Birth Story: Part Tres

I have to say I felt like a failure in some ways. I always planned on going natural. I kept up with kickboxing and exercised at least four times a week throughout the pregnancy. I considered myself pretty tough. Hubs assured me it was the right thing to do and was actually relieved to see me out of pain. (Getting the epidural was somewhat surreal. I'd seen it done on the Baby Story a hundred times and always thought of it as something I wouldn't experience. Turns out it wasn't that bad. Compared to the contractions it was cake.)

Life got a whole lot better after the epidural. I was relaxed, happy, and able to really take in the experience. It actually worked out nicely because I got to experience contractions and what labor really felt like, but also got a little time to relax without the horrible pain. It was a good combo. 

So after maybe two hours the Doc came in and checked me again. Finally, I had reached 10cm and it was time to push. The nurse did a few practice pushes with me and showed me how to get it done. She commented on how strong I was and said baby would be out in 30 minutes easy. I remember hugging Hubs, we were both so excited to meet our baby and find out if we were going to have a son or daughter. 

Pushing was much easier than I expected. I think this is where all my exercise came in because I felt very strong. The Doc kept saying how impressed she was with my pushing and I felt like a superhero. After maybe 30 minutes the head began to crown. Hubs told me there was a full head of hair and I was so happy. I wanted a baby with loads of hair, so this was absolutely amazing to hear. He was so encouraging throughout all of this, telling me how awesome I was doing and how proud he was of me. It was an incredible bonding experience and one I will cherish forever.

2 Months!

My precious boy is two months old today! 

I am absolutely crazy about this little guy. Isn't he getting big??

Birth Story: Part Dos

Here I was, the day before going into labor....

Day before going into labor. HUGE!

Ok, where were we...Ah yes, the doc just told me that I'm 6cm dilated and it's time to head on over to Labor and Delivery. I remember feeling so unbelievably happy to finally, finally be in labor. This meant I wouldn't have to be induced anymore and I would actually get to have the labor I always wanted. Or so I thought.

The Hubs and I basically skipped out to the car to get our bags. Yes, I was having killer contractions but I was simply way too happy to care. It was the craziest feeling, knowing that we'd have our baby very soon. We still didn't know if we were getting a boy or girl, so that just added to the excitement. (And by the way, waiting for the surprise was totally worth it.) We got ourselves checked into Labor and Delivery pretty quickly. I started dancing as we walked to our room and I'm sure the nurses thought I was crazy. They told me they had never seen someone dance while in labor. I guess there's a first for everything, right?

So after getting checked in and all set up in our room things got a little more serious. Contractions were really ramping up and suddenly I wasn't in the dancing mood anymore.  I brought my laptop along so I could play some of my favorite music to help relax. I listened to a weird mix: Raggae, AC/DC, Pink, the Black Eyed Peas-anything to help me get through contractions. I was determined not to get an epidural, so I was doing my best to distract myself from the pain. I walked around, sat on the birthing ball, and held on to the Hubs as each one got stronger.

Stress Relief

It's summer.

It's hot.

We don't have a pool.

What's a guy to do? Adult size slip-n-slide in the back yard. Perfect stress relief from a crying baby!

Birth Story, Part Uno

The best day of my life started at 2:30am. I woke up to the pain of a contraction, but convinced myself it was probably just the bad Chinese food I had the night before. Two days earlier I was sent home from the hospital after a false alarm (4 hour nightmare in Labor & Delivery) so I was determined to ride it out before jumping to any conclusions. I laid in bed for a while, too uncomfortable to sleep and finally got up to watch television, all the while trying not to think about the cramps. I was almost a week overdue (an eternity to a pregnant lady) and scheduled to be induced two days later. The past several weeks were full of on and off contractions, all of which had me thinking labor was near, but of course nothing ever happened. At this point I was convinced my baby would never come.

The Hubs got up for work at 4:45am to find me watching I Love Lucy. I told him the contractions were probably nothing and he should go on to work. I was so scared it might be another false alarm, so I didn't make a big deal about it or jinx anything.  Although the contractions were getting closer, I wasn't in very much pain so I decided to just relax. Hubs went to work, I ate breakfast and went about my day.

I ran a few errands, watched the Price is Right, and went for a walk. The contractions were getting stronger and closer together, so I was finally starting to believe it might just be the real deal. Around 11:00am my contractions were strong enough to stop me in my tracks, forcing me to concentrate and breath through it. I called my doc and told her what was going on. She's really relaxed, so basically told me to come in if I wanted...I think she was reluctant to get too excited considering the false alarm two days earlier, so I decided to hold out a little while longer just to be sure.