Here's my birth story, finally. 
My due date was Oct 9 but I always thought I'd go late, as I did with the other two. I predicted Oct 12 because it's my dad's birthday.
Well, I had prodromal labor on and off for about 2 weeks before then, so I was really disappointed when a cervical check on my due date showed only 1 cm dilation. Same story on the 12th, but right before the appointment I started having painful ctx and thought this could be the real thing.
Headed home, had a bath and tried to relax. In quite a bit of pain most of the afternoon, but not really recognizable ctx -- just pain in my middle and around my back. Tried to sleep that night but just tossed and turned, so we finally went to the hosp at 1 am.
When I got there I was still only 2-3 cm and all my pain and ctx just stopped. They were having a slow night, so they said, "Well, we'll check you in and you can walk the halls as long as you want." So that's what I did -- the whole rest of the night.
Finally around 8 am there was a little pressure to break my water to try to speed things up, but I resisted and they let me go. I wanted to get to at least 6 cm on my own. Baby was doing great so there was no reason to rush. Finally around 11 am I agreed to this intervention because I was tired and my ctx were still far apart and not very strong, although I had reached 6 cm on my own.
After this I rested half an hour with no change, then decided to get out of bed and let gravity do its work. This was effective and I finally started having better ctx. Spent the rest of labor hanging off of DH during ctx and laughing and joking between them. LOL The midwife really thought I was not making much progress this way, but she checked me around 1 pm and I was fully dilated with a small lip.
I climbed up on the bed and she helped me start pushing with contractions -- the pressure was really immense (I really don't remember my last unmedicated birth being that intense!) but it didn't take long at all, and I pushed my baby out with some lusty screaming (on my part, not hers!) at 1:28.
The midwife was wonderful about respecting my wishes all along and she supported my perineum so well that I didn't even have a skid mark. She was awesome.
Kristina was beautiful, 8 lb 14 oz, 22 in, Apgars of 9 across the board. I guess she just wanted to have her own birthday, which is why she waited until the 13th. We nursed right away and she is a real pro! We've been having a wonderful babymoon and I haven't been back on here until now.
Only small problem is that I suddenly developed high blood pressure right after the birth (never had that in my life). We're still working on sorting that out, but I'm being well monitored, so hopefully we'll figure this out soon.
My due date was Oct 9 but I always thought I'd go late, as I did with the other two. I predicted Oct 12 because it's my dad's birthday.
Well, I had prodromal labor on and off for about 2 weeks before then, so I was really disappointed when a cervical check on my due date showed only 1 cm dilation. Same story on the 12th, but right before the appointment I started having painful ctx and thought this could be the real thing.
Headed home, had a bath and tried to relax. In quite a bit of pain most of the afternoon, but not really recognizable ctx -- just pain in my middle and around my back. Tried to sleep that night but just tossed and turned, so we finally went to the hosp at 1 am.
When I got there I was still only 2-3 cm and all my pain and ctx just stopped. They were having a slow night, so they said, "Well, we'll check you in and you can walk the halls as long as you want." So that's what I did -- the whole rest of the night.
Finally around 8 am there was a little pressure to break my water to try to speed things up, but I resisted and they let me go. I wanted to get to at least 6 cm on my own. Baby was doing great so there was no reason to rush. Finally around 11 am I agreed to this intervention because I was tired and my ctx were still far apart and not very strong, although I had reached 6 cm on my own.
After this I rested half an hour with no change, then decided to get out of bed and let gravity do its work. This was effective and I finally started having better ctx. Spent the rest of labor hanging off of DH during ctx and laughing and joking between them. LOL The midwife really thought I was not making much progress this way, but she checked me around 1 pm and I was fully dilated with a small lip.
I climbed up on the bed and she helped me start pushing with contractions -- the pressure was really immense (I really don't remember my last unmedicated birth being that intense!) but it didn't take long at all, and I pushed my baby out with some lusty screaming (on my part, not hers!) at 1:28.
The midwife was wonderful about respecting my wishes all along and she supported my perineum so well that I didn't even have a skid mark. She was awesome. Kristina was beautiful, 8 lb 14 oz, 22 in, Apgars of 9 across the board. I guess she just wanted to have her own birthday, which is why she waited until the 13th. We nursed right away and she is a real pro! We've been having a wonderful babymoon and I haven't been back on here until now.
Only small problem is that I suddenly developed high blood pressure right after the birth (never had that in my life). We're still working on sorting that out, but I'm being well monitored, so hopefully we'll figure this out soon.
Congrats!!! 
