She is here! Born at 11:41pm last night- 7.14 and 20 inches. It was crazy and intense and totally awesome. I had contractions consistently all day but they weren't painful . I even took the kids to the pool for a couple hours before dinner and just took my chart where I was writing down that they were 7 minutes apart- my neighbors thought I was crazy!
Went home and we ate dinner and I was putting the kids to bed around 8pm when I had a couple of painful, more intense contractions so I decided to take a shower. While in the shower, they started coming faster and stronger and I started to panic a little because they were 3-4 minutes apart and my midwife had told me to come to the birth center when they were 5. I was trying to get my stuff together and hoping my husband would hear me banging around upstairs but he had fallen asleep downstairs.
At 8:40pm I went downstairs and called my parents (hour away) and my friend, Kathy, to come and the crawled into my living room and threw the phone at Jon and told him I needed him to wake up and call my doula, Heather, and the birth center. Kathy and Heather got there and I had found this great spot on the floor between my couch and ottaman where I was SO comfortable laboring on my hands and knees. I stayed there for a couple more hours until I felt suddenly like we needed to go because the pressure was getting really intense- doula thought it was my bag of waters pushing. I didn't want to go- I really thought I might be perfectly ok to give birth in my front yard at that point!
My doula and I piled in the way back of my Explorer because I still needed to be in the bum up position for relief- I started transition in the car and was trying not to push but I was and told the doula not to tell my husband because he would freak out if I had the baby in the car. In retrospect, we probably should have left a little earlier- the ride there was harrowing! I had 6 contractions on the way there and with my last, I think my water broke.
We arrived at the birth center at 11:29pm. Everyone ran out to the car to get us and at that point, I never thought the gravel driveway looked more confortable but they said no, no, no, can't have the baby out here! I got inside, stripped down and got back into the bed still butt up and on my knees and started pushing and pushing. The labor assistant asked if they were going to just let me stay in that position and they did- good because I couldn't move! Out she came 13 minutes later! As she was crowning, I said "this is awesome!" I couldn't believe how instantly great I felt once she was out and having had two medical inductions with epidurals and narcotics before- I can't even begin to describe how different and amazing this was. I really did nothing- my body did everything on its own- the pushing especially was totally involuntary.
Anyway, she nursed for an hour or so ( she is a voracious nurser- ouch!) and then I showered and they weighed and checked her out. I loved the birth center- I wish all women had access to this type of care- in the height of things my blood pressure (I have chronic hypertension) was the lowest it has ever been. It was perfect and relaxing and calm. "Jilly Bean" is perfect and beautiful. We left for home around 2am and the kids woke up and came down to see her- they are head over heels in love. I feel fabulous and a little bit like I might have superpowers. :)
