the magnusons

I started having regular contractions on a Saturday, 8 days before Helene was born. They were very regular for most of the afternoon, about 4 minutes apart and lasting about 30 seconds. But they were also very bearable, and they eventually stopped, so I knew they weren’t the real thing. This happened each day until the night I went into labor. On Tuesday, 5 days before she was born, I had my 39-week midwife appointment, and I found out I was 3 cm dilated and 70% effaced. I was still going to work everyday this week, although I was getting in about an hour late and leaving about an hour early. I would have my contractions at work, and by the end of each day I was completely exhausted. That Friday I was so worn out that I determined to spend the next day resting and getting ready to have a baby. Saturday brought the same afternoon contractions, although they started earlier than usual. We took a 2-mile walk around the complex, and I could time the contractions based on our laps since I already knew about how long it took us to make a lap. That night they were intense enough that I was only comfortable sitting on the ball. When we went to bed my contractions had pretty much stopped, but I had insomnia…I asked Scott to play some music to help me relax, and we ended up listening to the entire Waterdeep “Enter the Worship Circle” album. I asked Scott to let it keep playing. I felt very peaceful, but also very aware that something was going to happen soon. I was praying a lot for God’s presence to comfort and strengthen me. The last time we looked at the clock it was about 1:30 am.

Then my water broke! This woke me up and I immediately woke Scott up. It was about 3:30 am (Sunday morning). I had a LOT of water gush out of me, and we were very glad for the waterproof pad I had put on the bed several weeks earlier. As soon as I made it to the bathroom my contractions started. We had the midwife paged, and when she (Mary) called back she told me to contact her again when my contractions were less than 5 minutes apart. So, we started timing them and they were averaging 3 minutes apart and lasting about 45 seconds to 1 minute (definitely active labor!) For about 15-20 minutes the contractions were bearable- I could walk and talk pretty normally through them. So I took a shower and got things ready. Scott got himself ready while watching the stopwatch. Then the contractions started intensifying very quickly. I had to sit on the ball during them, and I also started moaning through the pain. We called the midwife back about an hour after we had first spoken with her; she told us to go to the hospital. So, we left just before 5 am. Scott did an awesome job of getting everything together!

The only stressful part of my labor & delivery was when we first got to the hospital. When we got to our floor it was completely deserted.  For, what seemed like forever, we wandered the halls in disbelief.  It was like the Twilight Zone, and Scott almost panicked…but then we found the labor/delivery area and all was ok. When we finally got settled in our room it was about 5:15 am. (Since we lived within 5 minutes of the hospital, our “panic” time lasted only about 10 minutes, but when your wife is in active labor, stopping to brace herself against the walls, 10 minutes is a long time!) The nurse started monitoring me and the baby, and she gave me a hep-loc, but I ended up not ever having anything injected into it, which I was so thankful for! Scott had gotten the iPod and speakers set up before this- he had the praise & worship music playing before I even got in bed! This was so wonderful; I was so glad he took care of this so quickly so that he could then give me his undivided attention.

As soon as I got in bed the contractions got MUCH more painful. I was moaning through all of them, and almost crying through some. I was getting scared already. Scott did such an amazing job- he kept telling me I could do it and to look to Jesus and he read me some really encouraging verses which I would repeat over and over. I started praying out loud, almost nonstop, asking God to help me and thanking Him for rest between contractions. Doing this helped me SO much. And the rest felt SO good! When the nurse first checked me it was about 5:30 am and I was 7 cm dilated and 90% effaced. When it was almost 6:00, Scott asked the nurse if I could change positions. She said okay but that she would have to keep monitoring the baby. This was fine with me b/c the monitor was not bothering me! I had a couple of smaller contractions, and then Scott encouraged me to get on the ball. As soon as I got on the ball they got much harder, but they were also a lot easier to take than they had been in bed. I was moaning and yelling through all of them, and rocking back and forth on the ball. I leaned against the bed to rest. It wasn’t long before I started feeling the urge to push, but I didn’t want to find out if I was ready until Mary got there.

A little after 6 am, Mary arrived, and I was so glad! She started encouraging me right away and she told Scott to support me from behind, which was really nice. I was already feeling a lot more pressure to push, which I told Mary. After about 15-20 minutes, she wanted to check me again. I got back in bed (which was horrible!); she checked me and I was ready to go! I couldn’t believe it. I was REALLY terrified of pushing. Scott helped me pull back one of my knees and the nurse (Aimee) helped with the other one. Pushing was SO awful for me. Scott, Mary, and Aimee all had to tell me to push over and over. They had to be pretty stern with me because I wouldn’t do it by myself! After pushing several times I started feeling terrible, searing pain, which I found out later was me tearing (good thing no one told me that at the time.) This pain made pushing about a million times worse than it already was, but I am so thankful that I didn’t have an episiotomy (which Mary wouldn’t have considered anyway unless the baby was actually in danger.) I started to get even more scared- I thought I was going to be ripped in two! So I started frantically asking Mary if she would tell me when to slow down or if I was pushing too hard or the wrong way or whatever. This, of course, was very silly of me- I shouldn’t have been worried.

Mary told me the baby was crowning and was almost out. I asked her how many more times I would have to push, and she said maybe only 2 or 3. I said I didn’t know if I could do it (ha-ha!) They all kept yelling at me to push and I kept saying I needed a break (ha-ha!) I was screaming and yelling every time I pushed. Finally, the head came out and even though I really wanted to rest I pushed hard again and the body quickly came out. Mary tried to let me pull the baby out and bring it to myself, but I was scared because I felt so weak and I was already pretty hysterical looking at what I had just done. Then when Mary pulled the baby out and said it was a girl and put her on my stomach I became completely hysterical (in a GOOD way!) It was by far the most powerful moment of my life. All I could do was try to keep my hands on her since she was very squirmy and slimy and I was laughing and crying and thanking God. She, too, started crying immediately, which was so wonderful.  Mary asked us what her name was, and we told her, Helene Elise. (She was born at 7:19 am, less than 4 hours after my water broke, about 2 hours after we got to the hospital.) Scott cut the cord and Aimee (the nurse) wrapped a blanket around Helene. I held her while Mary stitched me up (minor tear, easy recovery, thank God!) Then Helene had her first feeding, and she stayed with us for about an hour and a half before we all changed rooms. In the nursery we found out that Helene weighed 7 pounds 12 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. Our first birth was such an amazing experience and we would not change anything. We are so thankful for the childbirth classes we took through First Birth Ministries. And we are so thankful to God for being present at Helene’s birth!