My Photo Adventures: James Michael

So James was born on April 5th 2012. Sorry it took so long to post but better late than never, right?!

So I will share my birth story:

Tuesday night, April 3rd, around 10:30pm I started to have some uncomfortable contractions about 10 minutes apart. I started timing them for a while. Around 1:30am on Wednesday I finally called the midwife on call, contractions were at 3-4 minutes apart and gaining some strength. She said to come on in and they will check everything out. We called mom and said we were gonna drop off Taylor. We told her to stay home until morning and we know more of whats going on. So they stayed home and slept. When we got there, they monitored James and then checked me out, I was at 3cm at 2:30am. So they had to clean the tub room before I could go in there. I was planning a water birth. So for the moment I was rotating on a birthball with a heating pad on my back, which was killing me. Kris was so calm and helped me in breathing through the contractions.
Finally around 5:45am, they had the room ready but they wanted to check me before we moved rooms. I was at 5cm, yayayay. Getting there. So we went to the other room and while waiting for the tub to fill I was having hard contractions. Finally the tub was filled and I got in and it was ohhh soooo soothing, but Kris and I were soooo tired. Around 7am Kris' mom called to check on us and tell us they were dropping Taylor off at our friends house and they would be on their way. When they arrived Kris went to rest for a bit, while mom took over coaching. Then the midwife came in and checked me again I was only 5 1/2cms two hours later. Then the contractions started tapering off. So I got out of the tub to see if I could get them back. It worked for a bit. Then they started to get about 10 minutes apart and then around 5pm they all but stopped. I really wanted the midwife to break my water but she refused. I asked my nurse to call a different midwife, the one I had seen since week 6, Barb, she is just soooo awesome. The great thing was she was right across the parking lot so she came over to talk to me. She could see that Kris and I were exhausted and she suggested we go home get some rest. With her being the one to tell us it would be better to go home, I was so much more comfortable. She also gave me some advice on natural induction. Well then after talking with her for about 30 minutes, we all left. Mom took Taylor for the night. Kris and I got some dinner and slept for almost 12 hours.
Around 2pm on Thursday, mom brought Taylor home. While she was there I told everyone, "I wasn't going to go in til I felt the need to push." Kris and mom agreed and mom said that I would know when it was time. Then about 4pm I asked Kris if he minded if I took a nap. He said "no problem". So I went to sleep. Then at 5:50pm, I was awakened from my nap by what felt like an explosion on the top of my stomach and it hurt soooo badly, I woke up screaming. Then I ran to the bathroom, still screaming. Kris called his mom to ask what could possibly be going on and she told us to call the midwife. He called her and left a message and she called us back and when she called back, I was in sooo much pain with every contraction (which I didn't think were contractions cuz my stomach was not hardening and it was only in my groin area of my hips). Kris described my demeaner as the exorcist. She said to definitely come on in. I stood up and realized that my water had in fact broke.
We called mom and told her we were dropping off Taylor and heading to the hospital. They said ok. When we got to their house, dad came over and asked how I was doing and at the time I refused to talk and he saw my face and said he understands. Then off to the birth center we go. We got there at 7pm and I was not able to do much. I got out and only made it to the car next to ours. I was soooo super shaky. Then mom and dad showed up while I was still in the parking lot. Dad went and got a wheelchair for me. They told me they needed to monitor James for 20 minutes before I got in the tub. Every contraction he would move away from the monitor. UGH. They also couldn't get my BP because everytime they would push the button I would have a contraction and they would have to stop it. At first, Lois (the nurse) was coaching my breathing while Kris, mom and dad got everything situated and together. Then Kris came over to rub my arms and encourage me to calm down. Mom was my breathing coach. I felt like I couldn't go through with it without an epidural but of course I had my wonderful coaches helping encourage me. Then all of a sudden I had the need to push and I couldn't fight. Mom said "you can't push yet, you still have your cloths on". The Caitlyn (my midwife) said "at the end of the next contraction, I'll pull your pants off", it ended, she pulled and looked down and said "you need to push". Four pushes later at 7:31pm on April 5th 2012, James Michael was born at 7lbs 12oz, 19inches long.
I was sooo happy I was able to do it naturally this time around. It didn't go as planned but it was great. I was in labor for an hour and a half. So much better than 8 days. And true enough, the pain from SPD did go away almost instantly. I was so happy to not be in pain anymore.

Now on to some pics: