It's hard to believe that just two weeks ago we were anxiously awaiting the birth of our baby boy. Those last few weeks were definitely the hardest because we were just so ready for him to be here, but he came exactly when he was ready which turned out to be Thursday, March 8th at 11:41pm.
I wrote in my last post that I would be trying anything and everything to jump start labor, and I can honestly say I did try it all. From special tea that was supposed to "ripen my cervix", walking, spicy foods, eggplant parmesan, sex, and even caster oil (this one I can recommend NEVER trying. Not a good experience!), nothing worked! I was getting so frustrated and started to believe that this baby was never going to come out! So two Wednesdays ago, by my request my midwife decided to help me aid the process a long by stripping my membrane, which is supposed to help release the hormones that start labor. She let me know that she didn't know if it would work but if it did, it would be in the next 1-3 days. I went home from that appointment excited about the possibility that labor might actually start soon.
The next morning I awoke a little crampy but with no significant contractions. I took Sebastian to the park and then met Shad for lunch at a Mexican restaurant. I told him I definitely didn't think it was going to happen today and went home to get some housework done. A couple of hours later, I started having some pretty uncomfortable contractions that seemed to be coming pretty regularly. After timing them, I figured they were coming about every 15 minutes. I didn't want to get my hopes up that I was definitely in labor so I continued to get stuff done around the house and then sat down to watch some TV and rest for a while. An hour later, they were coming about every 8 minutes a part consistently so I called Shad, my mom, and Shad's mom and let them know that we may be going to the hospital that night. Shad's mom came over to take the kids back to her place, and I went on a walk to try to speed up the labor.
Around 7:30pm, my contractions were coming every 4-6mins a part so we decided it was time to head to the hospital. The L&D floor at the hospital was completely packed so they actually didn't have a room for us right away. I guess everyone decided to have babies on March 8th! Anyways, we did end up getting a room but in their antepartum suit, not in an L&D room. My midwife arrived to check how far along I was and let me know I was 3cm dilated. 3cm??!! Really? I was not very excited about my lack of progress. She told us to go walk around the unit for an hour and come back to see if that helped. So we started walking, and pretty much as soon as we did, I started REALLY feeling those contractions. They were coming every 1-2mins and man they hurt! After 45 minutes I had had enough!
We went back to our room, and I continued to have very close together, painful contractions. I tried the birthing ball, which helped some, but after a while I decided I needed to lie down. My midwife finally agreed to check me again, and we discovered I was 8cm dilated. So I went from 3 to 8cm in about an hour and a half!
The last 2 cm were absolutely the worst. I have no way of describing the pain because I can honestly say there was nothing like it. It only took about 20 minutes but it felt like forever to go to 10cm dilated. I was having some major nausea as well, so in the midst of mind-blowing painful contractions, I had to get an IV placed so I could get some Phenergan. Towards the end I was begging to push, and wouldn't you know 3 pushes later and Zeke was born! He was 7lbs, 2oz, which I was very grateful for considering we were being told he was going to be at least 8.5 lbs. I can't imagine!
So now that I've experienced both a natural delivery and epidural-assisted delivery, I've had many people ask me which I would prefer. The truth is, I can't say I prefer one over the other. They were very different birthing experiences and they both had positives and negatives. With the epidural I felt that I could rest a lot more during labor so I wasn't very tired after the birth; where as after this delivery I was absolutely exhausted on every level. Then again, my labors with the epidural were about 10 hours after I got to the hospital, where my natural delivery only lasted about 2 hours from when we reached the hospital. I also felt like my body bounced back a lot quicker this time. I was able to walk around pretty much immediately after the birth. Oh and there wasn't the scary-I-might-die, loss-of-consciousness moment that I experienced with the epidural so hey, that's a plus!
I'm so grateful that it's over and now we our sweet little Zeke with us. He is such an angel, and I will be sharing much more about how we are both doing in the future. But for now, I think I've written enough!
I wrote in my last post that I would be trying anything and everything to jump start labor, and I can honestly say I did try it all. From special tea that was supposed to "ripen my cervix", walking, spicy foods, eggplant parmesan, sex, and even caster oil (this one I can recommend NEVER trying. Not a good experience!), nothing worked! I was getting so frustrated and started to believe that this baby was never going to come out! So two Wednesdays ago, by my request my midwife decided to help me aid the process a long by stripping my membrane, which is supposed to help release the hormones that start labor. She let me know that she didn't know if it would work but if it did, it would be in the next 1-3 days. I went home from that appointment excited about the possibility that labor might actually start soon.
The next morning I awoke a little crampy but with no significant contractions. I took Sebastian to the park and then met Shad for lunch at a Mexican restaurant. I told him I definitely didn't think it was going to happen today and went home to get some housework done. A couple of hours later, I started having some pretty uncomfortable contractions that seemed to be coming pretty regularly. After timing them, I figured they were coming about every 15 minutes. I didn't want to get my hopes up that I was definitely in labor so I continued to get stuff done around the house and then sat down to watch some TV and rest for a while. An hour later, they were coming about every 8 minutes a part consistently so I called Shad, my mom, and Shad's mom and let them know that we may be going to the hospital that night. Shad's mom came over to take the kids back to her place, and I went on a walk to try to speed up the labor.
Around 7:30pm, my contractions were coming every 4-6mins a part so we decided it was time to head to the hospital. The L&D floor at the hospital was completely packed so they actually didn't have a room for us right away. I guess everyone decided to have babies on March 8th! Anyways, we did end up getting a room but in their antepartum suit, not in an L&D room. My midwife arrived to check how far along I was and let me know I was 3cm dilated. 3cm??!! Really? I was not very excited about my lack of progress. She told us to go walk around the unit for an hour and come back to see if that helped. So we started walking, and pretty much as soon as we did, I started REALLY feeling those contractions. They were coming every 1-2mins and man they hurt! After 45 minutes I had had enough!
We went back to our room, and I continued to have very close together, painful contractions. I tried the birthing ball, which helped some, but after a while I decided I needed to lie down. My midwife finally agreed to check me again, and we discovered I was 8cm dilated. So I went from 3 to 8cm in about an hour and a half!
The last 2 cm were absolutely the worst. I have no way of describing the pain because I can honestly say there was nothing like it. It only took about 20 minutes but it felt like forever to go to 10cm dilated. I was having some major nausea as well, so in the midst of mind-blowing painful contractions, I had to get an IV placed so I could get some Phenergan. Towards the end I was begging to push, and wouldn't you know 3 pushes later and Zeke was born! He was 7lbs, 2oz, which I was very grateful for considering we were being told he was going to be at least 8.5 lbs. I can't imagine!
So now that I've experienced both a natural delivery and epidural-assisted delivery, I've had many people ask me which I would prefer. The truth is, I can't say I prefer one over the other. They were very different birthing experiences and they both had positives and negatives. With the epidural I felt that I could rest a lot more during labor so I wasn't very tired after the birth; where as after this delivery I was absolutely exhausted on every level. Then again, my labors with the epidural were about 10 hours after I got to the hospital, where my natural delivery only lasted about 2 hours from when we reached the hospital. I also felt like my body bounced back a lot quicker this time. I was able to walk around pretty much immediately after the birth. Oh and there wasn't the scary-I-might-die, loss-of-consciousness moment that I experienced with the epidural so hey, that's a plus!
I'm so grateful that it's over and now we our sweet little Zeke with us. He is such an angel, and I will be sharing much more about how we are both doing in the future. But for now, I think I've written enough!
