Last week I went to my normal 2nd appt for the week and was told that I was officially in "active labor" umm, ok... what does that mean?
There are stages, I had been in early labor for almost 4 weeks (most of which was modified bed rest since I had to take care of the girls, but we didn't want him coming early and being sick) and had finally moved to 4cm [by myself!!] and entered the 2nd stage. This meant little to me since I had been hearing that "the baby could come any day now" for the past few weeks.
Yet this was a small victory for me, each pregnancy I have had trouble with laboring naturally and only
making super slow progress. With both girls this caused health concerns and major problems with Ladybug's pregnancy, and they had to be forced to come out after weeks of my body not figuring out how to move forward.
All weekend we waited, and hoped, and Hubby was never far just in case...
Monday we took the girls to my parents with their bag and left the extra keys to go to my appt, fully expecting DrM to send us to the hospital. Once again checking me caused the contractions to increase, but he sent us home and told us to go to the hospital in the morning if anything changed.
Tuesday morning we went in early after another night of irregular but close contractions that kept me up all night. We all decided to break my water and an hour later to start pitocin to help him come out.
The nurse looked at my chart, my history, and my "Birth Plan" wishlist and told us how amazed that I had had such a quick labor last time using pitocin without an epidural and wanted to do it again after a 9lb baby. I just laughed and said yes. She said she was glad the Birth Plan was only a page, as most "natural" moms like me have so many pages it's hard to remember everything.
I again repeated what I have been telling myself for weeks "it's just a wishlist, the things that I want... but like Christmas you start with a wishlist and at the end of the day you're always happy with what you get, a healthy baby".
She agreed and said that she really thought they could do everything, and mentioned some extra things, like me going with him to the nursery, that she would try to help us get that I didn't know were possible in the hospital!
They started the pitocin and DrM let me stay on the birthing ball as long as I stayed on the monitors and let them know when I felt I needed to be checked again. A few hours later, DrM came in to check my progress since the contractions were getting much more intense (requiring me to move and get into bed), said I was 6cm and he wouldn't be far, joking that it had been 3 hours - a long labor for me, lol.
The next 15 minutes are kind of a blur. I got back on the ball and almost immediatly I needed to get in bed to get on my hands and knees, I felt the baby move around and down, my body was pushing and could barely get out the words "pushing.... Doctor.... PUSH!!!!" He walked in, and another check during which the contraction sent me from 7cm to 8cm, a few more contractions and I was a solid 10cm. Then he actually let me turn back around to my hands and knees! I tried to get away from the pain, but my body had already taken over. With my husband's arms around me, I reached down, half wanting to keep the baby in to stop the pain but I knew it was time, and I felt his head slide out. What felt like many long minutes later, but just one contraction and my one push for his shoulders and I actually felt my baby come out and slide down my hand! It was the most amazing feeling ever!
Just a short 15 minutes from 6cm to the birth of our baby boy, with only one real push from me.
The cord was fairly short, so they had to cut it to move him so I could turn around to hold him, but they asked before cutting!! Then I was able to hold him for a few minutes before giving him to my husband for them to suction him better while I tried to push out the placenta... which took almost 1/2 an hour and me finally turning back to my hands and knees before it would come out.
Then they helped me up to go to the bathroom and changed my bedding real quick and we were left alone for an hour to just hold, snuggle and name our new little boy; "Tweetle Beetle". They came in an hour later to check my vitals and asked if I was ready to go to my room, offering me the chance to go with him and my husband to the nursery.
We both went to see our little boy weighed and measured and checked over, no bath and then we went to the recovery room. My parents brought our daughters to come meet their little brother and we were amazed at how quickly both girls took to him. They were sad to leave but being with Grandpa & Grandma made it easier, and we promised they could come back the next day.
A crazy night with Tornado watches & warnings, with nurses coming in to check vitals and give us updates on the storm, the only one that got sleep was the baby!! The next morning they told us that we were both doing very well and asked if we wanted to do the circumcision that morning and try to leave that evening. Of course we said yes, so Hubby went with Tweetle Beetle and was able to stay with him and love on him and bring him back very quickly.
We got some help from an Lactation Consultant, took showers ourselves, and walked around a bit before the girls came to visit again. We got the ok to leave after his PKU test at 24 hours old on the condition of seeing our pediatrician the next day so we made that appt.
Our first night home, I enjoyed sleeping for a solid hour or a bit more between feedings... it had been months!
We wanted 4 children, and while Tweetle came a couple years sooner than we originally thought, we are very happy that I am done being pregnant. Now we get to move on to just raising our kids and no longer growing our family. For us, especially me, I am so thankful and grateful that God gave us such a wonderful birth experience as our last one to look back on. I truly couldn't have asked for anything better.
All this time, I thought I wanted a waterbirth, I even thought I had wanted a homebirth, now I realize all I wanted was a birth where I felt in control of myself… it really does make a world of difference.
So hello family of 6, and already so many wonderful memories are being made! After only a week!!
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