What was I thinking getting my tires rotated with my assumed due date so near? Little did we know it was just the beginning of the 36 hour ordeal which would soon become the story of how our son, AugustFinley, came into our world. It was a Friday afternoon, late July in Arizona, so sweltering. I’d left my car at Sears to get the tires done, and as I schlepped across the parking lot toward the mall I began to feel really hot, dizzy, and just ‘off’. Later I would realize this was early labor. I went into the mall and got myself a cool drink, sat down, cooled off, and soon returned for my car. Driving home I thought I was back to normal, but once in the house, I just felt strange. Lying down on the bed to relax, I began to cry and just felt yucky. I called my husband, crying, asked if he was close to done with work, and could he come home? Knowing my due date was imminent, he flew home like a mad man. He told me later that whenever he sees PF Changs, he’ll now always remember that’s where he was lunching with co-workers when ‘it began to happen’. When he arrived home, I felt pretty good. I’d cooled off, returned to my ‘normal’ self, and attributed it all to the heat of the day and overdoing it at 40 weeks. We continued that evening, business as usual. We even took some lovely pregnancy photo shots of me with my big bulging belly. We had no clue that in just hours, the fun would be in full force. We went to bed and about an hour later, just after 11pm I woke up, having belly and back pain. I looked at the clock and timed them to every few minutes. They were mild, so about an hour later I got up and called my midwife. She suggested that I monitor them, call my doula if I thought that might help, and check back in couple of hours. I tried to sleep more, but the pains were continuous, and soon heavier and more uncomfortable. I woke Erik and told him ‘this is it’. He of course went wild, racing around the house, filling our birthing tub, getting our bags of supplies ready for our planned homebirth, and just generally being batty. In the meantime I again phoned both my midwife and doula. Leigh, my doula decided to head over, and Jude suggested that I continue monitoring the contractions a bit more carefully and call in another 2 hours. Erik and I spent the next couple of hours, our last alone together, just trying to keep me comfortable, reclined, and resting as best we could. When the 2 hours hit and I called Jude again, things hadn’t slowed, and my contractions were now a steady 2 minutes apart, pretty lengthy and strong. Jude, her assistant Mani, and Leigh all arrived within minutes of each other about 3am or so. Soon we were getting me onto the bed and checking my progress. I was only at 2 centimeters, but now was also beginning to be in a lot more pain. Leigh suggested Erik and I lie down in our bed, try to rest, and let our son continue his progression out into the world. She made us food, gave me frequent fluids, and all the while assured me how terrific I was and what a fabulous job I was doing. Her encouragement was key in keeping me going, sane, and strong. As Erik and I lay on our bed, my pains soon were becoming fierce, much stronger, and a lot tougher than I had thought they might be. We put me in the birthtub to relax, using the warm water to help ease the pain. It helped a lot. My sister Brooke came over to help support me, and sat with us while I labored on in the tub. The next several hours are a blur of confusion, frustration, and pain so intense I’d never known anything even remotely similar. As Jude continued checking my progress every few hours, we discovered that not only was I not moving past 2 centimeters, but our son was posterior. Basically he was head up, instead of down, and as he squirmed around trying to re-adjust his position for birth, he was giving me the most intense back labor pains. We tried everything. We moved me around the house from bed to tub to floor to couch. We used yoga moves to help adjust the baby’s position. Erik braced me for the contractions, which were now so close together that they didn’t seem to end from one to the next. At one point Mani even went for a bottle of wine, to help me relax, rest, and hopefully speed up the progress. It was frustrating to feel as though I wasn’t moving forward. It was excruciating to have continuous pains that brought me to my knees. But mostly it was upsetting to feel as though we were becoming helpless in moving along the labor. After close to 24 hours of this, me moving about the house, Erik holding my hand and catching me as I fell against him, crying with each contraction, and my support team realizing that things might continue this way for many, many more hours, we decided it was time to transport to the hospital. It was a tough decision, it wasn’t what any of us wanted, least of all me, but ultimately it was what was best for me, our baby, and both of our bodies. My labor at Chandler regional continued for another 12 hours. I had an epidural and pitocin, not what I wanted, but exactly what I needed. The pain lessened as I surrendered to the drugs and my body was able to get some desperately needed rest. Our son, AugustFinley Love Sheller was born at 9:41am on July 27th of this year. I delivered him with the help of medication, but more importantly with the assistance of my team of warriors. It was me, Erik, Jude, Mani, Leigh, and my mom in the room, along with the medical team. I pushed out my baby as he took his own sweet time. I watched in the mirror as his little head, completely covered with tons of curly black hair, slowly moved out of my body. I reached down to feel him as he came into my world, strong and fierce, just like his mama. When they lay him on my chest, all gooey and finally here, I realized that I would’ve done it all again, in triplicate, just to have my little man here with us now. It wasn’t the labor I had dreamed of, or the delivery that I wanted. It wasn’t our homebirth and it wasn’t in any way, shape, or form the experience we thought we’d have. However, I realize now that life’s moments seldom are. But oddly enough, I honestly believe it was exactly as it was meant to be. I learned so much about myself over those 36 hours laboring to bring AugustFinley into my world. I am a strong woman. I am a wise woman. I am a warrior. I know that I can do anything now because I have given birth. I waited 36 years to have this child and it took me 36 hours of hard, hard labor to make it a reality. My team was fantastic, my husband amazing, and my son the best gift we’ll ever know. "Gus" We love you precious boy, welcome to life! |
| The Birth of AugustFinley by Allison Sheller |
| Al’s Birth Story, and the debut of AugustFinley Love Sheller |
