Carly shares the birth of their second child born at the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020:
On Sunday night, April 5, I went to bed feeling completely normal. I woke up at three AM feeling the cramps that have come to me sometimes at night for the past week or so. They were moderate, so I tried some deep breathing, which usually helps me get past them and fall back to sleep. But these cramps persisted.
Still thinking not much of it, I got some water from the kitchen around 3:30, and Garrett stirred a bit and asked if I was alright. I told him that I was having cramps, but I thought they’d go away.
By 4, though, they had not subsided and actually started to feel a little stronger. I told Garrett that I was going to start timing them. I got out my contraction timer app and started clocking them at 4:17 am. The contractions themselves were already about a minute long. Intervals were hovering between 6-8 minutes, but seemed to be trending downward pretty quickly.
I remember having these contractions mostly in bed, focusing on my hypnobirthing breathing. I think Garrett also turned on the “Rainbow Meditation” from hypnobirthing.
At 5:15, I lost my mucous plug. Contractions were between 3 and 5 minutes apart.
At 5:18, I called Mom, who answered with a strong and steady voice. I told her that I thought this was it, and I asked her to come over at 6.
At 5:25, I called the midwife on call at VCU. Holly answered the call and told me that I should continue timing and come in when I felt like I didn’t want to be at home anymore. She suggested contractions of 1 minute or more, 3 minutes apart, for an hour or more. I told her that I was disappointed that she’d be getting off shift at 8, because I wanted her so badly to be the midwife who delivered my baby. She told me Melanie would be great. Of course, this is the only midwife I had not yet met!
We then called our doula Sarah and told her the lay of the land. She said she’d be over soon.
When Mom arrived, I was in the shower, and Rose had started to stir, having seen our lights on. Contractions by this point were between 2 and 4 minutes apart. If it had just been up to G and me, we would likely have gone to the hospital at this point. But we were still waiting on getting a doula’s professional opinion on that, and I had imagined more labor at home, so I had some contractions in the shower and in my bedroom as I got dressed.
Rose was sitting on the couch with Mom, watching Curious George and eating a cinnamon raisin bagel. When she would hear me groaning, she’d say, “What’d you say, Mommy?” And I knew we needed to get her out of there sooner rather than later. I told Gar to express as much to Mama, and they started to clear out. Rose seemed happy to be leaving with her LaLa, who told her that they could go and look at Yvette the doll’s trunk of clothes. Mom waved from her car and shouted words of encouragement.
I got dressed.
Sarah arrived at 6:30 or so. We tried a few different positions: first polar bear in the living room, then leaning on the ball in the living room. All the while, she was touching my forehead to remind me to stay relaxed. I tried to focus on my breathing. We transitioned into the bedroom to try some contractions side-lying, and things seemed to slow down. My intervals were more like 7 minutes again, but when I reached a contraction, it would last for more than 2 minutes. I’d say “no!” And Sarah would say “Yes, say, yes.”
Gar was playing his playlists and was there giving counterpressure. Eventually we just played Bon Iver.
Around 7:30, Sarah tried to get me to go to the bathroom, but I could not bring myself to sit down. Every time I started to do so, a contraction would come on. I told Sarah that I was starting to feel pressure.
She said: “ok, do you want to go back into the living room, or do you feel that you want to get to the hospital?” Of course, amid fears of the virus, I wanted to stay home for as long as possible, but I really, really was dreading that car ride and that experience of getting past the check-in with all of those COVID precautions. So I said it was time to go.
We got into the car at 8:17 and plugged in the address into Waze. 14 minutes away. Gar called the midwives on call to let them know we were on our way.
The car ride was the low point. I started to feel pressure like I needed to push. After a couple of contractions, I was pushing right there in the car. I literally could not stop myself from doing it. I saw the minutes tick down on Waze, and I looked at the side of the road and imagined when Garrett and I would have to pull over so that the baby could be delivered there. He said just to hang on and hold him in!
Sarah got in front of us after we got off the interstate, and she led the way to the parking deck (thank goodness). Not many cars due to the restricted visitor policies, so we got a close spot! We reached the temperature check, and they tried to give me a wheelchair, but I didn’t want the germs, so I refused. Meanwhile, contractions kept coming, and I would moan with pushes that I couldn’t stop. Sarah and Garrett were begging me to get into a wheelchair. The security guard who rode up with us in the elevator (because he couldn’t get our “temperature checked” wristbands on fast enough for Sarah—“she’s gonna have this baby right here if you don’t let us up now!”—) gave us a wheelchair, which G and Sarah disinfected with some wipes and said they’d push along “just in case.”
Another contraction hit, and Sarah could see that I was not going to make it to Labor and Delivery in time. She and Garrett convinced me to get in the wheelchair, and Sarah pushed at a running speed to Labor and Delivery on the 6th floor. It was 8:47when we arrived. The front desk asked to see my ID, and after a quick glance at it, they let me back. My nurses, Derri and Karen, were standing in the hallway and ushered me quickly into a room.
The midwife was not yet there, because we had arrived so quickly. It was instead the OB who was on for the floor, a resident who we later learned was UVA class of 2012, Dr. Wheeler. She asked if I wanted to stand or try to get on the bed to be checked. I took off my shorts and managed to get on the bed. I remember her checking me and saying “Complete.” Someone (Sarah? OB? Nurse?) said that when the next contraction came, I could push. I was in it right away, and it felt so good to let myself push after trying to hold them back for so long.
I was geared up for a long bout of pushing, so I was reserving some strength. By now, I feel like my contractions were all running together. I could hear from the voices around me that they wanted me to push more, and I remember thinking: “Oh, I guess this is really it, and I should actually try to push harder.” I heard someone saying that they could see the head. I pushed a few more times, and they told me that the head was out. I knew then that the body would come on the next push, so I gave it, and out he came! He went straight to my chest and was crying right away—such a comforting sound! A loud and lusty cry. He was born at 8:51 am, only 4 minutes after we reached the L&D floor!
I was so relieved and excited and amazed that I had delivered a baby naturally—and that labor was actually OVER. Knowing that this is our last child, I had the thought of: “our family is complete now” and “I never have to do that again.”
He rested on my chest, and we waited for the placenta to be delivered. They showed it to me when it came out. Gar cut the cord.
The OB resident is a surgeon, so they decided to stitch me up for my second-degree tear.
We took pictures with everyone and rehashed everything with Sarah. It was such a good feeling, laughing together about how quickly it had gone, and how stubborn I was about the wheelchair, and how well I had done. It was the best feeling to hold my son—he was perfect, and huge!
After a while, Melanie arrived, and more checks continued. They weighed and measured Callum (8 lbs 12 oz, 21 inches), and Garrett texted the family to let them all know the good news.
Before I knew it, we were in our recovery room, ready to embrace our first few hours with our precious son.
VCU interviewed Carly about giving birth during the pandemic.
It was such an honor to be able to support this family at their birth and postpartum especially during such a stressful time in the world. Thank you to VCU for being so supportive of doulas and allowing us in the hospital beginning on the first day of the pandemic.
