Our beautiful son Mounif is here! He was born Sunday, October 12 at 1PM at the Morris Heights Birthing Center in the Bronx, NY. He was born 7 lb 4 oz and is doing great.
I labored with the amazing, loving support of my husband and my best friend for 67 hours. Early labor lasted the better part of 60 hours with contractions coming every 3-15 minutes the whole time. It took me a really long time to dilate. After my water broke at 8AM on the 12th I went from 2 centimeters to 8 in about an hour. Transition was easy compared to 3 days of early labor and pushing was pleasurable. My husband said that I was smiling between pushes all the way through. It was the most incredible experience of my life. I feel so thankful to all the support that I got from my husband and best friend and the midwife who attended my birth (it wasn't the same midwife who I saw for prenatal care because another midwife was on call that night). And although I haven't posted here much this community helped give me the strength I needed to know that I could get through a very difficult early labor. There is no doubt in my mind that I would have ended up sectioned in a hospital.
The birth experience didn't go without problems, however. In short one of the other midwifes who I saw during my 3rd night of labor tried to get me to go to the hospital. It was extremely demoralizing to be in the throws of labor trying to convince a MIDWIFE that the fact that I was having a long early labor was not in and of itself a reason for me to go to the hospital. It was horrible but in the end I think that her doubt in my ability to birth at that point only helped to embolden me and encouraged me to redouble my efforts. My water broke at the shift change when she was leaving, and a new, wonderful midwife came on. My beautiful baby came hollering his way into this world just 5 hours later.
We had some initial problems with breastfeeding-- he wasn't eating! It was terrible. But on day 4 we went to a breastfeeding clinic and got the help we needed. He is eating like crazy with a nipple shield and later in the week we'll go back to work on weaning him off of the shield. He is gaining his weight back and doing really great. If there's one piece of advice that I'd give other mommas on here-- before you give birth think about what you'll do if you need help with breast feeding. Like our lactation consultant said, breastfeeding is natural but it is learned. I thought I'd have no problem. I studied positioning, how to get the right latch, had plenty of milk but my baby just couldn't latch on. And since he couldn't latch on for a few days he got so low on energy that it became a vicious cycle. If we had waited much longer we would have required a higher level of intervention. So we caught it just in time.
Anyways, that's all for now. I just wanted to let you all know about my labor and hope that if you find your self in a long early labor you can draw on my story for support. Although at times the early labor was excruciating, it made active labor, transition, pushing and birth a breeze! Good luck late October mommas!
I labored with the amazing, loving support of my husband and my best friend for 67 hours. Early labor lasted the better part of 60 hours with contractions coming every 3-15 minutes the whole time. It took me a really long time to dilate. After my water broke at 8AM on the 12th I went from 2 centimeters to 8 in about an hour. Transition was easy compared to 3 days of early labor and pushing was pleasurable. My husband said that I was smiling between pushes all the way through. It was the most incredible experience of my life. I feel so thankful to all the support that I got from my husband and best friend and the midwife who attended my birth (it wasn't the same midwife who I saw for prenatal care because another midwife was on call that night). And although I haven't posted here much this community helped give me the strength I needed to know that I could get through a very difficult early labor. There is no doubt in my mind that I would have ended up sectioned in a hospital.
The birth experience didn't go without problems, however. In short one of the other midwifes who I saw during my 3rd night of labor tried to get me to go to the hospital. It was extremely demoralizing to be in the throws of labor trying to convince a MIDWIFE that the fact that I was having a long early labor was not in and of itself a reason for me to go to the hospital. It was horrible but in the end I think that her doubt in my ability to birth at that point only helped to embolden me and encouraged me to redouble my efforts. My water broke at the shift change when she was leaving, and a new, wonderful midwife came on. My beautiful baby came hollering his way into this world just 5 hours later.
We had some initial problems with breastfeeding-- he wasn't eating! It was terrible. But on day 4 we went to a breastfeeding clinic and got the help we needed. He is eating like crazy with a nipple shield and later in the week we'll go back to work on weaning him off of the shield. He is gaining his weight back and doing really great. If there's one piece of advice that I'd give other mommas on here-- before you give birth think about what you'll do if you need help with breast feeding. Like our lactation consultant said, breastfeeding is natural but it is learned. I thought I'd have no problem. I studied positioning, how to get the right latch, had plenty of milk but my baby just couldn't latch on. And since he couldn't latch on for a few days he got so low on energy that it became a vicious cycle. If we had waited much longer we would have required a higher level of intervention. So we caught it just in time.
Anyways, that's all for now. I just wanted to let you all know about my labor and hope that if you find your self in a long early labor you can draw on my story for support. Although at times the early labor was excruciating, it made active labor, transition, pushing and birth a breeze! Good luck late October mommas!
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