Birth story

Campbell Mae made her grand entrance to this world on 11/16/2013.  I have been wanting to document her birth story, and figure I better do it quickly as it is seeming more and more like the distant past.  

My due date was 11/18, and with both of my 2 previous births and even my miscarriage, my labor started at 1am.  I stayed home the longest with E, but with both my kids, I was dilated to a 6cm when I got to the hospital.  In all my appointments leading up to her arrival, the midwife would say she was in an okay position but could be better, in that she was head down, but not completely facing the right direction.  This made me completely petrified because what was so difficult with M's labor is I had SO much back pain because he wasn't facing the right direction, and then I ended up stalling when I was 8cm.  So miserable.

I'm always amazed how waiting to go into labor is so exhausting, but for the most part, I felt peace about God's timing.  My mom flew in on Thursday and we were able to spend Friday together which was a huge blessing.  I woke up Saturday morning at 2:45am having somewhat painful contractions.  I was still able to drift off to sleep, and since it wasn't completely characteristic of my previous labors, I wasn't sure it was the real deal.  At 4:30am, I was still in bed and felt a pop in my belly and quickly realized my water broke.  I made it to the bathroom without making a mess, and I just could hardly believe my water broke.  I wasn't having regular contractions, so I called my midwife and she said I could stay home 2-6 hours.  Very quickly, I began having regular, painful contractions every 2-3 minutes, and around 6am I decided we should head to the hospital.  

When we got to the hospital, I was dilated to a 6 and they got me into my room at around 6:30am.  The next hour of my life was a painful, extremely intense haze.  At first I was having lots of back pain but was still able to breath through the contractions, feeling pretty controlled.  However, the contractions intensified quickly and I definitely felt like I lost some of my control.  Different than with E's labor, I felt most comfortable sitting on the bed, partially reclined, partially on my side.  As the contractions intensified, my body just started spontaneously pushing.  The midwife checked me at 7:35am and I was complete then I had her at 7:38am.

Needless to say, that last hour was unbelievably painful...but at least it was short lived.  I still look back in complete awe of the experience.  And then, we had a beautiful, dark-haired, 8 pounds 9 ounces little girl that they quickly laid on my chest. 

I'm always amazed how the difficulty of pregnancy, the intense pain of childbirth fade in comparison to the wonder and joy of a new baby. Children truly are a blessing.