Birth Story: Part Four

(Written by the husband)

Two hours later we were awoken by an alarm clock. In our room!?! I couldn’t believe it. It turned out the iPod dock we had borrowed from the doula was also an alarm clock, set for 6AM no less. I crawled out of bed and shut it off. I think Abby had enough medicine in her system to return to rest, but I soon got up. It wasn’t long though before the bathtub in the room next door was in use for a water birth. We heard the whole thing. All 45 minutes. The woman arrived at 8AM, and delivered at 8:45AM. It was quite an amazing thing to aurally witness. I began to worry whether or not all of these babies being born would begin to discourage Abby, but she assured me it continued to encourage her.

We got up and went for a walk around the parking lot. She continued to do the exercises suggested by the midwife to turn the baby (which was still in posterior position). We returned to the Birth Center, and greeted the new midwife on duty. It was Judy, who we loved. She had taught our birthing classes, so we had gotten to know her quite well. She examined Abby, and broke the news the Abby was now at an “almost 4cm”. I started doing the math. 20 hours to get to “almost 4 cm”… let’s see… it should only take… 30 more hours! She suggested some homeopathic medicines (black and blue cohosh) that can help labor progress, and we headed home to again labor in the comfort of our own home.

Abby spent most of this round in the backyard, pacing, hanging over the birthing ball, and stretching. We tried the homeopathic pills for a few hours, but nothing seemed to be changing. She found it literally impossible to sit through a contraction now. The back labor was only getting more painful. At about 4:30pm, I noticed she was actually falling asleep standing up, only to wake up when her knees would give. This is the moment when I threw in the towel. I held her from behind and told her she was running out of strength, and that it was time to go back to the Birth Center and find out what our other options were. She agreed, and we drove back to the Birth Center one final time.

To be continued…