Well, those who say it's not like on TV aren't always right. Wow! Labor and delivery sure felt like something out of a movie...
At 7 pm, on the 16th, I started to feel contractions (41 weeks, 2 days) and thought "this is different." I told my husband that this was it, and to take older DD to my mom's. Called the midwife around 8:30 and told her I was having a hard time timing contractions. She said to come in, and around 9:15 DH started getting ready to go. We left the house at 10... drove over crazy potholed Philadelphia streets with me screaming (transition, I later found out)... The OB on call checked me and, while DH was parking the car, got me moved to a delivery room to get ready to push with the absolutely amazing-calm-angelic midwife who I had never before met. Evidently, I had walked into the hospital (doubled-over, mind you) fully dilated. Evie entered the world at 11:06 pm. I wasn't sure going into this whole thing whether I was going to chicken out on going natural or not, but this little one didn't give me any choice.
What's amazing is how much easier post-partum has been this time around in terms of both pain and bleeding. I don't know if it's the fact of a drug free birth, or the fact of 4 hours, including about 15 minutes of pushing, versus 18 hours with 2 hours of pushing.
At 7 pm, on the 16th, I started to feel contractions (41 weeks, 2 days) and thought "this is different." I told my husband that this was it, and to take older DD to my mom's. Called the midwife around 8:30 and told her I was having a hard time timing contractions. She said to come in, and around 9:15 DH started getting ready to go. We left the house at 10... drove over crazy potholed Philadelphia streets with me screaming (transition, I later found out)... The OB on call checked me and, while DH was parking the car, got me moved to a delivery room to get ready to push with the absolutely amazing-calm-angelic midwife who I had never before met. Evidently, I had walked into the hospital (doubled-over, mind you) fully dilated. Evie entered the world at 11:06 pm. I wasn't sure going into this whole thing whether I was going to chicken out on going natural or not, but this little one didn't give me any choice.
What's amazing is how much easier post-partum has been this time around in terms of both pain and bleeding. I don't know if it's the fact of a drug free birth, or the fact of 4 hours, including about 15 minutes of pushing, versus 18 hours with 2 hours of pushing.
