My son August was born on 12/20. feel tremendously lucky with how everything turned out, I had read so many negative first-time-mom stories I scared myself a little.
We had a huge winter storm here on Friday so I left work early around 12 I believe. My waters broke at 2 and I called my husband at work. Luckily someone was able to give him a ride home as it was already a blizzard out there. Contractions started maybe an hour or so later. I called the midwife to let her know what was going on so she would keep her driveway shoveled for when we needed to go in.
We put on one of the hypnobirthing CD's - birthing affirmations. I had planned on listening to music but all I wanted were those affirmations over and over. They were wonderful! The contractions weren't painful, but they did start to get very intense. I kept visualizing my cervix opening and dilating and praying that a plow would come through. There was no way we could get out unless the plow came because there was about 8 inches out there. When the plow came I was able to focus all my energy and turn it inwards. I didn't want to go to the hospital until I was at least 6 or 7 cms because I had read that you can tense up when you get there. I threw up twice and just kept drinking water. My husband was wonderful, he kept reassuring me and rubbing my back. I leaned into him while sitting on the bed for contractions or I laid on my side and he lay behind me and kept reassuring me.
Finally around 11 I felt comfortable that the roads were clear enough that I was pretty sure we should get going to the hospital but still second guessing myself because the contractions didn't hurt. The roads were awful, but I just stayed focused on my contractions which were about 2 1/2 minutes apart at this point.
We had a heck of a time finding a parking spot that was plowed out, but we found one pretty far back. Walking to the hospital from the parking lot was difficult because I was so cold and my contractions started stacking up one on top of the other.
When I got upstairs to the childbirth center and they gave me a gown to put on which I put on and promptly stripped off. When the midwife checked me and I was 9 cms! I was so relieved that I had done most of the laboring at home as we planned. They put this tube-top like thing around my belly to put the monitors on. I made them cut it off pretty quickly because I didn't want anything on me at all but the contractions were coming so fast I didn't know how to get it off of me. I labored for a while - I guess it was about an hour but I had no concept of time at all through any of this. I got up to pee and I felt like I needed to push down! The midwife asked me if I wanted her to check and I said yes and she looked and then said push away, he's right there! She even had me reach up and feel him!
So I started pushing. The midwife really helped me out by talking me through the pushes, telling me where he was and holding a warm washcloth down there so I wouldn't tear. My husband could see all of it (even though I thought he might not want to!) and I could tell each time the baby came out a little more by watching him. He was amazing through all of it, really coaching me. The baby would come down a little bit, then go back in, then come down a bit, then go back in! I knew that could happen so I was trying not to get frustrated. Then I pushed him so a bit of his head stayed out even when I wasn't pushing!
The whole time they were checking his heart rate with a doppler, and at the end all of a sudden he dropped from 140-150 down to 110 so the midwife said you just need to push him out without a contraction. So I did, and oh my god was it the most amazing thing in the entire world. When I felt his shoulders come out and I looked down and there was a little baby halfway into the world. It was so surreal and beautiful and amazing. His little legs came next and they put him on my chest and he came right to and started crying. He was so beautiful I'm getting a little teary just writing about it. I talked to him and he started looking around for me because he knew my voice! It was wonderful. While I was holding him the midwife asked me to push so I did and the placenta came right out - I didn't really notice it at all. He breastfed right after birth and has done a pretty good job of latching on so far. We're still figuring that part out together! He ended up weighing 8 lbs 3 oz and measured 21 inches long.
We left the hospital when he was a little over 24 hours old. I found that being there was very frustrating because I was constantly being interrupted while I was trying to learn how to feed and hold and comfort my little son. We left in a second snowstorm actually! But he's home now and is just the best thing ever, I can't believe how lucky we are.
We had a huge winter storm here on Friday so I left work early around 12 I believe. My waters broke at 2 and I called my husband at work. Luckily someone was able to give him a ride home as it was already a blizzard out there. Contractions started maybe an hour or so later. I called the midwife to let her know what was going on so she would keep her driveway shoveled for when we needed to go in.
We put on one of the hypnobirthing CD's - birthing affirmations. I had planned on listening to music but all I wanted were those affirmations over and over. They were wonderful! The contractions weren't painful, but they did start to get very intense. I kept visualizing my cervix opening and dilating and praying that a plow would come through. There was no way we could get out unless the plow came because there was about 8 inches out there. When the plow came I was able to focus all my energy and turn it inwards. I didn't want to go to the hospital until I was at least 6 or 7 cms because I had read that you can tense up when you get there. I threw up twice and just kept drinking water. My husband was wonderful, he kept reassuring me and rubbing my back. I leaned into him while sitting on the bed for contractions or I laid on my side and he lay behind me and kept reassuring me.
Finally around 11 I felt comfortable that the roads were clear enough that I was pretty sure we should get going to the hospital but still second guessing myself because the contractions didn't hurt. The roads were awful, but I just stayed focused on my contractions which were about 2 1/2 minutes apart at this point.
We had a heck of a time finding a parking spot that was plowed out, but we found one pretty far back. Walking to the hospital from the parking lot was difficult because I was so cold and my contractions started stacking up one on top of the other.
When I got upstairs to the childbirth center and they gave me a gown to put on which I put on and promptly stripped off. When the midwife checked me and I was 9 cms! I was so relieved that I had done most of the laboring at home as we planned. They put this tube-top like thing around my belly to put the monitors on. I made them cut it off pretty quickly because I didn't want anything on me at all but the contractions were coming so fast I didn't know how to get it off of me. I labored for a while - I guess it was about an hour but I had no concept of time at all through any of this. I got up to pee and I felt like I needed to push down! The midwife asked me if I wanted her to check and I said yes and she looked and then said push away, he's right there! She even had me reach up and feel him!
So I started pushing. The midwife really helped me out by talking me through the pushes, telling me where he was and holding a warm washcloth down there so I wouldn't tear. My husband could see all of it (even though I thought he might not want to!) and I could tell each time the baby came out a little more by watching him. He was amazing through all of it, really coaching me. The baby would come down a little bit, then go back in, then come down a bit, then go back in! I knew that could happen so I was trying not to get frustrated. Then I pushed him so a bit of his head stayed out even when I wasn't pushing!
The whole time they were checking his heart rate with a doppler, and at the end all of a sudden he dropped from 140-150 down to 110 so the midwife said you just need to push him out without a contraction. So I did, and oh my god was it the most amazing thing in the entire world. When I felt his shoulders come out and I looked down and there was a little baby halfway into the world. It was so surreal and beautiful and amazing. His little legs came next and they put him on my chest and he came right to and started crying. He was so beautiful I'm getting a little teary just writing about it. I talked to him and he started looking around for me because he knew my voice! It was wonderful. While I was holding him the midwife asked me to push so I did and the placenta came right out - I didn't really notice it at all. He breastfed right after birth and has done a pretty good job of latching on so far. We're still figuring that part out together! He ended up weighing 8 lbs 3 oz and measured 21 inches long.
We left the hospital when he was a little over 24 hours old. I found that being there was very frustrating because I was constantly being interrupted while I was trying to learn how to feed and hold and comfort my little son. We left in a second snowstorm actually! But he's home now and is just the best thing ever, I can't believe how lucky we are.
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