CJ is here!

On Wednesday March 25th we went to see Colleen for a 9:40 appt and NST(41 weeks exactly). Everything was looking good as far as the baby and during the almost hour I was on the machine I had only 1 contraction. She did a vaginal exam upon my request. I knew that the baby was in an optimal position (LOA) and that my cervix was favorable 2 weeks before(I was 3 cm and 50% effaced at 39 weeks) so we talked about going ahead and stripping my membranes. I would not have agreed to this if she had been in any other position at this point considering what I went through with my posterior baby 2 years before. While Colleen was in there she said I was 4 cm and 80% effaced but I could be stretched to a 5 if I wanted her to...I didn't because I didn't want to push things too much. We left our appt close to 11 am and got some lunch before heading back to Norwalk. About halfway home(between 12-12:30 I started to get uncomfortable but thought I just needed to poop. When we got home(about 1:00) I sat on the toilet with no success :) and sent Paul back to work. Just in case, I walked to the basement and turned the hot water heater up all the way...thankfully! I went upstairs to lay down but brought the computer and thought I'd time some of these uncomfortable feelings I was having. Nothing was regular so I stopped. At about 2 I had a contraction that forced me out of bed...laying down was not an option. I'm calling 2:00 the start of my labor because it's when I knew it was it. I had 3 of these before I called Joan, my midwife, She was close to Lodi an hour away and told me to call her as soon as I thought she needed to be on her way. I called Paul and told him to get home from work, that I needed him. I called my Mom and told her to hold off coming over but shortly after Paul got home I wanted her here too. I timed a couple contractions in the meantime that were 3 minutes apart and 60 seconds long...very regular. I got the hose out to start filling the tub and thankfully Paul got home right then. I also called Joan and told her that I felt silly if this wasn't it but I was in pain and thought she should be on her way. We did not have enough hot water so Paul was boiling water and then my Mom came and was helping him with that. I couldn't handle having clothes on or not being in the water so I got in when it was only about a foot deep. It actually still helped but I just kept begging for more water. Somewhere around 3:30 my body started to bear down. It felt really good so I just let it go. Paul called Joan to let her know I was involuntarily pushing...her garmin said she was 14 minutes away so she passed a semi :) My Mom told me later it was so cute when Joan got there because she came in the front door, introduced herself as she was kicking her shoes off with a smile and she headed upstairs. She was soooo calm though! I was so relieved to see her! She told me to go head and start helping the pushes and I said "well, shouldn't you check me?" She didn't feel the need but I was worried and needed some assurance that I was actually complete. I was! She said I had a tiny lip but would have no trouble pushing through it. I didn't! My waters were also still intact. I could feel her enter the birth canal and it was such an amazing feeling! She would still kick every so often too. I didn't feel like I was having to help a whole lot with the pushes so my body was just really doing its job. And the Bradley classes definitely helped to remind me to keep my breathing normal...and also calmed us if we saw any blood or anything as well. I was switching back and forth from knees to squatting and either holding the sides of the tub or holding Paul. Sometimes I would even have one knee down and the other knee squatting...all if it seemed to work. Thanks to my Mom and Paul and all the boiled water we finally got the tub filled enough. I was starting to feel CJ crown...it was a little scary but I didn't hold back. I never wanted to feel with my hands for some reason. I thought I would have. Joan was on my back side to make sure when the baby came out that she could go forward so I could grab her. the next urge to push after she crowned her little body plopped out and I think I panicked cause I couldn't see her right away in the cloudy burst of blood and water she came out in...I'm assuming this is also when my water broke. Paul found her immediately in the water and we both brought her out and she cried immediately. It was 4:22 in the afternoon. She was perfect in color...I noticed right away that she matched my skin color so I figured that was good :) It was such a relief to have her out! We sat in the water for just a couple minutes and then got out to get on the bed. We called our family doc to let him know. He had wanted to be there but everything happened so quickly that we never really thought to call him. He arrived shortly after we cut the cord. We waited probably about 45 minutes for that. And the only reason we did is because we were having a difficult time getting a good position to get CJ to latch on to my breast so we could try to get some more contractions going. Finally after about an hour after her birth, I had a good contraction and was able to push a bit to help the placenta out. It was perfect and intact and Joan explained it all to us and even showed us all the parts of the cord. I think our doctor was glad to at least witness that stage of the birth :) I did tear slightly, probably 1st degree but Joan said it didn't need stitches. I am thankful for the water because if it had been dry I might have tore more and had to go in and get stitched. It does hurt but is nothing compared to the pain from my c-section with Landon. And getting to hold my baby immediately after was so wonderful. I got to take it all in and am still amazed that we did it!