July 6th, 2008 He's here!
Happy Birthday, Uriah!
I am so happy to finally have him in my arms and not in my belly. I did it- no more anticipation, just enjoying his little presence. I'm so glad to be on this side of it now. Now I get to get to know him instead of wonder how I'll do getting him into the world. The labor went very well, and I'm very pleased with how everything turned out!
Saturday, July 5th I decided to stop being "careful." Caylin and I bought a dresser for our room and lifted it together several times. Later on that day I carried a double stroller upstairs and outside to hose it down. That evening Caylin went for a brisk walk, and when we reached the end of our circle I challenged her to a race to the house and won (she was pushing the stroller though, and I got a head start).
At 2:15 I woke up with an unusually painful contraction. Went to the bathroom, and told Sam that it kinda hurt. He said something along the lines of "Well, just wait it out." But it didn't really let up, and I said, "These really hurt, I think we should maybe time them." He rolled closer to the edge of the bed, and with his eyes closed, he said, "I am." I thought, "How are you timing my contractions, you can't even see me?" He was way too tired to be very alert. I told him we should think about calling our midwife, and then he got up. From the time I got up to go to the bathroom the contractions were already less than 5 minutes apart and were getting increasingly painful. Sam started filling up the pool, Caylin started putting plastic down and arranging things. Sam helped me through my contractions by letting me hang on him (poor thing- it was killing his back) until the pool was deep enough to submerse my belly.
As soon as I got into the pool it was instant relief. It slowed my contractions down so that I had an extra couple minutes inbetween to rest and prepare for the next one. I was surprised how much relief the warm water was to my body. Suzanne arrived, my parents, and a church friend/veteran mom of 7 also arrived. Suzanne was doing her thing, my mom was holding a cold rag to my forehead, Sam was pushing on my back, and Emily was reminding me to relax my muscles during my contractions. Everyone was doing something to help me with my labor, and without them I don't think I would've done as well.
This time around I had a different mental game plan going into labor. I had felt pretty out of control with my last labor, and I wanted to handle it better this time. I focused on not bracing myself for the contractions, tried to let the pain "take over" which ironically, when I did that, the pain seemed to subside. I imagined pushing my baby down, tried to moan and breath through them to help them be as productive as possible. What also really helped was when Sam asked me, "You want to see your baby boy?" That really motivated me to keep going strong.
My midwife asked me if I wanted to feel the head, so I reached down and didn't feel the head but the bag of waters sticking out, still unbroken. Weird. But encouraging that atleast something was coming out! I had been on my knees leaning over the edge of the pool for most of the time. I had a lot of back labor this time which sucked. I thought I had been pushing a lot and he still didn't feel quite close enough to the exit, so I thought I'd try squatting for a while. I leaned my back against the wall, and I think it helped him to come out faster. I actually experienced that pushing took the back contraction pain away, which felt good. As good as labor feels anyway until he started crowning, and then I felt the most burning, crazy pain until his head popped out, and then the 2nd most incredible relief ever right next to him coming out all the way and knowing that I wouldn't have to push anymore to have him in my arms. I guess Suzanne knew somehow that he was having trouble coming out because his hand was next to his head (which was weird cuz Jane did the same thing), but she reached in there and fixed the problem. I guess that's when the bag of waters broke. I pushed him out, Sam caught him, and placed him on my chest. Praise the Lord! I just sat there not even looking at him, just thanking Jesus that I had done it, and that it had gone well. I laid there and caught my breath, rejoiced in having my son in my arms. Sam cut the cord, and they eventually moved me to the bed. Suzanne told me I had a 1st degree tear -one front to back, and one from side to side on one of my labia. I guess his hand next to his head did that one. She asked if I wanted stitches. I declined, but already feel way better than last time (last time I had an episiotomy).
At the beginning I knew that I had started to poop (embarrassing!) but Suzanne assured me that it was okay, and I knew she was just fishing it out of the water. Before I had really started to push Uriah out, I hadn't even looked at the water. I opened my eyes for a second and saw that I was in murky brown water- gross! Who knows if it was from my poop or what- but whatever. Afterwards I asked Sam, "Did I poop a lot?" He looked at me and goes, "Yeah... a lot." Oops. Oh well, what can you do?
So Uriah's here, he eats a lot, and causes lots of painful postpartum uterine contractions. He weighed 7 lbs 8 oz- 1 1/2 lbs more than Jane. 21 inches long- 4 in. longer than Jane. He's big! When I look at him I can't even imagine how in the world he fit inside my abdomen. He was born at 4:09am, making labor 2 hrs long. He looks way more boyish. He has long arms and big man hands :) He has little Sam side burns, and hardly any eye lashes. There's nothing petite about him like Jane was. He's probably starving right now, so I better check on him. |
