Labor & Birth Story

At 4am Tuesday morning I woke up while trying to roll over to my other side in bed. This had become quite the task. As I rolled over I felt something leak out of me and I thought maybe it was all in my head. Just in case though I moved a bit to see if I wasn't just hoping that my water broke. Next I grabbed a pad from my purse next to the bed (put there just in case this happened). I slowly waddled to the bathroom and sat on the toilet. Another gush. My water had broken.

I let Jon sleep a bit more as I made sure I had everything ready and called the hospital. I woke Jon up at 4:30 and we ate some cereal and were on our way to the hospital. At the hospital we checked in and got a room. They checked my cervix and I was 4cm dilated and 80% effaced. The nurse checked babies heart beat and it was great and my contractions were 6 minutes apart. Jon and I then started to pace the hall ways trying to walk myself further into labor. It wasn't working too well, my contractions only went up to 5 minutes apart but not horribly strong. They felt like a menstrual cramp. I got a birth ball, it looked like an egg and I didn't like it as much as my yoga ball at home. I couldn't rotate my hips and bounce as nicely on it. A few hours later my contractions were getting stronger and pretty painful. The breathing technique that we learned in class sort of worked, but now well enough. I had to grab the bed handles and it was hurting so bad. My cervix was 5 or 6 cm dilated. I asked for drugs.

The drugs only worked about 45 minutes and they had given me a little bit of the drug to help my labor. The drugs made me feel like I was totally out there. After the 45 minutes went by and the drugs wore off I was brought quickly back to reality and the contractions were killing me. They were menstrual cramps times a bajillion. I just wanted baby to come out and be okay. I then was in major pain and asked for the epidural. Until the epidural was finally put in I was going crazy with contractions. They were about every 4 minutes apart or so. When they put in the epidural they had me hold a pillow and try not to move. It was so hard and I squeezed the life out of that pillow. Once the epidural kicked in I thought to myself, why hadn't I done this earlier. The pain went down to a light cramping.

By then, baby was about to come out. They had me hold my legs close to me and Jon stood on my right side talking to me and encouraging me. It was time to push. Babies head was right there. I only was in stage 3 labor for a half an hour. Babies head was at least half way out and they had me stop pushing and wait for the Dr. I could feel the pressure down there and it was just awkward just having babies head just sitting there. Jon said he just had to look and babies head was almost out and was totally weird. Finally, Dr. Mickelson arrived and the labor went on. I pushed on a few more contractions and baby was out. They immediately placed her on my chest and I held her and couldn't believe I had just given birth and that Jon and I now had a beautiful baby girl! Jon cut the umbilical cord and she was crying. It was great to finally see our baby that I have been toting around for the past 9 months.

The nurse and Jon took her to get her weight and length and check her vitals. I pushed out the placenta, that thing is huge! After Jon returned we got our first family picture.

Adelaide Amelia - born July 26th, 2011 - 7lbs 6oz - 21in long