Your birth story

I'm still editing your birth story. There's still so much to say.

Our daughter was born 8/26 at 2:53pm, at home, after 13 hours of labor.

I thought my water broke on Tuesday at 9am (turns out it was just a high leak). We took castor oil, black and blue cohosh, and walked for ever. Had some good, regular contractions, but they fizzled out pretty quickly. Went in to visit my midwives that night, and we decided that since I WOULD be in labor no matter what the next day, I should just rest for the night. I'd been having regular contractions throughout the night for a couple of nights, so I thought maybe I just needed to be relaxed to start labor.

Went home and watched some TV show reruns (doesn't get much more mindless than that!) and relaxed with my hubby. Went to bed, and woke up around 2 with regular contractions. I timed them at 1 min long every 3-4 minutes, which is exactly what the midwives wanted to know about. So we called, and they said to call back when we wanted them to come over.

Around 7, my amazing midwives came over and found me at 7 cm and fully effaced. Sweet! At this point, I wasn't having to vocalize much during the contractions as long as I remembered to breathe (important!). So we kept laboring.

We ended up spending about an hour in the tub, and I slept. Laboring in water was so relaxing that I was almost able to sleep through the contractions (that was really unexpected). Unfortunately, that super relaxing time didn't help me progress at all. At 11, I was only at 8. Oddly enough, one side of my cervix was complete and the other side wasn't.

So we labored some more. My husband is pretty much the most amazing man I've ever met. He sat with me on the floor, and helped me into and out of the tub, and basically carried me through most of labor (literally - it felt so good to go limp during a contraction). At one point, I felt the contractions change and I knew I was close. That was terrifying. I was SURE that I was about to experience the worst pain of my life.

So I got in the tub to calm things down and collect myself. When I got out, I started pushing. We tried a few different positions, and found the best (for us, for that birth) to be on the birth stool with my husband holding me up from behind. After a while, I realized that this really didn't hurt as badly as I had expected. Really. Once I stopped worrying about how badly I thought it was going to hurt and just lived in the moment and experiences that were actually happening, I was fine.

I don't know how long I pushed, but it was quick. Once she crowned, we figured it would be about 6-10 more contractions and good pushes (not that she needed to be out then, but I liked having some sort of progress to monitor). The next contraction, she came out all at once! I was a little surprised to see her there. I thought her arrival would be marked with more pain and more drama.

At 3pm on August 26th, I pushed a baby out of me.

I thought she was SO BLUE! Really, it was the newborn gunk. Her actual skin wasn't blue. And she was not at all interested in crying, so we ended up putting oxygen on her to help her get pink. I lost a bit of blood and my blood pressure dropped so the midwives got me on the bed, baby on my chest, had hubby hold the oxygen for her, and they went in for the placenta. It had partially detached with the birth, and that was causing the bleeding, so it needed to come out. I got a shot of pitocin and with a little cord traction (um, WEIRD!), and a lot of uncomfortable manipulation and a push, the placenta came out. I was still bleeding so they gave me some methergin, and everything seemed pretty fantastic after that.

I was a bit woozy, so I stayed on the bed until much later that night. A few minor after birth complications, but nothing dramatic.

My daughter is perfect. She's beautiful and just flawless.