A Fish out of Water: Emilee's Birth Story

      Ok, so, here we go. I know I wrote a post earlier about how freaked out I was about the concept/possibility of being pregnant and having a baby, and as I suspected, that all changed. When I first suspected I was pregnant I was already pretty sure of it, maybe because I had spent so much time a couple years before looking up symptoms and obsessing over it. haha. But either way, I was quite certain because my period was late and my boobs were ballooning out of control! I went up a whole cup size overnight! That was really my first indication. I had been thinking it was time to start our family for a couple months, but we weren't really trying.
     Just to be certain, I waited until a full week after my missed period to take a home test. It was January 3rd (I think), my first day back at work after the Christmas break. I studied the instructions several times to make sure I was reading it right, and since the 2nd line was so faint, I asked Ray if it looked like 2 lines to him too. Not the most romantic way to tell your spouse your expecting, but that's the way it happened. Even though I knew I was pregnant, I set up an appointment at the doctors office to make sure it wasn't a false positive. To show how nieve I was, I didn't realize hospitals consider a positive home test to be sufficient proof. Anyway, they confirmed it and thus began our journey into parenthood.
     I dove into all kinds of pregnancy sites and signed up for a pregnancy e-mail. I perused a plethora of information on birthing options, labor methods, what to eat/do and not eat/do, the pros and cons of imunizations, how-to's on breastfeeding, etc. Lets just say, I did my research, and it was all a bit overwhelming! Once we found out we were pregnant we began talking about moving back to Maine to be around family, which we both really wanted. Whether we moved back to Maine or not though, we knew we needed a bigger place, so we started looking into houses. All in all, with all the changes on our horizon and not being sure where this baby was actually going to be born, I felt as though I couldn't really look for birthing classes and choose a hospital untill I knew where we would be. My insurance through work only paid for Kaiser care (a western united states company) unless I was referred, and they didn't have midwives, so I chose a doctor & nurse-midwife combination. I wanted to have as natural a birth as possible, but I also knew my mother had had 3 cesarean's because her body wouldn't dilate enough...the doctors told her her pelvis wasn't big enough for her babies...and I knew that was potentially genetic. Because of that, I wanted to give birth in a hospital in case of complications, but I also wanted to avoid a cesarean if at all possible! I put together a birthing plan all the while allowing for the possibility that I might not be able to do it vaginally.
     I had a GREAT doctor, I have to say, because he did all he could to help me deliver vaginally. He took my goal and made it his and I know not everyone has the good fortune to have such an understanding doctor. However, even though I did have our daughter vaginally (thank God!) I was not able to do it completely naturally.
       I started having contractions Saturday, September 8th, 2012 (a day after my expected due date), but they were not consistent. They would get up to 5 or 6 minutes apart, then slow back down to 10 or 15 minutes apart. I had contractions like this all saturday and sunday! On Monday I finally had contractions 3 minutes apart for an hour, so I went into the hospital around 3pm. I was 3cm dilated and fully efaced! They admited me imediately and the doctor came and broke my water. He figured I would dilate very quickly after that because I was already fully efaced. However, I did not. My contractions continued to vary and I made very slow progress dilating. after about 7 hours I was still only at 5cm! They gave me something like a shot of novocaine in my back to take the edge off the pain and allow me to sleep, hoping to encourage my contractions that way, but no such luck! Because I was fully efaced, but not dilating, our daughter was getting a bruise from pressing on the birthing canal, so they put me on a drip of pitocin to help keep my contractions steady. That was about 12 o'clock I think. I barely needed any to do the trick and I dilated relatively quickly once the contractions were consistent. With the consistent contractions wearing me out (I was exhausted already because I had been in early stages of labor for 2 days already!) they gave me another shot of the pain medication (around 2ish?) to allow me to sleep and when I woke up, it was time to push! I never fully made it to 10cm, but the doctor was able to deliver her anyway. She was crowning for quite some time, because I just didn't have the energy to push very effectively. Finally though Emilee Rose made her entrance at 5:43am on Tuesday, September 11th 2012! She was 7lbs 3oz and 21.5in long! The placenta came shortly afterwards and they were all very interested in it because it had two sections to it instead of just one.
       I am super greatful for an uncomplicated pregnancy (I didn't have any very noticeable symptoms, not even any specific cravings!), and I am greatful to the doctors and staff of Penobscott Valley Hospital for taking my birth plan seriously and really being my team and helping me to delivery our daughter vaginally. They were really great. :) My mother and my husband got to witness the birth and both were a great help/comfort in the midst of labor. :) Here are some pictures of our journey: