Labor and Delivery in Detail...

I know that there are a bunch of people (mostly my friends) who would like to hear more about labor but I also know that some of you are not so interested in those potentially gory details, so be warned...

Okay so for more details- Thursday was Match Day for 4th year Med students all around the US, including our friend Cameron (Sam's godfather- his wife Jen is his godmother). Thankfully, Cameron and Jen received their first choice for residencies in Fresno, CA, and we went over to celebrate with them. It was a great time- and we didn't really expect to go into labor until at least later on Friday as we were going to try castor oil as an aid to starting labor since Sam was 12 days past his due date and I'd have to be induced on Monday.

All that to say that we didn't get to bed early at all- I think I fell asleep around 2:30am and woke up at 5:10 with contractions and feeling pretty sick- puked a few times. I have to admit that my first contractions got me a little panicked- I just was assuming that my labor would be long as many first time deliveries are and so I thought with those first contractions "Gosh, if this is how the early little contractions feel, I'm in over my head." Just in case, I had John start timing the contractions and tried to focus on if they were all the same size or if some were smaller than others. One of our midwives had told us that first time moms often think they're having a fast labor when really they're counting some contractions which are just aftershocks to the real "earthquake" contractions. Around 7:15 my mom came down and took over the recording of contractions while John went back to sleep for a few hours. By then, I was doing pretty well with my contractions- fairly successfully following my plan of trying to 'relax' into the pain of labor- but it was still intense. Around 9 I was having contractions that it was impossible to remain at all relaxed during and I screamed out quite a few times- I think that that is when John woke up again and he and my mom decided to take me into the birth center. I told them that I had the urge to push- and they were really surprised because I’d only been in labor a little while. In retrospect, I was in transition that last half hour at home and in the car on the way there- poor John and his eardrums J

We got to the birth center and were greeted by our midwife, Nancy, who helped me through two monster contractions and really supported and calmed me. When we got into the birthing suite she checked me and found that I was ready to push, which was a great relief to hear, partly since I was already pushing some in the car and partly because I was still expecting to hear that I was still just 4 or 5 centimeters dilated and still had a long day and night and day ahead of me. I pushed for about 45 minutes and though the nurse and midwife were concerned at points about Sam’s heart rate, he came out just fine with just a small bit of tearing. At first, though, he didn’t breathe- partly because of meconium aspiration, but after a little tlc from the staff he was all fine and back on my belly.

The nurse and midwife both happened to share our faith in Jesus and after Sam was born they sang the Doxology with us- which was so wonderful. I really loved the care they gave me.

His first day was great too- he breastfed right away and has a great latch which is super but also pretty painful. He slept for a five hour stretch yesterday afternoon, and for six hours last night- that was great!!

I’m sure there will be plenty more updates in days to come- so stay tuned if you’re interested…