Short Story:
Charles Zane (Charlie) arrived on June 29 at 12:20 pm :)
he weighs 9 lbs, 12 oz
is 21 3/4 inches
and has a 14 1/2 inch head
long story:
My water broke at 6 am on Sunday the 28th but I wasnt contracting regularly. I would have a few here and there, a short spell of contx 10 min apart, then nothing. We spent the day cleaning, walking, and preparing for the arrival of our son which we knew would happen anytime in the next 24 hrs.
Contractions started around 10 pm while Brent and I were watching a movie. I headed to bed and hoped that they would hurry up:) They were about 10 minutes apart until 12:30, which is when I finally couldn't ignore them. I got out of bed but let DH stay asleep, knowing he would need as much as he could get. I spent time on the birthing ball, in and out of the hottub, and trying to relax downstairs by listening to music in the dark.
Around 3:40am when the contx. were about 4 minutes apart and lasting a minute I called my midwife (Sue).. I had just gotten out of the hottub and I had three contractions in 6 minutes that were very intense and was worried that the baby was goign to make a sudden appearance (lots of pressure as well). I didn't know that it sometimes happens like that after getting out of the tub. whoops:)
I had contx. about 4 minutes apart that were quite intense but after maybe 30 minutes of her being here they almost completely stopped
Brent and I walked, spent some time in the hottub, walked, walked, walked and nothing. Finally around 6 am we decided to lay down and rest, hoping to wake up to more contractions.
Sue left round 7:30 am with instructions to take castor oil whenever I was feeling up to it and to call her again when we thought we needed her.. we took the castor oil right after that and contractions started to increase around 10:00. they were one after another to where I could barely walk from one room to the next w/o having a contx. very quickly from when they started up again. ((well, I was still having them this whole time but only about 10-12 min. apart and not as intense)). They felt like they went from 0 to 60 in a matter of a minute or two.
I decided that I wanted to move the birth to our bedroom, since it was now daylight, I was concerned about someone showing up unexpectedly. We went upstairs (it took quite a while because I had to stop 3-4 times on the stairs for the contractions. ))
I told Brent we should wait to call Sue in about 20-30 minutes but then I had very, very, strong contractions with a lot of pressure one and ahalf minutes long and right after another, so we couldn't time between.
I had brent call Sue immediately. And she didnt answer her phone. Brent called her again and she was about 20 minutes away at an appointment. I thought she had plenty of time to get there but then the pressure was so intense I had him call her back and tell her NOW.
She was there for about an hour where I was having crazy contractions and was dialated to a 9. I used a birthing ball for most of this phase. Sue had to keep reminding me to relax the tension during a contraction because I kept grabbing onto the blankets and carpet and digging in with my hands/tensing up my forhead and shoulders and was wasting what little energy I had ((remember we're on hour 28 of very little sleep, occasional contractions and thinking birthday thoughts))
I switched over to a birthing stool and had Brent sit on the bed behind me rubbing my lower back. After two or three good contractions I was at a 10 and started pushing. The cord was wrapped around his neck once so I had to stop when his head started coming out which was pretty miserable.. Sue had me give two or three good pushes after that and then had me "breath" him out the rest of the way.. which was very difficult to do.. but it prevented any tearing that might have happened had I tried to force him out. I managed to push out all 9 lbs 12 oz of Charlie without even a tiny tear!
It was wonderful- Sue put him right on my belly and we just layed in bed for about 2 hours staring at him before she weighed or measured him. my official labor time was 30 hours. But active labor was only 2 1/2.
We decided on the name around that time too :) Hannah (dd, who was at my moms) came over about a half hour later and met him and has been completely obsessed since then. He's a wonderful baby! Eats and sleeps, not much else, but he was so alert all day Monday- and at night he was hungry but I think having some belly issues.. hadn't filled a dipaer yet and was very gassy..
Here are a few pictures.. we really didn't take very many because we were so involved in the process and didn't have anyone extra around to snap the photos (which was awesome btw.. just being us!)
Both myself and Charlie are doing fantastic. He's eating all the time and sleeping in between. I'm mostly resting but having trouble staying off my feet because I feel so good. My girlie parts feel perfectly normal, since I didn't tear, I haven't had any pain. I'm just waiting for my belly to feel normal again (it feels like my organs are still pretty displaced:) but other than that and some sore muscles, I can't believe I gave birth just a few short days ago!
