Bryson always teases me about how the minute you get a group of women together they start sharing their birth stories. This post is in direct support of that claim, but I'm going ahead with it anyway. Before I even got pregnant with Eleyna I was thinking about trying natural childbirth with my next baby. Overall, I had a good birth experience with Hunter. However, there were enough things that bothered me about the event to motivate a change.
So, for my prenatal care, Bry and I decided we would try a midwife instead of a doctor. Halfway into my pregnancy we realized that some midwives are just as medicalized as doctors. We found a midwife practice that was more in line with what we wanted and switched. About three and a half months before my due date we started attending Bradley classes. The Bradley method (also known as husband-coached childbirth) is a natural birth method that teaches with adequate preparation and education, along with help from a loving, sympathetic coach, most women can give birth naturally-without drugs or surgery. Bryson was very supportive of my desire to deliver naturally. He did quite a bit of reading on the subject and attended all 12 Bradley classes with me, without complaint.
Finally, it came time to put everything we had learned into practice. After a lot of pre-labor during the four days leading up to the real thing, I woke up around 5:30 AM on Thursday and knew that I was in active labor. I woke Bryson up a little while later and we started getting things together to go to the hospital. We were both worried about getting Hunter his morning meds and decided to labor at the house for a while so we could administer them as close to the normal time as possible. This proved to be a mistake.
Bryson was making some phone calls when my contractions really picked up. I was trying very hard to implement all of the relaxation I had learned in our Bradley classes, but I was missing "the coach." The laboring position that provided the most relief was sitting on the toilet. However, things were accelerating at a crazy rate and soon there was no relief to be found. By the time Bry and I were ready to leave I was in transition. (I didn't know that at the time.) Getting downstairs to the car about killed me.
Bryson was sweet to me even though he was now enemy #1. He kept trying to help me relax, even though he was getting yelled at in response. When we walked into the hospital the woman at registration immediately asked us if we needed a wheelchair. (I'm sure my face said it all!) Even though anyone could see I was in hard labor they still made me go to an observation room initially instead of a delivery room. Once I was on the bed the nurse checked me and told us-to our surprise-that I was fully dilated. The midwife was 20 minutes away but we decided to start pushing with the available doctor (Dr. Allen).
Pushing is supposedly the part of labor a lot of women enjoy. For me it was simply very, very painful. It took me a couple of pushes to figure out what I was doing and really move the baby down. During the pushing, Bryson was supporting my right leg. At one point, it felt like he was pushing on my leg instead of helping hold it up. I jerked it away from him and whacked the doctor right in the face with my foot. I think doctors prefer delivering women with epidurals because they prevent things like that from happening.
I definitely felt the ring of fire when the head crowned. Once the baby was out the relief was intense and wonderful. I started crying immediately. The next couple of minutes are kind of a blur to me. Eleyna had the cord wrapped around her neck twice so I didn't get to hold her right away. (She was perfectly fine, but they wanted to make sure.) Our doula, Kirsten, spoke up after a couple of minutes and asked if I could nurse the baby. It felt amazing to hold her in my arms. She was so beautiful. After spending about an hour together, Bry and Eleyna went to the nursery for her bath. Kirsten stayed with me. She gave me a massage and got me something to eat. It was nice to have someone there to take care of me.
When Bryson and the baby got back from the nursery our family had arrived. The entire experience was complete once Hunter was there. I can't describe how it felt to have our little family together for the first time. It was so special!
My recovery has been really easy and Eleyna is doing great. I'm really proud that I was able to give birth like I wanted. In retrospect, if we hadn't done things naturally, we probably would have ended up at the hospital much sooner and possibly needed some kind of medical intervention depending on if the epidural had slowed down my labor. (Eleyna's heartbeat was a little distressed during the pushing which could have been a problem if she hadn't been born so fast.) I'm so grateful to all of the family members who have helped out since Eleyna's birth; in particular, my mom and Janeen. My mom came every day the week after Eleyna was born to help with the kids. I'm so lucky to have her! My mother-in-law stayed with Hunter while we were at the hospital and brought us some meals once we were home. She is always so willing to help out in any way she can.
I don't get much sleep at night lately, but life is very sweet right now. Of course, I would be a complete mess without my best friend-Bryson is my rock, as always. It melts my heart to hear him call Eleyna, "sweetie." He is such a gentle man. I couldn't ask for a better father for Hunter.
I hope you are all ready for some more pictures because we've taken a million! Here are some of the latest.
