Quick Update...and labor story

Introducing Anella Paige Green!

I haven't been on in a while, the last few weeks of pregnancy were quite eventful and I wasn't able to make time to get on and blog. Here I am though sitting next to my two week old (she'll be two weeks tomorrow) beautiful baby girl! Yes I had a girl.

I was blessed with the labor of my dreams. My husband and I had taken a Hypnobirthing class and we were both very determined to have a completely drug free labor. 12:20am on Thursday August 20th, my water broke. My husband called the OB to let him know and he told us to call back when my contractions were 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute for 1 hour or call back when we headed to the hospital. My husband and I planned on doing the majority of our laboring at home as neither of us wanted to spend all day the hospital. Around 1:30am, I decided to wake my husband up so that he could start timing my contractions, I decided I felt like getting in the shower to relax some. After getting out of the shower I noticed my contractions were quite a bit stronger than they had been. Every contraction I would have to take a moment and focus on relaxing. We headed downstairs at about 2:15am I got myself some water and asked my husband if there was any pattern to my contractions, he said "Not really they're between 2-4 minutes lasting 30seconds-1 1/2 minutes." I'm not sure why but I told my husband that I felt like we needed to go to the hospital. So we packed up our stuff and headed out. We live 5 minutes from the hospital so we arrived by 3am. They had me back in a room at 3:30am and were examining me. The nurse told me I was 3.5 cm and 90% effaced, this might sound good to some people but for me it was very disappointing, I had been 3.5cm & 90% effaced for the past two weeks. I was quite discouraged but knew that with my water breaking and the contractions at least things were happening.

After being on the monitor for 30 minutes the nurse let me know that my Dr wanted me to walk around to help progress labor (this was my plan all along too, the last place I wanted to be was lying in bed). After getting up I did my best to find a comfortable position, I tried the birthing ball, this definitely was not comfortable to me, I then was leaning against the end of the bed slow dancing. At this point I felt like my water broke again, when I asked the nurse she stated that most likely I had a "fore bag" (I'd never heard of this before). After this second bag of water broke things definitely picked up, I decided I wanted to get in the shower for some relief. After spending 30minutes in the shower I got out and was doing everything in my power just to find a comfortable position. I finally decided after all the water I drank I should try to empty my bladder. I sat down on the toilet and realized this was a really comfortable position. I sat here for 5 minutes completely relaxed I don't even know how many contractions I had while sitting on the toilet. I just know that I finally found a position that I could relax in. I then had a contraction that was so strong I jumped off the toilet and held onto my husband, he was holding the majority of my weight. At this point I told him that I just didn't think I could do this without drugs, he told me I was doing a great job and that he loved me. I spent the next few contractions squatting, and then decided to get back on the toilet. Once I sat down I felt a lot of pressure. I mentioned it to my husband and he immediately pulled the emergency cord in the bathroom. The nurse ran in and asked me to go and lay back down on the bed so she could check me.

As I lay down on the bed, Wayne said "I see blood." I knew this was either a really good sign or a bad sign. The nurse checked me and said "We're ready to have a baby." At this point her voice gets a little panicked as she says "I need immediate assistance in labor room 104, page Dr. Biter and let the Dr on call know he may have a delivery." I said "I'm waiting for Dr. Biter!" My Dr arrived less than 10minutes later, I remember the second I heard his voice I felt such relief. He sat down at the end of my bed and said "I planned on getting more sleep, you progressed really fast, let's have a baby." At this point I realized I'd only been at the hospital for 1 1/2 hours, it was just 5:15am, I progressed from 3.5cm to 10 in 1 1/2 hours...WOW! I pushed for a short 45 minutes and at 6:01am on August 20th, 2009 Anella Paige was born. It was amazing to say the least, as she was coming out my Dr told Wayne and I to reach down and the three of us delivered here onto my chest.

From start to finish my labor was 5 hours and 41 minutes. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that as a first time mom I would be lucky enough to have such a quick completely natural labor!