First time mom, Augusta, welcomed baby Halden with the support of doula Brittney. This is Halden's birth story.
Morning of 9/3
Augusta texted and said she had been having contractions all night long, she was excited, asked her husband to stay home from work, and called her mom, Cara.
We texted throughout the morning and after her mom arrived she decided to take a nap.
Things petered out, and she was disappointed but with some encouragement that this was totally normal for first time moms they had a relaxing evening and went to bed early.
Morning of 9/4
Augusta texted again saying contractions picked up overnight and Andrew was off to work. This morning, she got on her birth ball and began watching War and Peace.
Around lunch, things were picking up and I suggested a walk followed by a nap. So off she went with her dog Skippy. About an hour later she texted again saying she could not sleep and was back on her birth ball.
She later hopped in the tub for some relief.
About 3ish she texted that she called Andrew home and Cara wanted her to go to the hospital.
At 4pm we met at the hospital.
She was borderline for admittance but it was a slow evening and gave her the option to be admitted anyway, which she chose to do.
While she got her saline lock put in, we discovered she did not just have a fear of needles but a phobia. Thankful her primary nurse had the brilliant idea of covering the area with an ace wrap so it didn’t stand out.
Cara went to grab some Taco Bell for Andrew and I and a baja blast for Augusta.
Augusta was in and out of the tub during the evening as this was the best pain relief for her. We made the tub area into a cozy cave with a light projector and some music. Andrew had a cup to pour water over her belly during contractions.
About midnight or so, her contractions began coming back to back, after about a half hour of that she requested the epidural. They started a bag of saline to prepare her body. As the bag was finishing and the anesthesiologist was about to come, they unfortunately were called for an emergency c-section with another patient.
This meant Augusta had to wait an additional hour which made her total wait almost 2 hours by the time they came back. We tried several different positions, counter pressure, walking, etc. but nothing was bringing much relief.
When the anesthesiologist finally made it back into the room, Augusta’s phobia of needles came back with a vengeance. After several attempts with a couple nurses holding her down, she called it a no go and stated she would never ever ever attempt to get an epidural again.
The mental recovery after this was brutal, the rest and pain relief she wanted were not going to happen and the recovery from the panic attack took its toll.
Augusta continued to labor through the night without much progress.
Around 2am her waters broke.
By 3am she finally had an urge to push, but unfortunately she was only at 9cm so she had to hold herself back for the next hour as we shifted positions every few minutes to help her progress.
About 4:30am we began to see another bag of waters, called a forebag.
But it was small and the decision was made to leave it for now.
By 5am, she had been pushing for 2 hours and the midwife presented 3 options. Try a vacuum assisted delivery which August was extremely against, push for a 3rd hour and re-evaluate, put her under general for a c-section, but since baby was so low they would have to push him back up to do.
The c-section was actually her preferred method at the time and later said it was because she could taste the sleep. But Andrew and Cara were very against this and encouraged her to pick another option.
The OB on-call was a personal friend of Augusta so I asked the midwife if she didn’t mind calling her since she would have to come in for any of the options except additional pushing anyway. The midwife begrudgingly agreed. As soon as we affirmed to Augusta that her friend OB was being called in, her pushing changed.
By the time the midwife came back with the OB about 15-20 minutes later, Augusta was beginning to crown, awing all who had witnessed the last 2 hours.
About 6am, baby Halden Andrew Schmidt was born.
Aside from some meconium in the lungs that required some suction and additional breathing assistance, he was a healthy baby boy.
Named after his recently passed grandfather and dad, Halden was a little fighter weighing 8 lbs 9 oz with a length of 21 inches.
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