Labor and Delivery...a summary

For those that are interested here is a summary of how Ellen came into the world.

I had a doctor's appointment on Wednesday, the 18th, where they checked and told me that I was 3.5 cm dilated. After some monitoring, they informed me that I was also having contractions. Now, my whole pregnancy I was convinced that I would have no idea when labor started and wouldn't feel the early phases of labor. Everyone laughed at me. Well...

Early Thursday morning (2:30 am abouts), I woke up to use the bathroom. Then I felt these very minor cramps which came and went every couple of minutes. Based on my mom's experience with me, we decided to go to the hospital. I barely felt these cramps and was not in any pain. (As a side note, Nick stopped to get gas. I think its funny, his wife is in labor and he stops to get gas. Good thing I wasn't really feeling these contractions!).

When we got to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, they checked and I was 4.5 cm and having contractions every 5 minutes or so. I really wasn't feeling the contractions. However, I was admitted. My doctor was on call that night and saw me before she finished and told me that I was going to have a baby that day, we just didn't know if it would be 10 am, 3pm, or late at night! I was able to nap quite a bit as I still wasn't feeling contractions. We had to save up our energy for whenever I would start to feel contractions and really have to labor.

We had decided on a midwife birth as I really wanted to have a natural birth without pain meds. My huge needle phobia kept me from wanting someone to stick a needle in my back. Around noon, I still hadn't dialated anymore so the midwife decided to break my water to get things moving. I still wasn't feeling any contractions. Around 5 they checked me again and I hadn't changed much. Since my water was broken we couldn't let labor progress this slowly so they started with Pitocin to jump-start things. I still hadn't felt a contraction.

Earlier in the day an anesthesiologist came in to discuss pain control options and what woudl happen if we needed an emergency C-section. His converstaion about how an epidural was done almost made me hurl. However, he did inform me that only 10% of women at this hospital give birth naturally without any pain meds. I was shocked at this, 10%?

At 7:30 I started to feel some contractions. I was about at 6.5 cm now and the Pitocin was definitely kicking in. When 'My Name is Earl' started I was definitely feeling contractions, however they weren't that painful, and started to labor by walking around and leaning on the bed. We made it through 'Kath and Kim' and right when 'The Office' started (9pm EST) I was really feeling the contractions which were coming about every 90 seconds. They stopped the Pitocin sometime during 'Kath and Kim'. At 10:30 I was just about done with this whole contraction thing and the midwife moved me to the bed to check where we were.

We were at 9.5 cm and I had the urge to push. Now, this may be contary to popular belief, but pushing felt great compared to the contractions. It didn't hurt at all. My hips hurt from pulling my knees back, but the whole pushing thing really was a relief. We pushed for one hour until Ellen was born at 11:31pm. And we didn't use any pain meds throughout the whole labor and delivery. I was really proud of myself.

So, I pretty much missed early and active labor and really only felt the last part and hardest part of labor called the transition phase. Not to shabby for a first baby who weighed 8 lb 12 oz !! Susie was in the hospital when Ellen was born and came up to visit for a few minutes after the midwife was finished "fixing" me up. We then moved to the postpartum floor and our room around 1:30am. I think Nick and I got about 2 hours of sleep total...we were so excited to have little Ellen and be a party of three!