My Baby Story

In my nine months of being pregnant and not having a whole lot to do but clean the house and wait on Jake to arrive I spent a lot of time watching "A Baby Story" on TLC. I often thought about what my story was going to be like and was excited to be able to share my experience with everyone. I am not quite sure how to share this experience with you since it was everything I hoped it would be, but then again, in some ways not what I expected it to be. So I will just start from the beginning and end with the ending.

Saturday September 12th at 6am I woke up feeling my water break. After 20 days of waiting for Jake to arrive I was so relieved, excited, and nervous all at the same time. I actually shook for about an hour wondering when my contractions were going to pick up. I thought for sure I would have him by that evening! I called my midwife and she told me to try to time contractions once I able too and give her a call around 12pm. I felt nothing more than a small cramping sensation so we repeated that process until three. Still Nothing! Midwife called around 8pm saying she was heading to bed and recommended I should too in case my labor starts in the middle of the night we would both be rested.
Sunday morning rolls around and nothing had happened that night. Crap! What is the deal with this kid? Midwife decides to come by and observe around 8am while she sat on the couch and knit socks. Around 9am she asks Joe and I to go into the bedroom and strip down to nothing and just cuddle with skin on skin contact. I guess this is one way of getting labor to start. Well after an hour of cuddle time I was having consistent contractions and labor had officially started. I should also say that when she first arrive she did give me a antibiotic because of my water breaking over 24hours prior.
I labored for several hours in bed and around 1pm was able to get into the doula tub. Once my stomach hit that warm water I felt instant relief. Contractions were still painful but not quite as hard to manage. After several hours in the tub the midwife decided that we needed to speed things along and had me go back to bed to lay on my left side. Left side lying is the best way to get full dilation so that I could start pushing. It was around 5:30pm that she checked me and said I was between 8-9 cm so the next little while would be the hardest part of labor but go quickly. She was right about the intensity I felt like my stomach was being beaten by a bat! No, it was worse than that! I give credit to all the women out there that have more than one kid and delivered all of them without drugs. The whole time I was in those last 2 cm of dilation I was thinking about how nice an epidural would have felt at that time. Oh well, a few hours of pain didn't kill me once all was said and done. By the time I was ready to push we ended up trying three different positions. First side lying. Then a full squat. Then the tub. After an hour of wimpy pushing we decided the best position was full squat. Yes, I was a wimpy pusher. I thought that once I got to be able to push I would feel relief and enjoy that part. Boy was I wrong. I hated pushing which is probably why I didn't push like I was supposed too. After some serious coaching from Joe and the midwife I was able to put my back into it and within a half an hour of correct, hard pushing Jake slid right out for Joe to catch him and hand him to me. Joe said he was more excited about having a boy than he thought he would be. I was happy either way.
Okay, here comes the part of the story you might want to skip if you have a weak stomach.
About an hour after Jake was born I had yet to deliver the placenta. I tried to push hard but was so tired and weak that I felt like I was going to pass out if I kept pushing. The midwife was getting concerned about the time past and gave me a shot of PIT to prevent my uterus from bleeding out. She decided she was going to have to go in and see if it was stuck. That was more painful than anything I have ever experienced, even after delivering a 14.5 in head. She failed her first attempt at getting it out. Her second attempt I got mad and started pushing as hard as I could to get it done and over with. Finally, success! He was born at 10pm and was declared a 40 week baby according the the apgar test. I was so glad that we waited until Jake decided it was time to come out. I know there were many people concerned about the length of time past our due date but as much as I prayed over the situation I trusted God and the midwife to wait.
The best part of the story for me is when we were having hard time delivering the placenta the midwives layed their hands on me and prayed that God would take care of the situation. It was so comforting to have two women their with me who loved the Lord just and much as we do give everything over to God and let him do what he does best.
Even though the experience was one of the hardest things I have ever done I would totally do it over again. My midwife told me that if I had had the baby at the hospital they would have induced me, I probably would have screamed for the epidural since PIT intensifies your contractions. I may have also had an episiotomy because of the size of the babies head and could have very well been given a C-section because the babies head came out a little crooked. His cone head was slightly to the side instead of directly on top. I did end up with a little tear, but no biggy. Tears heal faster than episiotomies anyway.
I am more than happy to answer anyones' questions that I may not have answered in this blog.
So there you have it. My baby Story. I am glad it is over, but when looking back would not change a thing about it.