Well, Miss Kat will be five months old on Sunday, which of course doesn't seem possible. But I realized that I never shared my birth story.
On Sunday May 19th my wonderful husband and I were sitting watching tv. (A Firefly marathon to be exact, which is funny because when we were just friends many years ago, I introduced him to the series.) anyway at about 12:30 I started to feel mild cramps, as I waited and watched for an hour, I realized they were 5 minutes apart consistently. After an hour of quietly observing this I told my husband. And we started timing tracking in earnest.
As a first time mom, I had been told to go to the hospital when my contractions were five minutes apart for 2 hours. Which they had been but were still really mild. We decided to call the nurse on duty at my mid wife's office and see what she suggested. She asked when my last appointment was and how effaced/dilated I was at that time. I told her what my midwife had told me and she told me to go in as the worst that would happen is they would check me and send me home (not true the worst that could happen is they could make me walk around for six hours to progress labor then decide it wasn't progressing fast enough, THEN send me home. Did I mention how painful standing/walking became in my last two weeks of pregnancy? I was later diagnosed with SPD, Symphysis pubis dysfunction, which explains why I was in so much pain.) we were brought up to triage immediately when they found out I was 38weeks 5days and having contractions. They kept us walking and monitored until about 11:30 at night and then sent us home. They tried to offer me "something for the pain" so I could get some sleep but part of why I wanted to have natural child birth is so my daughter's system didn't get junked up before she even took a breath so I said no. I cried that they were sending me home after progressing my labor to where I was now in pain. We drove the half hour home from the hospital each bump in the road making me wince or moan, I climbed the stairs to our apartment mad lay on the daybed in our living room my pelvis so sore from all the walking that the thought of getting undressed made me weak. I lay there for an hour until the contractions got too bad, I was moaning through them my crappy downstairs neighbors actually banged on the ceiling to complain about the noise. (As I type this they are apparently having a huge bash in front of their apartment as they do almost every Friday night and have woken Miss Kat on more than one ocassion so I really don't feel too badly) I couldn't take it anymore and told my hubby to take me back. By the time we got there and they examined me they said I had progressed enough to be admitted i.e.this time we wouldn't be leaving without baby in the car seat.
They wheeled me to the L&D room with the tub. After the nurse took my vitals etc my midwife came in and we started to fill the tub for me to labor in, because of my BMI I wouldn't be allowed to deliver in the tub but I could labor in there to a point. Upon entering the tub, everything changed, my pelvic pain went away, back pain eased and my poor swollen ankles didn't hurt anymore all that hurt were the contractions and I still had about five minutes between each...I think. We had stopped counting as it was the intensity which was changing. So I was in the tub at about 4:30am I would say and just waiting for progression. At about 6:30 I told the nurse I wanted to be checked and she got the midwife who after checking and seeing meager progress recommended we break my waters. This she said would make it progress but would also make it much more "intense". I wasn't sure what to do so my husband and I looked to her for guidance, she said faster would be better at this point. (She knew my desires for as few interventions as possible and had been guiding us on that path since we had come in earlier in the day.) we agreed and they broke my bag of waters at about 7am by 7:30 I felt the urge to push. I told the nurse at the peak of one of my contractions that I wanted to push, they had already sent for a midwife to check me again as the contractions had become much more intense, I expected her to tell me to wait until I had been examined as pushing prematurely can do more harm than good but she smiled at me and told me "then push sweetie, your body knows what it's doing" I almost cried, I just got ready typing it.
So I started pushing at 7:30ishAM on May 20th. An hour later my midwife had to leave as her shift had ended an hour before, the new midwife suggested changing positions and going potty to help me get things going further. By 9:15 they could see the head but it kept disappearing. I was worried all this banging against the pubic bone etc was getting to be too much for my co laborer but Miss Kat's heartbeat was still strong and steady, finally I refused to stop pushing until she crowned, then that hurt so badly (they call it a "ring of fire" for a reason, that I pushed harder still and she was here! They placed her greyish little body on me and she looked at me and started to let out a wail. I looked into her amazing little face and started to sing the lulaby I had started singing to her in the womb. Once she recognized that it was like she knew me, and everything was okay. She latched just a tiny bit before they gave her to James so I could be stitched up. I barely noticed delivering the placenta. After James went out to fill his mom, brother, and brother's girlfriend in on how things were progressing they bathed her and did all the tests etc. I kept staring at my beautiful little girl. I kept telling her how proud I was of her and what a wonderful job she did. I mean labor is hard from our perspective but imagine it from theirs and she didn't have a bunch of people there helping her.
We finally got a room and the family that were there could come in to see her, they all held and loved on her until she needed to eat again which in the early days was A LOT. The hospital kept us for 48 hours as her jaundice rating was pretty high. I was hoping when my milk came in it would clear it up. (And it did)
She was born at 9:33AM on May 20th 2013 weighing 8lbs 10oz and 20 1/2 inches long.
Looking back five months later and at about 15lbs and 24 inches and she still seems so tiny to me but also still just as amazing.
Next time we will discuss the never ending teething which we have been experiencing for over a month now.
Ciao for now~
marymontmama
