Sat, Aug 15 - contractions off and on all day. I just felt so tired and birthy (as my friend, Missi, calls it).
Sunday, August 16 - no real contractions all day. My mom had been coming to stay with me on the weekends since Nathan was working out of town. Evening came, and she didn't want to go home, but I insisted I was fine and that I'd call her if anything happened.
My "due date" wasn't for another week, but I had felt all along baby would show up "early." I put that in quotes because really due dates are estimates, and it bothers me that docs will sometimes use due dates to perform unnecessary c-sections...but moving on. (There are times c-sections are necessary, and that's not what I'm talking about here.) So my mom went home, and I got ready for bed...looking forward to my first week off from work...
...then some contractions. It was about 9:30 or 10 PM. I ignored them for a while. They continued. I got up and ate something, drank some water, took a shower and tried to sleep. Couldn't sleep through them. Ugh. Called my mom around 1. She came over and kept up with the contractions. I called my midwife around 2:30 and asked her if she thought I should call Nathan since it would take him about 6 hours to get here. She said to wait an hour and call him if they didn't stop. I called him. Then I called my friend, Theresa, who is training to be a doula. She came around 5:30 AM, and I was beginning to feel contractions way more. My midwife showed up at 7:30, and at that point the contractions required some real concentration.
Monday, August 17 9:30 AM - Nathan gets here just in time for the contractions to really get to me. And the back labor. It was ALL back labor, and it was getting worse. I mostly held on to and hugged Nathan while Theresa rubbed my back. Finally around noon I was able to get in the water, where I had wanted and planned to give birth. Wow. Some relief. I got to a 9.5 so Rose Marie (midwife) asked if I felt the urge to push. No. I felt the urge to relax. To make a long story short, the water relaxed me too much. I was dilated enough so that it shouldn't have slowed labor, but it did...something that is common, but it slowed way too much so eventually they made me get out.
At that point I was pretty exhausted since I had labored all night so I don't remember a lot. It was almost like an out of body experience, but I could feel EVERY SINGLE BIT of it. They made me squat and sit backwards on the toilet (opens up the pelvis), and at one point I remember telling Nathan, "People die of this. I think I'm dying..." From 12-3 PM I was in the pushing stage, but nothing was happening. Baby wasn't coming out, and it got crazy enough for a bit that they considered taking me to hospital. I'm glad they didn't.
Finally around 3:15 PM Nathan Alexander arrived. I was on the bed which was not planned but necessary for him to get the help he needed. There are several reasons he was delayed, but those only really matter to me. So yep, that's one version of how it all happened. My amazing husband didn't leave my side from the time he got home. My doula, Theresa, was so awesome to just do. I needed her to massage my back, and she did - from 5:30 am till I was on the bed. She's never done this before, never attended a birth, but it was as if she had been doing this all her life. My mom - she prayed, prayed and asked others to pray. Then she held my hand along with Nathan and was right there with me. Rose Marie was so great to help me realize my desire to birth at home. She took excellent care of me during labor, and I couldn't ask for a better midwife.
A lot of it at the end is kind of hazy because I was so out of it from exhaustion, but the most important part is that both mom and baby are happy and healthy.
About 5 weeks before Xander's arrival
With my friend, Leti. She gave birth about 10 days later
The night labor began. It amazes me how big my belly looked in a profile view. Looking down, I never felt as big as looking in the mirror from the side.
"Nathan, are you almost home?"
Labor...oh the back labor
And finally
His very first bath. It totally relaxed him.
Being weighed
With Daddy
With Abuelita
With Auntie Resa...the pictures fail to show how she was massaging my back the ENTIRE time. She was amazing.
Finally some rest
