The Birth of Callum
I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I had my son, Callum. I’ve meant to write his birth story a hundred times but never knew how to start. His birth was everything but glamorous. My daughter’s birth was easy to write about because it was honestly a dream. It was the kind of birth every mom who wants a natural, unmediated birth hopes for. Went into labor on my own, labor ramped up slowly and consistently, I looked super cute in my birthing gown that I brought from home and I was handling the contractions like a beautiful goddess. (You can read her birth story here)
If my daughter’s birth was a Disney movie, my son’s was an episode of Game of Thrones.
Unfortunately both of my babies were breech. I know. How unlucky right? It has to be the shape of my uterus but let me tell you, they are very cozy with their heads in my ribs.
Anyway. If you’ve experienced a breech baby, you know there’s only 2 options: attempt to flip the baby externally (ECV) or C section. ECV’s are notorious for being unsuccessful. Since I had a successful one with my daughter, I thought my odds were definitely not in my favor. But I’m so terrified of c section that I knew I’d have to at least attempt another ECV. Why am I so terrified of C section you ask? Oh, I don’t know… maybe the whole, being strapped down and cut open while awake thing. Sounds like something out of a horror movie honestly.
Anyway, we schedule the ECV and our doctor this time performs these in the OR so in case baby doesn’t respond well, they can get them out quickly. So I’m prepped with an epidural and there are 2 doctors performing the ECV. coincidentally, the second doctor happens to be my client! The world is very small sometimes and when you work with all the local moms, some of them happen to be OBGYN’s. So the first attempt they got him about a quarter of the way turned the short way and they lost grip and he went back to breech. Now anytime you squeeze on a baby’s head on the womb it causes them stress and their body goes into basically a fawn mode where their heart rate slows waaaay down to protect their other systems. If their heart rate doesn’t improve in 6 minutes, it’s an immediate c section.
So he slipped back and his heart rate drops dramatically. You could hear a pin drop in that room. Just this slow beep of his heart monitor. Everyone is holding their breath. 2 minutes later, his heart rate improves! So doctor is ready to attempt again. Only this time they are gonna try to flip him the opposite way (the longer way that’s like a 3/4 turn) so I’m thinking… there’s no way this is gonna work.
They start pushing and pushing and pushing and he gets half way and kinda stops as their hands slip off again. But this time, his heart rate recovers much faster and they are able to try again and get him the rest of the way around! Whoooo hoooo!
I’m on cloud nine thinking yes! I can go home and go into labor on my own, just like my daughter.
But my son had other ideas. They keep monitoring for a few hours after the procedure and he’s having decels at the bottom of contractions. Decels at the top of a contraction is normal and expected. At the bottom means something might be wrong like my placenta could be tearing from the wall.
Both my midwife and the OB discuss and think it’s best for me to be induced. I can’t go home 😭 And it makes sense because if you have a placenta abruption it’s basically a death sentence for baby within minutes. So I agreed it was important that I be monitored.
At this point, I hadn’t eaten anything since the night before. I also haven’t slept. So my doula recommends they can go ahead and admit me, but we start the induction after I’ve eaten and had some sleep.
So they get me into a room and I have some dinner and try to get some sleep.
Next morning they are ready to start and want to do the foley bulb as a first effort.
As someone who works with a lot of moms, I’ve heard all the birth stories about the foley bulb and I knew that I did. not. want. it.
So I suggest trying pitocin first.
It starts working but very slowly. I’m walking the halls trying to get things moving and let gravity do its thing.
Well… after some time, his heart rate is doing worse and they want to speed things up more. So I agree to the foley bulb.
When I tell you, the foley bulb might as well be a medieval torture device. You’re having contractions on this hard ass balloon up there and I’m having those cold sweats and feeling like I’m gonna puke.
I kept wet washcloths on my neck and face and sat on the birth ball for about 2 hours. Misery. I’m like not doing well and I asked if I could have some ibuprofen or something. So they gave me that and some other drug, I can’t remember what exactly but it helped me relax enough that I was able to get a 2 hour nap! when the nurse checked me, she said the bulb was ready to come out! I was now 4cm!
The next step would be to up the pitocin again and break my water.
I waited to have them break my water until my doula could arrive because I knew things might get intense at that point.
And boyyyy I was right.
Contractions picked way up, would roll from my back through my sides and underneath in my crotch. Woof.
I cannot get comfortable no matter what I do. I looked at my doula and said I didn’t think I could do it much longer and she gave me words of encouragement and said maybe let’s try the TENS unit. That TENS unit saved my life. Each contraction I’d have her or my husband turn it on full blast as a distraction until the peak of the contraction was over. Everyone thinks I’m doing beautifully and handling things fine. I was not. Internally I was screaming.
the nurse comes in to turn up my pitocin and I’m not even kidding, I wanted to drop kick her. She said something along the lines of how well I was doing and I could handle it and I told her absolutely not. She was insisting if she didn’t turn it up that I’d be laboring for at least another 12 hours. 12 more hours?!? Girl…. I’m not gonna last 12 more minutes.
So my stubborn ass stands up next to the bed and starts doing squats to get this baby lower and out of me. We are NOT doing this another 12 hours. After a few minutes of this I felt him move down and I immediately told my doula we needed to call my birth photographer.
A few minutes after that I’m getting antsy and having trouble staying calm and not panicking because these contractions are way more intense than anything I experienced with my daughter.
My doula suggests we change things up and she asks if I wanna sit backward on the toilet. If you know anything about natural birth, you know this position is called “the dilation station” because we naturally open up while sitting on the toilet.
At this point I can’t stand having any clothing on me because I’m managing cords, and monitors and the girdle to keep him from flipping back to breech. So I lose my robe and we are hanging out in the bathroom. It is not glamorous lol Lord no one can ever see these photos 😅 Oh yeah, at this point my photographer has arrived!
So I’m laboring and literally pushing my breath down into my belly and crotch while holding onto the handles. I needed to do SOMETHING with all that energy and bracing myself on those handles with the TENS unit still blasting is what felt best.
After a few minutes of this I suddenly had one contraction that the sound alone alerting my husband and my doula that baby was coming. My doula is asking “are you feeling pushy?” And I’m like… yeah kind of. So we alert my midwife and they start filling the birth tub because my plan was to deliver in the water.
Once the tub is filled they help me over to the edge and I put one leg over the side and foot into the water and it was burning hot. I immediately looked at my midwife and was like… I cannot get in there. So they start draining it and adding cold water. Meanwhile I’m having insane pushy contractions while still with one leg in and one leg out.
I realize there is no stopping this baby now. With my first I experienced what I believe to have been a fetal rejection reflex where your body literally takes over and forces that baby out with the strength of a million suns.
My plan with this baby was to go slow, let everything stretch so I wouldn’t tear again.
Well… my body had other plans again. I could not stop this freight train barreling down the tracks.
My midwife is like “do you want to catch?” And I’m literally like having an out of body experience at the moment and knew he was coming like… now. I shook my head to my husband and he relayed the message to my midwife who was behind me putting down pee pads everywhere because apparently this is where I’m having this baby.
I’m not even kidding when I tell you she caught him by his arm and leg on the decent from my body. God bless midwives because she had everything under control when I was completely out of control.
So that’s my son’s birth story! All in all, about 12 hours. What’s crazy though is from the time they broke my water to having him was about 4 hours. The photographer made it JUST in time. The time stamp on her arriving at the hospital and when he was born was about 15 minutes. Wild.
Looking back now, I can laugh about most of it… maybe not the Foley bulb ha. But if there’s one thing this birth taught me, it’s that babies really don’t care about your plans. They’ll make their own entrance.
Happy first birthday, buddy. You certainly knew how to make one.
