Pictures
I had an incredible birth, it was so amazing and happy and downright painful
: but worth it. 
After weeks of prodromal hell, I woke up Thursday morning around 4 and started feeling contractions. They were an average of 3 minutes apart and felt more intense than the ones I'd been having. I called my doula and told her if I was wrong about being in labor, I'd have pizza delivered for her whole family the next day for lunch. She came over and we played with some of her labor tools...a massager, a rebozo sling (I WANT ONE - it was incredible!!!) and other various comfort tools.
My main motivation for going to the hospital was that I didn't want my other 2 kids to wake up while I was still there because (1) my son loves my doula and I know he'd be upset to see her leave, (2) I thought it would bother them to see me in pain, and (3) I didn't want them to be really needy for my attention when I couldn't give it to them. We arrived at the hospital at 8-ish and were bombarded by questions about the freaking HEP lock..."are you SURE you don't want it? you DO realize the risks involved, right? ....you're SURE???" However, after that initial nuisance, I essentially had a homebirth at the hospital. The nurses were incredible and my doctors...I can't say enough wonderful things about them. They let me do my thing and did not EVER question me or my wants. Everyone had read my birth plan and agreed with everything, to the letter. It was great.
This labor was the first that had me feeling discouraged. After weeks of prodromal labor and hardly any sleep, I was physically and emotionally drained. I started doubting my abilities way before I hit transition, which made the labor seem longer than it really was. My doula and husband were awesome and helped encourage me to go on. It also helped that the nurses and doctors were praising me at every second. One of my doctors kept saying she wished she could videotape my labor, and show it to expectant moms and say "this is what it's supposed to be like!" That was a huge compliment to me and stuff like that really kept me going. Plus, my doctor is 14wks pregnant and said she was learning so much from me - that was music to my ears.
When I started feeling downward pressure I got a pelvic exam. I was 10cm and effaced, but there was a lip of the cervix that wasn't moving. They tried to move it themselves but it was the most horrifying pain, and I made them stop. I wanted to work through it; on the other hand I was just so tired and wanted it to be over. I was falling asleep on the bed and just wanted the labor to end. During contractions I kept saying "come down, come down" to the baby, hoping and hoping that the lip would go away. I felt like pushing but I later realized it was an emotional, not a physical, urge to push. I got another check and they said the baby was ready to go but for a bulge of water before her head. They asked if I wanted them to break my water and after some deliberation with my staff (husband and doula) I decided to go for it. I was so ready to hold that baby. They broke my water, I stood up on the bed and leaned against the squatting bar, feeling sort of like I was on stage but not caring at all. THEN came the REAL urge to push. It was incredible. I felt like I was waking the dead with the noise I was making but it was helping me to move her down, down, down and out! After maybe 10 minutes of pushing I felt that incredible rush as she was born. Ahhhhh! I looked down to see what I was sure was a little boy, but nope, a girl! I announced her gender and crashed on the bed right away. 
She was handed to me along with some blankets so I could cuddle her up, and she was soooo beautiful. We named her Catherine Alzbeta - Catherine after St. Catherine of Siena and my mother, Alzbeta after my maternal grandmother (it's the Czech form of Elizabeth). So far I think she looks like a perfect combination of my other two kids. She's perfect and my birth was wonderful despite the discouragement. Oh, and I had my own music...she was born during A Sorta Fairytale by Tori Amos, although I had predicted she'd be born during Mother Nature's Son by The Beatles. We were one song away. 
She weighed 9lbs 0.3oz (my biggest yet) and was 19" long. The entire hospital staff was incredible while we were there. We have such a nice cozy hospital, with big rooms and whirlpool tubs. They helped me with every little thing, from changing diapers to getting cranberry juice for me at 3am. One of the nurses asked out of the blue if I was planning to cloth diaper Catherine, and when I said yes she said she loved CDing her son and didn't know why people don't do it more often. They are very pro-breastfeeding...Catherine'a blood sugar started out a little low and the nurses refused to intervene with sugar water or more testing until Catherine had a few hours with me so she could nurse. It was great, definitely my best hospital experience ever. We weren't given any grief about waiving vitamin K and all that other stuff, I was given juice and water and food while I was laboring, and we had visitors at all hours.
I'm happy
I had an incredible birth, it was so amazing and happy and downright painful
: but worth it. After weeks of prodromal hell, I woke up Thursday morning around 4 and started feeling contractions. They were an average of 3 minutes apart and felt more intense than the ones I'd been having. I called my doula and told her if I was wrong about being in labor, I'd have pizza delivered for her whole family the next day for lunch.
She came over and we played with some of her labor tools...a massager, a rebozo sling (I WANT ONE - it was incredible!!!) and other various comfort tools.My main motivation for going to the hospital was that I didn't want my other 2 kids to wake up while I was still there because (1) my son loves my doula and I know he'd be upset to see her leave, (2) I thought it would bother them to see me in pain, and (3) I didn't want them to be really needy for my attention when I couldn't give it to them. We arrived at the hospital at 8-ish and were bombarded by questions about the freaking HEP lock..."are you SURE you don't want it? you DO realize the risks involved, right? ....you're SURE???" However, after that initial nuisance, I essentially had a homebirth at the hospital. The nurses were incredible and my doctors...I can't say enough wonderful things about them. They let me do my thing and did not EVER question me or my wants. Everyone had read my birth plan and agreed with everything, to the letter. It was great.
This labor was the first that had me feeling discouraged. After weeks of prodromal labor and hardly any sleep, I was physically and emotionally drained. I started doubting my abilities way before I hit transition, which made the labor seem longer than it really was. My doula and husband were awesome and helped encourage me to go on. It also helped that the nurses and doctors were praising me at every second. One of my doctors kept saying she wished she could videotape my labor, and show it to expectant moms and say "this is what it's supposed to be like!" That was a huge compliment to me and stuff like that really kept me going. Plus, my doctor is 14wks pregnant and said she was learning so much from me - that was music to my ears.
When I started feeling downward pressure I got a pelvic exam. I was 10cm and effaced, but there was a lip of the cervix that wasn't moving. They tried to move it themselves but it was the most horrifying pain, and I made them stop. I wanted to work through it; on the other hand I was just so tired and wanted it to be over. I was falling asleep on the bed and just wanted the labor to end. During contractions I kept saying "come down, come down" to the baby, hoping and hoping that the lip would go away. I felt like pushing but I later realized it was an emotional, not a physical, urge to push. I got another check and they said the baby was ready to go but for a bulge of water before her head. They asked if I wanted them to break my water and after some deliberation with my staff (husband and doula
) I decided to go for it. I was so ready to hold that baby. They broke my water, I stood up on the bed and leaned against the squatting bar, feeling sort of like I was on stage but not caring at all. THEN came the REAL urge to push. It was incredible. I felt like I was waking the dead with the noise I was making but it was helping me to move her down, down, down and out! After maybe 10 minutes of pushing I felt that incredible rush as she was born. Ahhhhh! I looked down to see what I was sure was a little boy, but nope, a girl! I announced her gender and crashed on the bed right away. She was handed to me along with some blankets so I could cuddle her up, and she was soooo beautiful. We named her Catherine Alzbeta - Catherine after St. Catherine of Siena and my mother, Alzbeta after my maternal grandmother (it's the Czech form of Elizabeth). So far I think she looks like a perfect combination of my other two kids. She's perfect and my birth was wonderful despite the discouragement. Oh, and I had my own music...she was born during A Sorta Fairytale by Tori Amos, although I had predicted she'd be born during Mother Nature's Son by The Beatles. We were one song away. She weighed 9lbs 0.3oz (my biggest yet) and was 19" long. The entire hospital staff was incredible while we were there. We have such a nice cozy hospital, with big rooms and whirlpool tubs. They helped me with every little thing, from changing diapers to getting cranberry juice for me at 3am. One of the nurses asked out of the blue if I was planning to cloth diaper Catherine, and when I said yes she said she loved CDing her son and didn't know why people don't do it more often.
They are very pro-breastfeeding...Catherine'a blood sugar started out a little low and the nurses refused to intervene with sugar water or more testing until Catherine had a few hours with me so she could nurse. It was great, definitely my best hospital experience ever. We weren't given any grief about waiving vitamin K and all that other stuff, I was given juice and water and food while I was laboring, and we had visitors at all hours.I'm happy
: 
: mom who was just sure she was having a boy but had a girl. 
I'm so glad that everything went well, great birth story. 
What a gorgeous little yummikins, lookie those cheeks! Welcome Catherine Alzbeta! 
