Rudy Anthony Shelton Punteney Birth Story

Rudy Anthony Shelton Punteney
Born July 7, 2009 7:26am
7lbs 4oz 20” long
Winni McNamara – Midwife
Mary Burgess – Doula
Sharon Avolio – Assisting Midwife

Preface:
I did not want to have the baby on the 4th of July – like I have much say in when “he” came out. We did not know what we were having…. But I will use HE since we now know. My mom lives 5 hours East of me and was here for the 4th of July and headed home on the 5th of July. We had a feeling she might get home and have to return…… but what a wonderful reason to have to!
Pre-labor: Sunday July 5th – we put in the car seat, went to Target got a nursing tank, birthing gown, and a few other necessities we still had needed to pick up. (I didn’t realize it at the time but now most call it “nesting”).
Sunday the 5th I spoke with my mom after her return home – about the weekend, the drive, going-on’s at her house, etc. In the midst of talking to her, I had some strong breath-taking pains. They weren’t contractions. They were almost as if the boy was kicking really hard and enough to take my breath away. Mom asked what it was…. Said I didn’t know but that not to get her hopes up. It happened 2 times in the midst of say a ½ hour conversation. Mom had told me that she hadn’t prepared to be gone before she left….. nor had she felt like stopping by the store when she got home to prepare to be gone for the birth. After speaking with me this night, she got back in the car and went to the store for cat litter, cat food, stopped to see her parents, and got all she needed to be prepared to leave on a whim. Moms know best 
Water broke: My water broke at 11:40pm on Sunday July 5th. Kauleen had asked me before heading to bed at about 10:30pm if I needed to put anything under me “just in case”. I told her nah, no need. I got up to go to the bathroom…. And felt something funny – almost like a pop. I had been using Evening Primrose Oil vaginally since 36 weeks so just thought maybe the pill had fallen out. No biggie. I got back in bed and laid there a few seconds and then go “Kauleen, I think my water broke!” and I get up…….. and sure enough there was a spot in the bed where I had leaked. Kauleen said “Couldn’t you have waited until the morning?!” (Now realize we’ve not gotten any sleep since Sunday morning….) (Randi insight: I had been hoping for a SIGN of labor – water breaking, etc. THIS really was amazing and awesome that it happened this way!)
We called the midwife and doula and gave them both a heads up that my water had broken. Their advice was “Get some rest as it could be awhile”.
Contractions: Contractions started about 12:40am (1 hour after my water broke) and being the anal people we are started writing down every contraction. At first they were about 10-12 minutes apart and felt like menstrual cramps – not too horrible and I was able to get some rest in between. We didn’t really sleep though. Every contraction we wrote down (some 6+ pages!) and we were anxious……. We’ve never done this before and have waited a LONG time for this!
We ended up getting up at 3am so Kauleen could get the birth tub set up and filled. That was the one thing on Sunday we didn’t get done. Kauleen didn’t want to be filling the tub while I was in active labor and we needed to be able to let the hot water tank fill. So at 3am, K’s setting up the pool, writing down contractions, and I’m doing whatever I feel like……. Cut some watermelon up, put away some dishes, etc.
We’d been told multiple times…… once the contractions are 5-6 minutes apart, about a minute each – that you need to call the doula/midwife. So at 6:00am we called my Mom and told her that my water broke……… told her to take her time it could be awhile. (She made it here in 4 hours!) We called the doula and let her know – but I was still coping very well with the contractions and able to talk/work through them.
Our doula (Mary Burgess) came down to check on us around 10:30 a.m. I was coping quite well even though the contractions were still 5-6 minutes apart. Mary decided to go run a few errands and if things had not picked up she would head back up to Bellingham. I tried to rest as much as I could during this time. Contractions remained fairly constant but still nothing I couldn’t handle. We even tried to take a nap although I don’t know how much sleep we got. Our midwife (Winni McNamara) called to check in on us and said she would be stopping by after her last appointment to check on us.
Winni arrived around seven that night…she had her own eventful evening. Her car had broken down after her last appointment and her husband drove her to our house. After checking me she said “yeah that’s kind of what I thought”. We were anxious to hear my progress…turns out I was 8 centimeters! Whoo hoo we were ecstatic that something had been happening all day. Now all we needed to do was get my contractions to get stronger. Winni gave me some Black Cohosh (sp) and some other homeopathic medicine to help out and told us to take a 15 minute walk and come back and take some more medicine. Winni zipped home with her hubby to get her own car and come back.
We cruised around the neighborhood in my birthing gown and bathrobe. I called my mom and gave her the news that I was 8 centimeters and that it shouldn’t be long. This was about 8 pm.
Winni returned and my contractions had started picking up. Mary was called and she headed back down. The assistant midwife (Sharon) showed up to help out. We were really excited now as Winni stated we could have this baby by midnight.
My laboring continued and midnight came and went. Kauleen was sent to get some sleep as she was wiped out by this point. I continued to labor switching positions, breathing, moving. Kauleen got up about an hour later to find the house dark and quiet. I was on the birth ball in Rudy’s room with Mary and Winni still laboring.
2 a.m Tuesday morning - Winni checks me and I am still not fully dilated and my contractions are still not where they need to be. We are all in the guest bedroom and Winni opens it up for suggestions as she is “out of her bag of tricks” If all options are out we are going to the hospital. Sharon states that I am coping well and that maybe I could try hands and knees. Winni says “that might help turn the baby but I am not sure it will help kick up the contractions.” So this is what we are going to do. They pile up the pillows and birth ball on the bed and hands and knees I go. The first contraction hits and I fly out of bed it is so strong. Sharon advises me that is what we need so I crawl back up in bed. I labor like this for the next four hours. We are hopeful that things will be moving along.
6 a.m Tuesday morning – Winni checks me again. I am still not quite to 10 centimeters but she thinks I have enough room to push the baby out so on the next contraction I am going to push and she is going to move my cervix over. Contraction comes and I push and she pulls and I hit my breaking point. I am crying, yelling – stop, stop, no, stop. I am done. We are heading to the hospital. I state “I need to go to the bathroom”. While in the bathroom, after re-adjusting the pain/thought process….
I have an idea of maybe heating up the birth pool so I can get in, relax a little and Winni can try again to move my cervix again. The ladies hustle around getting water warmed up and I go to the bathroom. Next thing I know I say to Winni I think I am pushing the baby out. I call out to Winni who comes and checks me and it is true. He has moved. Hurrah!! We are not going to the hospital after all. I labor for 45 minutes sitting on the toilet. Next they move me to a birthing stool in the guest room. I labor there for another 20-30 minutes. Now I am moved to the bed. One push, two push – Mary says “Kauleen you better look” and here comes the baby’s head and sloop out he came. They handed us the baby and it took us a moment to see we had us a beautiful baby boy! Rudy was finally here. I was exhausted and overjoyed all at once. I was utterly exhausted and Winni later told us it was if I was drunk. They kept trying to talk to me and I’d just fall asleep mid sentence. Everyone talked about this rush they get at the end of pregnancy – but it was all I could do to get cleaned up and in bed!