Milena's Labour - Part 1 - Labouring at home.

I don’t know how far I will get, but I thought I would get a start on the story of Maelle’s birth. I will start by saying that it was long and hard – the complete opposite of Mandi’s labour and Sawyer’s birth.

Contractions started for Milena on Saturday (July 24) at 5am - they mild, irregular, and lasted 2 to 5 minutes each. They came anywhere from 10 minutes to 1.5 hours apart and Milena was handling them quite well. As the day progressed the contractions got a bit more intense and Milena needed to stop what she was doing and had her hubby apply pressure to her hips.

She called me Sunday morning (July 25) and asked me to stay with her while our husbands went to play their instruments in church. I gladly obliged... obviously. The house was quite full with Milena mother, sister and mother-in-law all visiting, but it is lovely to have so much family so close.

We escaped to the solitude of Milena's room and she rested in bed for a while. She even managed to get an hour and half sleep in before bolting out of bed (quite a feat for a woman 42 weeks pregnant) and resting on the window sill while we rocked and I put pressure on her hips.

Contractions (or "rushes") continued to be irregular all day, but we made the best of it. When Sam came home we both took a hip as I discovered that holding constant pressure for 4 minutes can be quite challenging.

We enjoyed a yummy lunch together and even went swimming in the lake. Milena's little sister treated us all to ice cream from the ice cream truck (a first for me!!). Milena had two contractions while we were swimming and we took our positions and supported her through them. I really enjoyed how she managed to carry on life and take the contractions as they came. I think it's easy to get so focused on the fact that labour is starting and to put everything else on hold... which makes it seem so much longer. Waiting is an awful thing.

We came home and ate some dinner and then we just hung out for a while before I went home to bed. I was scheduled to work Monday at the hospital, but Milena called me at 5:45am telling me her contractions were now all within 30 minutes of each other and they were now only 2- 3 minutes long, but stronger. So I called work and let them know that I wouldn't be coming in (my manager already had a heads up). Milena took a castor oil concoction to try to speed things up because she didn’t want to be induced at the hospital on Wednesday.

After Milena took the castor oil she started having contractions every 2-8 minutes. They were increasing in intensity and difficult for Milena to manage. We laboured on the toilet for a couple hours – Milena would wrap her arms around my neck and we would rock back and forth while she remained sitting.

Milena was unable to relax during these contractions, but she managed to smile and joke between them. She started panicking a little bit because the contractions were quite intense and she was unable to control herself during them, but she took direction well and was easily redirected.

The midwife came to Milena’s house at 11:00am at our request so she could examine Milena to see where she was at. We were told she was 2 cm and 70% effaced – pretty much at the same place Milena was at 4 days ago.

This was disheartening and Milena began to worry that her body wouldn’t work properly. I prayed with her and encouraged her telling her that each contraction was preparing her body even if the numbers didn’t show it yet. She remained positive and looked forward to transferring to the Midwives suite where she had planned to deliver.