Victoria Dawn West was born Oct. 17, 2004, at approx. 1:10 a.m. She weighed 8 lbs. and 9 oz. and was between 21 and 22 inches long! No wonder she came a few days early!

Here's the story.

I was having discharge for Wed, Thurs, and Fri. I knew this to be the "bloody show" experienced sometimes before labor, so I was watching for a mucus plug, cramps, swollen nose, nesting and any changes. I have read that the discharge can be for weeks before actual labor, so it wasn't usually an actual sign of labor. Thursday and Friday I was feeling fine, just a bit achy, sorta menstrual, but I didn't think a thing about it. Besides, most first time pregnancies go longer than the due date and her date wasn't until the 19th, so I went about my business. Friday I ran some errands, went to the grocery store, the feed store, Dillard's, cooked some baked potatoes, e-mailed, ate salad, and started washing all the baby clothes….ALL the baby clothes.

About 7:30 Robert and I started looking through some things to take to Memaw's garage to store. At about 8:10, I felt a low "punch" or "pop" that wasn't like anything I had felt before, so I went to the bathroom to see if anything had changed. Nothing. I went back to the baby room and started looking through boxes and promptly had a contraction lasting about 10-15 seconds. I told Robert that I think I had a contraction, then I HAD to go to the bathroom. Went back to the room, another contraction, 10-15 seconds, HAD to go to the bathroom again. Back to the baby room, another contraction, to the bathroom, and this time when I came out of the bathroom I went to page the midwife from the birth center. It was about 8:30.

I didn't know if it was Braxton Hicks contractions or the real thing. They were very mild. No mucus plug, no water. But I had been told if I had 4 contractions within an hour to call, and I just had three in 20 minutes! While I waited for Michelle (midwife) to call me back, I decided to finish packing for the birth center just in case. In the meantime, Robert is still moving stuff around for Memaw's. I get off the phone, have another contraction, a harder one lasting 30 seconds or so, and tell him "I don't think we'll be doing that tonight. Help me get ready to go in case we have a baby, because I just had another one." It's a blur after that.

As I gather stuff in the bathroom, I have a hard contraction and I wonder why Michelle hasn't called back. She always does. It's now about 9:00. I page her again with 911! I call Delilah, my doula (a birth assistant and much, much more!) I have another contraction while talking to her. She asks if we were planning on a home birth. I told her no, but it looked like that's what may happen. She asks to talk to Robert. She tells him to get the bed ready with plastic over the mattress, and have lots of towels handy, and for me to eat something in case I have a long labor. I call Michelle on her home phone. (Her pager didn't go off. This had never happened before! Found out why the next day-it was at the birth center!) She asks how long and far apart. I ask Robert. He laughs at me and says "I haven't been here for two in a row. I've been getting you frozen water bottles! I've been heating your rice socks(hot pads)! I've been running your bath and making you food!" So I tell her about 30
seconds to a minute long, maybe 5 minutes apart. She's now on her way over to check me and take me to the center. It's about 9:10.

I hadn't had much appetite that day and had only eaten fruit, yogurt, trail mix, and salad. So Robert goes to fix me a baked potato, (which I do want at this time), and to start me a bath. I had wanted to take a shower at the birth center, but I was now thinking we may not have that much time, so I had decided to relax in a bath for a few minutes, since they were really starting to hurt. I couldn't walk down the hall without stopping to have a contraction! He brings me the potato; I shove it aside because just the smell makes me gag! I get in the bath until it's not hot enough anymore (10 minutes!) and when I get out I have a hard contraction. I was on the floor on my hands and knees yelling for Robert to come and HELP ME! He said he was still making the bed. "I don't care! HELP ME!" He comes to rub my back, bring me water, bring me my nightgown, help me to bed, apply counter pressure (something we learned in our birth class) and do whatever I ask. I remember saying "Oh God, let them
get here soon! OOOwwwww!" (He did a wonderful job!)

Michelle gets to the house between about 10:00. It has now been about less than 2 hours since my first contraction. She checks me, and to her (and our) surprise, I am completely dilated! (I was still hoping to go to the center! HA!) She calls her birth assistant, Shanna, and tells her to get her emergency equipment from the center, that we are having a home birth! With me being a first-time mom, labor usually lasts 12 hours or longer, so we were not expecting this! All she had with her was rubber gloves to check me and the Doppler to check the baby's heart (and her infant baby Faith Elizabeth, who was asleep in her car seat in the corner).

I had another hard contraction, with a strong urge to push! She yells "NO! Not yet!" and helps me breath through it. She didn't want me pushing before the equipment got there in case there were problems. Delilah and Shanna both arrive about 10:30. Delilah helps me breathe and focus through contractions, and I'm allowed to push when I feel like it. Robert has been faithfully rubbing my lower back with hot rice socks and frozen water bottles. My back hurt the entire time! I kept asking if the baby was turned because it just wouldn't let up except for when I pushed. I can't even imagine the pain if the baby wasn't turned! I was coping with contractions by pushing, breathing, and focusing on whatever Delilah was saying. Sometimes I was too tired to push through the whole thing. Sometimes I couldn't help but push. We tried different positions. It's amazing how different positions changed things! I tried on my knees leaning on the bed, but my legs were too weak (no potato). When I was on
my back the contractions were MUCH more intense and it was excruciating if I let up before it was over. Forget that! Semi-sitting, I felt the most in control with a good balance between pushing and pain. On my side, the contractions were more intense than semi-sitting, but pushing felt more productive and my back didn't hurt as bad. I alternated mostly between semi-sitting with Robert behind me, and lying on my side, switching when I got tired.

Time went on and on…..Everyone laughed when I asked if they wanted coffee! (Dad has the pot on a timer and it makes automatically at midnight.) Delilah put on the music I asked for. We listened to the whole CD twice. I told them I can see why women ask for drugs, and that I felt like my legs were going to break off. Finally, I was getting really tired, so I decided I had to get her out while I still could. I gave it a few really good hard pushes. ("push into the pain" they said.) The last part really hurt. A terrible burn that is hard to describe, then Victoria was finally here! She came out with her hand on her face, just like in some of her sonogram pics! This gave me a "paper cut" on my upper left labia, my only tear.

I was immediately given a shot of pitocin to help my uterus contract and hooked up to an I.V. because I had lost a good amount of blood. After the placenta was delivered, I was given another shot of pitocin and a second bag of I.V. fluids. Victoria was very calm through all of this, while she was cleaned, suctioned and measured, and only after she was "jostled" with a towel for a good bit did she cry. She got pretty mad! Then I was able to nurse her for a bit while they cleaned up and Michelle prepared to give me a few stitches on my cut. I started bleeding again at this point and they decided to transport me to the hospital as a precaution. I had lost about 1 liter of blood. I felt fine, and my blood pressure was normal the whole time, and I didn't want to go, but I knew nobody in the room would listen to me had I said no, so I went along with it. The volunteer fire dept. emergency vehicle picked me up, and we woke Dad up and told him everything was fine, just a precaution, see you
later. He slept through the whole thing! (and so did Faith Elizabeth-truly a midwife's child!) I was told I was a very quiet laborer.

It was a very bumpy ride to the hospital in that thing. I don't recommend it, especially if you are in pain, which I was not at this time. Hindsight being 20/20 we should have taken the car. Had I needed any serious help those two goons couldn't have done anything but radio ahead to tell them we were coming, which they already knew! When we got there, we didn't know how long we would be, so we saw no need to call everyone just yet. We were at the hospital about 5 hours. We were able to talk them in to just holding me for observation, rather than admitting me, since it was cheaper because we were self-paying. After I was settled in and we knew which doctor would be coming, (the one Michelle works with), Michelle left because she isn't allowed to care for me once I'm in the hospital.

There was a bit of tension when we had to negotiate to keep Victoria with me in the room. They wanted to admit her and put her in the nursery which we were adamantly against. To keep her from getting "stolen". Right. $$$ After a half hour of supervisor checking and such, and we agreed that there would always be one other person in the room with me, they said she could stay. Glad they did. I was ready to tell Robert to make a run for it with the baby, and I dare someone to stop him. Take my baby. HA! Delilah was a great help in the negotiation! She stayed with me while Robert slept and I massaged my abdomen to speed things along. I didn't want the nurse doing it. She hurt!-badly! I was given another shot, another I.V. and when the doctor finally came in she took a look, said I was fine, and that we could go if we wanted because I didn't want stitches if I didn't have to have them. She said it wouldn't be necessary on such a small cut that wasn't bleeding anymore. I was given iron
pills and told I had to be on bed-rest for 24 hours and someone had to help me walk in case I fainted. We got home just as the sun was coming up. Robert finished cleaning the bed and put me and Victoria in it. And they all lived happily ever after.