Lola Grace- a birth story

At 8 pm on June 20th, 5 days past my due date, my water broke right after pleading with Dash to clean up his toys and throwing in a load of laundry. I yelled to my mike downstairs and we called up our midwife to let her know. She said to head in at either 6 am or if contractions started following the 4-1-1 pattern. Coincidently this is exactly how labor with Dash started as well- by my water breaking at 8 pm with contractions soon to follow. Apparently it's uncommon for your water to break before labor starts but you know, it's just how I roll. I put Dash to bed *shed a tear or two about how it would be my last time seeing him as my only child* and called my parents to come over to watch him. Contractions started around 10 minutes apart and lasting over a minute so I was just puttering around trying to get last minute things together while mike went to bed. After a while I decided to try to get some sleep with mike while I could but could only sleep for around a half hour before my contractions were too strong to ignore. At around 12:30 I got back up to clean some more and timed my contractions at being 5-7 minutes apart. A few of them were even 4 minutes apart but I didn't want to get to the hospital too early or wake mike up before I had to. One contraction in particular brought me from leaning on my dresser to having to get on my hands and knees to ride it out. After that, I decided it was time. After waking mike up we told my parents good bye and headed to the hospital. During the 45 minute ride I had around 3 or 4 contractions that were very manageable which is great because I was terrified of laboring in the car. However, as soon as i stepped out into the parking lot of the hospital I was hit by a massive contraction that made me rethink not getting that epidural and then 2 more on the way to the front desk. I quickly signed in through a few more contractions and was placed into my labor room. I was suddenly in a lot of pain and had a hard time even getting onto the bed. I sat on the edge and told the nurses I needed a minute through my nervous laughs and uncontrollable shaking. I'm sure they thought I was some sort of lunatic. Finally after settling down a little I was checked and at 4 cm which I was happy about because I was still zero at my last appointment a few days prior. (Again, same with my last birth- zero dilation before water broke) My midwife had me get into the shower to labor which was amazing. My pain immediately went down to a manageable degree and I was able to focus. I sat on a stool with the shower head pointing at my belly while mike sat on a stool outside the shower. It was hard deciding whether to point the water at my front or my back since both were contracting with each contraction (haha), but my front ended up winning. A bath tub would have been nice but there aren't ones in the individual rooms at the hospital and I didn't want to move to the one they had in the hallway. Besides, I think the sound of the faucet running helped me through the pain as well as the warmth. I was in the shower for around 3 hours.... Which is a little insane considering it felt like 45 minutes at most. I was having to moan loudly during contractions and between them I leaned my head on my shoulder or the shower wall and dozed off for a few minutes. Here's a funny side note- at one point I glanced over at mike and he was doing something on his phone that looked like a game. I asked what he was doing and he apparently had a guitar tuning app open to see what key I was moaning in. It was D flat for anybody who's interested. At this point I decided to move to the bed. I knew if I got out of the shower things would get serious fast so I put my big girl pants on (there actually weren't any pants but I did have a towel) and b-lined to the bed. The lights in the room were set really low and my midwife had some peaceful zen music playing which was a nice touch.  I was checked and at 8 cm. I laid on my side and began loudly vocalizing *screaming like a wild banshee* during each contraction and dozing off in between them. It was wild. Mike said I would go from letting out the most primal guttural yell he's ever heard and then start snoring. I even had lucid dreams during each mini nap! After maybe an hour I began to feel the transition feelings set in- intense pressure, pain, and panic. I think at that point I opened my eyes and begged for the nurses to help me. I'll never forget the blank stares on their faces. I was on my own. My midwife gave me permission to push and I immediately began involuntarily pushing on my side. It was the kind of involuntary action such as throwing up- my body was taking over without me trying. At this point I think a combination of the noises I was making, my sweat matted hair stuck to the side of my face, and the death grip I had on the nurses wrist had Mike wanting to run for the hills. Bless him for sticking it out by my side. I moved onto my back at some point to continue pushing. From here on things are very fuzzy but I'm told I pushed for 12 minutes before lifting my baby girl onto my chest. It was the most painful and beautiful experience of my life. I'm pretty sure I traumatized mike and every nurse and expectant mother in the maternity ward that morning but for her, it was so very worth it. 

Lola Grace Schmierer 
Born June 21st, 2015 at 6:40 am
7 lbs 5 oz 19 in long