Hayden: Labor and Delivery

I've had a couple people ask me about my labor and delivery with Hayden so if that kind of thing makes you squeamish.....stop reading. :)

Contractions woke me up Thursday morning around 4 am. I started tracking them at 10 minutes apart but they started getting closer together and by 8:30 they were 3 minutes apart lasting about a minute and a half each. At that point we were off to the hospital. When we got there they said I was just dilated to a 4 but my contractions were strong, consistent and they felt I would move quickly from stage to stage.

They moved us to a delivery suite (normally used for multiple births) which was huge. I was allowed to move around the entire labor process. And I was able to take a warm shower too, which really helped with some painful contractions.

My water did not break on its own. When I was dilated to about a 9 my doctor broke my water. They thought that the baby would be close behind, but because my bag of water was thick and full I actually went back to being dilated to about a 7.

At this point I hit the wall. There was not much if any break between contractions, I was tired and going backward was demoralizing. But you can't stop......so working through more contact ions I finally felt the need to push. Up until I pushed I pretty much stood, leaned and swayed the entire labor. I pushed for about 30 minutes and had the baby before my doctor came back into the room at 1:25 p.m.. Thank you nurse Amy for being good at delivering babies without a doctor. :)

What our bodies do naturally is amazing to me. This time, I felt more empowered to tell the nurses what I needed and I that made me able to focus and control myself more. Relaxation is the key......well that and having a great doula and very supportive (literally) husband. :)

Thank you to all those praying and thinking about us.