baby Elliot Marie was born at 6:53 pm, May 8th after 7 hours of labor. She's 7lb 12oz and 22 inches long! Friday after I had my acupuncture treatment, chirpractic and had my midwife strip my membranes, I went home and used the breast pump for 30 minutes, then walked for an hour, repeated once but by that point I was so worn out, I had to stop for the night. Contractions kept on coming all evening, and I thought this was it, just long and drawn out, but they stopped as soon as I got in the bathtub and had a glass of wine. I knew this wasn't the time yet. I slept about 7 hours that night and my mom and sister spent the night just in case something happened(they're my "doulas"). After an uneventful night, my mom and sister took me out to some outdoor shopping, with my son while DH worked on stuff at the house. I was pretty bummed at this point, so my mom suggested that I get checked to see if I had progressed at all. We drove to the birth center and met the midwife. She checked me and I was still only at almost 4 cm. She gave me the option of getting a shot to help me get a good sleep in and try again in the morning, or she could strip my membranes again. I opted for the shot, and slept about 4 hours when I got home, then went back to bed and slept another 10. I woke up Sunday morning with a decision to make. I could wait, or I could get this party started again. I decided to let her strip my membranes, do the walking/breastpump thing for the day to see if we could get labor going again since I was so well rested. Went in at 12:30, she stripped my membranes, and I went home, used the pump, walked, came back and used the pump again, started feeling nauseus, and lightheaded, so stopped. At this point, the contractions were 1 1/2-2 minutes apart, so we decided to head back to the birth center at around 3:30. She checked me and I was almost at 5, so I went for a walk, and squatted at each contraction(midwife told me this would make them more intense, but it would go quicker), and headed back to the birth center to play a game, ate some ice cream, grapes and potato chips, then went back out and walked again. The contractions got more intense at this point, but still weren't that strong or lasting that long. She checked me again and I was only 6 cm, progressing but slowly. This was at 6pm. The midwife suggested I either go back home and try and get some sleep again, or that I would for sure have the baby tonight if I let her break my water. I opted for her to break my water. So, she broke my water and I immediately got in the bath tub. I went from 6cm to 7cm in about 15 minutes, and kinda started getting that panicky transitiony feeling, asked for Nubain, which I wish I didn't even need because it really never kicked in before she was born. I went from 7 to 10 cm in about 20 minutes, I felt like I had to push, so the midwife came in and asked me to adjust my position so I could use one side of the tub to brace my feet to push, and I started pushing. This was so fast and intense, I was way louder this time than I was with Ethan. 2 pushed to get the head out and 4 more to push the rest of her out! No tearing, and I had a happy healthy baby girl laying on my chest in a few minutes! Hubby got in the water with my while I was contracting and stayed in there for the birth. Totally wasn't planning a waterbirth, but that's what happened. I wouldn't have had time to get out of the tub anyway! I was so glad to have gotten a good nights sleep because with my son I was so incredibly fatigued after 43 hours of labor, that they had a hard time stopping my bleeding. No tearing, no stiches, it was so awesome! Intense, but awesome. She was up until about 2 am, nursing or pooping, and slept for 6 hours straight last night. Luckily I was nice and awake from my 14 hour sleep spell the day before! Will post pics soon!
Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › Archives › Pregnancy Archives › May 2011 › Miss Elliot Marie has arrived!
Miss Elliot Marie has arrived!
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5/9/11 at 6:55pm
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5/11/11 at 6:14pm
Mothering › Mothering Discussion Forums › Archives › Pregnancy Archives › May 2011 › Miss Elliot Marie has arrived!
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