, but would hopefully help with the back labor and get him to turn around.
When she gave me a towel to bite on, I knew I was not going to like it! I
kneeled on the bed, leaning on the birth ball, bit my towel and screamed.
After that, or maybe it was before, Maureen stood over me on the bed holding
two ends of a big sheet that went under my belly. She clamped my hips with her
legs, lifted my belly with the sheet and moved it side to side. There was still
a ways to go after that. I tried some more hip circles on the ball and was back
in the shower for a while. My mom said she was worried that my contractions
would peter out from exhaustion, but they just kept getting stronger. Around
4:30 AM or so, I was finally fully dilated, and he had turned all the way
around!
Throughout that two
hours of pushing, even though he had turned to anterior position, I was still
having a lot of back pain. We think it might have been that he had his hand up
near his chin, because that is what he was doing right after coming out. I
tried pushing in many different position -- squatting, hands and knees, on my
back and side lying. It took every ounce of energy and strength that I could
muster at that point. Maureen, our nurse Mariah, and my whole team of support people were
there cheering me on.
