First I would like to make a note about the birth of ds1. It was a medicated hospital birth. I was admitted, hooked up to an IV and monitor, checked and left alone with dh until they came in and told me if I didn't get the epi at 4-5cm, I would not be able to get one at all. Dh was so distraught about the pain of the contractions (which were pretty close and strong for only being about 4-5cm) that he managed to talk me into having the epi. Once I got that the OB broke my water then I apparently was not progressing fast enough so pitocin was administered. So, in other words the birth of ds1 was one intervintion after another. I thought I was ok with his birth because I had a vaginal birth with a minor tear (3 stitches) and was happy to not have had a surgical interviention. (But realized I was not happy about it after my birth experience with Ashton.) I did develop a condition called Idiopathic Brachial Neuritis. It is a rare condition which can develop (neurologists are not sure what the actual cause is) when the body has been through something traumatic like birth, surgery, or extensive physical exercise. I woke up on our last morning in the hospital with a nagging pain in my right arm. It felt as if I slept on it terrible wrong. I took some motrin hoping it would help but it only got worse. The pain continued to get worse no matter what I took to help it go away. It radiated through my upper back and down into my left arm. A couple of days later (totally sleep deprived from the pain) I told dh at 3am in the morning that I couldn't take it anymore and went to the ER. They did all sorts of tests and tried to tell me I had Pre-E. I still am not sure where they got that from because I never had any problems during my pregnancy. They gave me some morphine but even that did not take the pain away. The pain level was a 10 for sure. By that afternoon, my arm was useless. It was basically paralyzed. It was drawing in and I could not lift it for anything. This had to be the worst experience of my life. I couldn't believe I had basically lost use of my right arm and was transitioning to motherhood with a newborn. It turns out I had developed IBN and luckily, I found a neurologist who was familiar with the condition. It is quite rare. He was able to give me some meds which finally put a relief to my pain (I had the pain for 3 weeks). By 6 months I was finally regaining use of my arm. So, there is some previous birthing history. 
Ashton's Birth Story:
When I found out I was pregnant with Ashton, I was thrilled. I had mourned (in that I missed being pregnant and feeling him in my womb) my pregnancy w/ ds1 and looked forward to experiencing it again one day. However, it was an unexpected surprise (but exciting). I already knew I did NOT want another medicalized birth. I attributed my problems to not being able to listen to my body tell me when to push because of being detached by the epidural. I assumed I pushed too much and caused the nerve damage. After thinking it over, I decided (against dh's wishes) I would go with a CNM midwife. I met with a midwife a good friend recommended and was very satisfied with her views on birth. My pregnancy was very similar to my first pregnancy. It was smooth and uneventful (thankfully). I really enjoyed and relished it. I was due on April 30th. However, my EDD came and went with nothing more than the usual BH I had been having for the previous 3 weeks. It continued that way for another week and a half. This is when people began pressuring me to be induced. It became frustrating. I had one friend who was supportive of me and sent me some soothing info on why NOT to get induced.
Anyway, I had a midwife visit on Tues May 8th to check the baby and make sure he was doing well. I had dh go with me to the visit. On the way there I noticed some mild contractions but I didn't say anything because I wasn't sure if anything would come of them. Then once in the midwife office, I was hooked up to the monitor to check the baby, the contractions showed up in regular intervals, although mild. My midwife seemed to think this was the begining of labor and urged us to stay in town (we lived an hour away) and walk to help increase them and bring the baby down. Well, after having a late lunch and walking around the park for a couple of hours, nothing seemed to be increasing except bloody show. So, after much thinking we decided to go to the hospital just to see if there was any progression because we were not really sure what to do at that point since we didn't live too close. The midwife who checked me clairified that there was no change since my visit earlier. However, she said we could stay overnight in case I did go into active labor. This was more too soothe dh because he was concerned about me having the baby in the car (he is paranoid by nature - always has been). Finally around midnight, I had it. My contractions nearly stopped and I was tired. I couldn't sleep and I wanted to be in my bed. So we went home eventhough dh thought it was a bad idea.
I got some good sleep and a contraction woke me up around 8 am or maybe a little after 8. I just kind of ignored it until I got another one about 10 mins later. These seemed stronger than the ones the day before. However, I didn't mention it to dh because I wanted to stay at home for a while and I knew he would be anxious and wanting to leave. So, he went to mow some lawns. My contractions continued to increase in intensity and become closer together. Around 10 am , I called the midwife office to let them know I was in labor. The wanted me to come to the office to be checked. So, I called dh around 10:30 or 11 to tell him it was time to come home that I was labor. I walked around outside for a bit the went inside and took a long warm shower. It was very soothing as the contractions were definately stronger and required some concentration and breathing at this point. We arrived at the midwives office around 12pm and I had to stop walking during contractions to breathe through them. My midwife was out so a different one checked me. She said I was GOOD 5cm and suggested we either go home (which at this point was NOT an option)or go to lunch and for a walk. She said if I wanted a non medicated birth, I should wait to go the hospital. However, the contractions were pretty intense and all I really wanted was to be somewhere not in public even if it meant a hospital room. I figured the midwife knew better than me a suggested to dh that we go to the hospital and then get some fries and just kind of wait it out for a while. However, on our walk to McDonald's, I had to constantly stop and breathe through the contractions. It took us forever to get anywhere. I hated being in public but thought about what the midwife said. Once we got to McDonald's, I was so uncomfortable. I know people could see I was in labor. We didn't eat because I just wanted to be somewhere in private.
So, we checked into the hospital around 2pm and the midwife on call came to check me. I was at 6cm with a bulging bag of waters. She asked if I wanted her to go ahead and break the waters because it was right there and bulging. I didn't know what to do because I know having the waters broken is an intervention but I wanted my labor to go ahead and progress. So, I asked her if she were me what would she do and she said she would go ahead with it. So after the next contraction, I agreed to let her break my waters. This was the only intervention I had. Once she did that, I headed to the shower and labored there. The midwife was excellent with guiding me through each contraction and breathing the baby down. At one point she had me do the "labor dance" swaying my hips side to side and I told her I couldn't do it. She kind of laughed and said "well you are doing it" and then I realized I was doing it eventhough I thought I couldn't. I began to feel pressure in my rectum and thought I needed to use the bathroom but then I couldn't. I still felt lots of pressure.
That is when the midwife wanted to check the baby's hr and me. I was @9cm and it was only 2:40. I am not sure what time I began pushing. As I pushed, I began to think I was not going to be able to push the baby out. I tried to direct all my energy into pushing the baby downward. I screamed a couple of times but the midwife quicky told me that was not where I needed to direct my energy and that helped me to refocus and I finally pushed the baby out. He was born at 3:08pm . I was so exilerated because I could not believe I had done it and I did not tear!! I had my non medicated birth. It wasn't until I had Ashton in my arms that I realized it was over. I was so happy. I forgot to mention he was not born into a bright flourescent lit room. It was nice a dim and a soothing atmosphere, not what you would expect in a hospital. He weighed in at 8lbs 14oz and was 21-1/2" long.
So there it is. A bit longer than I expected
Ashton's Birth Story:
When I found out I was pregnant with Ashton, I was thrilled. I had mourned (in that I missed being pregnant and feeling him in my womb) my pregnancy w/ ds1 and looked forward to experiencing it again one day. However, it was an unexpected surprise (but exciting). I already knew I did NOT want another medicalized birth. I attributed my problems to not being able to listen to my body tell me when to push because of being detached by the epidural. I assumed I pushed too much and caused the nerve damage. After thinking it over, I decided (against dh's wishes) I would go with a CNM midwife. I met with a midwife a good friend recommended and was very satisfied with her views on birth. My pregnancy was very similar to my first pregnancy. It was smooth and uneventful (thankfully). I really enjoyed and relished it. I was due on April 30th. However, my EDD came and went with nothing more than the usual BH I had been having for the previous 3 weeks. It continued that way for another week and a half. This is when people began pressuring me to be induced. It became frustrating. I had one friend who was supportive of me and sent me some soothing info on why NOT to get induced.
Anyway, I had a midwife visit on Tues May 8th to check the baby and make sure he was doing well. I had dh go with me to the visit. On the way there I noticed some mild contractions but I didn't say anything because I wasn't sure if anything would come of them. Then once in the midwife office, I was hooked up to the monitor to check the baby, the contractions showed up in regular intervals, although mild. My midwife seemed to think this was the begining of labor and urged us to stay in town (we lived an hour away) and walk to help increase them and bring the baby down. Well, after having a late lunch and walking around the park for a couple of hours, nothing seemed to be increasing except bloody show. So, after much thinking we decided to go to the hospital just to see if there was any progression because we were not really sure what to do at that point since we didn't live too close. The midwife who checked me clairified that there was no change since my visit earlier. However, she said we could stay overnight in case I did go into active labor. This was more too soothe dh because he was concerned about me having the baby in the car (he is paranoid by nature - always has been). Finally around midnight, I had it. My contractions nearly stopped and I was tired. I couldn't sleep and I wanted to be in my bed. So we went home eventhough dh thought it was a bad idea.
I got some good sleep and a contraction woke me up around 8 am or maybe a little after 8. I just kind of ignored it until I got another one about 10 mins later. These seemed stronger than the ones the day before. However, I didn't mention it to dh because I wanted to stay at home for a while and I knew he would be anxious and wanting to leave. So, he went to mow some lawns. My contractions continued to increase in intensity and become closer together. Around 10 am , I called the midwife office to let them know I was in labor. The wanted me to come to the office to be checked. So, I called dh around 10:30 or 11 to tell him it was time to come home that I was labor. I walked around outside for a bit the went inside and took a long warm shower. It was very soothing as the contractions were definately stronger and required some concentration and breathing at this point. We arrived at the midwives office around 12pm and I had to stop walking during contractions to breathe through them. My midwife was out so a different one checked me. She said I was GOOD 5cm and suggested we either go home (which at this point was NOT an option)or go to lunch and for a walk. She said if I wanted a non medicated birth, I should wait to go the hospital. However, the contractions were pretty intense and all I really wanted was to be somewhere not in public even if it meant a hospital room. I figured the midwife knew better than me a suggested to dh that we go to the hospital and then get some fries and just kind of wait it out for a while. However, on our walk to McDonald's, I had to constantly stop and breathe through the contractions. It took us forever to get anywhere. I hated being in public but thought about what the midwife said. Once we got to McDonald's, I was so uncomfortable. I know people could see I was in labor. We didn't eat because I just wanted to be somewhere in private.
So, we checked into the hospital around 2pm and the midwife on call came to check me. I was at 6cm with a bulging bag of waters. She asked if I wanted her to go ahead and break the waters because it was right there and bulging. I didn't know what to do because I know having the waters broken is an intervention but I wanted my labor to go ahead and progress. So, I asked her if she were me what would she do and she said she would go ahead with it. So after the next contraction, I agreed to let her break my waters. This was the only intervention I had. Once she did that, I headed to the shower and labored there. The midwife was excellent with guiding me through each contraction and breathing the baby down. At one point she had me do the "labor dance" swaying my hips side to side and I told her I couldn't do it. She kind of laughed and said "well you are doing it" and then I realized I was doing it eventhough I thought I couldn't. I began to feel pressure in my rectum and thought I needed to use the bathroom but then I couldn't. I still felt lots of pressure.
That is when the midwife wanted to check the baby's hr and me. I was @9cm and it was only 2:40. I am not sure what time I began pushing. As I pushed, I began to think I was not going to be able to push the baby out. I tried to direct all my energy into pushing the baby downward. I screamed a couple of times but the midwife quicky told me that was not where I needed to direct my energy and that helped me to refocus and I finally pushed the baby out. He was born at 3:08pm . I was so exilerated because I could not believe I had done it and I did not tear!! I had my non medicated birth. It wasn't until I had Ashton in my arms that I realized it was over. I was so happy. I forgot to mention he was not born into a bright flourescent lit room. It was nice a dim and a soothing atmosphere, not what you would expect in a hospital. He weighed in at 8lbs 14oz and was 21-1/2" long.
So there it is. A bit longer than I expected
