Tre's Labor Story

I am not a very articulate or eloquent person. So please if your interested in the birth story... bear with my writing style.

Part 1 - Pre Labor
At my 39 week visit Monday the 9th, we met with Sunshine and Brooke who was to be our second midwife at the birth. When I returned from peeing on a stick, I heard Brooke telling Jorge that we need to go on a date night... go eat spicy food, have a glass of wine, then sex to try to get labor started. I told them I really wasn't in a rush to have the baby. I was feeling fine still sleeping 8-10 hours a night and just having a little round ligament pain from the pressure of the baby. Brooke told Jorge I found out the next morning that she thought the baby weighed over 9.5 pounds and I realized this is why she wanted me to work on getting him out sooner rather than later. My family has a history of late babies from 4 days to 3 weeks. So on that day, I had accepted the idea that Tre might wait until after Thanksgiving and although I wanted him out before, that was okay. She also said that his head was deep in the pelvic cavity already.
Well that evening the round ligament pain was horrible so the pregnancy symptoms were getting worse.
Instead of going out, On Wednesday night I made a very spicy dinner. Then Thursday I started loosing my mucus plug and having bloody show. I got really excited although I knew that delivery could still be two weeks away.
So Thursday afternoon I made "jump start your labor cookies" and ate about two dozen of them over Thursday evening, Friday and Saturday.
At this point I was really hoping for a Friday the 13th baby but the cookies and food didn't work. So I asked Sunshine if I could go to acupuncture. She said that I could but that she was up all night for another birth and would rather I wait till she's rested and could be completely present for the birth. So I waited on acupuncture and a friend recommended I drink Raspberry Leaf Tea because that's what worked for her when she was trying for a Friday the 13th of February labor. It didn't work the same day but put her into labor the next morning.
So Friday I had 2 cups, Saturday 2, and Sunday 3.
Saturday afternoon we went for a 40 minute walk with the dogs.
Sunday morning I woke up being able to actually feel the contractions around 7am. Jorge and I started timing them but they were all over the place. I just felt tightening, no pain or anything.
So we went to Vons to stock up as I knew it would probably be the last trip.
Then at 2 we took a 20 minute walk with the dogs. And when we returned I had 3 contractions in 15 minutes. So I knew things were getting better.

Part 2 - Labor

My mom came over at 3 and stayed with me 2 hours timing contractions which were steadily 7-9 minutes apart. I called Sunshine to let her know that it may be soon.
The whole time my mom and I were reading the "Natural Birth the Bradley Way" book trying to figure out where we were in labor.
My mom went home then Jorge and I started timing contractions. This whole time I felt them only as period cramps in the lower abdomen.
Then at about 6 or 7pm the contractions started wrapping around to my back. My sister had said that if I wanted the baby to come out, I couldn't rest and had to keep moving. So I decided to bake a chocolate birthday cake. By the time I was done with this around 8 contractions were 4 minutes apart so I called my mom over.
At this time I was still able to talk and smile between contractions easily and just had to stop what I was doing for the contraction to pass. So I decided to have my mom wait but when I called she was already at the door.
When she came in her and Jorge prepared the bed and Jorge started inflating the tub which took an hour. By this time contractions were 2 minutes apart and my mom told me to call Sunshine. Because I was able to talk fine and breathe through contractions Sunshine didn't think I was in active labor but said she'd come over and check me then probably go home. She arrived at 9:45pm and checked our heart rates and said everything was fine. Her and my mom went in the living room while Jorge and I labored in the bedroom and Jorge filled up the tub.
111pm After an hour of contractions laying on my side and all fours with Jorge massaging my back, my water broke a big pop. Jorge felt it too- I think he may have caused it by massaging too hard. So he went to get Sunshine. Sunshine let me know that things would get really intense and it would be rough until my endorphins caught up which it was and they did. We continued to get through the contractions for another hour.
12am I got in the tub. Sunshine thought it was a little early but knew that it would feel better for me. Keep in mind, she didn't check for dilation the whole time. The water wasn't warm enough because we only have a 20 gallon heater so my mom started boiling big pots of water... they ended up putting 6 big pots of water in the tub.
1am I felt like I had to push. So she checked me and said I was about 6-7 though it was hard to tell in the tub. I continued to labor without pushing. Then Sunshine asked if Jorge wanted to get in the tub with me and he said yes so he put his trunks on at got in.
2am I really felt like I had to push so she checked me again and I was 10cm. She finally decided to call Brooke who didn't answer the phone. So she called Gerri, a midwife 2 miles away from our house and she didn't answer either. So she called Darrenae another midwife in Chula Vista who ended up making it over at 2:45am. This whole time nobody told me to push and everybody was just watching me do my thing.
3:05 Baby's head was part way out but not coming all the way out and turning blue. Sunshine told me to get out of the tub so as I stood up and got out of the tub, his head came out. She told me to lunge... still no body. She told me to lay on the floor. Darrenae pulled my knees back to my ears... no body. She told me to push my baby out... at this point I knew his shoulder was stuck behind my pelvic bone "shoulder dystocia" and his body wasn't going to come out even if I pushed so I didn't push. Sunshine ended up reaching all the way in with both hands to turn him and release his shoulder and he finally came out at 3:08
He weighed a whopping 11lbs 0oz and measured 20 inches

Part 3 - Afterthoughts
Labor was 12 hours long... which is average for first timers.
In the early stages I was truly afraid that it was going to last 24 hours... I was going to be tired and want to go to the hospital for drugs. Well things went to quickly for this and I'm glad that I did get to do it all naturally.
My idea of my birth was going to be a beautiful experience and I would have a wonderful empowering euphoric feeling when I first held my baby. I thought that I would deliver him myself in the tub and pull him up to my chest myself with a big smile on my face. Instead he was pulled from me as was necessary and I am so thankful that Sunshine and Darrenae were there to do everything necessary to get him out. I never felt the big oxytocin rush and it was quite traumatic for a home birth. Would I do it again... absolutely. I think that if I was in the hospital, I would have been forced to labor on my back which would have been way too difficult and they would have tried to extract him with forceps or do a cesarean or something opposite of what we all wanted for this birth.