A Long Time Comin!!!.

The story begins on Thursday July 14, 2005. At about 2 am, I was awakened with contractions. I had been having contractions-Braxton Hicks contractions the whole week prior, which had been 20 mins apart lasting for about 1 minute each. But what woke me out of my sleep this morning was something different. These contractions were coming a lot closer together and continued on for longer than the ones before. So at about 4:45 am when David woke up I told him what went on and I started to do the "test" to see if I was in labor, meanwhile David started timing. I went to the bathroom, took a walk, ate breakfast and drank a tall glass of juice, the contractions continued coming and they were an average of 8 mins apart and lasted for about 1 to 1.5 mins. We decided to call the Midwife at about 5:30, which she suggested that I was in early labor and that I needed to get some rest just incase I would be in labor for a while. To distract ourselves we started watching Anchorman -which is hella funny- and before you know it the contractions slowed up so much that by the time I woke up 3 hours later they had completely stopped. We called the Midwife back and she said continue on with my day and we will check to see what's going on at your doctors visit this evening.

We had a 7pm appointment and the contractions were now only random occurrences. We found out that I was about 30% effaced (the cervix had thinned out a little bit) but no dilation.  We were a little disappointed, because the 14th (Thursday) was David's birthday. Anyway we carried on and nothing happened the rest of the evening and on through Friday.

Here we go again... early Saturday morning at about 1 am I was awakened to more contractions... to which we ignored, although they were consistent and getting stronger, they had not stabilized, meaning some were 5 mins apart and some were 12 mins apart.  These contractions continued on all day Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Finally on Monday afternoon I called the Midwife because these contractions felt different from the ones before and they had started coming more consistently... 10 mins apart. I went in for a check up and I was 80-90% effaced (the cervix was almost completely thinned) but only 1cm dilated.

The Midwife offered me some encouragement saying that the effacement part is one of the hard parts of labor (as if there were any easy parts) and that these contractions were making some progress. This made me feel a little better but remember I have been in constant labor, although early labor, but labor just the same, since Saturday!!!

After running around with my mom for most of the day in complete discomfort going over what seemed as every single bump, pit and pot hole in the area, I returned home and that's when the contractions changed again. Finally!!! We have Active Labor. David came home at about 5 pm which by my internal clock the contractions had stabilized at 5 mins apart and lasted for about 1 min to 1.5 mins. David started timing at about 6:30 and at 7:30 we called the Midwife. She gave us the o.k. to come on in.

By this time I was working hard to stay on top of the contractions, not allowing them to get the best of me, 'cause that's when they hurt. David called the Birth Assistant and my mom to tell her to alert the Posse it was time to go. We walked slowly to the car and off we went. The car ride was worse than it was earlier in the day I couldn't get comfortable and there were just way too many bumps on the highway. (The Birth Center is in Alexandria VA and we live in Landover MD about a 17-20 miles; 20-30 min ride)

We arrived and I could barely walk. The Midwife checked me and said that I was 100% effaced and 3 cm dilated. Shortly after the entourage arrived, first my mother, grandmother and aunt, and then my best friend and my father. I got amped and focused on having a baby. We changed positions often, moving from the bathroom (my body at this point had no capacity for waste) to the bedroom.

As the hours wore on, I started to sleep between contractions, trying to conserve as much energy as possible. I could not have dreamed up a better support team. It was like a "blast from the past" where the perimeter of the room was constantly lined with elder women, ranging from my best friend who is only 1 year older than me to my grandmother. In the wee hours of the night I could always count on peeking my eyes open and finding my loving family there to support me. Even as they took shifts of sleep, my mother and grandmother were always there. My rock though was my loving husband. He held me, comforted me and encouraged me, hands on steadily and consistently right from the start. We were as one working together to bring our child into the world.

During the night, we hit a snag, the baby turned, from the optimal position of head down, facing backwards, to a less than welcomed position of head down facing forward. When I woke up in the morning I had the worst back pain that I could ever conceive of.... and the contractions had stopped...again. The Midwife checked me and I was 6cm dilated and she laid out some options for me. She said that I could take a sleeping pill get some rest and then do some exercises to get labor started. I could take something called nubaine which is fed through an IV to put me to sleep so that I could get some rest. She also said that they could give me something to push the labor (probably pitocin) to get the contractions going again. And finally she said I could go home and get some rest and wait for the labor to start again on its own. We were devastated. She gave us some time to make our decision, at which point I lost my will. The back pain was so severe that I couldn't even stand up straight, I became depressed and I was exhausted. My mom & co. tried to get me to walk or something to get me back into the swing of things but I just wasn't interested. At about 2 pm I finally ate something which just came back up.

We first tried to get the contractions going again..naturally.  I took one walk around the block in back agony; the contractions picked up a bit but stopped once we got back into the Birth Center.  At about 4pm we all got into the van and took a ride around Alexandria, which I don't have much recollection of. When we returned the contractions still had not picked up consistently and I was at the end of my rope. As David helped me into the bathroom I said to him that I couldn't take it any more. That I wanted to take the sleeping pills... I wanted to escape. He ever so gently said to me that from our discussions before and in his opinion I shouldn't take the pills, that we should just go home and get some rest and come back. Going home for me meant defeat which I still wasn't quite ready to accept, but I took my husbands advice and we packed up and went home.

Of course as soon as we get home at about 8pm the contractions start again. The back pain had not stopped so I just lie down and go to sleep. At about 3am I woke up and my back was killing me. I was now back on my mission to have this baby. I jumped in the shower and turned it on as hot as I could stand it, which gave me some back relief, and I lay down in the tub with the shower on for as long as I could stand it, which was about 20 mins. I got out of the shower laid on the couch to cool down for about 20 mins and then got in the bed for about 20 mins. With every station I would have a contraction and I would get in a position to try and get the baby to turn around, I also pushed slightly both internally and externally to get the baby to come down.  I repeated this routine from 3am to 5am and the contractions started to pick up and stabilize but these contractions were slightly different. In fact I was so focused that I barely noticed the contractions. 

At about 5:30 I noticed that the back pain had crawled down to my lower back, and that I hadn't felt the baby move in quite some time. I became worried. I woke David up and we tried to find the baby's heart beat with the home monitor but failed. I told David that I needed the sleeping pills and that I really needed some sleep. I also told him that we aint havin no more children... this is too much!

We called the Midwife and after answering a series of questions she told us to come in to the office so she could check the heart beat and my cervix to make sure and she would give me the sleeping pills. We of course hit the infamous rush hour traffic heading into Northern VA and it took us longer than usual to get there. I closed my eyes and vocalized through the now VERY strong contractions.

We arrived at about 8:45 am and I crawled up the stairs into the office. The Midwife that was there (Susan) found the heartbeat just fine. We had to wait for our Midwife, Marsha to come for her to check my cervix and give us the sleeping pills. The contractions were very strong by now and I requested to lie on the bed. Shortly after Marsha came in and checked my cervix... she says Chinyere you are not going to believe this but you are 9cm dilated!!!! I burst out in tears of joy... by this time I had been in labor, constant discomfort/pain for 5 days, not including the false alarm. David calls my dad and the rest of the Posse while Marsha and Susan scurry about to prepare for birth.

At 10cm my bag of waters had not yet broken and there was a still a lip of cervix. We decided to break the bag of waters and baby just slid on by.  Before I knew it I was pushing and only David and I were there. Which turned out to be a marvelous thing.  We shared a beautiful intimate moment as the baby made its way down the birth canal. Just as the head was crowning my mother and aunt come in and get the video going just in time. After only 20 mins of pushing out comes baby and David says with extra enthusiasm and surprise.... It's A BOY?!!

David Martin Tucker Jr. arrived at 10:43 am on Wednesday July 20 (his due date) weighing in at 7lbs 2oz and 20 inches long.

Mom had no episiotomy, no tears, and no stitches! and most surprising after 40+ hours of active labor, total 120 hours or 5 days of labor mom had no pain medicine, no labor accelerants and by the grace of God no sleep medicine... I did have my bag of waters broken but I can live with that.