Birth Stories

[Devaskyla]

If you've btdt, post your birth story/stories or a link to them.

My UBAC story is here on MDC, but my cesarean story isn't, so here's a link to both of them.

http://www.plus-size-pregnancy.org/BBWBirthStories/bbwvbacstories.htm#Devaskyla's%20Stories

[blessedonce]

Sure I'll post my son's :) Don't be afraid of how rough it was, I have some serious medical issues that make pregnancy and child birth very difficult for me.

Gregory's Birth:
My son Gregory was due December 1, 2005 I do believe. He didn't come until December 12, 2005, I was induced on the 10th of December. My pregnancy had a LOT of complications. I had hypermesis from 6 weeks until I delivered. (btw, Zofran is your friend lol!!!), I was hospitalized once with an obstructed/impacted bowel, I literally didn't go #2 for a month. Then in my 8th month what we THOUGHT was an asthma attack was really heart arrhythmia. So I was on bed rest until I was induced.

When Gregory was induced they tried the tablet they put on your cervix first, it didn't really work. It did get contractions started however. The next day (Sunday) Pitocin was begun, still nothing. So monday came along, I was given 3 options in the morning. They could send me home and wait for a day to see what happened, which they weren't very fond of because of my health issues and because we lived over an hour away. Second option: break my water and see what happened. Third option, C-Section. Now both of our families where there. So the grand total for people that weren't medical staff was:
DH, My mom, my sister, MIL, Step-Mil, FIL, Step-Fil and 2 year old SIL...they stayed the entire time. I wanted the c-section, I was exhausted and just wanted to have my baby. Instead they opted to break my water just to see what happened. So they did, and I can tell you...NEVER AGAIN. Hard labor seemed to come on immediately, plus with the pitocin, it was intense. I was relatively drug free up to that point, just nubane when the tablet was inserted down there. After an hour, I crying and begging for an epidural and I got one. While they were inserting it something went wrong and I threw up then all of a sudden fainted. My heart rate and oxygen level had plummeted and so had Gregory's. The OB was called in and they were debating on a C-section. I came too a few moments later and we decided to wait when our stats came back up. I don't remember much until close to 4:30 pm. They checked me and I was FINALLY 10 cm dilated. I was told NOT to push for awhile because Gregory hadn't dropped yet for some reason. At 5:38 I started pushing, at 5:58 pm Gregory was born :) 8 pounds exactly and I do believe he was exactly 17 inches if I remember correctly.

When my water was broken they noticed meconium in the fluid, so the nicu team had to be there, just in case he had aspirated. They had to scope him and then resuscitate him after they had scoped him. He pinked right up I was told :) I had a lvl 4 tear and almost needed surgery. I was a few cm's away from needing to be surgically sewn up. I didn't get to hold ds first, I was sort of forgotten in the craziness and people swarmed in as soon as his birth was announced. I am planning on a c-section this time because I'm going to have my tubes tied. So perhaps we will get a tad bit more privacy this time around.

I have osteo-arthritis amongst other things, so my knees are already aching pretty badly. I just want some peace this time. I plan on having my ds at the hospital when the baby is born, he'll be 3 by that time, but he won't be in the room when I am in labor and waiting, but I do want him to get a chance to meet his new sibling before the rest of the family does. I want an hour or 2 for them to bond, get some nice peaceful pictures of just us. Then everyone can swarm in LOL!!

~Liz

[baileyandmikey]

My first one I miscarried at about 12 weeks or a little later.

With dd, I had a normal uneventful pregnancy. My water broke at home on March 7th, 2002. I had gone to the dr that day and they told me it didn't look like she'd be coming anytime soon, since I had been at 3 cm for oh about a month. But I went home called everyone and told them she would n't be here any time soon. I went to bed at eleven, and then it happened, that wonderful snapping feeling, like a water balloon popping. I immediately told dh that my water broke, he refused to believe me, but when I stood up, it gushed everywhere and I used EVERY towel in the house. I litterally freaked out because it was my first, we jumped in the car and went straight to the hospital. Upon arriving there, I had no contractions, but they told me i had to have pitocin to get things moving. After an hour my contractions were wicked, and I was in so much pain I thought I would die, I went for the epi, and felt better. My epi wore off right when I needed to deliver her. So... i went with it. But unfortunaetly the dr was doing an emergency c section, and I was told not to push, the pain was unbearable for 30 minutes while we waited for the dr. I started pushing on my own before the dr made it becasue I had to. I couldn't wait. When the mean dr made it in, she immediately cut me.... a HUGE cut, all while my dh was screaming that that was against my wishes. The dr kept saying dd was TOO BIG, but she was only a little over 6 lbs. I hated my birth experience, the dr was mean, and was abusive, she went against my wishes because she was in a hurry, and then she refused to place dd on me after i delivered, they rushed her away for no reason. She did have the cord on her neck twice, but pinked up really well as soon as it was removed. Overall, I was disappointed, but I had dd at like 5:05, so my labor was short and sweet.

With my ds, I had complications galore, spent most of my time driving an hour away to see a high risk dr and having multiple ultra sounds. I had amniotic band syndrome. I had my ultrasound at about 18 weeks, and was told it was a boy... sent home without being told anything else. The dr called me and left a message stating that there was something abnormal on the u/s and to call him asap that night. I came home and flipped out, because I had been excited and called all my family to let them know all was well. I called the dr, and he said that I was being referred the next day to a high risk dr at a big hospital. And told that no matter what, that I should not look up Amniotic Band Syndrome on the computer. Well, of course, I freaked and looked it up. I didn't sleep for days. It was devastating. I went to the high risk dr a few days later, where they told me that there was def. amniotic bands visible, that ds didn't have noticible facial features, and that his kidneys weren't working. WE were devestated. They also noted another sac and told us that it looked like vanishing twin syndrome as well. I was devestated twice over. We were told to return in a week.... when we did, they were able to catch a bit more of my ds facial features, so that was amazing, with amniotic band syndrome, parts of the body are litterally sliced off by the bands, it is very scary... So anyways the dr kept giving me the option to abort, which we refused all the time, he kept saying, are you sure you could live with a child who only has one arm, or part of his nose??? It was sad, but we said, that no matter what, he would be ours and we were going to go full term and deliver him. Eventually, a few u/s later they were able to see that his kidneys were working, and things were looking up.
the day of dd's birthday march 8th, I had an apt, i was due the 14th, but the dr said, "looks like he will be about 13 pds." i was huge and miserable really, and then he said that I wasn't going to be having him anytime soon. I went home and cried... then the dr called and said that if i was upset, he could induce me in the morning. I cried again, and told him i would call him back with my decision. I know no one here believes in induction, but when you go thru nine mnths of hell not knowing if your baby will be perfect or come out mutilated, i just had to know he was ok. I called all our family and friends for opionions, but in the end, opted for the induction. On March the ninth, I showed up at the hospital at 6 in the am. I was induced at 8am and had him by noon. I had issues with the epi again, my heart rate plumeted and so dd ds, I passed out, and ended up having the epidural removed. :( So, once again, I dealt with the pain as I delivered him. He was not 13 lbs, but a beautiful 8 pds 14 oz. He was purple with his cord tight around his neck twice. But the dr laid him on me, and my mom and dh screamed out in Joy, dancing around the room that he had all his fingers, toes, facial features, and he peed all over me! so we all rejoiced, I cried so hard I could barely see him, but I was OVERJOYED!!!!!!!!! He was fat and perfect in everyway!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I also told the dr to let me tear and to not cut me, which he listened, I didn't tear at all amazingly and everything seemed perfect. I was pleased to say the least!~

[Hollin]

I had a great hospital birth with my son. No meds or interventions (well, I had a little oxygen at one point). It was an extremely fast, intense labor. I went into labor around 8:15 and he was born at 12:30. I had had all these plans of listening to music and doing yoga and bouncing on the birth ball but in reality the contractions were one on top of another so there wasn't much I could do but turn inward and try to get through it. I had my husband, my mom, and my wonderful doula there and I'm so grateful for all of them. Especially the doula b/c I felt like we could all relax with her there and my mom and husband were able to step out and get some air when they needed to.

It took about 30 minutes to push him out and he was so tiny and blue with a head of black hair. I was so happy to see him I tried to pull him up to get a better look at him but of course I couldn't b/c the cord was still attached. Finally the placenta came out and he pinked up a bit and I got to examine my little guy a bit more. He was so tired he didn't want to nurse for a while so we just held him. After about 90 minutes he finally did for a while and after that we cut the cord and weighed him. 6 lb 2 oz. It was such a happy day. I hope my next birth can be as wonderful.

[bc1995]

I'll do a few condensed ones....

Ds#1- I was induced at 41 weeks due to PIH. The headaches and fatigue had become unbareable. They started pictocin around 1PM on that Sunday. By 4:00 I was really uncomfortable. I had a shot of Nubain around 5PM, and then another at 7 when my OB came in to check and I was still just 6 cm. He told dh is was going to be a while so he was heading home. They had to call him on his way to come back. I went from 6 to 10cm in less than 20 minutes. I started pushing just after 8PM. We had to try all kinds of different positions. Thankfully pushing actually felt good. I was so relieved after how horrible the pitocin labor had been. I am sure everyone else was glad to finally not have to listen to all the screaming I had been doing for the 3 hours before. :lol Ds1 was born at 10:33 PM on 7-21-02 weighing 6lb 14oz and 20 in long. I had a bio-physical profile u/s done just 5 days before he was born that showed him to be around 8 1/2 lbs, so we were surprised at how small he was. I really feel it was due to the PIH.


Ds#2- I went into labor on my due date. My water started trickling that morning at 9 AM when I got up to urinate. I had an appt later that morning but I did not test postive for amniotic fluid. I was thankful because I really did not want to have to go to the hospital right away. I had to continue to wear a pad that day because if I was in the right position I would continue to slowly leak. My contractions started around noon and slowly picked up as the day went on. I took a long nap, ate dinner, went and walked around a store to try to get things going better, and just had a good time with dh and ds. At around 10 pm things were really starting to get more intense. I nursed ds1 to sleep around midnight and things really picked up then. I started vomiting around 2 AM and that had been an indication of transition last time so we felt like it was time to head to the hospital. We took ds1 to my best friends and got checked in around 6:30. I was at 6-7 cm. I was GBS+ and they really wanted to slow things down to get a round on antibiotics in me. They gave me a shot of something and I slept from around 3:45 until 6:30. Labor pretty much stalled during that time. When I woke up it kicked right back in and I was 10 cm by 7:45 or so. I started pushing around 8 and ds was born at 8:53 on 2-11-04 weighing 8 lb 9 oz and 21 inches. Pushing was much more painful with him due in large part to the horrible position I was having to push in. I had a very horrible labor with him and felt like the OB had just agreed to everything on my birthplan knowing that was not what he would actually be willing to do when the time came. Then we had battles with the peds over me getting to nurse him before they did their 'rountine' 4 hour observation in the nursery. I was the first mom in that hospital to get to keep my baby for almost an hour and nurse. Then to top it off they 'lost' him when they were doing his final tests before we went home. It was a horrible horrible horrible experience.

DD#1- I went into labor with dd just 1 day before I was 42 weeks. Thankfully I had a wonderful understanding midwife who was very patient through it all. The bad thing was that my due date came and went and she left for the holidays. Thankfully so did the OB she worked under. We had been butting heads my entire 3rd trimester due to dd staying breech more often than not and me refusing to do a version when he wanted me to. She did finally turn on her own and stayed head down from around 39 weeks on. It was Dec 26 and my mom had come down to wait with us once again. We took the tree down and as I was taking a large tote of ornaments up the stairs I thought I felt like I was finally having some real contractions. I did not mention it to anyone though because I did not want to get anyones hopes up. Dh and I had just had a big blow up that morning about me not wanting to get induced and him doubting that my body knew what to do. I paid some bills, ironed some clothes, and called my best friend. She finally asked me if I was having contractions. She had noticed I would stop talking and concentrate every 5 minutes or so. They were getting more intense and I decided to go tell dh what was going on. I went and layed down on our bed and talked to dh for a few minutes and told him I just didn't know if I was really ready yet. Then my water broke. This was 1 1/2 hours from the first real contraction. I rushed to the bathroom to get cleaned up and labor hit hard and fast. It was 3:30 in the afternoon. I wanted to stay home and labor as long as possible. Dh and my mom convinced me to at least go to the hospital and labor in the parking lot. My mom could tell I was a lot closer than I was willing to admit to myself. We walking in the hospital at 4PM and talked to my ped's husband (our neighbor) on our way in as he was coming to work (I was puking in the bushes in the meantime). I was 9cm and within 15 minutes was pushing. Dd was born at 4:56 on 12-26-06 weighing 8lb 1 oz and 20 1/2 in. I had the most wonderful substitute OB. He honored all of my birth wishes and even let me pull Kate out. He did not cut the cord until it stopped pulsing, and was so awesome even through the scare of destats dd was giving us due to her rapid decent. My ped was there within 5 minutes of her birth since they had called her when the destats started. She checked out fine and I was able to keep her for the first hour or so before they wanted to check her out. My sons were able to come in and meet her before anyone else and spend a few quiet minutes alone. It was all so wonderful!


This is our last baby. I am really praying that I will finally get to have my homebirth this time. I have concerns since my last labor went so fast and the closest midwife is 2 hours away. I am really trying to have faith it will all work out though.

[Devaskyla]

:bump:

[Devaskyla]

:bump:

[lanielayne]

Here are links to my girls' births. I need to type up the boys but haven't yet.

Maren's Birth (http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=632596&highlight=maren)

Meridian's Birth (http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=610710&highlight=meridian)

[rocknrollmama]

Joshua Homebirth! (04/05/06)

"Birth Stories Ah, where to begin!?

Well, the night before last I was having pretty regular contractions. They were just about six minutes apart, but not really strong enough for me to be convinced that it was *the real thing*. I took a hot bath and headed off to bed - only to be woken up at about 4 am with contractions so hard that I could barely stand them. They were only lasting about 30 seconds each, but since they were still going strong by 9 AM, I decided to give a call to my midwife.

After speaking with her on the phone for about ten minutes, she decided that this was definately labor. She put a team together and then she and her assistant arrived at my house around 11:00 AM. We talked for a little while and then they set up my room for the birth. Things were progressing, but not quickly, so she and her assistant went out to grab some lunch while I walked around and tried to keep things going.

The next few hours were spent just hanging out. At around 8 PM my water broke - and that's when the contractions became really intense! We watched gilmore girls and ate cake while i labored. I waddled around the room trying any position I could to get through them. That kept up until after midnight. Finally, I *swore* I had to poop and I ran into the bathroom. After sitting on the toilet for about five minutes I realized that poop was NOT what was about to come out of me! My midwifes came into the bathroom and I just dropped on my hands and knees on a bath mat. They threw some chuck pads under me.. and VOILA! Joshua Ryan appeared four pushes later. He came out screaming and was immediately passed to me through my legs like a tiny football. It was amazing. Chris and I were immediately in tears!

The midwifes cleaned up the mess, started the laundry, gace Joshua his vitamin K, weighed him, and went on their way. Chris and i snuggled up in our bed with Peanut and cuddled for a while. After that Peanut latched onto my breast like a pro and hasn't stopped since! He is so beautiful. When I look at him all I do is wonder how I have survived these last moths without him.

As far as *I* go, I am feeling great. I only tore a tiny bit and needed one little stitch. Physically, everything else is great... I feel like i could run a marathon. I can honestly say that chosing a home birth was the best possible decision I could have made for our family. It was simple, beautiful, and felt so safe.

Oh well, I am off to cuddle some more with my boys. Thank you all so much for the well wishes!"

[MamaCaveBear]

It's not a happy story, but the link is in my siggy. Here's hoping for a better birth :1praying:

[Rachyl]

WOW! I Loved reading these stories! SO great to read everyone's individual experiences.
My DD's Birth Story.
I went into Labor around 6PM on Sunday, Jan. 16, 2000. My DH at the time and I went home and played games. It was important that I stayed home as long as possible. I remember my contractions being anywhere from 6-10 minutes apart. I slept OK that night, but I did awake with contractions. We awoke that morning and my contractions were around 4-5 minutes apart. I walked around the house and worked on cleaning the nursery again. I finally called my midwife and she asked me to come in and she would be happy to check me out. I was so paranoid about having to go to the hospital and it be too early and I would get stuck there or be sent home.
We went into her office and she asked about what was going on and asked if she could check me out. She checked me and told me I was 5 cm. dilated and I would be having a baby that day. She went ahead and called the Birthing Center to let know I was on my way. We walked in and they asked me if I was the Mommy who was already 5 cm. dilated. The showed me to my room. This was maybe around 10 AM. I remember it being a beautiful warm morning which was very unusual for January.
I was in labor all day until 6PM. I decided to have an epidural because my uterus sits more on my back. So, Savannah literally sat on my spine during my pregnancy and my labor pains were mostly in my back. I have a bad back from a terrible car accident a year prior to my conceiving her and was not fully recovered yet from that.
I started pushing at 6PM and she was born at 6:46PM. As soon as she came out, the midwife flipped her over and shouted out that it was a girl. I cried and grabbed for her. She handed her to me immediately, umbilical cord and all. I remember feeling pure joy, contentment, and love the very second I held her. It was like all was well with the world. I nursed her and she was just so beautiful. We went to bed that night together and woke up with 3 feet of snow on the ground! It was so amazing and she brought the pure white and perfect snow with her.

[G&B'sMama]

The Birth of my first:
Gillian is my first born child. We had a wonderful midwife named Laura. She worked with a women’s health practice and was the only midwife in the practice. We planned to deliver at the hospital, which was only a few blocks from our house. By early August I was pretty uncomfortable, but was determined to patiently wait for labor to begin. Since my blood pressure was high, and I had horrible, pitting edema I was monitored very carefully. Labor day weekend rolled around I was well into week 41, we decided that we would induce labor at 42 weeks. Induction meant that I would be technically under the care of one of the OB’s in the practice, but Wednesday was Laura’s day off and so she would be there to care for me in labor.

I checked into the hospital and was administered Cervadil suppositories. I felt a bit crampy, but couldn’t feel the contractions that appeared on the monitoring strip. I dozed through the night. At 5:00 a.m. the nurse woke me soon I was being pumped full of pitocin. I was also hooked to two monitors and a blood pressure cuff. It felt a bit like being Darth Vader. Still cramps but no contractions. At midday the nurse ruptured my waters- there was some effacement but no dilation. Within half an hour I could definitely feel the contractions. At first they were just strong enough to interrupt what I was doing, then they became stronger and I couldn’t do anything in between except try to relax and work my Bradley techniques. I labored that way for several hours. I felt very hot and thirsty but couldn’t speak to tell anyone. I started to get so very tired that I would fall asleep in between contractions. After 12 hours of pitocin and 6 of it “hard” labor, I was
1 cm dilated. I was very discouraged and lost my focus. I felt like I wanted to just pack up and go home. I started tearing at the wires and crying and said I didn’t want to have the baby anymore I just wanted to go home. The next few hours were very tough, I tensed through the contractions, which were made harder and faster by an increased dose of pitocin. I felt like I was splitting through the middle.

At 10:00 p.m. the OB came in to check on my labor- I hadn’t even met him up to this point and he was supposedly overseeing the induction. He recommended C-section. I wasn’t even 2 cm dialated and had taken on so many liters of fluid. Pitocin is mixed with saline when it is administered. The baby’s heart was showing decelerations with each contraction. I was so very scared, but also so very tired and in so much pain. The anesthesiologist wouldn’t let DH be in the room during the epidural and I was so scared. Afterwards, I instantly fell asleep and they prepped me for the surgery.

Laura then did a wonderful thing. She convinced the OB to let me sleep for an hour and promised she would personally monitor the baby with each contraction. I was ready for surgery and the operating room was prepped for me, so I could be taken at a moments notice. I didn’t know any of this until later, I was blissfully asleep- enjoying my respite from the long hard day. I also didn’t know that the anesthesiologist administered the epidural but didn’t hook it up to the pump- she took the pump into the operating room.

About an hour later I woke up with an odd feeling of pressure. Laura checked me and I was fully dilated. Since the epidural wasn’t hooked up to the pump, the initial anesthesia was starting to gradually wear off and I could feel the urge to push. I was elated! Laura told me to push when I felt pressure and before the doctor came back to check on me, the baby’s head was already well into the birth canal. He was not happy at all, and kept saying “honey, this is a big baby, I hope she doesn’t get stuck”. I kept on pushing and the epidural kept wearing off and I could feel my body again- I could move my legs I felt the ring of fire. I had been pushing for more than 90 minutes. The doctor insisted on an episiotomy and I didn’t argue even though I didn’t want to have one and had stated that in my birth plan.

So at 1:39 a.m. on September 7, 2000, after 32 agonizing hours in the hospital, my beautiful baby girl was born into the world weighing 9 lbs. 13.3 ounces and measuring 21.5 inches. DH cried and I just stared in amazement at this beautiful pink bundle.

For a while I was disappointed the birth experience. It was not natural and not at all what I wanted, but I learned so much from it. I made the best decisions that I could have made with the information I had at the time. I was glad that I avoided the c-section.

The Birth of my Second is Posted here:
http://www.mothering.com/discussions/showthread.php?t=310801

[UCmamaToMany]

I only have 5 birth stories up and I'll just add the links so you can read them at the site. Some are too long to post, LOL

My 6yo's birth story HWBAC (http://www.themoralesfamily.us/masonbirth.htm)
My almost 5 yo's birth story UBAC (http://www.themoralesfamily.us/liambirth.htm)
My 3yo's birth story UWBAC (http://www.themoralesfamily.us/kadenbirth.htm)
My 2yo's birth story UWBAC (http://www.themoralesfamily.us/jaylenbirth.htm)
My 11mo olds birth story UWBAC (http://www.themoralesfamily.us/evanbirth.htm)

[juliema]

Here's Alex's story (http://www.mastbrookfamily.com/alexbirthstory.html)

Here's Nick's.

Nicholas’ Birth Story

The day had gone by without a lot of excitement. I had been noticing increased braxton hicks contractions and some crampiness for the past couple days, but didn't think much of it. Scott had been flying home from San Francisco that evening and had coincidentally tried to get on an earlier flight before all this happened, but it turned out that his flight was delayed because of bad weather in Dallas so he wouldn't get home until around 11:30 despite his efforts.

At approximately 9:00pm on Thursday May 13th my water broke. This was quite a surprise to me as I was almost certain I would make it to my due date. So certain in fact that Scott and I hadn't even packed our bags yet! With Scott's flight having taken off around 8:00pm, I had no way to contact him and let him know what had happened until he got home. I ended up calling my friend Leslie to let her know what had happened and she offered to come over to the house and keep me company while we waited for Scott to arrive. While I was waiting for her to arrive, I called my parents and my friend Camilla to let them know what had happened.

Leslie arrived about 20 minutes later and helped me to pack mine and Scott's bags and then we played a few games of uno to pass the time until Scott got home. He finally arrived around 11:30pm and Leslie left for home wishing us luck. We decided that we would wait until 8:30am the next morning to call the doctors office as we knew we wanted to labor a large part at home before going in. We also wanted to be sure that Dr. New would be there to deliver the baby.

We finally got to bed around midnight when the first contraction started. For the first hour I was able to lay in bed and breathe through them letting Scott sleep. But after an hour it was evident that I was going to be having a lot of back labor, so I woke up scott and asked him to help with some counter pressure. We worked through the contractions with me relaxing in bed and him massaging my lower back for about another hour and a half. By about 3am lying in bed just wasn't working for me anymore so I decided to get up and labor with the contractions. I let scott go back to sleep and for the next 3 hours I worked through them with several different positions.... everything from leaning over the kitchen counter and letting my stomach go limp, to sitting in the rocking chair, to finally my favorite position of getting on my hands and knees and rocking. By about 6am, I decided it was time to take a shower so I spent the next half hour taking a shower and letting the hot water help. By this time Scott was getting up and starting to get ready as well. As soon as Scott got out of the shower and checked on me, he noticed that my contractions were picking up in intensity and frequency so we decided to call the doctor early (7:09 to be exact). They said to come on in and let's have a baby! So we finished getting ready to go and headed out the door. By this time my contractions were about 3 minutes apart and lasting about 60 to 70 seconds long.

We got in the car to head to the hospital around 7:45am. We, of course, got stuck in rush hour Friday morning traffic which made for an exciting drive over to the hospital. I was having strong contractions the entire time so scott turned on the classical music channel to help me get through them.

We finally arrived and Scott immediately helped me up to the labor and delivery ward. Just as the elevator was opening I started to have another contraction so I immediately got out of the elevator, dropped to all fours and started to rock and moan. This definitely woke up the labor and delivery nurses who started yelling for someone to get a wheelchair! I was helped into a wheelchair and immediately taken to a labor and delivery room. I had a wonderful nurse who was with me from start to finish.

As soon as I was in the room she helped me change into a hospital gown and let me get up on the bed on all fours and continue laboring uninterrupted while they hooked up my iv and the external monitoring. I was then checked and found to be 6.5 centimeters! It really motivated me to know that we had made it that far at home. Once everything was set up it was just Scott, the nurse, and me in the room. Scott turned on some soothing music, rubbed my back and encouraged me while the nurse applied a cold wet wash cloth to my forehead and helped remind me to do slow deep breathing. Within an hour and a half I had hit 10cm! What an incredible feeling to know that I made it and it was time to push!

So at this point I turned over on the bed and started to push holding my legs. The nurse instructed me on how to push - she said to take a deep cleansing breath and then push 3 times as hard as I could for a count of 10. Let me tell you, it wasn't hard to push hard at all...it's amazing how strong your uterus contracts when it's trying to push the baby out! It was truly a powerful and amazing feeling that I will never forget. I pushed hard for about an hour and was then checked and told that I was 0 station I couldn't believe it! At this point I turned to Scott and said "we're actually going to do this!" It was such an exciting feeling. I continued to push for another half hour but didn't make any progress. It was at this point that the doctor began to get a bit concerned. He said he wanted me to push for 30 more minutes and then we would need to talk if the baby wasn't delivered. Well, let me tell you, by this point I was tired, losing patience and a bit of my control and just wanted the baby out. I pushed so hard I actually gave myself new stretch marks on the top of my belly! We even tried different positions including squatting which seemed to work the best for me.

It was no use though. 30 minutes went by and the baby hadn't moved at all. It was at this time that the doctor told me that the baby's head was wedged in the pelvis and not coming out. We needed a c-section. This was really devastating to me as we hadn't even thought about having one, but I was so tired and in so much pain at this point that I told the doctor to just do it and get the baby out.

At this point everything became a blur. Nurses and doctors came rushing in the room. They were asking me to sign consent forms and shaving and prepping me for surgery and having Scott put on scrubs. All the time I was having terribly painful contractions and was not able to deal with them properly because of all the distractions so we'll just say things got very loud and scary fast (Scott said some of the noises that came out of my mouth weren't human). I just remember Dr. New running me down to the operating room on the bed as fast as he could. Just as we got in the operating room I started to have another contraction. I was not about to deal with the pain again so I started to push right then and there. The anesthiologist was trying to get me to move to the operating table but I wasn't moving until the contraction was over. Luckily the nurse told him that I was pushing through the pain and had been for two hours so they let me finish the contraction.

Once the contraction was over, I moved over to the operating table and was given the spinal injection. He had to try twice and while he was trying the second time I started to get another contraction. Thank goodness he got it inserted just as it started so it never really got all that bad. Within about 30 seconds my legs were numb and I was laid on the table. Scott came and sat next to me and the operation began.

His head was really stuck! I had one guy putting his full weight on my belly trying to pop him out and let me tell you... I could feel it! Before too long we heard a cry and they said the head was out - Nick was crying before he even got his shoulders out! They then pulled out his shoulders and we heard, "It's a boy!" I can't even explain that moment. My eyes immediately filled up with tears (they're filling up again as I type this). Scott just looked at me, told me he loved me and gave me a kiss with his mask on. And then there he was! They were showing us Nick fresh out crying and squirming. From there Scott went with the nurse and took a bunch of pictures and followed the baby to the nursery while they finished my c-section.

Once I was finished they wheeled me to recovery where I was reunited with Scott and Nick.

I have to say, and I think Scott would agree, that this experience was the most amazing, inspiring, and spiritual we have ever experienced. There are few things more amazing than witnessing your child enter the world. I am really proud of what I accomplished and really proud of Scott's strength and love in helping me achieve it. I have been told by my doctor that I only have a 20% chance of delivering vaginally in the future and I plan on taking advantage of that 20%. While I wasn't able to experience a natural birth and that really saddens me, I have come to realize when I look in Nicholas' eyes that the healthy, happy miracle that arrives from the experience is what's most important. Scott and I are already looking forward to trying it all over again in the new year!

[aja-belly]

http://azurewraps.com/index.php?main_page=page&id=17&chapter=1&language=en my oldest's birth. my daughter is adopted. i've written up several versions of her adoption story, but i'm not entirely comfortable posting them on here for privacy reasons.