The Birth of Our Daughter

Well, let me just say, obviously by the lack of my posting lately, I have been busy. Who knew that a tiny lil' 6+ pound person could take up all of your time?! However, with that said, I love that she takes up all of my time and I am just smitten with her. She warms my heart from the inside out.

I want to start the chronicle of Eleanor's birth a few days before her actual birthday. The previous Sunday, I had been kind of buzzing around the house, making some cookies, putting some turkey soup up in the freezer, and putting finishing touches on our Christmas decorations. The next day, Monday, I enlisted my mom to head to the mall with me to get some Christmas shopping done. And, let's face it, to walk around a bit to get this baby moving. However, in the back of my mind I still thought my baby girl was going to be late. Her due date was December 4.

Tuesday, I milled around the house and wrapped the Christmas gifts I had bought. I felt really strange wrapping and putting gifts under the tree in November but I figured, "What the heck, I have the time, might as well get it done."

Wednesday, my girlfriend came over with her baby and she wanted some help decorating some onesies for him for a party they were going to. We sat around, visited, crafted and then she left. That night I had an appointment with my midwife at our birth center. I knew I was going to have my cervix checked for the first time since I was going to be 40 weeks in two days. Ben met me at the birth center and we walked in and I looked at the girls at the desk, we exchanged pleasantries and then I said, "Okay, I am ready. She can come anytime." I had never really felt like I was done like some women say, I was feeling fine about still being pregnant but for some reason, that day, that's what I said when I walked in.

We headed into the room and chatted with the midwife about different things and then she checked me. "Well, you're about 1 cm. dialated and still pretty long. It's hard to interpret anything but it's good you're progressing and you could definitely have her within the week."

We left, happy with the fact that there was progress and went home to eat dinner. We were eating dinner and I guess I kept making faces because Ben was looking at me funny. He asked if I was okay and I said I was just feeling kind of crampy but I figured that was to be expected after a cervix check. We went into bed around 8:30 or 9 and I was still having the "cramps" and I definitely felt like they were coming in intervals but was trying to ignore it.

I woke up at 11:30 that night and could definitely tell they were coming frequently. I tossed and turned and tried to get comfortable and couldn't. I told Ben I was going to take a bath. That was one of our steps to take to see if the contractions were real or if they went away after a bath. I was in the tub for awhile but obviously, in a standard bathtub, an almost 40 week preggo can't really get too comfortable. I got out and tried to lay back down and still couldn't get comfortable. By 1:30 a.m. I was up and walking around the house and just trying different positions to get comfortable. Ben made me a pancake and I was trying to drink water but then I began to throw up. It seemed that my body was just trying to get rid of everything. By this time, we were thinking that things were starting to get pretty real. Ben was getting the rest of our things together in case we thought we were leaving. He was timing my contractions and they were definitely getting closer together. I got back in the tub to try to relax some more. Again, not super comfortable and then we ran out of hot water!

I kept telling Ben that we needed to wait to page, we need to make sure, are we really sure this is it, just wait a little longer, etc. Ben called our parents at 4:30 a.m. to let them know what we were up to and that we were most likely going to page the midwife soon and we would let them know what happened when we got to the birth center. We paged the midwife at about 5:15. She called back, talked to Ben, talked to me and found I couldn't very well talk through a contraction and she told us to meet at the birth center in about an hour. My mom arrived at the house at about 6:00 a.m. and then offered to drive us to the birth center so Ben could sit in the back with me through my contractions. I was thankful for that because it was nice to have his hand to squeeze or him to lean on.

Once we arrived at the birth center, I had my vitals checked, we put our music on, the room was cozy. They checked me and confirmed that I was dialated to 5 cm and that it appeared this baby was on her way so I labored on. I labored in the tub, walking around, leaning on Ben and eventually back in the tub. There were two times when I thought I was going to cry but I and the birth assistant talked me out of it. I didn't have the energy to waste on crying. At this point I began to get the urge to push. I found out later that this was around 9:30 a.m. The midwife checked me and confirmed that it was indeed time to push. I pushed in the tub for awhile but I got a little too relaxed in there so they had be get into a squatting position. Ben was holding me up while he was sitting on the bed. We made some progress in this position but then it was time to get on the bed because the baby wasn't loving the squatting position. I was on my back for a little bit but didn't really like that so I flipped over and was on my hands and knees. Apparently I didn't really like pushing. I have heard some women say they love it and it feels like they are really making progress at that point. I literally felt like  my body was going to rip in two so I think it kind of scared me a little.

 However, I wasn't too scared that I couldn't continue because Eleanor Grace arrived at 10:23 a.m. after almost an hour of pushing. They placed her up under me and then once I flipped over, she was on my chest and staring up at me with bright, beautiful eyes. Ben was crying, I was crying, Eleanor cried which we were thankful for. Ben cut the cord, they checked Eleanor's vitals, we all cuddled on the bed and were overcome with the emotion of the most amazing experience of our lives. 

I could not have asked for a better birth experience and am so thankful that everything went well, went quickly and our baby arrived safely and healthy into our arms. My husband was beyond amazing the whole way through. He remained calm and supportive even though I found out later that he had to use the bathroom almost the whole 4 hours we labored at the birth center and then had leg cramps while I was pushing. He said he forgot about both of those things. Love him. I feel so thankful as a first time mom to have had such a wonderful experience and can only hope for that in the future! Right now, we are just basking in the happiness of caring for our beautiful baby girl.

The day after I gave birth, our birth center posted this on their Facebook page:

"We have a secret in our society. It's not that birth is painful, it's that women are strong..."

Love it.