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Alexander Konrad Thiebes

Alexander Konrad Thiebes was born on 20 Jul 97 at 3:26 am, 9 lbs 2 oz and 23" long. Here is his story: I had been having mild uterine cramping for three weeks prior. When I went to my scheduled doctor's appointment, I was effacing but not dilating. When my doctor hooked me up to the fetal monitor, I was having contractions, but they were irregular. He told me the baby could come any day, hard to tell. Well, 19 Jul was like any other, I had mild cramps throughout the afternoon, but still ate a big dinner and had an argument with my husband when he cleaned his dirty tennis shoes in the tub (I should have taken this as a sign, because afterwards, I proceeded to scrub the bathtub). Right around midnight, I was lying awake, and I had this huge contraction that actually was painful. I thought, this is it, early labor must be starting. I didn't bother to time them. I didn't think things were really happening until I had four bowel movements in a 30 minute time span. I woke my husband, he timed the contractions, which were 4-5 min apart and about 60-90 seconds long. I wanted to make sure this was for real, so we waited another 30 minutes and headed off to the hospital. On the way to the car and on the road, I had numerous contractions, and I know they were less than 4 min apart. They were painful, but I could still breathe through them. Once at the hospital, the nurse took her own sweet time, typing my info into the computer, while I lay hooked up to the fetal monitor. I remember feeling a little nauseous and had my husband put some peppermint drops on a wet washcloth for me to inhale. It helped a little, but I was really sweating and told him that I couldn't do this w/out drugs. The ultrasound tech and midwife came to check me and they both realized I was almost completely dilated. Things really started to move fast then. The midwife broke my water, and the contractions were one right after another. I asked again for pain meds, and the midwife said "It's too late, you'll have this baby within 2 hours." I walked next door to the delivery room and got on the delivery table, having to stop a few times along the way for contractions. After about 20 min on the table, I had this irresistible urge to push, and there was no more pain w/each contraction plus they were farther apart. I remember grunting uncontrollably while pushing. I went through two pushing contractions on my side, then two in the modified half squat on the table. At one point, the midwife told me to push, and I saw her cutting into me just as I pushed. It was an even more burning pain, than when the baby started to crown, but the pain subsided quickly. The baby then popped out onto the table. I started shaking pretty violently and cried a lot too. The nurse said I was in shock. Alexander was born within 2 hours of getting to the hospital. This was my first baby, and we all were pretty shocked at how fast he came out. Today, I am glad that I was able to participate in a quick, unmedicated birth and have convinced myself that things went the way they did, because I took long walks almost every day of my pregnancy (even when I was hurting) and by reading a book on the Bradley method of birth (practiced the breathing techniques, focusing on the contractions as waves, imagery/floating techniques and recognizing the emotional signposts).