Things don't always go as planned

Lesson learned...we no longer have control! Which I actually started to accept during pregnancy and have learned more about over the last few days. For those that know me well they would be surprised by my calmness, ability to delegate, and lack of "bitchiness" as the husband says.

We took Bradley natural childbirth classes the last few months of pregnancy. Our goal was to bring Baby O into the world in the most natural BUT safest environment for both mommy and baby. In the end we are happy with our experience even thought I am still a little disappointed things didn't go exactly as I had hoped for. Everyone says that once a child is born you forget about all the pain and labor and that is exactly what happens, the 24 hours it took for her to enter the world is now a blur and I have tried to remember how it all happened.

After waking up at 4am Thanksgiving morning with early labor signs we knew the day was going to be eventful. Over the course of the morning the contractions stated to intensify and we made the decision to hold off on cooking the turkey. By lunchtime the contractions were five minutes apart and one minute in length, we were told this was when would want to start heading to the hospital. So that is what we did (even though I had it in the back of my mind that we would possibly be home).

After getting checked out in triage we were told we could stay or that we could go home. The nurse said that if we really wanted the most natural birth to go home, labor some more and come back when the contractions had either intensified in strength or go to where there were three minutes apart. We got back home around 2pm and decided to go ahead and cook the turkey, we'd try and get Thanksgiving dinner in before going back to the hospital.

For the rest of the afternoon we labored at home watching the Dolphins loose to the Cowboys in between contractions and trying many of the techniques we learned in class. The pain was definitely intensifying and by the time dinner was ready I was definitely in "active" labor. Earlier in the day turkey and stuffing sounded great but when everyone sat down to dinner all I could think about eating was eating a couple of rolls (I knew once we got back to the hospital I wouldn't be able to have anything so I figured I'd try and get a little something in my tummy). While everyone sat, I stood against the wall managing my contractions and for what I think kept my composure pretty well!

Around 7pm the contractions had definitely intensified and were to the point where they were almost three minutes apart. We decided it was time to go back to the hospital. After re-checking in a nurse came and got us to take us back. As we passed triage I remember asking why we weren't going in there, the nurse said, "you're very convincing, you look like your in labor", and we headed to a L&D room.

We met the L&D nurse, got checked out (I was fully effaced and 2cm's) and were told she was going to call the doctor. She predicted that Baby O would be arriving sometime around 3-4am. She then proceeded to put in my hep-loc and monitor my contractions so that I could then get out of bed to continue my laboring techniques. The deal was that I could be up and about for 40 minutes and then had to be on the monitor for 20 minutes, Baby O seemed to be content with the labor, almost every time we went on the monitor she was in a sleep cycle. How could she sleep with what mommy was feeling?

For almost two hours we labored in various positions in the room, the time seemed to pass by pretty quickly. The contractions were intensifying and my back was killing me, she had to have been posterior as I had back pains since about 4pm that afternoon and didn't feel much in my abdomen. I tried different techniques we learned in class to get her to rotate but nothing seemed to work, a little stubborn one!

I got checked out again (around 9:45pm) and was told that I had progressed to 6 cm's. Wow, four centimeters in two hours, I didn't think that was too bad, only four more to go before I would be ready to push. The next two and a half hours are a total blur. I remember asking for my in-laws to bring the frozen water bottles from the freezer at home (we forgot them), I remember walking the hall for sometime, and then all I remember is it being close to midnight and the nurse asking to check my progress and all I could say was that I could not get into the bed. My L&D nurse was very supportive in my desire to have a natural childbirth but could tell that I was in extreme pain and exhausted. The back labor was intensifying so bad that I could hardly see straight and nothing I did was helping to ease the pain (I wouldn't even let F go to the bathroom!). My contractions had also become very irregular and were coming two and three at a time (lasting between 5-6 minutes), with not much rest in between. After talking and seeing that I still probably had another 3-4 hours to go, we decided that the best for mom and baby was for me to get something for my pain so that I could get some rest before it was time to meet our baby girl.

While F was napping I laid there texting my sister as she had been out Black Friday shopping! About 2:30 am I was fully dilated and ready to go but baby was still high. They let me "labor down" for about an hour to see if she would continue to descend so that I wouldn't have to push as much.

3:30 am came and it was show time. The doctor monitored baby for about 20 minutes as she was having a few decel spouts (I was still having the very long contractions but could no longer feel them). He talked to us about what was going on and what the options would be if she continued (at one point I thought maybe the epi was a good thing if something had to quickly happen). He said that she probably had a short umbilical cord which would cause the decels or that she was still posterior, but that it was most likely the cord. She finally got to where he felt comfortable with me pushing (while he was monitoring her we were all guessing her weight and at what time she would be born, I said 4:11 but he said that no that was too soon) and got ready for delivery. I did three rounds of pushing (baby was doing fine) to bring her down. He told me to push like I was pushing the back of a semi, that is just what I did and then told me to STOP! Guess he didn't think I would push that hard, and wasn't ready! He turned around got his gown on and the next thing I knew Little Miss J was born (and yes her cord was short) at 4:13am.

I started crying and the doctor was telling daddy to grab his camera and cell phone for pictures, it was a little more chaotic than I thought it would be (the doctor is pretty funny and had a great sense of humor the entire time). I got to hold her for a few minutes and then they took her over to the warmer and quickly weighed and cleaned her up. Daddy send out texts to the family and took pictures as he watched. Daddy got to hold her while they finished me up, we got our first family picture and then mommy and J got our bonding time. We stayed down in L&D until almost 7am bonding as our new family of three. Little J was extremely alert and awake (I think the fact that I only had the epi for a short time before she was born made a difference) the entire time. Her eyes were wide open and she hardly cried. Thanks to technology we talked to Nana, Pop Pop and Aunt H in Miami (bet they were surprised to see her so soon) before we went upstairs.

At about 7am they wheeled us upstairs so that J could go to the nursery for the rest of her measurements, testing and bath. Grandma and Grandpa O were finally able to come up from the waiting room to see their granddaughter. They watched at the nursery window with daddy while the nurses got me settled in my room. They texted me a couple of pictures as things were happening. About 45 minutes later J was back in my room to continue our bonding time. Grandma and Grandpa came in to say hi and then left and would be coming back later in they day.

For the rest of the morning and afternoon everyone was in and out of the room to check on me and J. She had her first feeding and did pretty well, it was like feeding a baby bird! Daddy learned how to change a diaper,  swaddle her in a blanket and feed her. Mommy wasn't up to doing much and spent the entire day in the bed until I finally felt good enough to get up and take a shower around 3pm. It was nice that we had the time we did just the three of us to take in all that had just changed in our lives over the last couple of hours.

Grandma and Grandpa came back around 4pm and finally got to hold J. They brought me my Thanksgiving dinner I never got to eat the night before. Turkey, stuffing and sweet potatoes never tasted so good! After they left Auntie R came to visit and brought J her first Christmas ornament!

Finally around 11pm (after being up for almost 45 hours) we took J to the nursery so that we could get some sleep. She had her first sleepover with four other babies! Even though the nurses were constantly in/out of my room over night to give me my medication and check on me we got some much needed sleep!

I had never been so exhausted in my life, I probably could have fallen asleep standing up but Baby J is TOTALLY worth all we went though! Mommy and Daddy are over the moon and love you so much.

Click here for pictures of Day 1.