8, 9, 10, PUSH...

I woke up Friday morning, December 18th, to find that I still didn't have my wonderful baby and my husband and I were not in the hospital. I was a bit disappointed, but I knew I had my next doctors appointment on Tuesday, and that I just needed to get through the weekend. I had tried a lot of the natural ways to try to induce labor. Some were really popular and very well known, while others were a little less conventional.

Who's to say what actually contributed to my labor and if it was coincidence my body progressed the way it did, or if it was something I did. The Friday before the 18th, I had begun to have some pretty steady contractions, but they ended after about 2 hours. So that could have helped as well. The only thing that I was pretty consistent with, was eating pineapple. Pineapple has an enzyme, bromaline (pretty sure), that is similar to prostogladin. It supposively is suppose to help 'coax' your cervix along.

At my 39 week check up, I was 2cm dilated, and was 3cm at my 40 week. It was very exciting for Jonathan and I when the doctor said they could feel the head during my 39 week check up. At my 40 week check up, my feelings kind of went from being excited to a little nervous when the doctor said she could feel my "bulging bag". I kept thinking my water was going to break in some very public place with tons of people around, and of course I would be alone. lol. But alas, that is not how it happened.

Going back to the 18th, my wonderful husband had brought home prime rib, veggies, and a very yummy salad from Texas Roadhouse. We enjoyed watching some TV and then decided we would go look at some Christmas lights. Unfortunately, a lot of people had already turned their lights off for the night, but we still got to see some houses lit up and it was nice to enjoy each others company. We kept talking to Isabella, and letting her know that she would be able to appreciate the lights that much more if she would just come out. That night I went to bed with a little bit of back pains, but nothing that seemed abnormal.

Throughout the night I of course woke up like usual to have to go the bathroom and that morning I was feeling a little uncomfortable, but that wasn't anything unusual. At around 7 that morning I decided that it wasn't getting any better and that I would just go watch TV than try and go back to sleep. Being awake and on the couch I realized my pain was progressing and I wondered if what I was feeling were contractions. At this point, I really only felt it in my back. 8'o clock rolled around and I was getting bored walking around the house by myself. (Walking should either make false labor go away or increase your contractions) So... I woke up my lovely husband! I let him know that I was having what I thought were contractions and that they seemed to progressing fairly quickly. My brother's graduation was that morning, so I was also trying to decide if I should go or not. Jonathan began to make me some breakfast so I could have some energy just in case this was the real deal. Unfortunately, I wasn't really able to make the yummy french toast or the eggs he had made me. I was too busy getting on all fours and trying to count how long my contractions were lasting and then having Jonathan figure out how far apart they were.

Jonathan called the hospital and let them know we were on our way. We checked in and they took me over to triage... They checked my vitals and then checked me to find out that I was 7cm dilated. 7cm dilated! I was excited... but I was still very skeptical at this point. I didn't want to get too excited since I had heard stories of women progressing to 9cm and then being there for 2/3 hours before they hit 10cms. I told this story to the nurse who was walking me over to my room. She smiled at me and said that if I had waited this long to come to the hospital that I was a trooper and I would be fine.

It was all very surreal to me. At this point I really wanted to walk around and be free, but they first wanted to make sure everything was set up. I remember one of the first contractions I had sitting in that bed, and the nurse looking at me, touching my shoulders back, pushing them into the bed, telling me to relax my shoulders and to breath through them. I remember thinking that wow, this is really happening, that what we had done in our childbirth class, thats what we talked about, breathing, relaxing. Jonathan stayed by my side the entire time, and made sure that I kept my breathing steady. It all seemed to go very quickly, shortly after being 'set up', I was breathing with Jonathan when all of the sudden my water broke. It didn't happen in the middle of Target! But it may have been just as scary. It was very shocking for me. I told Jonathan and he called the nurse. She came in and found that there was some miconeum... When I heard this it scared me a lot but I knew I needed to trust my husband and the nurses. Joanna, our main nurse, called some respiratory nurse and made sure she would be there as soon as our little girl was born to suction out her lungs if needed. I got up and leaned on Jonathan for a little bit while they changed out my bedding. I think this helped a lot, but I started to feel a very strong pressure, and resumed back tot he bed. Joanna also made sure that I understood that they may have to take Isabella away before placing her with me, but that she should be fine.

Pushing was indeed the most uncomfortable task for me. It felt like if I pushed, I would go to the bathroom. Of course this is very common and the nurse tried to assure me that if I did it wouldn't be a problem and that if I felt like I needed to push, to push. Jonathan was on my left and Joanna was on my right, they held my legs while I "bared down". Jonathan was amazing and would count through each contraction, telling me when to push, and when to take a breath, and enjoy my "break".

Another nurse came in to tell me that maybe I should try not to push. Try not to push?! It wasn't something you could really help. Your body kind of knew that the baby was about to come out. A lot of people had checked in that morning, and the doctor was waiting for another woman to deliver the placenta. Joanna looked at me and told me to disregard not pushing, and to do what my body was telling me. Joanna had had a natural birth as well and I think she understood this process. I really appreciated her. In what seemed like only a few mins, jonathan was telling me that he could see her head. I remember being excited when he told me she had dark hair. The nurse let me know that I really needed to hold my pushes and make them strong because her head was coming down but when I ended early her head would go back.

The scariest part of the whole day was when I finally got her head out. At this point of labor, there were a total of 4 nurses, the doctor, and Jonathan surrounding my bed. The doctor and the nurse were yelling at me for the first time all day that I HAD to push. I felt one nurse pushing on my stomach and another one telling me to push harder. I was getting scared because I was pushing... lol. What I would find out later was that, Isabella's shoulders had gotten stuck behind my pubic bone. Jonathan said that while he knew he couldn't say anything to me, he was extremely nervous at this point. He told me that there were about two nurses who were trying to pull her out. He said that her head had started to turn blue and she hadn't started crying so he was getting really nervous. We both found out later, that they clock the time her head comes out, and it was actually only 20 seconds until the rest of her body followed her. Jonathan said it felt like mins. She was born at 12:47.

I was in a different world. I think I may have still been in "Labor Land" at this point. Our childbirth instructor always joked that women go to "Labor Land" and that is where they will focus while breathing and getting through labor. I focused a lot on picnics, particularly the picnic Jonathan and I had at Callaway when he proposed to me. I was so excited to know that she had all her little fingers and toes and that she was healthy and seemed to be happy. They did all her tests in my room, and then they allowed me to breastfeed her before our families came in to meet our little girl.

During all of this, the doctor was stitching me up. They didn't think that I was going to tear... Then they had thought I only had a 2nd degree tear, then they realized it was a 4 degree tear. They numbed me up at this point. They had offered to numb me at some point during the end of my labor, but I refused because Bella had been yet to be born. Afterwards the nurse said there was no reason for me not to be numbed.

When they placed her in my arms to breastfeed I was so excited to see that her skin looked good and she seemed to be breathing well. Isabella wasn't looking at me and wasn't latching on at first, and the nurse told me to talk to her. As soon as I did, she latched on almost immediately afterwards.

The whole thing was an amazing experience. I was very blessed to have such a quick birthing experience. I had expected to be in labor for at least 12 hours. Unless you count the back pain the night before, I was really only in labor for about 6 hours.

But at this point, I think our little girl is about to wake up. She should be ready to eat by now. I will update soon about our new family and our first Christmas!