Birth Story of Delaney Cait

Birth Story of Delaney Cait Zibell

On January 11, I woke up at 2am with my first contraction. I’d been having prodromal labor for a month, but these were different. I sent DH to his second job and told him to hurry and get his work finished. I laid in bed until about 2:30am and loosely timed contractions, sleeping between them. At that point, they were about 5 minutes apart and I sat on the birth ball and timed them with contraction master. At 3am, I called Angela, my doula, and told her that labor had begun. Around 4:15am, she arrived and DH arrived home shortly after. Around 4:30, we called Tracy (my bff) to let her know what was going on. We then determined that Delaney was posterior and Angela and I worked through about 45 to an hour of contractions with ice and positioning to get her to turn. Once she turned, I labored with inconsistent contractions. Tracy arrived around 6am. At 6:45, I began getting nauseas and went upstairs to see DH (who was napping). I slept for just over an hour and woke up ready for contractions to become rhythmic. Contractions were anywhere from 2-20 minutes apart at that point. My aunt arrived from Tennessee around 10:30 and took my 2 boys out for the remainder of the day. I sent DH on some errands and around 2pm, I got in the shower with DH. Tracy left to go spend some time with Emma. Things began picking up in intensity, however they were not consistent still. We danced, rocked, and spent some great moments together as a couple, working through the contractions. Around 5pm, I began pumping to try to get a rhythm going and it worked. I began having contractions every 3 minutes, lasting around a minute to a minute and a half. By 6, I had the shakes and nausea had returned. We decided that it was probably time to begin the hour drive to Pineville. It became clear shortly after we left that transition was coming. The drive was awful. I was no longer able to stay on top of my contractions and would alternate between counting and screaming obscenities. By the time we were at the Providence Road exit, I needed to push. DH drove a bit faster and we pulled into CMC Pineville with Angela hot on our tail. I had a hard time getting out of the van and once I was able to, the nurses were waiting for us. Tracy arrived right around the same time. The nurse checked me and said I was at 9.5 cm. Another doctor came in, as mine was still on the way and checked me again. Then, my doctor arrived, held a tiny bit of cervical lip out of the way and allowed me to push. My water broke with the first push, to which I announced that “it had actually broken on its own!”. Three pushes later, Delaney was born, just 30 minutes after pulling into the parking lot of the hospital. It was the best birth of the three (the other 2 were medicated inductions). Delaney weighed in at 8lbs, 13oz and 20” long.