Apparently sometimes I do go into labor before my due date.
Emma Margaret was born at home this morning at 12:50am after a six hour labor. She weighs 8 lbs even and is 21" long.
ETA: Birth story and pics!
Photos are below, including one semi-not-worksafe-nursing-photo. FYI.
I was going along with my business as usual yesterday afternoon, having absolutely zero clue I was about to go into labor. The contractions picked up at 4pm like they always do, and I really didn't think anything of them until around 7. They started to really hurt. It wasn't like, "omg I'm gonna die!" pain but it was enough to take my breath away and make me unable to even type through them. I started timing them and they were not regular, but certainly painful, lasting 45-60 seconds, and I found it hard to imagine it was more false labor. Called my midwives, we talked back and forth for about two hours before I was like, "uh, yeah, you need to come over." By the time she got there I was pretty positive I was in labor, what with the vomiting and contractions serious enough to make me call to Jesus.
So she checks me and then my husband gets home during. She moved my cervix which was posterior forward so the contractions would do a better job. I was about 3cm and 80% effaced by that point so I knew it was on. I had been sitting at 1cm and 50% for awhile. So some cervical change was important. Interestingly, I never lost my mucus plug OR had bloody show. Go figure.
I wandered around the house for awhile having contractions and chatting inbetween. They really were not that bad pain wise. I think it helped that I was not terrified, and I got to move around, bend over, and have someone press on my back during them. I got in the pool after awhile, I think around 11pm or so. My contractions started to get really strong in the pool, and during one of them I felt this POP! I wasn't sure if the baby had kicked me or my water had broken. I've never had my water break on it's own, so this was all new to me. Funny because I had asked how I would know if it broke in the pool and one of my midwives was all, "Oh, you'll probably feel a pop and then a warm gush of water." Which is exactly what happened.
I got out of the pool to use the restroom around midnight or so. I came back and was checked again, 4cm. I was feeling massive pressure and I was like, "I HAVE to be further along than that." She told me not to be discouraged and went along casually knitting me a baby hat. I don't know how much longer after that, but I felt myself hit transition like freight train. I started to panic a little because the contractions were REALLY painful and it was almost impossible to relax during them. I started shaking and vomiting a little. I suddenly just wanted out of that pool. I wanted to be standing and rocking and moving. I'm really glad I followed my instincts there because as soon as I got out I started going hardcore.
I hardly remember how I managed to go pee and walk to my bedroom, but somehow I did it. And when I sat on the toilet, I felt a lot of pushy- feeling pressure. Then the contractions were bam bam bam right on top of eachother. It was somewhere around that point I was beginning to REALLY want that epidural. But I knew the baby was about to come. And what was I gonna do, get in a car like that? There was no way I was going to get in a car! The bed was made and I laid down. I kept thinking the midwives needed to check me at some point, but I could NOT for the life of me figure out how I was going to lay on my back.
I was laying on my side and I felt my whole body pushing. *I* was not pushing, my body was. I remember thinking, "uh, I had better open my legs at some point"
: I had like zero control over it. The midwives had left the room for a minute and I told my husband "GO GET THEM! Tell them I feel the baby coming down!" He was like, "oh, don't you need them to push your cervix to the front to really dilate?" And they were back in the room and I was like, "No, I feel this baby IN MY VAGINA." You have to remember I was like 4cm maybe 40 minutes before this! Right around this time I got on my knees. It was just so instinctual to do that, I just knew I had to. The cool part was that I totally knew what was going on with me the whole time. Even without being checked!
The midwives told me to do some panting breaths and not push and I was like, "Oh man there's no way, I'm not even pushing!" Then a massive contraction hit and I screamed like I have never screamed in my life. Her head was born. Oh, that ring of fire! You know how some people freak out over it and don't push or something? That was SO NOT EVEN AN OPTION. I'm not even sure what was pushing, me or my body. I tried to push more to get her whole body out but had to wait for a contraction. Next one, her shoulders were slowly eased out, and then the rest of her body. She was screaming as soon as her head was born. Apgars were 10 and 10. No tearing, and she was LOA, thankyouverymuch. Compared to my two OP babies, this recovery has already been a breeze in comparison. I feel how I felt a week postpartum with the girls.
Welcome to the world, Emma
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3467/...3149ed70_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3455/...d54546d3_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3550/...53dddc3a_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3166/...772e51c4_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3497/...d7b29401_o.jpg
Emma Margaret was born at home this morning at 12:50am after a six hour labor. She weighs 8 lbs even and is 21" long.
ETA: Birth story and pics!
Photos are below, including one semi-not-worksafe-nursing-photo. FYI.
I was going along with my business as usual yesterday afternoon, having absolutely zero clue I was about to go into labor. The contractions picked up at 4pm like they always do, and I really didn't think anything of them until around 7. They started to really hurt. It wasn't like, "omg I'm gonna die!" pain but it was enough to take my breath away and make me unable to even type through them. I started timing them and they were not regular, but certainly painful, lasting 45-60 seconds, and I found it hard to imagine it was more false labor. Called my midwives, we talked back and forth for about two hours before I was like, "uh, yeah, you need to come over." By the time she got there I was pretty positive I was in labor, what with the vomiting and contractions serious enough to make me call to Jesus.
So she checks me and then my husband gets home during. She moved my cervix which was posterior forward so the contractions would do a better job. I was about 3cm and 80% effaced by that point so I knew it was on. I had been sitting at 1cm and 50% for awhile. So some cervical change was important. Interestingly, I never lost my mucus plug OR had bloody show. Go figure.
I wandered around the house for awhile having contractions and chatting inbetween. They really were not that bad pain wise. I think it helped that I was not terrified, and I got to move around, bend over, and have someone press on my back during them. I got in the pool after awhile, I think around 11pm or so. My contractions started to get really strong in the pool, and during one of them I felt this POP! I wasn't sure if the baby had kicked me or my water had broken. I've never had my water break on it's own, so this was all new to me. Funny because I had asked how I would know if it broke in the pool and one of my midwives was all, "Oh, you'll probably feel a pop and then a warm gush of water." Which is exactly what happened.
I got out of the pool to use the restroom around midnight or so. I came back and was checked again, 4cm. I was feeling massive pressure and I was like, "I HAVE to be further along than that." She told me not to be discouraged and went along casually knitting me a baby hat. I don't know how much longer after that, but I felt myself hit transition like freight train. I started to panic a little because the contractions were REALLY painful and it was almost impossible to relax during them. I started shaking and vomiting a little. I suddenly just wanted out of that pool. I wanted to be standing and rocking and moving. I'm really glad I followed my instincts there because as soon as I got out I started going hardcore.
I hardly remember how I managed to go pee and walk to my bedroom, but somehow I did it. And when I sat on the toilet, I felt a lot of pushy- feeling pressure. Then the contractions were bam bam bam right on top of eachother. It was somewhere around that point I was beginning to REALLY want that epidural. But I knew the baby was about to come. And what was I gonna do, get in a car like that? There was no way I was going to get in a car! The bed was made and I laid down. I kept thinking the midwives needed to check me at some point, but I could NOT for the life of me figure out how I was going to lay on my back.
I was laying on my side and I felt my whole body pushing. *I* was not pushing, my body was. I remember thinking, "uh, I had better open my legs at some point"
: I had like zero control over it. The midwives had left the room for a minute and I told my husband "GO GET THEM! Tell them I feel the baby coming down!" He was like, "oh, don't you need them to push your cervix to the front to really dilate?" And they were back in the room and I was like, "No, I feel this baby IN MY VAGINA." You have to remember I was like 4cm maybe 40 minutes before this! Right around this time I got on my knees. It was just so instinctual to do that, I just knew I had to. The cool part was that I totally knew what was going on with me the whole time. Even without being checked!The midwives told me to do some panting breaths and not push and I was like, "Oh man there's no way, I'm not even pushing!" Then a massive contraction hit and I screamed like I have never screamed in my life. Her head was born. Oh, that ring of fire! You know how some people freak out over it and don't push or something? That was SO NOT EVEN AN OPTION. I'm not even sure what was pushing, me or my body. I tried to push more to get her whole body out but had to wait for a contraction. Next one, her shoulders were slowly eased out, and then the rest of her body. She was screaming as soon as her head was born. Apgars were 10 and 10. No tearing, and she was LOA, thankyouverymuch. Compared to my two OP babies, this recovery has already been a breeze in comparison. I feel how I felt a week postpartum with the girls.
Welcome to the world, Emma
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3467/...3149ed70_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3455/...d54546d3_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3550/...53dddc3a_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3166/...772e51c4_o.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3497/...d7b29401_o.jpg
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