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| Well, around 2 AM Thursday night I stood up and felt a trickle. "What's this?" I thought, thinking maybe I'd gotten a little incontinent. As I made my way to the bathroom I realized it wasn't stopping. I realized my water had broken! I was amazed since I really didn't expect that to happen to me before labor began! Well, a few minutes later I had a pretty whopping contraction and the whole thing burst (I had no idea how much water was actually in there!). Within minutes I was having increasingly strong contractions and they were just a few minutes apart. I called the midwife around 3 and told her I wasn't really sure when she should come. I felt no urgency but she figured since she was an hour away that they'd make their way over. I also called a friend to come stay with Jacob. About 4:30 both my friend and midwife got to the apartment. By this time, the contractions were getting really strong with hardly any rest in between. They were also centered in my back like last time, even though neither this baby nor Jacob were posterior...guess it just must be the way I labor. MW checked me at 4:45 and I braced to hear that I was hardly dilated...but I was at 5-6 cm! I was in labor with Jacob for 8 hours before I did a centimeter! Well the next hour went really fast, I just wandered from room to room having a contraction what felt like every 30 seconds. I kept wanting to pee, too, and every time I got on the toilet I had a faint pushing urge, which I thought was weird. This whole time DH is filling the labor pool, with a bucket because the adaptor we got for the hose doesn't work! Finally around 5:20 I was getting sick of laboring on land and yelled for them to hurry up with the pool! Just about every other contraction at this point was an incredibly powerful one that took my breath away and REALLY hurt. At about 5:30 they said it was ready and I got in. I floated through one contraction which felt great, but during the next one I couldn't get comfortable. I suddenly realized that I wanted to push...but I figured there was no way I could be ready yet! I was urged to do whatever felt right (but I couldn't have held back anyway) and my body literally took over and pushed the baby out. Within 3 contractions and 5 minutes his head crowned. His head was born for about 5 minutes before the rest of his body, but the midwife realized the cord was tight around his neck so she asked me to push even though I didn't feel the urge...talk about hard...I can't imagine how women with no sensation there are able to push babies out! I just couldn't find the right muscles. Anyway his body was born. He was a little limp and unresponsive at first, but Mickey (MW) gave him three breaths and he coughed, cried and pinked up right away! The whole time I was completely calm, I had no doubt he'd come around. It was an incredibly easy, calm and short birth! Pretty unbelievable after the 16-hour back-labor panic-ridden hospital birth Jacob had. He weighed 9 pounds 11 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long, and I had no tear to speak of (a little "skidmark") and today I feel great...much better than I did the next day with Jacob. The baby was an enthusiastic nurser from the first five minutes and we are doing great with breastfeeding...too great almost...he wants to nurse all the time and my nipples are purple and excrutiating and I have afterpains like you wouldn't believe! But other than that, I feel really good. I can't believe how much having the home birth helped with everything from breastfeeding to after-birth bonding to how much better I feel now...I know this labor and birth were different but I know having him at home has to fit in there somewhere.
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lactomom,
can also be found at: www.nurslings.com.
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