Then Comes Baby: October 2010

So with my mom's arrival at the hospital, it was time to get pushing! D staked out his spot, up by my right shoulder and my mom posted up on my left. D was determined to stay above the knee and try not to get "scarred for life", but that didn't last very long...

When I started to push, we would wait for a contraction and I would take a big breath out, breathe in and bare down for as long as I could, holding that breath. We would try for 3-4 big pushes each contraction. Because we started around 10:45ish, my personal goal was to have a baby by midnight...I thought the 20th sounded like a good birthday at the time, plus I thought having a goal would be motivational! As pushing got underway, things definitely started taking longer than anticipated. First, it took some time to get a hang of the whole "pushing" deal. With my superman epidural, I wasn't feeling much pressure...or much of anything for that matter, so I had to base my pushing off of what I thought was what I should be doing. After awhile I did start to get some feeling back and figured out the correct way to get things going. We also started 10 counts each push to get me to hold them longer- my mom's idea. This was VERY helpful. The nurse had my mom and D each hold one of my legs...thus, moving D down from his "safe zone". I'm happy to say he complied and did an awesome job getting involved. I would grab my legs to pull myself forward and try to curl over my belly, chin to chest, and push as long as I could hold it.

Pushing is hard work. I would equate it to a really intense workout, which I was pleasantly surprised about. There was no screaming or cursing D's name, just some hardcore breathing and the feeling that I was going to burst a blood vessel in my face from pushing so hard. Basically, every push the baby's head would come down further and then when I would stop it would go back up a little bit...very slow going. As things got closer the nurse actually got D to look at the top of the baby's head and once he saw that, he said he watched the rest of the action. I totally wish I had a mirror, but I was so set on continuing to push, I didn't want to break for anything...I was ready to get things over with. The first hour flew by, but I was a little disappointed as midnight approached and there was still a baby lodged in my birth canal. ;) I remember thinking that I was really getting exhausted as we got in to the next hour, but I didn't want to sound like one of those wimpy ladies on "A Baby Story", so I decided not to ask for a break...or a C-section...or to come back and try again another day, but I'll admit, I thought about all three. It was never painful, just extremely exhausting.

A random thing people don't warn you about with labor:

It smells. Horrible. To the point that I was certain that I had pooped all over the delivery table. D and I talked about this later and he admitted that he was trying not to gag at one point. I guess it is logical to think that all of that fluid that has been marinating up inside of you for 9 months might not smell pretty, but again, nobody ever told me to expect that!

Thankfully, soon after things began to get super smelly, the doctor decided to make an appearance and lather the top of Grace's head up with baby shampoo to encourage her to slide on down. She was stuck on the cusp of entering the world for what seemed like foreverrr. Apparently women have internal "bands" and one of them was tight enough to not want her to pass further down. I'm probably making up medical terms and human anatomy facts, but that is how I'm remembering things or how they were relayed to me at the time. As she continued to make her way down further, I was able to touch her head and feel just how close we were getting. This really helped with my motivation. We also started to just push whenever I felt like it and not necessarily wait for contractions, which honestly I couldn't feel much of anyways. Finally, as the top of her head was out, the doctor came in and gave me some instructions for how to finish up pushing. Basically instead of going all out, we would ease into the push and then push hard for the last 5 counts. This would help with Grace making her way out slowly and hopefully not causing too much damage to me in the process. Fabulous.

From this point, things went by very quickly. Her head came out, I felt a lot of pressure (but still no pain), and the biggest relief ever as the rest of her body came out/slash, I'm pretty sure the doctor did some pulling or pushing on my lower stomach...I'll have to ask D again about that. She was immediately put on my chest, all gooey and purple and perfect. I expected to bawl like I do at other baby stories, but honestly I was so relieved and amazed at what I had just done, I just stared at my little girl and tried to breathe. She wasn't on my chest long before they swooped her away to clean off and weigh, measure, and do all of the other newborn tests that are required. One thing I love about our hospital is that they do all of these things in the room, so I could watch her the whole time while the doctor got to inspect the damage and deliver the placenta- which, p.s. is way more uncomfortable than birth. I literally said outloud, "That wasn't too bad, I can do this again...in several years..." Seriously, I will be the spokesperson for epidurals.

The dirty details- I never did poop on the delivery table. How that happened, I have no idea, but has the big day approached I was obsessed with the thought of it happening. I had warned D, had tried to mentally prepare myself, and honestly if it did happen, I seriously would not have cared. After giving birth you become the least self concious, non-private person ever. After multiple people see your who-ha in the worst condition of it's life, you really don't have much to care about. As far as damage control, I somehow walked away (except not walk, because I still had no feeling in my legs) unscathed. I didn't have any stitches and aside from a little internal scrape from that band that didn't want to loosen up, things were pretty good. As far as how things feel afterwards...swollen is the word I'll use. Also, the biggest suggestion I can give people is icepacks. Immediately. They help. The next day I felt pretty sore, but I would compare it to what you might feel like after doing 5,000 squats. Not terribly uncomfortable, just slowww going when it comes to movement. Oh, and one more thing- back to pooing- nobody ever told me that it was normal NOT to be able to go for several days after birth...so I obsessed about it. Now I know that it is normal to go 4-5 days without going numero dos. Weird.

Back to my baby girl. :) She was and is perfect. She looks like her daddy, who is the most proud, helpful daddy I could have asked for. My favorite moment with her after birth was after she was done being cleaned and swaddled and given back to us to hold. She just stared at both D and I, so alert and quiet, just taking us in. It was amazing to meet the little person that I had been carrying around for so long. Now for a ton of photos of my girl...