8 pounds, 3 ounces, 21 inches long, born 2/19 at 11:34 pm! 
Last week I posted a thread about early labor - turns out it was indeed the real thing, and early last Friday morning it turned into active labor. Everything went smoothly and I was able to get through the contractions just fine for the first several hours. By early afternoon DH and the doula and I went to the doctor's office, and I was 5 centimeters dilated so we went to the hospital.
Things continued to progress well for a while, then we got stuck. He was barreling his way down the birth canal, but my dilation got stuck around 7 centimeters. After I'd been in active labor for about 17 hours and couldn't *not* push through the contractions, I decided to have an epidural. I don't regret it, since it allowed me to rest and about 45 minutes later I was able to push him smoothly out. The best part was that the nurses and midwife encouraged me to push in whatever position I wanted, and reassured me that having the epidural didn't mean I'd have to be on my back in stirrups. I pushed him out on my side, and that phase went really quickly and smoothly - before I knew it he was there on my chest and we were looking at each other for the first time.
Despite my original plans to give birth without pain medication, I was overjoyed with the birth experience. I had such great support from our doula, from the nurses, midwife and from DH. Watching DH's face as he watched our baby being born was one of the most amazing things ever. We're now totally in love with our little guy and enjoying our babymoon. Congratulations to everyone else who's given birth!
Last week I posted a thread about early labor - turns out it was indeed the real thing, and early last Friday morning it turned into active labor. Everything went smoothly and I was able to get through the contractions just fine for the first several hours. By early afternoon DH and the doula and I went to the doctor's office, and I was 5 centimeters dilated so we went to the hospital.
Things continued to progress well for a while, then we got stuck. He was barreling his way down the birth canal, but my dilation got stuck around 7 centimeters. After I'd been in active labor for about 17 hours and couldn't *not* push through the contractions, I decided to have an epidural. I don't regret it, since it allowed me to rest and about 45 minutes later I was able to push him smoothly out. The best part was that the nurses and midwife encouraged me to push in whatever position I wanted, and reassured me that having the epidural didn't mean I'd have to be on my back in stirrups. I pushed him out on my side, and that phase went really quickly and smoothly - before I knew it he was there on my chest and we were looking at each other for the first time.
Despite my original plans to give birth without pain medication, I was overjoyed with the birth experience. I had such great support from our doula, from the nurses, midwife and from DH. Watching DH's face as he watched our baby being born was one of the most amazing things ever. We're now totally in love with our little guy and enjoying our babymoon. Congratulations to everyone else who's given birth!
