Talk About a New Baby

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I can't believe we finally have a baby to talk about!

Baby Girl (no name) Gallagher
Born May 15, 2008
10:46 p.m.
8 pounds 8 ounces
20" long

This was her weight 24 hours after delivery.

The short story is that I labored all night on Wednesday, went to the hospital Thursday afternoon at 2:30 even though my labor had stopped completely because I was determined to have a baby anyway. My labor started up again at 6:30. My midwife broke my water at 7:30. I was dilated fully at 10:30 and our new baby girl was born at 10:46 with no epidural and no stitches. All wonderful and good!

If you want the looooong version keep reading.

Persistence loves her baby.

Last Tuesday I was four days overdue without any sign of going into labor so I made an appointment with my midwife and had her strip my membranes. Gross and painful. I had painful contractions all day and all night for two days but no labor. I didn't get any sleep Wednesday night so I decided I was going to have this baby on Thursday. I was done being pregnant!

I got up and showered and got ready to go and then got everyone else up. I had made Stranger take a couple vacation days so he was home. It's always a fear when I'm having babies, that he will be on a train somewhere in the middle of nowhere when I go into labor.

We all went to my Mom's for breakfast. My sister and niece were there but they didn't end up getting to stay to see the baby come because they had to get back to work on Friday. That made us all very sad!

We had to give Sweetness a couple bottles to help her jaundice.

We left our ten year old boy and three year old girl at Grandma's house but we took our eight year old girl with us. I thought it would be a great experience for her to be there during the entire process and plus I needed someone to keep Stranger busy so he wouldn't do anything crazy. He can get a little out of hand when surrounded with expensive medical devices and equipment and tries to use it all on me. Twittering also gave him something to do. I'm excited that he was able to twitter through the entire thing and happy that some of you followed all the action! It's fun to look back and see exactly what time everything happened.

So then we were off to the hospital but not before stopping at one of our favorite Chinese restaurants first which was a good thing because I wouldn't be eating again for many hours.

Momma and baby Au Naturale.

We got to the hospital at about 2:30. It was very weird pulling up and walking into labor and delivery because at this point I was not in labor in any size shape or form! I was having contractions no less than 30 minutes apart!

You know how lazy I am? Well I am also very stubborn. Once I decided I was having a baby I was determined. Stranger kept telling me we should wait. "Didn't you want this to happen naturally," he asked me? Yes! "Then shouldn't we wait till you go into labor?" NO!

My good friend brought me this beautiful bouquet from her garden!

The nurses at the hospital all thought I was as crazy as he did but they checked me in anyway and put me on the monitors. I was dilated to 3 cm and 70% effaced. I told them to call my midwife and that she was going to come in to break my water. They came back and said they talked to her and she didn't know anything about it. Well, not today! She told me that on Tuesday! Again with the crazy looks. Especially when I informed them that I wasn't going to be having any pitocin. So they had this pregnant woman on their hands who was not in labor, was not going to be induced but thought she would be having a baby today. Mmmm-kay.

Like I said, when you're 6 days over due they don't send you home so after monitoring me to see that in fact I WAS NOT IN LABOR they took us to our own room and said Kathy (my midwife) would be coming to check on me after she was done at the office. Stranger and Persistence went out to wander the hospital and eat dinner while I took a nap.

Lovely picked flowers for us from Grandma's garden.

At 6:30 I woke up and felt so much better after a night with no sleep. I sat up in bed and immediately started having the best contractions ever! Finally! I was so excited! Bring on the pain. But not too much pain please. Kathy got there an hour later and broke my water. At that point I was 5 cm and 90% effaced.

At about 8:00 Stranger called my Mom to have her bring the other kids to the hospital. I wanted them there for the delivery too. They all sat in the room with us until things got too intense. At that point I sent everyone out and ordered the TV off.

My contractions were strong but still too far apart to do much so we waited. And waited. And everyone kept trying to talk me into have just a TINY bit of pitocin to help things along but I would have none of it. I was already in so much pain that I knew I couldn't take any more and I didn't want to end up with an epidural so I waited it out.

Kathy tried to get me to walk around but there was no way I was going to wander the halls in a hospital gown, laboring in front of the entire world! I spent some time on a birthing ball instead which felt pretty good.

I love how grumpy Lovely is in these photos. She didn't get a nap the day we came home so she was a force to be reckoned with. Somehow we all survived.

At 10:12, almost three hours after my water had been broken I was still only 7 cm and getting very frustrated and exhausted and scared that I couldn't do it anymore. Kathy was still trying to talk me into having a little pitocin and Stranger was siding with them so I finally relented. Just as the nurse was going to give it to me I had a horrible pain and felt something sort of pop inside me. I said, "Wait! Something just happened!" Kathy checked me and I was ready to go!

At 10:22 we brought the kids in and the nurses filed in. We had a full house with three kids, Stranger, my Mom, my midwife and four nurses. I found out later that almost NOBODY goes natural around here so I had the attention of the entire labor and delivery wing. My main nurse had to give up her other patients to take care of me and the rest of my stay in the hospital every staff member that came in my room would say, "Oh, you're the one who went natural!"

I tried pushing with the next contraction but Kathy said my cervix needed to open up just a little bit more so I waited for two more contractions. I kept waiting for that feeling that other women talk about where you feel like you HAVE to push but I never felt that. I finally just started pushing before anyone could tell me not to.

Awwww!

It is the weirdest thing to feel the head coming down the birth canal. I got her head out and then decided that the rest of her was coming out right then too. I was so done. Persistence said she shot out like a rocket and about went flying over Kathy before she could get a good grip on her! I was surprised that I never felt the "ring of fire" that I felt with Lovely when the head came out.

I was so happy and relieved and kissing my baby's head by the time they told me she was a girl. What a shock! We had all decided we were having a boy. Except for Lovely. She knew she was getting a girl baby sister all along.

You would think the worst would be over at that point but you would be wrong! All the sudden Kathy started doing unspeakable things to me and I started screaming and almost jumped through the roof. I also nearly squoze the life out of my newborn baby daughter that I was holding. She started wailing before I came to my senses and realized what I was doing. Hmm, maybe giving the baby to Mom right after delivery isn't such a good idea? (Stranger said I wasn't actually screaming so that part must have been happening in my head.)

Wide awake!

Apparently (as far as I know) the umbilical cord broke off the placenta which started hemorrhaging so she had to shove her arm inside me to stop the bleeding until the placenta was delivered. Maybe someone knows more about that sort of thing and could explain it to me. All I know is that I thought she was trying to kill me!

It all ended well after that and I feel great. I think the labor was a little bit harder than my last one because I had more back labor but I was happy with how things went. I loved having the kids there and Persistence stayed with me the entire two days I was in the hospital, bringing me drinks and bonding with her sister. She is amazing. Stranger was there with us the first night and then I made him take Victor to a Father son camp out that I didn't want them to miss.

In case anyone is wondering about giving birth without an epidural I will say that it is very scary and hard but it is a wonderful experience. I did it with my last two babies and I wish I had done it with my first two. One of the main reasons I did it was because of the complications that are involved with the epidural. Why risk them if you don't have to? But I gained so much more out of the experience than that. I never really felt like I gave birth to my first two babies. They were just medical procedures. But my last two deliveries were real. They were experiences I will cherish forever.

I want to thank all of you for your warm wishes and for all your support during my difficult pregnancy. It's amazing how blogging can brighten my day and make challenges in life a little bit easier because I have people to share them with. Thank you!!!

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