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Week by Week

Brianna Rivkin's Birth

Brianna was due on August 13, 1996 but I wasn't surprised when that day came and went without incident. My son was 10 days late, so I expected her to also be late.

I woke up early in the evening on Monday, August 19th and realized I was having contractions. They weren't bad, but they were enough to keep me awake all night. It also could have been excitement and anticipation of the impending birth that kept me awake. I had an appointment scheduled with my midwife on Tuesday, August 20th at which time she examined me and said I was about 4 cm. dilated and maybe 80% effaced. By that time, the contractions had died down and I wasn't feeling much of anything. I was pretty uncomfortable on the whole, though. My husband had called his parents already and told them they should probably come down because they wanted to be there for the birth of this baby. They live almost two hours away and were not present for the birth of our first. I told him he was jumping the gun, but he didn't listen and they came down for nothing. So, we went out to dinner with them Tuesday night and about half way through dinner I started having contractions again. They were still pretty mild. We went home, saw them off and got our son ready and into bed. The contractions were mild so I tried to lay down and go to sleep. I couldn't sleep and the contractions were getting stronger so I went downstairs to the living room and watched TV. It was there that I labored all night while my husband and son slept upstairs. I didn't want to wake my husband up because I wanted him to get some sleep because he was going to have to care for our not quite yet 15 month old son while I was in the hospital.

The contractions got continually stronger and closer together during the night. I finally woke my husband around 5:30 a.m. and asked him to help me time the contractions. They were around 5 minutes apart. So, we called my parents to come and take care of our son and then called the midwife who told us not to wait long to get to the hospital and that she would meet us there. We left for the hospital around 6:30 a.m.

When we arrived at the hospital, there was a lot of chaos because they had quite a few women in labor. They didn't know what room I was going to be in or who my nurse would be. There was a doctor on call from my midwife's group who told the nurses to skip putting me in triage and just put me in a room. After they got me to my room, I changed and they put a monitor on the baby. The midwife was there too and she asked me to lay on my left side because my blood pressure was a little high. Then, she examined me only to find out that I was still only 4cm. dilated! I could have cried. I had been in labor for two days now and hadn't slept for two nights and that was the last thing I wanted to hear. So, she talked about possibly giving me pitocin to get the contractions to work a little harder. I really didn't want pitocin. She consulted with the doctor from her office and he suggested that they break my water first to see if that would move things along. I totally agreed with that because I remembered that when I was in labor with my son, things really started moving after my water broke. So, the doctor broke my water and my contractions immediately got stronger. I was so exhausted from not sleeping for two nights so I asked for some Nubain to help me relax and doze. The midwife didn't really want to give it to me because she said it could slow my labor down, but I told her that it didn't have that effect on me during my last labor. If anything, things progressed rapidly because I was able to relax.

Sure enough, after the Nubain was administered it couldn't have been more than two hours later that I was at 8cm. And, it wasn't more than 10 minutes after they checked me and found me at 8cm. that I was pushing. The nurse kept telling me not to push because I was only 8cm., but I kept telling her that I had to. She went to get the midwife and when they came back and the midwife examined me she said "yup, she's ready".

Brianna Danielle was born at 11:20 a.m. on August 21, 1996. She weighed 9lbs. 7oz. and was 21 1/2" long. I don't recall what her apgars were. At first the midwife said "it's a boy", but then she said "no, it's a girl!". Everyone was surprised that she was a girl. Everyone including me thought I was having another boy. Needless to say, everyone was ecstatic. She's the first daughter/granddaughter/niece in our family. Can you say spoiled?

Anyway, I didn't have an episiotomy and didn't tear either. Not even a skid mark as the midwife put it. My recovery was quick and she breastfed like an old pro from the beginning.

Terri Rivkin