our birth story

I loved loved loved reading other people's birth stories while I was pregnant so I thought I would share ours. Its a little long, but I am using this as my own journal and I want to remember as much as possible.

Our due date came and went. My doctor said that if no baby came by the next week that he would induce me. I really didn't want to be induced so that week I tried everything I could think of to get labor going--pineapple, acupressure and massage, eggplant parmesan, spicy chinese food, lots of walking, walking up and down stairs, working three 12-hour shifts in a row, etc. etc. Nothing worked and I felt pretty great for the most part up until the day I was scheduled to be induced. Even though I wasn't crazy about being induced, I was so anxious and ready to meet our baby that I decided to go ahead with it.

Steve and I went to the hospital early on the morning of the 15th. They started me on pitocin at about 6 am and the contractions started almost right away. I had been having contractions for a couple months and they had gotten more intense these last couple weeks, but they were nothing compared to the contractions I was having now. My doctor came in around 7 to break my water and check me. I was dilated to a 1.9 (!) and effaced 80%. The doctor said it would probably be another 10 or 12 hours until we delivered the baby, so we buckled down and mentally prepared for a long day.

Once my water broke the contractions intensified even more. I tried to breathe through them and use the techniques we had learned in our hypnobirthing class which worked for a little bit. But soon they started to come every one and a half to two minutes apart and the hypnobirthing stuff went right out the window. I lasted until about 9:45 then decided that if my labor was going to be another many hours that I needed the epidural.

It was amazing how wonderful the epidural felt. I could finally relax and breathe and feel excited about meeting our baby instead of tense and scared out of my mind. Pretty soon after the epidural the nurse checked my progress. The minute she checked me she exclaimed in surprise that she could feel the baby's head. I was dilated to a 6 in a matter of 4 hours after starting the pitocin! We were so excited that we wouldn't have to wait until late that night to meet our little nuggin.

Around 11 the nurse checked me again and I was dilated to a 9 and fully effaced. The baby was moving down and I would probably be ready to push within a half hour. Everything happened so much more quickly than we expected. It was great and exciting but scary because our lives were about to change forever. I had so many emotions going on at that point.

The nurse called my doctor but he wasn't planning on me going so quickly so he was busy somewhere else at the time. The nurse had me start pushing a little bit but didn't want to deliver the baby herself so we held off for a while. I got to rest and relax with Steve and my mom and my dad even came in and hung out for awhile in between pushing.

Nothing really happened until 2 pm when the doctor got there. He got things all set up very quickly and then had me start to really push. I had never worked so hard in my life, but I was so excited to finally have this baby that it was easy to work so hard if that makes sense. Our babe was born at 2:33pm. I can't even describe how I felt when I saw him for the first time. It was amazing how much I loved this little person that I just met, especially when he was covered in birth goo and his head was shaped like a cone. After Steve cut his cord I let them wipe him down, weigh and measure and give him his shot and eye stuff. But then he was all mine and he and I cuddled skin to skin while I couldn't stop staring at him.

Everything about our birth was perfect and looking back I wouldn't change a thing. I feel like I got to experience what labor and childbirth felt like but I also got to enjoy and be aware of every moment. It was amazing and I've never felt so close to Steve as when we brought our little boy into this world together.