Well, she's here! Anna Claire arrived on October 27, 2010 at 12:52pm and boy was it an event. After much soul searching and research John Frank and I decided to try our best to have a natural labor and delivery. My pregnancy was such a spiritual experience for me and I felt the call to go into delivery the way God had intended and described in Genesis 3:16, “I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to children." I believe the severe pains of childbearing in this passage are not only referring the physical act of child birth but also to the love we will have for our children bringing them up and the pain we will feel for them when they are hurt, sad or lost. So the second part of that verse, Painful labor, doesn't sound so bad. Call me crazy but I feel I have the right to forego a painful birth if I want, right?
We studied all different types of pain coping like meditation, positioning, Lamaze, the Bradley method and the option of hiring a doula (earlier post). We decided to go with the doula and I don't think I could have had a successful medication free labor and delivery without her (Kelly Denson) and the doula in training she brought along (Amy Kuhn). They were wonderful and I will definitely have TWO doula's the next go round!
This is how the story is told....
On the morning of October 22nd, which was a Friday, I was feeling waves of yucky for a couple of hours and then started getting mild crampy sensations in my belly. Being a first time mom and nearing my due date I thought I may be going into labor. Even after doula Kelly told me NOT to go to the hospital but call her when I felt weird, I panicked and went to my doctors office. I had an appointment the next day anyway so why not go and get it over with. I had only dilated to one centimeter so they sent me on my way. Later that evening, at Babies R Us, I started having severe cramping and just knew I was about to deliver! This time I went to the hospital. They admitted me and monitored my contractions, which were real, but I wasn't dilating any more so after a couple of hours they gave me a coke (made me feel much better, really), sent me home and suggested I drink plenty of fluids. I had mild cramping on and off until Anna Claire's Birthday.
Tuesday evening, October 26th, I made curried chicken for dinner. After about 2 bites I couldn't eat any more...it was the most disgusting thing I had ever put in my mouth. I love curried chicken so Im not sure why I didn't take note of this earlier.
Wednesday morning at about 5:30 am I got up and went to the restroom (as I did several times a night) like normal. I came back to bed, climbed in and felt a sudden pop. I thought I had woken Anna Claire and she was kicking really hard but shortly after I felt a slight gush of liquid. I got up again, went to the bathroom and noticed there were little puddles of what looked to be water on the floor where I had stepped. My water had broken!!! Which was one thing that all of my research said rarely happens on its own so guess who freaked out? Me.
I send my Mom a text (which she claims she never got) and then the doula. Kelly left a voicemail and said my labor would probably last for 10 to 12 hours and to try all of the things we had discussed at our meeting the week before, eat, drink, tee tee as much as possible and try to sleep. The pain was severe again not like what I had read. There was no contracting for 30 seconds then a 10 minute break. I wasn't even getting a 5 minute break. It was happening just like the Friday night before. 1 minute contraction, 1 minute not as bad of a contraction but still feeling contraction then another 1 minute contraction. It went on like this until about 8:30 when doula Kelly came on over. She had suggested at 6:30 on the phone that I try taking a shower so I did but by the time I got out the pain was so overwhelming that I was unable to dry my hair or even finish getting dressed. The only place I was semi comfortable was the birthing ball. I sat on it from the time I got out of the shower to the time we left for the hospital at 8:45. Breathing and trying my best to stay relaxed. When Kelly got there she helped me through a couple of contractions then decided we might should go on to the hospital since they were so close together and weren't easing. So we packed up, I got in the front passenger side with seat leaned back and me leaning over it facing the rear of the car. Im sure that was a sight for the passers-by.
We got the the hospital at around 9:30am. They rushed me in, got me a room and saw that I was dilated to 7cm. I was amazed and excited that Anna Claire was so close to being here! We set up the room with dim lights, soft music and the doula's massaged my hands and arms to keep me tension free. The nurses monitored my contractions for a while, which were every minute or so, and had me sign a bunch of paperwork. Talk about hard to do when you're nearing the end of labor au naturale. Lets just say I was not a happy camper with anyone but my doula's at this point. I knew nurse Rhonda had never been in my shoes and I was done entertaining her (which I felt really bad about later so I made up for it with jovial "Hi Rhonda's" for the next few days).
I labored and labored and labored for what seemed like days but was only 6 hours start to finish. Finally it was time for the doctor. Once she got there the pain was gone and I could only feel pressure. I pushed about 20 times and out came Anna Claire weighing 7lbs 12 ounces, 20 inches long. She was a beautiful redheaded baby girl and the labor was so worth it! As far as recover...what recovery!? Once she was out that was it. I had not recovery pain to speak of. There were only sore muscles in my legs arms and back which felt like I had a hard day at the gym.
Where was JF during all of this? Right there by my side being as quiet as possible but staying within my sight (I had to look at his face often for reassurance) and working hard with the doula's to keep me comfortable. I think he agrees that next time we will again have a doula or two.
Here is my sweetums at 9 weeks....
