juhnayrae
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Our little girl, Brielle Autumn arrived early this morning at 12:45am after a completely natural birth. She weighs 7 lbs 3 oz and is absolutely perfect!
I woke up at 5:30 Sunday morning with back pain that kept coming and going. Eventually it started to wrap around into my abdomen and I knew they were contractions because they were different than what I had been experiencing before. I timed them for an hour and they were about 7 minutes apart. Later that morning, DH and I went for a walk and I sat in the bath, but nothing was slowing them down. We called our midwife at 11:30 when they were timing about 3-4 minutes apart and were lasting anywhere from 45 seconds to a minute. She told us to make our way to the hospital since I tested positive for group B strep and she wanted to get me started on the antibiotics.
When I first got in she checked me around 12:45pm and I was already dilated to 4/5 and was 70% effaced. We were pretty excited, but from then on things went pretty slowly. I walked, sat on the exercise ball, rocked in a chair, and got in a birthing tub in our room, but by 7:00 I had only dilated to a 5/6 and was 90% effaced. My water hadn't broken and my midwife told us she could break it in order to speed things up, but that it was totally up to us. We decided to have her break my water because I was scared to labor late into the night and get exhausted. She broke my water at 7:30 and IMMEDIATELY I felt a difference in the contractions. Ohhhhh my goodness! They were intense!
From then on I got more and more intense contractions, sometimes 4-5 in a row without a break. My midwife checked me again 2 hours later and to my dismay I had only dilated to a 6/7. I started to get really discouraged and scared that I'd be laboring all night. So I continued to walk, use the exercise ball, and eventually got back into the tub. After being in the tub for 30 minutes, around midnight, I started to get the worst contractions and I thought I was going to lose control. My midwife then told me to get out as soon as the contraction ended so she could check me. To my surprise I was dilated to 9cm!! She kept asking me if I felt pressure, which I did, and I started to feel the need to push. In 15 minutes she told me I was complete and 13 minutes later (after about 5 or 6 pushes) our sweet girl was born! While I was pushing my midwife actually told me to slow down because it was going so quickly, she was scared I would tear. I couldn't control myself at that point though, I wanted that baby OUT!
DH was amazing through the whole process, he was so supportive and helpful! I couldn't have done it all without him. Our midwife and the nurse were also amazing, despite the pain they were all the best support team I could have asked for. Natural labor was definitely the hardest and most painful thing I have ever gone through. I labored for almost 20 hours and spent 5 of those in hard labor. Overall, I'm really glad I did a natural birth, I think it was great for both me and baby. My recovery has been amazing, I haven't really had any pain other than soreness. Brielle is doing great too, she's been getting glowing reviews from all of the doctors and nurses that have come to see her.
The rule that you immediately forget the pain of labor when you first hold your baby was not all the case for me. I still shudder when I think about those hard labor contractions!! Every time I look at her though, I realize I would do it all over again, we're just so head over heels in love!
I don't regret going natural at all!
I woke up at 5:30 Sunday morning with back pain that kept coming and going. Eventually it started to wrap around into my abdomen and I knew they were contractions because they were different than what I had been experiencing before. I timed them for an hour and they were about 7 minutes apart. Later that morning, DH and I went for a walk and I sat in the bath, but nothing was slowing them down. We called our midwife at 11:30 when they were timing about 3-4 minutes apart and were lasting anywhere from 45 seconds to a minute. She told us to make our way to the hospital since I tested positive for group B strep and she wanted to get me started on the antibiotics.
When I first got in she checked me around 12:45pm and I was already dilated to 4/5 and was 70% effaced. We were pretty excited, but from then on things went pretty slowly. I walked, sat on the exercise ball, rocked in a chair, and got in a birthing tub in our room, but by 7:00 I had only dilated to a 5/6 and was 90% effaced. My water hadn't broken and my midwife told us she could break it in order to speed things up, but that it was totally up to us. We decided to have her break my water because I was scared to labor late into the night and get exhausted. She broke my water at 7:30 and IMMEDIATELY I felt a difference in the contractions. Ohhhhh my goodness! They were intense!
From then on I got more and more intense contractions, sometimes 4-5 in a row without a break. My midwife checked me again 2 hours later and to my dismay I had only dilated to a 6/7. I started to get really discouraged and scared that I'd be laboring all night. So I continued to walk, use the exercise ball, and eventually got back into the tub. After being in the tub for 30 minutes, around midnight, I started to get the worst contractions and I thought I was going to lose control. My midwife then told me to get out as soon as the contraction ended so she could check me. To my surprise I was dilated to 9cm!! She kept asking me if I felt pressure, which I did, and I started to feel the need to push. In 15 minutes she told me I was complete and 13 minutes later (after about 5 or 6 pushes) our sweet girl was born! While I was pushing my midwife actually told me to slow down because it was going so quickly, she was scared I would tear. I couldn't control myself at that point though, I wanted that baby OUT!
DH was amazing through the whole process, he was so supportive and helpful! I couldn't have done it all without him. Our midwife and the nurse were also amazing, despite the pain they were all the best support team I could have asked for. Natural labor was definitely the hardest and most painful thing I have ever gone through. I labored for almost 20 hours and spent 5 of those in hard labor. Overall, I'm really glad I did a natural birth, I think it was great for both me and baby. My recovery has been amazing, I haven't really had any pain other than soreness. Brielle is doing great too, she's been getting glowing reviews from all of the doctors and nurses that have come to see her.
The rule that you immediately forget the pain of labor when you first hold your baby was not all the case for me. I still shudder when I think about those hard labor contractions!! Every time I look at her though, I realize I would do it all over again, we're just so head over heels in love!
I don't regret going natural at all!
