7.40 am: arrive at the hospital, feeling like we are checking into a hotel. I have been watching a bunch of youtube videos on what to bring in you hospital bag, and now it seems like we are moving in to stay. The hospital in Park City is by far the nicest I have ever been to, and seems like a 5 star resort compared to the hospital in Holland.
7.50 am: I am strapped to belly monitors to monitor the baby's heartbeat. This is kind of silly to me, but I guess I'll obediently follow hospital protocol. His little heartbeat is happily chugging away, but he keeps moving around making it difficult to find it again.
8.40pm: My midwife came in and used the "crochet hook" to break my water. Talk about uncomfortable! With all my other kids my water wasn't broken until well into labor, and breaking it put me into full-fletched hardcore labor. This fact made the "water-breaking" one of the scariest part of the day. (this hook ended up giving Miles 6 little wounds on his forehead)
8.45 pm: My first contraction started. It wasn't a bad one, but my body definitely knows what to do once there's no more soft water balloon to coat the baby.
Despite all good intentions this is where my play-by-play account ends. I did fairly well with contractions until 1pm, at which time my midwife checked me. I wasn't nearly as far progressed as I had expected (only at about 4-5 cm), and got really discouraged. I wanted to give up. Why was I doing this to myself? Lots of women do this without pain at all (epidural), so why would I CHOOSE to torture myself? My midwife's encouraging words are the only thing that got me through the next few hours. She told me: "You can do anything for 60 seconds". So I just kept repeating that to myself. After sitting in the tub for a few hours (3pm), I needed a change of scenery, and wanted to check progress again. Danielle Demeter is very smart, and didn't tell me that I was still only at about 5+cm.
At this point the pain had completely taken over, and I reminded myself of an animal in labor. There's no control, and yet your body knows exactly what to do. The baby was turned posterior, which made it even harder for me to get him out. Finally, after all the pain and work, Miles Henning Ashurst was born at 3.32pm, weighing 9 lbs, and being 22 inches.
He spent the first half hour of his life with me, instead of being whipped away to the baby station.
I guess he came out with the cord around his neck, which really freaked Joe out, whereas it completely escaped my consciousness. The sense of relief that it is over, and the baby is out, is so overwhelmingly great. To think that now I get to enjoy this little tiny little bundle.
The first week might be a little challenging, but then again, I'll have many helping hands.
6 comments:
Well done! Congratulations! (Of course Emma already told me at the dinner party we had last Saturday with your mom and Roger plus a few familymembers and friends. But I felt I could not very well post congratulations under your last post. You know what with you sledding down the hill with your belly inside the tube hole.
Good job sticking to your guns about the pain meds. And good job making a beautiful baby!
Congratulations Jessica--on a beautiful baby, a safe delivery, and a successful labor.
You are a warrior!
Great job, not only in the delivery but also in the cooking!! Now I just have to come and see yu. too bad i have no more gas money!
Congrats on your baby! And way to go on the no pain meds. Doesn't it feel great afterwards?! You did it!
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