I had my first baby three years ago with the UCSD midwives. I had a good experience with them, but I knew I wanted something a little different with my second pregnancy, so I switched to Dr. Biter before getting pregnant with my second baby. I liked knowing who would be there when I had my baby, and I loved that Dr. Biter saw each patient as an individual. I had a natural birth with my son and wanted a natural birth the second time as well, and I knew that with Dr. Biter if he suggested an intervention, it would be because he’d tried everything else. Amelia took us by surprise and came almost 3 weeks early, but it turned out to be a wonderful birth experience, and I’m happy that I switched to Dr. Biter.This pregnancy was pretty uneventful, except that I had started to have contractions pretty early on. I had read that was common with second pregnancies, so I was not too worried. And I didn’t think anything of it when I woke up on Friday, April 30, with contractions. These contractions did feel more uncomfortable than the ones I’d been feeling during the rest of my pregnancy, so I told my husband to keep his phone on. He looked at his wife, who was 37 weeks pregnant, and asked, “Why?”
My son was in preschool that morning, so I had a list of errands to do and a chiropractor appointment. On the way to the chiropractor, I timed my contractions, and they were about 10 minutes apart. Surely, that wasn’t “the real thing.” After the chiropractor’s appointment, I went to Pannikin’s for a pumpkin muffin. I noticed that I was still having contractions, and they’d been going on for about 3 hours now. So, I decided to cut my errands short and head home.
When I got home, I timed my contractions on the computer, and they were 5 minutes apart and lasted 1 minute 20 seconds. They were at the point where I had to stop and breath deeply every time a contraction came on. So, I called my husband and asked him to pick up our son from preschool. I called Dr. Biter’s office, and his nurse told me to come into the office, so I was at least close to the hospital if I needed to go. It was about 11am, and the nurse said Dr. Biter was due into the office at 12:40pm. We had my brother come over to watch my son, and we started throwing things together that we wanted to take with us, because we did not have anything packed for the hospital yet. We had not even installed the baby’s car seat in my car yet, so my husband threw the car seat and the base in the trunk.
On the way over to Dr. Biter’s office, my husband timed the contractions, and they were about 3-4 minutes apart at that point. We got to the doctor’s office at about 12:15pm. His nurse came out and talked to me, and when I told her my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart, she told me I should head over to the hospital and that she would let Dr. Biter know I was on my way. Looking back, I’m sure she knew I was in labor, but she was so calm about it.
When we got to the hospital, Dr. Biter met us at the door. (How’s that for a reception?) I had to check in with the nurses and get a nurse assigned to me, and then I had to change into my hospital gown. Dr. Biter then asked if I’d like him to check me, and I said yes. At this point, I’m still thinking: 1) that this is some sort of false alarm, and he will send me home after checking me; or 2) if things were happening, there was still some time. He checked me and said, “You have a little bit of a lip left, but you should be ready to push soon.” It took a minute to process what he was saying. I think that meant I was almost fully dilated! Dr. Biter told the nurse the baby was at station 0. This was probably 12:30pm or so. I was still kind of in shock at this point. I think part of it was because my contractions did not feel as strong as they did with my son. Maybe because my water broke last time, by the time I got to the hospital, my contractions were pretty intense, and I had pressure everywhere, and by the time I had gotten to 8 cm, I had a strong need to push. But this time, my water still had not broken yet, and I thought the contractions were pretty manageable, so I was really surprised to be almost fully dilated. I was still able to chat with everyone in between contractions.
My doula got there shortly after Dr. Biter checked me, and I think we all hung out for about an hour. My doula put on some soothing music and put out some lavender oil. I really did not think I would want the music or the oils, but it actually made for a really nice, calm setting. That’s still how I remember my labor this time, the soothing music and lavender. My doula was also really good about talking me through the contractions. Just being talked through them, I think it helped to know that they would end. Each time I had a contraction, she would let me know it was almost over.
After about an hour, Dr. Biter checked me again and said that I could push whenever I felt like it. I started pushing lying on my left side. The thing about the contractions not being that intense is I think it makes the pushing more work. With my son, the urge to push was so strong, and the contractions probably did most of the work to get him down. This time, I had to concentrate more on when a contraction was coming and when to push. Dr. Biter used mineral oil to stretch me and put pressure on the spot where I should push. After I’d push, he’d tell me, “Go beyond that point.” Of course, I’m thinking that I’m already giving it all I have. I started getting thoughts that maybe I couldn’t do this, but I had to push them away. After a while, I asked to rest my leg, because it was getting kind of sore holding it up. I’m not sure how long I’d been pushing, maybe half an hour. I rested my leg for a bit and tried to regroup, telling myself that I could do this.
I decided I’d switched sides and lie on my right side. This was the same side that I delivered my son on. That seemed to do the trick, because the first push after switching sides, I could hear and feel my water break. Then, Dr. Biter told me that the next push, he wanted me to hold onto both my legs and curl up like I was hugging the baby. I did that and pushed again, and that’s when I felt her crowning. Oh my goodness, it burned! Now I know what they mean by “the ring of fire.” For some reason, I had not felt it with my son, so when other people talked about the ring of fire, I had no idea what they were talking about. Up until then, I had not really said anything, and things were very calm and peaceful, and then I screamed, “That hurts!” Seriously, I think we prepare a lot for contractions and I had done the prenatal yoga and knew how to do the deep yoga breathing to get through the contractions, but the “ring of fire” really took me off guard.
After I screamed, “That hurts!” Dr. Biter kind of took charge and said, “Look at me. Stop pushing. Breathe. Let the baby come out slowly.” So, I started breathing deeply again. Dr. Biter then told me to push again, and I could feel that I was pushing her torso out. After a couple of pushes, Dr. Biter put her on my chest, and of course, I stared at her in disbelief. I think no matter how many times you give birth, it is still surreal that a little person can come from your body. The minute she got on my chest, she started crying. Again, totally different from my son. He did not cry when he first came out. He had opened his eyes and just stared at me. With Amelia, it was like she had to announce to the world that she was here. I’ll be curious to see if this is a reflection of their personalities at all.
I had a second degree tear with my son, and I was surprised when Dr. Biter said I had no tearing this time. I totally credit him for that, because he spent a lot of time stretching me with mineral oil when I first started pushing. And all the squats we did in prenatal yoga probably didn’t hurt either.
Amelia was born about 2 hours after I got to the hospital, and she weighed 8 lbs. 4 oz. It was such a wonderful, uneventful birth. I had kind of a high afterwards, because it all just came together so perfectly. We got to the hospital just in time, Dr. Biter was there waiting for us, and Amelia was healthy and nursed right away. It was such a calm and peaceful birth, and what better way is there to enter the world?
