He came at 2 am this morning!

Chauncey came home from working in Fayetteville at 9:15 last night. I had been having contractions all day and they were hurting by the time he got home, but nothing really serious. About 30 minutes after he got home things got serious. We started making phone calls to babysitters and midwives and we were out the door by 10:30.
Upon arriving to the birthing center we were greeted by Allison the midwife oncall. She took me in and checked me at 5 cm and started the tub. Within a few minutes I was in the tub, Allison dimmed the lights, aromatherapied the bath water, put on soothing classical music and gave me 2 different homeopathic therapies for fear. Yes, I was scared! I think the second one worked a little. I felt more like I could do it. That may have also been due to all the coaching I was doing in my head.
My contractions were the same always, every three minutes, lasting about 60 seconds each. This pace continued until the last contraction ehen i pushed him out!So by 12 o'clock midnight I was 7 cm starting
Transition. This part was really slow. I was desperately trying to coach myself thinking about what each contraction was accomplishing which really helped me not get scared which makes it all hurt worse. There were just so many and it was taking a long time for this part of labor!
It seemed to never end, lasting about 2 hours in total. Transition is a total mind game, and it definately puts your strength to the ultimate test!
I could feel that he was getting close to pushing, but that the cervix was still there. So for about 10 or so contractions I was actually pushing the cervix away while still trying to breath though the pain of the contraction. It was intense, but I felt so stuck and like I had to take control and do SOMETHING! This was the most laborious thing I have ever had to do in any of my labors!
Luckily it worked! I still took 4 more contractions to push him out. It took 2 whole contractions to get him to crown, one to push his head out and I couldn't get his shoulders out on the same contraction, so he was stuck. I was pushing so hard and I just couldn't do it! So as soon as the next contraction started hs came out. Here is the craziest part....
Both the nurse and Allison said they had never seen anything like it before. He came out with his bag of waters completely in tact, the cord wrapped around his neck atleast 3 times I believe, and, get this, the placenta hanging from him! It was one entire package! She said I must have been pushing so hard to make that happen! That's one easy ride for the little guy to get to stay in his little protection all the way through.
He is a miracle, and perfect!





Here he is 2 hours old, not even cleaned up yet! He didn't really have anything to clean up on him because he came through in his bag of waters!




Like father, like son! He makes the cutesy little puppy noises while he sleeps!(baby, not Chauncey!)- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Birthing center, Chapel Hill, North Carolina