Update on Friday
Thanks so much everyone.
I wanted to get back to you and let you know what happened with me... in a nutshell.
The best news is that I'm typing this with my baby son in my lap, he's a beautiful, healthy, strong baby boy and I love him more than I can possibly say in words. He was born later in the afternoon on Monday, just after 5 p.m.
This isn't really my birth story, but just to let you all know how it happened for us:
My water broke at 1 am and I saw there was meconium. It really hurt for a second when the water broke, and I had a bad feeling right off the bat. My midwife and dh tried to make me feel better and told me to get some sleep before contrax started, and I was able to get back to bed and get several hours of sleep. In the morning, the mw came to the house to check with me. I had had several contrax in the night but not strong ones. They seemed to have faded away around 4 am. I had a couple while walking in the neighborhood, but they weren't regular or very strong. The mw noticed that the baby's heart slowed down dramatically following even these very weak contrax. That was a sign to her that maybe stronger contrax would be even more stressful to the baby. We decided to drive to the hospital and have a test strip done on the baby. It was very scary, driving to the hospital. I worried through every little contraction. Once there, we could clearly see that the baby would do fine for 3 or 4 or 5 contrax, and then have a long period of late decceleration just every once in a while. There were several episodes of nurses + drs rushing into the room, laying me down, putting on the O2 and doing scalp stimulation to try and get a response from the baby. It was totally scary. The doctor began to talk more about getting myself ready for a C-section. I was devastated. I cried a lot and got tons of feedback and support from my fantastic mw, doula and of course dh, who was completely freaked out by this time.
Long story short, I had a c-section and the dr could not tell definitively what was causing the long periods of decceleration. No compressed cord, as far as she could tell, only a slightly off-center presentation, maybe. But otherwise, I totally felt like she was NOT pushing me toward a c section for any other reason but to help the baby and because I had made so little progress with these mini-contrax (I was only about 3 cms and the baby remained very high) and yet he was not tolerating them. She was concerned about the stronger contrax being even more difficult for baby to tolerate, and the longer that went on, the harder it would be for baby.
OK, I guess it did kind of turn into my birth story after all. I didn't mean for it to, but I guess I'm just writing what I'm thinking. It was the hardest of all my 3 births by far. I have new respect for women who have to go through the c section - I found it to be a very big ordeal and so stressful and scary. I wouldn't wish it on anyone, but on the other hand, thank goodness that it is there as an option. Recovery has been ok, though definitely harder than with a vaginal birth. The baby is gorgeous - I'll post a picture when I get my pix on the computer. I'm focusing all my attention on him right now, and I think I'll be processing the whole birth experience for the next few weeks at least. It was so different than I ever would have dreamed or expected.
Congratulations to all of you who have been having your babies this week - it will take me a bit to catch up on reading all about the new babies!
Take care everyone!
Not a ton, but I'm still worried. My mw told me to go back to bed and get some sleep - wait for contrax to start. I had some contrax through the night that woke me up, but nothing very regular, especially in the last 3 hours, everything seems to have slowed right back down.
: 
I'm sorry your birth didn't go to plan but gald you are both ok now 
