Birth Story

Hey everyone, I had my baby December 26th at 1:12am. Ethan Emerson weighed 8lbs 4oz and was 22 inches long. This little guy cooperated and was born on his due date! Let's just say that Christmas day was eventful for me! I started having contractions on Chrismas eve, but they weren't too bad. We had dinner at my in-laws house and I went home that night and couldn't go to sleep because the contractions began to be more intense, but still tolerable. I was timing them on contractionmaster.com and they were anywhere from 5-11 minutes apart. I was having more pain in my lower back than anywhere else, so I got into the tub around 1am and kept filling it with warm water whenever it cooled off. Mark was sleeping at this time and I considered waking him up to support me through the contractions, but I felt like I could handle it on my own for awhile, so I let him sleep. I called Jean at 1am and asked her if there was anything I could do to help me sleep and she suggested a glass of wine. Well, I tried that and threw up a few hours later. By 6:30am, I just got up and started moving about my day. I called my mom and sister and they came up. My sister has had two natural home births so I figured she would have some nice tricks/advice to help me get through the contractions. She filled up the tub for me and began pouring warm water over my belly and when I would have a ctx I'd get up and lean over on the edge of the tub and she would pour water on my lower back. After about an hour and a half, I got out and just sort of walked around the house between contractions. I found that leaning on someone, squatting and having tennis balls rolled on my back helped the most, so we did this most of the day and evening. I had a tens unit that I was going to use but I couldn't figure out where to place the sensors exactly, so I gave that up. By 6pm my contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and lasting over a minute. We ended up meeting Betty up at the birthing center at 7pm and I immediately got into the tub right after Betty broke my water. The contractions began to get stronger and closer together, but I labored like this for a couple of hours. She checked my cervix and I was 5cm when I came in, 100 percent effaced and at 0 station. By the time I got to 7 cm, I asked for some pain relief. Betty didn't hesitate to give me the nubain, so I guess she thought I could use it. I really think as much as I didn't want to use drugs that it helped me get through those last couple of hours. The pain coping techniques worked pretty well in early labor, but by this point I felt like I had lost control of myself and needed to relax again. It definitely didn't stop the pain, just made it more managable. It wasn't long before I hit 10 cm and began feeling like pushing. I got onto the bed and laid on my back and began to push with each contraction. I pushed for about an hour before he finally made it out. Betty mentioned something about possibly having to do an episiotomy if I didn't get him out and that was all it took to push with all of my might. Apparently he had been face up most of the labor, so that was why my back was hurting so much, but he turned before delivery. I felt the ring of fire, but it was nothing! It actually felt like a bit of a relief to feel him finally making it past that point. I pushed him out and she immediately placed him on my belly and all I could do was just stare at him. I delivered the placenta and continued bleeding for a bit. Betty was a little concerned with the bleeding, so I accepted the cytotec to stop bleeding and she gave me some pitocin to help my uterus contract back. I also had some sugar water and other stuff to help from all the blood loss. I did tear and need stitches, which wasn't the most pleasant experience, but it was way better than labor! I ate some food, went to the bathroom and we were out of the birthing center by 4:30am. We are all doing really well now, it only took 2 days for my milk to come in and he's nursing like a champ! Merry Christmas, everyone! I'll type more later :)