Delivering Baby Coleman

My labor with little Coleman was a long one. 35 hours! It didn't go at all as I had planned it, but I'm perfectly happy with how everything happened and couldn't be more grateful for the wonderful midwives/nurses at the hospital where I delivered. Levi and I had been practicing Hypnobirthing and were doing relaxation exercises almost daily to prepare for a non-medicated labor and delivery. I kept pretty quiet about our plans because the few people I told always had a horror story to tell me about how awful giving birth is.

Thursday the 5th I went in for my appointment in the evening. The midwife I saw told me I was 2 cm dilated and 75-80% thinned out--a little progress from the week before. Like the week before, she stripped my membranes to help induce labor. We didn't really expect it to do anything, since nothing had happened the previous week except for some cramping for a day. The cramping started immediately after the appointment and continued on until I went to bed but I didn't really think anything of it.

3:00am Friday morning I woke up with a really strong contraction. There was no mistaking what this was! I stayed awake to see if it would happen again and 10 minutes later another one came. They continued coming every 10 minutes until 5:30am, when I got up to shower. After I showered the contractions started coming every 15-20 minutes and seemed to feel a bit lighter. I was afraid of labor completely stopping so after Levi left for work I took Tilly on a pretty speedy walk. By the time we walked back into the apartment, my contractions were back to being 10 minutes apart and feeling stronger. My dad and grandmama were heading down from Orange County to take me out to lunch that day, so I spent the morning running around the apartment making sure it was as clean as possible and making sure everything was prepared for when Levi and I had to go to the hospital. All the cleaning/packing REALLY sped up my contractions, and by 10:00am they started coming every 2 minutes. I timed them for an hour then called Levi and told him to come home. My dad and grandmama arrived a few minutes after 11:00am only to be told that we couldn't go out to lunch after all, which I felt kind of bad about. Levi came home, I called the midwife to let her know we were coming, and we took off for the hospital at 12:30pm.

At this point I thought I must have progressed pretty far and thought I would be one of those women who have easy 12 hour labors. I'm laughing at myself now.

When the midwife checked me at the hospital I was still only 2 cm and was 90% thinned out. Disappointing news, yes, but she told us to eat lunch and walk around the hospital for a couple hours to see if that would help. The baby's head was SUPER low so we had a lot of hope that walking would be "that thing" that would really set labor into motion. No such luck. I was exactly the same the second time I was checked and was sent home.

We arrived home at around 4:30pm. For the next few hours I tried a few different methods of relaxation so my cervix could relax and open up: hot baths, visualization exercises, massage, progressive relaxation, etc. My contractions continued being 2 minutes apart during this time and were lasting 60-90 seconds apiece. With each "relaxing" thing I did they became more and more painful. At 10:30pm we were headed to the hospital again, this time with me crying from the pain and Levi driving a little faster than normal.

The midwife checked me at 11:00pm and told me that after 20 hours of labor I was still only 2 cm only. I COMPLETELY lost it! I yelled out "are you kidding me?!" and just sobbed and sobbed. After I had sort of calmed down he gave me the option of going on morphine for the night so I could sleep and allow my body to relax. I lapped the idea right up and spent the next half hour with the baby being monitored to make sure he would be okay while I was on the morphine. Unfortunately his heart rate was dropping with each contraction, so going on morphine would have been too dangerous for him, so he suggested I get an epidural instead. The anesthesiologist was in a c-section so I from midnight to 2:00am I had some medication injected in that took the edge off the pain and made me drowsy enough to sleep a few minutes. The midnight checked me right before I got the epidural, and in those 2 hours I was relaxing I progressed from 2 to 5 cm. Finally, some good news!

The magical epidural went in at 2:00am and I was out like a light. I'd been up for almost 24 hours and was ready for some sleep! I got a solid 3 hours in before the midwife checked me a little before 6:00am. I was 7 cm opened. (Progress!!!) This was a little slower than what the midwife wanted to see, so he put me on pitocin to try and speed things up. At 8:30am a new midwife, Erica, came in to check on me. She was the midwife we had seen the day before when we walked around the hospital. I was still at 7 cm, so she broke my water. At that point she told Levi this would be his last chance to get something to eat because our son would be born within the next few hours. Levi went down the street to his beloved Jack-in-the-Box (I told him to treat himself there since he'd been such a trooper so far).

At 12:30pm Erica checked me again and I was at a 10!! My nurse, Jen, got everything ready for me to start pushing and brought in a mirror so I could watch what was happening. I have to say, pushing was BY FAR the best experience out of this whole thing, and probably the best experience of my entire life. Erica told me to be prepared for at least a couple hours of pushing since I was a first time mom. I had already been in labor for 34 hours and decided I was NOT going to spend another 2 hours pushing. I started pushing at about 1:10 and at 1:48 I watched little Coleman come into the world! Erica was really surprised at how fast I was able to push him out, but I think having the mirror and being able to watch what was happening made ALL the difference!

Coleman was placed on my stomach right away and a lot of his vitals and tests were taken while there. It was such an awe inspiring moment having him lay there against my skin, looking around at the new world he is now a part of. He didn't start crying for a while, so nurse and I rubbed him and she flicked his feet until we finally heard a cry come out. Even after letting out a few cries, Coleman was completely calm and wide awake during everything. It seemed like he was just taking it all in.

Meeting Grandma and Grandpa

First Family Picture

The view from my bed in the postpartum recovery room. I loved looking over and being able to see his face.

This post has taken me 3 days to write and my baby is calling for me, so that's all for now!