Tuesday, October 7, 2008

A Birth Story

I suppose it's about time that I share how our tiny miracle entered the world...

Wednesday morning as Logan was getting off to work, my water starting "leaking". He went in anyway because I was having just small contractions and knew it would be a while yet. I called our midwife, and went in a little later to get started on antibiotics for group b strep. We hooked up the moniter and Coys heartrate was really good, and my contractions, though mild, were about 2 to 4 1/2 minutes apart. So I went home, planning to return in another 4 hours for more antibiotics. Contractions got stronger, and Logan came home about 2 to help me thru them. Going in again at 4, I was only dilated to 1 cm, and contractions had slowed down just a little....so we went home again. (Riding on downtown bumpy streets while starting labor is not so comfortable...haha) We went home, had some supper and danced, breathed, and swayed thru each contraction, trying to get a little rest between them. At 8:30, I was still only dilated to 2 cm. I was really exhausted from labor pains all day and getting no where, that we made the decision at 10:30 pm to go to Community Medical Center to get a little something to help me rest. The plan was to then wake up hours later, and be ready to start labor. Since I was on a time limit with my water breaking, an order was in to start Pitocin at 7 in the morning to get things moving faster, which luckily I did not need. So we checked into the labor room "suite" and I started to drift off. But only for a few minutes at a time...as contractions were getting super strong. Our doula Cheryl, and Logan were amazing, helping me moan and breathe thru each one, while getting pressure and massages on my back. At about 2 in the morning, I needed to get more comfortable, so I sat in the labor tub, staring at the drain and counting outloud to get thru each pain. After about 45 minutes, I told Cheryl that it felt like I needed to push. But only being dilated to 2 a few hours ago, this didnt seem likely to anyone. So, the nurse came into check my dilation....................

"We need to get you out of here...his head is right here!!!" Well no WONDER I felt the need to push...because it was definately TIME! (Moral of this part of the story is, don't ignore mom's comments during labor...she just might know what she's talking about!!)She started to get really nervous, and was trying to rush me back to our room while Logan called our midwife. (Poor lady had just enough time to wake up and brush her teeth...) Meanwhile I was still breathing thru contractions, and the head nurse in the room was kinda freaking out, not wanting to deliver this baby herself! Katie (midwife) got there just in time. I pushed thru just 4 more contractions, and then at 3:11 am Coy was lifted up onto my chest, all pink and healthy.
The nurses, midwife, and doula all said that I made birth look easy...so I guess we're really blessed that things went so smoothly and I was able to stay calm and relaxed (most of the time anyway..haha.)

It was like it was all a dream, but turned out to be so real.

This whole labor was amazing and almost peaceful and we will remember every second for the rest of our lives.

5 comments:

Amber said...

beautiful story.

Lindsay said...

AWESOME!! you know, you DID make the whole thing seem pretty easy! i'm SO glad you didn't have to get the pitocin, that is nasty nasy stuff. hope this baby is listening as i read your story aloud... hint hint!! love you guys!!

Heather T said...

Thanks for sharing...it's always neat to hear other ppl's birth stories.:-)

TruffleLady said...

Thank you for sharing your beautiful, powerful birth story. In our experience, we never got out of the birth tub, just delivered the baby there. You are so strong to be able to move around at that part of labor! I almost felt paralyzed by the power of it at that point, and could do nothing else but PUSH!!! Congratulations on bringing a new life into the world...naturally!

Anonymous said...

What a lovely experience :-) I am SO proud of you, and SO happy that everything went so well for you!