The birth story of Cole Alexander (long)

It has been a wonderful 11 days since I gave birth to my first son, Cole Alexander and I wanted to make sure I got my birth story written before I forget some of the details. So here we go . . .

The morning of my due date (12/29), Nick and I went to my OB's office for another check-up.  We heard Widget's heartbeat, asked a few questions, and I got checked by my OB.  She said this time I was dilated to 2.5 cm, about 75% effaced, and the baby's head was sitting at +1 station (meaning his head was only 1 cm above my pelvic outlet.  This was good news! I also had been having some signs of positive progress in other areas too.  The OB had to hurry somewhat because she had another woman to deliver!  Exciting.

So, after that Nick and I went to take care of some errands the rest of the morning and ended at Five Guys burgers for a delicious lunch.  It was quite tasty as always.  Then once we got home we went for our second walk of the day.  At this point, I had been feeling lower back pain most of the morning, but it started to feel like it may be coming in waves and getting stronger.  After the walk, I decided that I was probably having early pressure waves (contractions).  Once we got home, we decided to play some Kinect Sports (which we just purchased that day).  At this point, I had to begin sitting down during pressure waves in between playing rounds of the game.  Nick had to laugh that after the pressure waves were over, I went right back to playing.  However, after a little while I had to stop the game because the pressure waves were getting impossible to ignore and I had to use my light switch to turn off (a hypnobabies technique). 

Then we briefly video chatted on the XBox with my Dad, but at that point I could no longer just sit or stand through the pressure waves and I had to use my light switch to try and relax through them.  After a short conversation, I decided to call our doula and let her know what was going on.  At this point it was about 6:30pm and my pressure waves were about 6-8 minutes apart.  She suggested I lay down and listen to a hypnosis script and then time some more pressure waves and let her know.  So I did just that and after the script, the pressure waves were between 4-6 minutes apart.  She said she'd be on her way in a little bit and I decided it was time for me to get into the bathtub to relax a little more.

The bathtub was really nice to relax in, but I could still feel the pressure waves coming fairly strongly.  Nick stayed by my side and helped talk me through each one.  He also brought me juice and water to keep me hydrated.  Around 8:30, our doula arrived to help us out.  Shortly after she arrived, we timed a few more contractions and they were between 3 and 6 minutes apart so we decided to call the doctor and get ready to head to the hospital.  We finally got loaded into the car and arrived at the hospital around 10pm.  They checked me in and I was only 3.5cm dilated but very effaced.  I admit I was slightly disappointed that I had not progressed further, but figured oh well, I'm in it for the long haul now.

I relaxed as best I could for the next 2 hours in the rocking chair which was the most comfortable position I could find at the moment.  My legs began shaking incredibly hard due to the hormones and standing was too hard because my legs felt too weak.  Around midnight, I began feeling very nauseous and vomited. :-(  After that, the nurse checked my progress.  At that point I was 5cm dilated although I did not know it  because I asked the nurse to tell my doula and Nick about my progress, but not me.  I did not want to become discouraged in case my progress was slow.

Most of the night I spent time in the rocking chair, with some movement to the birth ball, the bed, and of course the bathroom.  Around 2:30am, my doula suggests that I try to get into the shower for a half hour since we had enough of a good strip to allow me to come off the machines for a little while.  During this time Nick was able to get a quick nap in because he was fading pretty fast. He was so thankful for this nap & kept him going to see his son.  The shower felt good and helped me to continue to relax and help me dilate. After another half hour, things felt much stronger and we decided to try a hands and knees position to help get gravity in my favor due to the back labor.  I got checked once again and this time was at 8cm.  At this point I bgan to really question my commitment to avoid any drugs because I felt that things were much stronger.  Now I realize that I was indeed in transition. 

At this point I was having a lot of back labor and the pressure waves were coming really close together.  I was lying on my side with Nick, my doula, and my nurse all massaging my back and hips and boy did it help!  At 4:45am I felt an urge to push, but my water still hadn't broken.  Therefore, I asked to have the doctor break my water so that I could hopefully get pushing.  The doctor came in, broke my water and said, "ready to push?" because I was completely dilated and ready!  Only about 12 hours after I realized I was in labor, I was ready to push out my baby!

I pushed for just about 2 hours with the help of Nick, my nurse, and my doula.  I tried on my own and was not pushing very effectively, so I accepted the help of the nurse and an oxygen mask to give Cole more of a reserve.  Finally by 6:30 am, Cole's head was showing consistently.  He was crowning for about a half hour, and not able to fit out, so the doctor asked if she could cut a small episotomy and I agreed so we could get him out.  Within a few minutes, he was out and up on my chest!  It was amazing! 

Nick and I were so excited to see our little boy and decided he did look like a Cole.  After that we got to spend the next while enjoying our sweet little Cole.  What an amazing experience and one I would repeat again even with all the pain.  Well worth it!