Thursday, April 5, 2012

Birth Story: Part 1 updated with pictures!



AKA Getting The Party Started

It’s only taken me 4 weeks and 4 days to sit down to write out my birth story. Why has it taken me so long?! Well as you probably can guess, I have been way too occupied right now with our little bundle of joy and with all the emotions flowing after the birth; I didn’t even know where to begin.

So here we are. More than 4 weeks out. Things are starting to get a bit fuzzy but I’ll do my best.

Let’s backtrack a little to February 9th. My Ob informed me that I was 1.5-2 cm dilated and about 30% effaced. That was such a shocker to me. I was nervous that I could go any day. That night, Phillip and I got to work buying things for my hospital bag and putting the finishing touches on my birth plan. The next week there was progress. 75% effaced and 3 cm. I was sure that my baby was going to come early. Like maybe even a whole week early. So when March 1st came and went, then the 2nd I was starting to doubt myself. Obviously he wasn’t coming a week early. Duh. But could it be? Could he possibly be coming late? My due date was March 4th. I DID NOT want to be one of those women. You know, the ones who go a week past their due date? I made a plan and I stuck to it. Lots of walking and... other things. It wasn’t that I was so uncomfortable that the pregnancy just had to end. But I was excited to meet my son and since my Aunt was flying in from New York on a specific date to try to be here for the big event, I didn’t want to disappoint. We had a deadline.
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Morning - Having a tiny contraction in the guest room where my mom and aunt were staying

March 3rd. My mom and Aunt were at my house. I woke up kind of on the early side. I had some signs of labor being close. Bloody show, etc. I decided to watch The Business of Being Born for like the one hundredth time. I wanted to go natural and I felt like every time I watched that documentary I was given the confidence boost I needed. Around 9 or so my mom and aunt were up and about to start getting ready when I told my mom, “I’m going into labor today. I just feel it.” That day we went to eat breakfast at Cracker barrel where I had mild contractions that seemed to be regular.

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How slick am I with that star? haha

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I meant BUSINESS!

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Just posing for pics... My aunts idea
We then moved on to Marshalls to shop and walk. I wanted to walk. I wanted to have that baby, remember? While at Marshalls I started to get very tired and a bit swollen so after a pit stop to get some amazing home-made ice cream we headed home. We started to watch Baby Mama. Love that movie. And again, keeping with the theme. During the movie I got super tired. Like SUPER tired. I fell asleep. In the middle of the day. Very Unlike me. But I decided that I needed to listen to my body if I wanted to have a smooth labor. So listen I did. I took a nap with the hubster. Did I mention that the contractions had completely stopped by this point? I was disappointed to say the least but at the same time I had some bleeding for what was the second time that day and  recalled what my doctor said that morning over the phone, “this normally means there is a change in the cervix”. I knew my body was getting ready to start something real and it was my job to just let it.

By evening my mom and aunt went to eat while I stayed home. I was too tired and not hungry enough. I forced myself to eat a banana just in case I needed the energy but other than that, I could not eat. I woke my husband up and said, “We need to vacuum the car. And I need to walk”. So off we went. Vacuumed the car (like a mad woman, might I add) and walked near the restaurant in downtown where they were eating. They met up with us to walk. After about an hour it was getting pretty late and the weather was pretty muggy so I had a genius idea. LET’S GO TO WALMART! We could walk about freely, in an air conditioned and well lit space and stick with my plan of getting labor started. I believe it was around ten at night. We bought items to make virgin pina coladas, to do pedicures and to snack. It was going to be a fun night. Right? Indeed.

Around 11:00 pm as we were finishing up at wally world I felt what I thought was a contraction. About 5 seconds into it I knew, it was definitely a contraction. My husband asked if I needed to stop and my response was, “NO! I need to keep walking. I want them to hurt because that means IT’S REAL.”. Five minutes later – another one. After checking out – another one. They were strong enough for me to be able to get a few words out during it but have me hunched over with my hands on my knees at the same time. Everyone was staring at me. It was like everyone there but me knew, this chic was in labor.

Part of my birth plan was for me to labor at home as long as possible, so we went home. The idea was that we would still make the pina coladas, do pedicures and eat frosted flakes… the works. When I got home I noticed some more bleeding. I told Phillip I wanted to go to the hospital just to make sure everything was ok. He was very supportive and calm. He informed my mom and aunt of this while I took a quick shower. While in the shower I had four pretty strong contractions back to back. I knew things were moving along but I started to convince myself that since it was my first baby and since I do not want nurses pressuring me to get induced I would wait it out at home. This could go on for 12 hours or even more! As soon as I got out of the shower I told my husband we were going to stay home when he said, “Your mom and Millie are at the door and ready to go. The car is packed. It’s totally up to you though.”. I thought for a quick moment while I started to experience another contraction. Once the contraction was over I looked up at my husband and it was like we both just knew. It was time to go.



I got in the car and off we went. Of course I had to take a video on the way to the hospital to document it all. If this was the real deal, I wanted to record the memories.


 Coming soon: Part 2

4 comments:

  1. I can't wait to read the rest! This is my only "plan" for labour, just to do my best to surrender to the pain...however painful

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  2. Oooh, the anticipation of Part 2!!

    Mrs W x

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  3. I can't wait for the rest!

    I so need to watch that movie! :)

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  4. Oh the suspense! I love Baby Mama & the Business of Being Born!

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