Annie Joan Wishart was born on Sunday, April 11th at 1:15PM. She weighed 8lbs 5oz, and was 20.5 inches long. This is the story of her birth.
Much like my plans for labor and delivery with Hazel, I really wanted to have another unmedicated, natural birth. While I was somewhat traumatized by how intense the experience was the first time, I knew I could do it and HAD done it, and that gave me the confidence to try again. The pregnancy and birth preparation experience was so different this time as we didn't spend nearly as much time reading books, going to classes, or working with a doula. Partially because of Covid, but mostly because I had one experience under my belt and knew I had the tools I needed to do it naturally again.
At about 30 weeks, I realized I needed to start "getting my mind right" and really began the mental prep work for giving birth again. Basically that involved me following a bunch of positive birth accounts on Instagram, re-reading Ina May's Guide to Childbirth, and visualizing how to make this labor more peaceful than my last. I also started seeing a chiropractor and a pelvic floor therapist to help optimize my body for the difficult task ahead.
The week leading up to my due date I was beyond uncomfortable, getting very little sleep, and just READY to be done. I decided to get checked at my 39 week midwife appointment and opted for a cervix stretch and sweep to hopefully get things moving. My midwife told me I was about 3cm dilated with a super soft cervix, which meant my body had started preparing! The sweep was definitely uncomfortable and it brought back vivid memories of the sensations I'd be feeling very soon with labor. The next few days I had a lot of Braxton Hicks contractions and a few irregular contractions in the middle of the night. My due date came and went on the 10th, and we went to sleep hoping things would start soon.
That night, I woke up around 2:30am with my first real contraction. I let Aaron know, and warned him to not get too excited as I wasn't sure how regular they were yet. It's such a mind game to not get overly excited / nervous when things begin! I started timing them, and they seemed to come about every 6 minutes and it felt like this was really the beginning. Because it was the middle of the night, the biggest stressor for me was coordinating getting Hazel picked up and out of the house so I could focus on laboring without distraction. Once I had a couple of hours of regular contractions, I felt like we could call my mom to have her come pick up Hazel. At around 4:45am, we called and told her to be at our house by 6am to get her. When she arrived, my contractions stalled for a bit, likely because I was in my head trying to make sure she had everything she needed for Hazel's few days away. Once we said our goodbyes and they were on their way, it felt like I could truly focus and let my body do what it needed to do. For the next couple of hours, I rotated between laying in bed, sitting on the birth ball, and taking a very slow walk with Aaron down our street to help pick things up.
Around 9:30am contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart and we decided we'd start getting ready for the hospital. This was definitely one of the more conflicting moments for me as I was dealing with the contractions so much better at this stage than I had with my first birth, and I was worried we were heading to the hospital too soon. I didn't want to get to the hospital before I had progressed enough, while also wanting to avoid transition in the car or an accidental car birth. Thankfully, when we arrived they ushered us straight to our labor and delivery room (no triage as they could tell I was in active labor) and I was dilated to 6cm and fully effaced - perfect timing according to my midwife!
We got settled into the room, and my contractions were still very manageable and about 3 minutes apart. There's even a selfie of Aaron and I where I'm smiling, which was definitely not a possibility when I was in labor the first time! During the entire labor I had one AirPod in and was listening to the labor breathing and birth affirmation tracks on the Freya App by the Positive Birth Company (highly recommend). They were incredibly helpful in reminding me to breathe and relax through the intensity of the contractions. For whatever reason the mantra "Open and Out" was also on repeat in my mind during each contraction, and Aaron was by my side reminding me to release the tension in my face and shoulders. All of these things aided in making the labor so much more peaceful and manageable this time around. After about 2 hours moving around the hospital room and working through contractions, I started to get emotional, tired, and just wanted to be done. Even though I was managing quite well, I knew I still had the hardest part ahead of me (transition and pushing) and I really wanted to speed things up to get it over with.
Our midwife, who was in the room with us the entire time, was confident if we broke my water the baby would drop lower into my pelvis and I'd likely be pushing within minutes. While I was definitely nervous since I knew the water bag was keeping things a bit more cushioned, I wanted to move things along and we decided to go ahead with it. At 12:50pm she broke my water and things immediately got more intense. For a few contractions my midwife suggested I lay on my side with a peanut ball between my legs to help the baby move down, and I found this SO uncomfortable. I vividly remember saying "I wish I wasn't one of those people who cared about doing this naturally!" at this point because it started to get unbearable.
After trying out a few other positions, eventually I moved onto all fours, with my arms and head over the top of the bed which was in an upright position and I began to feel the intense urge to push. Much like with Hazel's birth, I do not enjoy the pushing phase AT ALL. With each contraction and push, it felt like a literal freight train was coursing through my bottom half and it was the most painful, intense sensation you can imagine.
While I was pushing, the nurse was holding a heart rate monitor to my stomach to monitor the baby and I could tell they were having trouble finding the heartbeat. I was too "in it" to talk or ask questions (and also turned around toward the wall on all fours), but I could sense there was a sense of urgency in the room and that more people were coming in to help. At a certain point my midwife very seriously said, "Jillian, you need to keep pushing right now!" and I literally roared through the next few pushes realizing they needed to get the baby out ASAP. After what felt like an eternity, but was really only a few minutes, Annie Joan Wishart made her grand appearance at 1:15pm (just 25 minutes after breaking my water)!
Because I had delivered on all fours, I was still turned away from all the "activity" while I was catching my breath, but I heard them say the cord was wrapped around her neck twice and they immediately cut the cord and whisked her away to the baby table where she needed some help from the NICU doctor. I remember saying "is she ok? is she ok??" and it wasn't until she gurgled out some fluid and let out a first little cry did anyone actually say "yes, she's going to be ok!". What I couldn't see when she first came out was her glazed over eyes and lack of color. Aaron says that it looked like she wasn't alive, which was obviously really scary. We'll forever be so thankful for the quick action of our midwife and for the amazing care she received from the doctors on call. After she cried and pinked up, they brought her over to me and we were finally able to have those sweet first moments of bonding. The overwhelming relief I felt at her safely arriving and to be done birthing (FOREVER!) was so amazing. We're all so in love with our Annie girl and are delighted she is the one who completed our family.
