It's a BOY!!!

Welcoming to the world our precious baby BOY!

Born on April 4, 2011 @ 10:46am
Weighing in @ 7lbs. 6oz.
Measuring in @ 20 inches tall

I woke up at 3:30am on Monday morning with a contraction. I had been waking up in the middle of the night for the last few weeks with a contraction. I would only have one, get up to go to the bathroom and then go back to bed. This morning I did the same and got back in bed. I listened to the storm blowing through outside while I lay in bed and a few minutes later I felt another one which would have made them 10 minutes apart. A couple more contractions at 10 minutes apart each and I rolled over to let Daddy know that I was going to get in the shower. I knew this had to be it since I never had any contractions with any pregnancies that would come together at certain intervals until I was in labor. 10 minutes apart seems like plenty of time, but in the back of my mind I was constantly worrying that I would be delivering quickly since Gaga was born 4 hours after the first contraction.

While in the shower the contractions seemed to be one right after the other with no breaks in between, almost like I was having one long contraction. When I got out I called the midwife to see if she thought we should head up to the birthing center. (At each of my last few appointments, the midwives would remind me to make sure since Gaga was a quick delivery to give them plenty of warning if I went into labor in the middle of the night so as to ensure they would have enough time to get up to the birthing center, especially since I was already dilated 3cm.) It was 4:30am at this time and the midwife told me she would meet us at the birthing center at 5:00am. Daddy and I continued to get ready and pack things up. We decided to call our friend and godmother of this baby to see if she could come pick up Junior and Gaga. It just so happens that we planned the week before for her to pick them up this morning to take them and give me a chance to run errands or just get some rest without them for the day. We sure lucked out with that! She said that she would meet us at the birthing center and get the kids there. I continued having contractions while getting myself and the kids ready and packed up and then we headed for the birthing center (bc).

It was pouring down rain as we drove to the bc. My contractions at this point seemed to be getting further apart and all I could think about was...I better be in labor or I got the midwife and our friend up early in the morning and in the pouring rain for no reason! We pulled into the parking area of the bc and our friend was there ready to take the kids. We had a quick exchange of hellos and quick goodbyes to the kids and Daddy walked me to the front door under the umbrella in the pouring rain. Once inside the midwife wanted to check me to see how things were progressing. At 5:30am I was dilated to 4cm, still about 80% effaced and at a 0 station. So at least the baby had dropped lower since the week before, although I was still a little disappointed that I had not labored a little more at home and was not further along than I was. The midwife told me to go ahead and have Daddy bring our stuff in and get settled in the room upstairs, but as for me I was instructed to walk up and down the stairs for 30 minutes to get the contractions coming stronger. During that time the contractions were coming every 2 minutes and were definitely getting stronger.

Around 6:30am I asked the midwife to check me again and I was at 5cm. Definitely not going as fast as I thought it would. The midwife told me that baby #3 can always throw you for a loop. They can either be faster labors than the others or they can be slower. I was realizing that this one was going to be slower.

For the next couple of hours I was working through my contractions bouncing/swaying on the birthing ball, rocking in the rocking chair or listening to my ipod. The bed was not an option as it gave me no relief during my contractions. In between contractions I easily carried on conversations with Daddy, the midwife, birth assistant or my mom (it kept my mind off them).

At 8:30am I was 6-7cm and the midwife gave me some tea with an herb, cohosh, in it. She didn't think that my contractions were lasting as long as they should be or coming as frequently as they should. The herb would "irritate" my uterus and help those things along. I drank the tea around 9:00am and 30 minutes later at 9:30am I was 8cm, but mostly complete. The midwife wanted me to move in a couple different positions to get that last little bit of cervix out of the way. I started getting a little nervous at this point thinking about the pain that I would experience as the baby was being delivered. The birthing assistant told me that I had to think past that part and think about holding my baby. It was hard to do.

At 10:00am the midwife said that I could go ahead and get into the birthing tub and to start out by getting in on my hands and knees. She also told me that if I wanted to have this baby then I could have it at any point. My body and the baby were ready but I was the one holding back. I alternated between my hands and knees and sitting Indian style with each contraction. They started to space out again and gave me good breaks between each contraction. At 10:42am my water broke and within a couple minutes the baby was pushing down which gave me no other option but to push with it. While on my hands and knees I gave one good push and the midwife had me stop to slow the baby down from coming out too fast. She then let me push one more time and the head was out. She had me stop again to check for a cord around the baby's neck and then she had me turn over and sit back against the side of the tub. Then with one last push our baby boy was born at 10:46am! Daddy was the one to look and announce the gender of the baby. When he said it was a boy it really didn't faze me. I had the feeling all along that it was a boy. Nonetheless, it was still an amazing moment to finally know for sure what our baby was and to hold it in my arms. We cuddled for a couple minutes and then Daddy cut the cord. The baby was wrapped up and handed to Daddy so I could get out of the tub and into the bed to deliver the placenta.

The next few hours we spent resting in the bed, eating (both baby and I), getting checked and rechecked, passing baby around to my parents or Daddy and enjoying our new little guy. Around 3:45pm, baby and I checked out fine and were on our way home! The whole experience was more than I could have imagined and would definitely do it again. The midwife and birthing assistant were amazing! We were able to have the birth that we wanted and the expert care all in one place!

Baby #3