Indigo's Birth Story

We had our little girl! We are overjoyed at the love we have for our new Indigo Marie. Here's her birth story. For pictures from the delivery, you can check out my Facebook album "Indigo's Birth"

It all began with my water breaking around 3:30 AM on early Wednesday morning, (April 24th, which is my due date!) and I started having contractions that were about 10-15 minutes apart. Our original plan was to labor at home as long as possible, but I know hospitals are pretty strict about wanting you to come in if your water has broken, so we called to make sure, then headed over to the St. Alphonsus Family Maternity Center in Boise. Tomás teaches as Skyview High School and had to whip up a lesson plan really quick and drop it off at the school before we headed over there, so we took our time. I knew I was still in very early labor, and we ended up arriving to St. Als around 6:00 AM.

When we arrived, the nurses noted that my water was green (instead of clear, like it was at home), which indicated the baby had a bowel movement in the amniotic fluid, so they just had to keep a little more watchful eye on baby, and would have to suction her throat/lungs after birth because of that. That meant more hospital personnel in the room during birth. Boo. Of course, that wasn't in the plan originally, but it still allowed me to labor naturally as I intended.

My labor was slow and steady, and I tried to walk around as much as possible. I mainly had the contractions in my back, so my midwife said she was pretty sure the baby was posterior, and I would need to try certain positions to help the baby flip around. I did my best to try a few of them, but baby didn't want to move. My water was continuously leaking throughout my labor as well, making it harder for her to move around in there. I did labor in the tub twice, and the first time it felt great when I wasn't quite into active labor yet, but once I hit active labor the water provided no relief for my back.

I did the best with contractions standing up, leaning over a counter or walking. Tomás did double hip squeeze probably a thousand times during labor for each contraction to help me cope. That was seriously the only way I was able to make it through to the end. There's no way I would have been able to do it without him. It wasn't until I hit transition, after 21 hours of labor, that I thought to myself, "I really don't know if I can do this much longer. Is it time to push her out yet?" Luckily, we were getting closer to the end, and Tomás stayed right by my side and kept me confident. It was starting to really wear on both of us. I couldn't rest at all in between contractions since they were coming right after another, and neither could he. I needed him every single time. He really did amazing.

After 22 hours of labor, I started to get the urge to push. We tried a few different positions to see which one I would be able to stay in. I found that almost every position was brutal on my back. We tried squatting, a birth stool, all fours, and side lying. None of them felt very great. Finally, my midwife decided she would try and help rotate baby from posterior manually, with one hand inside and one hand on the outside while I laid flat on my back. With each contraction and push, she would rotate baby a little bit. After about 6-7 contractions and many pushes, we finally got her flipped. At this point, it's time to push her out, and we are at 23 hours of my water being broken, and usually they want the baby out by 24 hours, so everyone started to get antsy. Loads of people from the NICU piled into the room, as I continued to push with each contraction. As the baby descended lower, Charlotte noticed I had an anterior lip, so she helped the baby's head make it through as I pushed, which required me to stay on my back. This was not how I intended to push her out, but I coped alright.

Hour 24: I'm exhausted, my uterus is exhausted, and Charlotte is thinking that I won't be able to push this baby out. I keep trying to get the baby to crown, but it just isn't happening. Finally, Charlotte decides the best option is to use a vacuum to get her out. I am devastated. I say no at first, but then agree that if it gets her out, then let's do it. After the first two tries with the vacuum, we get close to pushing her out, but Charlotte decides I need an episiotomy because there simply isn't enough room to get this baby out. She snips me and during the final push (and with some help from the vacuum), plop! All I feel is her fly out, and the rest of my water break. We did it!

Indigo Marie Fisher was born almost exactly 24 hours after I started labor, at 3:16 AM on April 25th, 2013. She weighed 9 lbs, 4.5 oz and measured 21 inches. I got to have skin to skin with her for only a few seconds before they had to take her away and suction her lungs out, and clean her. Even with the episiotomy, I still tore 3rd degree and had to stay in bed while they stitched me up. I didn't mind it though, because she made it out! In fact, during the contractions when I pushed her out, I didn't really even feel it in front at all, as I suspected I would. You would think pushing her head and body out as your body stretches would be the most painful part, but I could only focus and feel the pain in my back. My back killed! But, I was just glad I did it, and avoided a caesarean delivery. All is well, and baby Indigo is healthy and happy at home with us now.