Birth Story

So here is where the story begins...............warning "TMI" alert..................

I was pretty miserable the last few weeks. I was in pain or discomfort most of the time and sleeping was not happening much either. On Monday the 20th my husband informed me that the following week he would have to start working out of town (a two hour drive away from home) and might have to spend some nights too. I already wanted her to come out but now I really felt the pressure to get her out by that weekend. I had been about 2cm for a couple of weeks and had been having really good bh cx for a long time. Then my husband called me Thursday the 23rd and said that he would have to start working out of town on Friday and then I really freaked. As I laid in bed that night I prayed and begged God that if I was going to go into labor to let it happen before 4am when my husband would be leaving so he would stay home and not have to drive 2 hours back home.

At 2:30am I woke up. I noticed I was having cx about every 5 minutes but they were not lasting very long. I didn't get to excited. At 3am I got up to pee and checked myself. I was happy to feel that I was completely effaced and what I thought to be 3-4 cm and could feel the bag of waters slightly bulging through. At 4am I checked again and it felt like I had dialed a little more because the bag was bulging a little more. I was sure I was at least 4cm so I thought for sure that I would have the baby sometime within 24 hours. I told my husband that he could go to work but because I only had about 2 hours of hard labor last time I was concerned about the two hour drive home. He said he wasn't going to leave and stayed home from work.

I'm not sure what time but my bag really started bulging and I felt about 4-5cm. My midwife had a full day at the birth center and I really wanted to stay home and have the baby but I knew that I might end up at the center. We packed the car just in case. As the morning went on and it turned to afternoon my cx never got to a minute but stayed pretty consistent at about 2 -5 minutes apart. I ate, talked and laughed in-between them. When I would check myself it didn't feel like I was moving past the 4-5cm mark. I did notice that with the cx I would feel a lot of pressure in my back and rectum and would feel the need to move through the cx. I have NEVER felt like moving when I had a cx when I was in labor with my boys. When I would watch a birth video and see the moms moving/swaying through a cx I just couldn't relate to that but this time I had to move through them. Around 2 my midwife came. I just knew I was stuck at 4-5cm and when she checked me I was 8. I couldn't believe it. Of course now that she was here the cx started to get worse and at around 3pm my water "popped". I have never experienced that before. My water had always started leaking the day before my boys were born. It felt like a small bomb went off in my belly. After that I got in the tub but through out the entire labor I could not lay down on my back or my side so all I could do was sit in the tub and that seem to slow things down so after eating two chocolate chip cookies and a peanut butter and jelly I got out and then things really picked up. She had been moving the entire time during labor and with my last I had two hours of hard labor and then it felt sooooo good to push him out but this time feeling her move down and pushing her out felt like my hips and rectum were going to explode. It only took a couple of pushes and at 3:59pm she was born. The last hour, hour and a half it was bad but that was it. She is my smallest baby at 7lbs, 1oz, 18inches, 12inch head. At the peds on Monday she was 6lbs, 8oz with a 13inch head. It was very hard the first few days. I knew life was going to change once she came and that dealing with a very strong welled, hyper 2 &1/2 year old would be challenging but it was even harder then I though. Any thoughts of being super mom have gone down the drain. We are slowly starting to get some balance and I am trying to enjoy every moment of her being so little.

Picture can be found on my myspace.