Portlyn Raine

I figured I should write this down before I forget, even though I hardly use the blog anymore! I was due on April 6th and actually went into early labor that day which resulted in a fruitless labor and delivery visit. We were so sure it was time and so was my midwife and I did actually dilate a centimeter and a half before it all just came to a screeching halt. The next day, I had my membranes swept and immediately started having harder contractions, but they weren't consistent by any means. They were just super uncomfortable.

 On the morning of the 8th, I woke up at 6 am having pretty consistent contractions and I was getting to the point where I couldn't walk or talk through them. We got up and got the kids ready for school and Erik jumped in the shower after I told him this was definitely baby day. Once my mom and dad got to our apartment at 7:30, contractions were coming every 3-5 minutes and were hurting pretty badly. I was really dreading the car ride to the hospital because sitting down through a contraction was awful. When my parents got here, my mom, Erik and I all headed to the hospital.

 We got to the hospital and the nurses obviously knew I wasn't messing around (probably because I started crying while I was waiting on them to get me checked in) and hustled me into a room and started helping me into a gown. I was probably in triage for 10 minutes before they moved me to Labor and Delivery.

We had planned on a water birth and they got me in the tub pretty quickly, which helped with the pain, but at 5 cm dilated, I was having contractions that felt more like what an 8 or 9 felt like when Finland was born. My midwife quickly found out that she was facing sunny side up and therefore, the contractions were more intense. I had been super concerned that I would end up accidentally having a baby at home after how fast Finn came, but because of her position, things went WAY slower.

I had been in the tub for a long time when I started to feel a lot of pressure. When they checked, I was dilated to a 7 and my midwife suggested they break my water to get her to turn and come. I agreed and then immediately regretted that decision. I went from a 7 to almost completely dilated and in unbearable pain. I started crying and screaming because although I'd had a baby un-medicated before, this was NOTHING like that pain. It was beyond worse and I immediately started telling Erik there was no way I could do this. My midwife suggested a drug to help take the edge off, which I quickly agreed to and quickly found out that it wasn't even touching it.

I involuntarily started pushing at this point because I was dilated to 10 cm, but with her position, she was like a cork and didn't move at all during pushes. It was the most excruciating pain to push and not have her move. I requested (not so quietly or nicely) an epidural at that point and within like two minutes, the anesthesiologist was in the room and worked through three more contractions to get the epi started. I could've kissed him. Seriously, it was almost immediate relief even though I could still feel contractions pretty hard on one side.

 They let me rest for two hours before they came in and the chief resident turned her head and she was born at 2:03 pm. My midwife didn't even get her glove completely on and she had to catch her with a towel. They put her on my chest pretty quickly and finished up getting me cleaned up. She weighed 8 pounds, 8.9 ounces and was 20 inches long. She immediately started nursing and is one of the sweetest babies I've ever met! After she was born, they informed me that if she had been turned the right direction, she probably would've been born in the car on the way to the hospital (we only live 5 minutes away). It was kind of a blessing in disguise to have had her turned the way she was! 

After an hour and a half, my nurse was getting ready to send us over to postpartum when I felt a huge gush. She pulled back the covers and like 10 people came rushing in the room because I had started hemorrhaging. I got super sleepy and was kind of half there when a sonogram machine came in and they realized that a piece of membrane was still in my uterus.

Luckily, I still had an epidural in because they had to manually sweep my uterus to get the leftover piece out. They started pumping me full of pitocin and saline and I was given at least 10 different shots in my legs to attempt to stop the bleeding. One drug I was given caused me to start coughing like crazy and I was super short of breath and quickly had a breathing treatment to open my lungs back up. Another drug created a fever reaction. It was a weird experience. None of the endless amount of drugs and saline seemed to help and they eventually put a balloon in my uterus to put pressure against the part of my uterus that was bleeding.

After an hour and minutes before a D&C and blood transfusion, they finally got the bleeding under control. It was a scary couple of hours and I'm so glad we were where we were.

I had had a feeling at the very beginning of my pregnancy that she needed to be born in a hospital. That feeling stayed strong throughout my pregnancy (and kind of scared me for what was going to happen). The staff informed me that if I had chosen a birth center again, in this particular situation, I more than likely would've bled to death in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

 We were on the fence about continuing our family after this baby, but decided we didn't want to risk this happening again. So, Portlyn has completed our family and she's the perfect bookend. In her short two and a half weeks, she's brought so much love and light to our family. We're all smitten with her and so excited to see her grow!