Labor Part 1

My little boy, Lucian Alexander Trenconsky came on Sunday, October 25, 2009, 5 weeks early. He weighed 5 lbs 15 oz, and was 18.5 inches long.


After having cramps throughout the night I woke up with some spotting so I checked the what to expect book to see what was going on. It sounded like a bloody show, and the book said that baby would be here usually within 24 to 48 hours. So I called Dawn, Rudy’s mom and my coach. I told her what was going on and said that we should get our bags ready. Dawn said that I probably shouldn’t go to work the next day and that she would come stay with me that night incase anything happened. While we were on the phone I sat down at the computer. When I stood up there was a gush of water, I ran to the bathroom. I said ‘Umm, uhh, I’m wet. Really really wet.’

Dawn said “your water broke”

“uh huh” it was about 9:30am. She said she was on her way and we were going to the hospital. I asked her to call Rudy and let him know (I still didn’t have his phone number). But I still wasn’t having any contractions and really not even cramps. I ran around the apartment getting things together to take to the hospital. I figured I had a lot of time, it was 5 weeks early, no cramps or contractions…this might not happen for a day or so still yet. I called my parents to let them know what was going on. They were shocked to say the least! I told them I would call again later to let them know how things were going.

Dawn and Bab get to the apartment and we cart all of our stuff out to the cars and head to the hospital. The hospital is literally a 1 min drive and we got to there just after 11:00. By this time I was having contractions that were strong enough to make you stop walking and bend over. But I could still talk through them and they didn’t last very long or come very often. We get checked in and settled in our room. The room is HUGE and beautiful! Parker Adventist Hospital is fairly new and really nice. It has a warm, homey feeling and every room is private. The rooms are also equipped to have labor delivery and recovery all in the same place. Baby is supposed to be able to stay with you for everything once he’s born. They will give his first bath and check up in the room right there with you.

I get into my hospital gown and hooked up to monitors to track my contractions and the baby’s heartbeat. We sit for a while and the contractions start to get stronger. I take this opportunity to call mom and dad and let them know I’ve been checked in to the hospital and that the nurses say baby will be here by about dinner time tonight. The nurse comes back and says that they are gonna take me off the monitors and I can walk around and get into whatever positions I want to be comfortable. Dawn and I had just had our birthing class on the positions that might be comfortable during labor on Thursday. They will put me on the monitor for about 20 mins every hour. She suggests I try to go to the bathroom. So I get up and head to the bathroom, when I stand back up a big contraction hits and all I can say is ‘floor!’ I get down on my hands and knees in the bathroom and hee hee whoo my way through the biggest contraction so far. It ends and I stand back up to head towards the bed. I take one step and another contraction hits, just as strong. I get back down on the ground and Dawn presses on my lower back to offer some counter pressure…it felt GREAT!! The contraction ends and almost immediately another one starts. I can’t get up. Just about now the Dr comes in to introduce herself. My doctor, whom I LOVE, is of course on vacation. Ok so paint the picture: I’m on my hands and knees in the bathroom, hee hee whoing and she is introducing herself standing outside the bathroom. She says I’m Dr so and so, I’ll be delivering the baby today….whawn whawn whawn I have NO idea what she is saying. All I know is that she is NOT saying: how’s your pain level, how far apart are the contractions, what kind of pain management did you want, do you need any help. We’re off to a great start she and I.

So Dawn gets a big mat to put on the floor in the room and a birthing ball for me to sit on. I literally crawl out of the bathroom to the ball and throw my upper body over it. We finally get me up on the ball sitting; it felt AMAZING! Dawn kneels in front of me and we wrap our arms around each other, my head on her shoulder. The nurses come back in and check the print out from the monitor…from about 45 mins ago. She says “Well Taryn, it looks like your contractions are coming about every 2 mins and lasting about 45 seconds.” Dawn tells them, “No, they are lasting about 2 mins and coming every 30 seconds…that read out is from an hour ago, we’ve moved on” haha! I was progressing SO quickly. But Dawn and I were a great team, we were managing the pain and working our way through it. I still felt really good at this point about not having any pain management and doing it all naturally.