The Birth Story of Ramona Mae Martin

The Birth Story of Ramona Mae Martin

So Sunday, September 25th,  a good friend of mine threw me a baby shower. It was super fun, lots of loot and key lime pie! Totally perfect treat for a hot hot hot afternoon in Texas. The shower went til about 4:30pm or so and I headed back to our house (desoto) I got to the drive way and called my husband to come help with the presents and he suggested we just take it all over to his Moms house and sort through and wash what we need to and leave what we aren't going to use right away. Great idea!

Before he came out, I kinda felt a little wet, but thought, oh its probably sweat or something...but then I felt a little more wet...and I remember thinking, ' this isn’t it? Is it?' Anyway, he jumped in the car and we were off to Moms house. A little after 2 minutes of driving, I felt even more wet and I mentioned it to Matt. He tried to look but couldn't see anything. I know, isn’t that a great picture??
 
So we get to Mom's house and I really feel wet by this time so I jumped (not entirely true but felt like it) out of the car into the house and directly into the bathroom. I immediately checked and well I definitely was wet, no question about that, but it wasn’t a huge mark, like all over my pants or anything, just one big spot. But I still wasn’t convinced. I waited on the toilet and nothing happened, until I got up to tell Matt what was happening and I had to sit down right away because this wasn’t urine, this was amniotic fluid. So Matt and I look at each other, as in, WHAT??!! Hmmmm, this is a little early and didn’t really expect it today. Anyway, he had to leave and go to our house and pick up essentials like depends... sounds funny, but they are wonderful when you feel like all you are doing is peeing yourself. It’s nice to know you are protected. Peggy (Matt’s mom) arrives at home with our nieces, Hannah and Rachel, and Matt shares the news. I wait on the bathroom floor for my comfort diapers before I can move anywhere. I was lying on the carpet thinking, am I really ready for this... I started to pray. (image placeholder)
 
Matt returned with the goods and I could finally move around, and we went about our plans...organizing the baby's presents and washing the ones we need right away and now we will really need them right away...After all that, acting like nothing's really happening, Matt suggests that we call the Birth Center, good idea, considering my water broke at 5 and its already 7. Matt's brother comes over with pizza, so we have our last supper and sit antsy waiting for a call back from the mid wife. She calls back around 7:20 or so and tells us we gotta come in tonight and check out where I am. I also needed to get an anti-biotic for GBS. We didn't think we'd have to go in tonight we thought maybe we could wait it out at home, but change in plans, obviously. So we rush back to the house and try to get everything together cause we hadn’t finished packing and needed to bring everything we'd need in case we are told to stay ( good guess was that we'd come home til the morning) So we get it all and jump in the car and head downtown Dallas.
 
We arrive at the Birth Center and I have had no hard contractions at this time and no active labour, I had started feeling some discomfort in my back on and off, but was told by the mid wife that it wasn’t anything promising. She checked me and my cervix was completely closed and firm, not good news. So...we were given our options. Unfortunately we couldn’t just let nature ride and hopefully go into labour, because of the GBS ( group B strep; 30% of preg women carry it, its very common) we had to take action. A couple of our options were to go to the hospital and be induced; I was NOT for that at all. Another option was to take a pill called cyctotec which is a cervical ripening agent. Usually it is placed inside to help dilate, but because water was already broke, we no longer could take it that way, so we decided that this option fit us best and I took it orally. If I didn’t go into labour by 1:15 am I was to take another pill and be back at the Center by 3:15 am for my next GBS shot. (need to take it every 6 hours til delivery) So we were on our way home by 9:30pm waiting for contractions to start. The mid wife did explain the side effects to us and I thought for sure I could handle it, so we were anxious to get home and get some sleep before 1:15am. (image placeholder)
 
Got home, set the alarm clock and tried to get comfortable. We were excited, and kinda in shock that it was happening...then, the cramps starting coming, not sure if these were contractions, they were so sporadic and all over the place and real short, but they started to gain some ground and hurt a bit...by 10:30 I really started to feel uncomfortable and we knew that we weren’t getting any sleep. I started to get really bad nausea and diarrhea which was a sign of labour. So it had begun. Technically the hard labour didn’t start til about 12:00am, when Matt could record the contractions being less than 2 mins apart and approx. 45-60 seconds long. By midnight, I asked him to call the midwife...I just couldn’t take it anymore and I was not going to take the other pill. I was so uncomfortable and barely able to use the techniques that were taught in the Bradley Class and I just wanted to get to the Birth Center, hoping that would change how I was feeling. So Matt talked to the Birth Assistant who would be taking care of us throughout the night and she suggested a warm shower and then come to the Center by 1:30am. So, took a shower and it didn’t really help. I was feeling extreme pain in my lower back and hips. I had feared back labour, but I think this was worse; this seemed to be lower body labour. We got out of the shower and just kept pacing our little house, Matt was terrific helping me through the pain, but we both expected something totally different.
 
We get into the car, and I can barely stay put. By this time I am feeling really dehydrated and so we thought Gatorade might help. I had vomited a lot at the house and needed to re-fuel and water wasn’t enough. We stopped at a gas station and of course I go into a contraction while Matt is inside...it was brutal...so hard to do it when there is no one there. He quickly was back and I took a sip. My imagination of it was a lot more refreshing. This didn’t taste that way at all.
 
We cruise to the Birth Center, but before we reach there I asked Matt to pull over...another gross sensation of needing to throw up. Luckily by this point we were almost there. We pulled up and I hobbled into the Birth Center with Matt keeping me standing. The Birth Assistant, Brenda was there and ready. I can’t quite remember what happened exactly afterward, but being there I felt a little calmer. The contractions were still fully painful, but at least we were where we needed to be. We tried to hook me up to an intermittent external monitor to get an ultrasound strip, but I could barely stay still and either could Ramona. We did get to see my contractions come and go and that was interesting, but eventually I just couldn't lay there and had to get up and move. By 2:30am Brenda checked me and I was at 2cm and almost 100% effaced. She said this was great progress, especially because I am a first time Mom. I was disappointed, for the amount of pain I was in, I expected to be way further along, but we weren't...so we continued on. In and out of the shower we went...it was so hard, cause Matt couldn't get in with me, that's the one thing we forgot was his swim trunks...but he got wet anyway.

The shower helped for a couple contractions, but I had a hard time with staying still, so soon enough I was out walking around the birthing room, trying to walk out the contractions in my back. I am not sure when they wanted to take me for a walk outside ( the Center is beside a park), but I didn’t get passed the walkway. I think I was scared or something and it was the wee hours of the morning in downtown Dallas, so I think I wanted to stay inside, even though I needed to walk, I wanted to walk in the room only. They didn't fight me. (image placeholder)
 
I then tried the tub. We used that for a good amount of time, but I was still getting sick and throwing up and this wasn’t helping the pain but making it worse. That’s what dehydration does, this I didn’t know. The midwife still wasn’t there, but they started to talk about getting me an IV. But first to help with the nausea I got a shot of phenegrin. It’s an anti-nausea. Suppose to help me not feeling sick and maybe get a little sleepy...but that didn’t work. I was not sleepy, but in pain, so much of it that I wanted to pass out. I was expecting relief from the medicine but none came. The contractions were getting worse. I was checked again a 3:30 and I had a lip on my cervix, so the birth assistant helped me through that...I was then at a 3cm...I was so disappointed. Brenda kept telling me that a 1 cm hour is textbook and normal and to just think about that and how good we are doing so far.
 
This whole time my incredible husband did not leave my side. He followed my everywhere I would walk and rub through my contractions and take my super squeezing of his hands and my extreme cranky demeanour.

I remember telling Matt, I can’t do this, I can’t stay here, and I need to go the hospital. This is not what I thought it was going to be...He listened to me, but kept encouraging me with words like, 'you are doing it! You are! You are doing great! You are going to be a mama!! ‘He was really great. Without him, I would've gone to the hospital.
 
We kept trying the tub and then back in the shower and tried the birth ball, so many positions, I just couldn't stay still. My labour was later classified as hip/thigh labour. Not what we trained for and hadn’t even heard of it. We were shocked. I know Matt was nervous and scared at times, but he didn’t show it.
 
Finally the midwife got to the center, because the Birth Assistant said you need to get here, she is not doing good. She is completely dehydrated. The MD needed to be there to administer the IV. Around 5:45am MD got there, and got my IV in. Then she checked me. I was almost passing out between contractions. That was partially hard when I was standing up, cause lying down was not happening, unless I was being checked, which was next. It was so hard to stay still, but I wanted to know where we were. Cherie (the midwife) checked and said, ' Girl! Your baby is right there! You’re ready to push!!!' ‘Do you feel ready to push?' (image placeholder)
Well, I guess I did because I kept sitting down on the toilet to help with the pain, but nothing was happening.
Pushing?? NOW? WOW, But OH!  I can't, I am in SO much pain, I can’t push. I thought this would be the easy part! AH! Little did I know. I was SO tired and worn out and dehydrated that I barely had anything left in me.

So I went from 3 cm to 10 cm in 2.5 hours!! A little unheard of for a first time Mom I was told.

We tried a few pushes on the bed and that wasn’t working...even though the baby was right there, I needed to feel the ground on my feet, use the gravity to my benefit. I needed to be really active during this part. It was SO hard to stand up....I felt the world turning. I held onto the bed post and Cherie talked me through how I was going to squat. Now I had been practicing lots of squatting throughout pregnancy so I knew I could do this, but could I with my hips ripping apart and my thighs giving out?  Well Cherie and Brenda and Matt cheered me on, but it was hard. We got on the floor and they put a mirror on the ground and we could see a little bit of her head, that was exciting but also scary, cause I couldn’t really focus on that, cause it did look really weird and not only was I feeling the pain, I was seeing it as well, (if that makes any sense) so I just would close my eyes and push down and out. Down and out.
I stood up a lot cause I could barely stand the pain and I remember asking, 'why does it hurt so much?' lol Kinda a funny question I think.

Then I was ready to get back on the bed. Hard to walk when you have a baby about to come out...I somehow got on the bed...and she retreated too much and I couldn’t push as good on the bed at all. After a couple pushes that we not successful, I was told to go on the floor again. I couldn’t think about having to move again, but I couldn’t stay still either.

They kept telling me how close she was to entering this world, and I really couldn’t believe it. We were back on the ground and started pushing again. Within a couple of squatting pushes, she was crowned. That was the craziest pain I could ever have imagined. I somehow got back on the bed and little did I know we would have 4 more pushes til she was out. (image placeholder)
 
Then with push number 2 her head was out. Brenda took a picture. I will send anyone a pic that would like to see that, I'd rather not send it over email unless you request it. There was some relief once her head was out. Then Cherie said to Matt, 'You're on! ,' He went to greet our little one and got to catch her, but he really helped pull her out. Push number 3 was shoulders and then the rest of her came out! Matt held her and brought her up to my chest. I was hysterical...I couldn’t believe our baby was here and lying on my chest. Matt and I were crying and just totally stunned. We didn’t think to look for what kinda baby this was til a few minutes later. Then we both looked and said, ITS A GIRL!!!! And I just melted, almost hyperventilated.
 
She was here and laying on my chest and just when she opened her eyes I couldn’t believe that she was ours. Our very own little girl. Gift from God. Miraculous!
 
I birthed the placenta. What a wild feeling that is and getting to see where she was for 9 months. The Birth Assistant took a pic. A coupla actually, it was kinda neat.
 
We just stared at our girl and talked about names we had picked. We had two...but once we discovered the strawberry blonde hair I knew she was our Ramona Mae!!
 
In a little awhile after we relished in her, they weighed her and measured everything. Then she came directly back to me. Matt and I couldn’t stop being stunned. We kissed and hugged and felt the beginnings of our new family. She nursed within the first 30-40 minutes or so and it was just awesome. There really aren’t any words to describe this feeling.  It’s just incredible. Feeding my baby....
 
This was the hardest, most painful thing I have ever done, but worth it ! SO worth it, for a life time of blessings and rewards.
 
Children are a gift of the Lord,
the fruit of the womb is a reward (image placeholder) 
~psalm 127:3 
We are SO blessed.
Praise God for a healthy baby and Mommy and a wonderfully hard BUT no complication labour.
Thank You Lord!