On September 21st I woke up at 3:30am to take a lovely potty break, as I did often in the early hours of the day. I'd been having braxton hicks for weeks, but nothing had happened until now. I began having contractions. After laying in bed for 2 hours and having regular contractions, 7 min apart, I finally decided to get out of bed to not disturb Wayne from sleeping. I wen't to the bathroom again, and this time I noticed a gooey slightly pink substance. My mucus plug. It was starting to come out. I was getting a little excited, because before that time I had 0 progress. But things were happening now. I went and layed on the couch for a little while. When 5am came around I figured I should use a pad, just in case things got any grosser down there. When I went to grab the pad from underneath the sink I stood up and a gush came from my crotch. There goes my water. Ha! Luckily it wasn't the whole thing all at once. After my trip to the bathroom, I decided I should try and get some sleep. After all if I were going to have the baby that day, I needed more than 3.5 hours of sleep. But it was hard to sleep because the contractions were distracting. Around 7am I finally was able to fall asleep in between contraction. When 8am came around I had to get up and get ready to go see the midwifes for a prenatal visit that morning at 9. Wayne had gotten up, because he heard me in the kitchen making breakfast. He had asked why I had been out of bed for so long. "Oh you know, just having contractions." I replied. Hahaha! He was a little surprised, because from up until now I wasn't showing many signs of labor.
While I was moving about, getting ready, and driving to the Midwifes office I noticed my contractions were becoming less intense and not as often. Maybe that was it. Maybe my water didn't break and my body was just getting ready. When I got to the office I had the Midwife Helene (One of the many wonderful midwifes) check me. But before she did, I told her of the many events of that morning. When she checked me she said that my cervix was at 3cm and 90% effaced. Woohoo! But, she didn't think that my water had broken, because things felt pretty hard still. She told me that when I had liquid running down my legs, then that would be a good sign of my water breaking. She soon left the room and I stood up to get my pants back on. When sure enough liquid running straight down my leg. Now I wasn't going to rush into the hospital, because the midwives wanted me to wait until I was around 7 cm to get there. I know, 7 cm may seem a bit close to pushing time, but because I wanted a natural birth there would be no point for me to hangout in the hospital for forever. Besides we only lived 5 min away from the hospital.
When I arrived back home my contractions were becoming strong again. Wayne had a class that day from 11:30-12:30 and he was a little nervous to go. But I reassured him that there wasn't anyway I was going to be going to the hospital anytime soon. And off he went. At this point I didn't want to just sit around. I began packing the rest of the things for the hospital bag. My contractions were now becoming stronger and I would have to stop what I was doing and breath during my contractions. Wayne then got back from class around 1pm and I was all packed and ready for when the time came. But before we would even think about going to the hospital, I needed food. And of course we needed to go grocery shopping that day because we were all out of food. We proceeded to drive to Broulims to get a quick lunch. Now, my contractions at this point were being really random. From 2-5 min apart and lasting anywhere from 30 seconds to 1min. You could only imagine what I was going through at this point. It was kind of hysterical actually. Going into Broulims while in the middle of labor and trying to look as normal as possible so that no one would notice what was going on with my body.
When we got home and ate our lunch, things were really starting to happen. But still my contractions were being random. The midwives wanted me to go with a 5-1-1 rule. That being my contractions were suppose to be 5 min apart lasting for 1 min for at least 1 hour. We decided to wait a little longer and see if things would become more regular. When a little after 3 pm I told Wayne that I was done and it was time to go. Before we went to the hospital we went to go the Midwifes office first to have them check me, just to double check that I was in actual labor. Because if it was a false alarm the hospital would charge us to check me, when the Midwives would not. But as we arrived we found out that Helene was already at the hospital, and all the other midwifes had the day off. The nurse at the office told us to just go to the hospital. Off we went. Luckily I had already preregistered and check in was quick and easy. They didn't check me right away because I told them that I thought my water had broken early that morning so they got strip of paper that would tell them if the liquid sitting on my pad was my water or not. And sure enough it was. Helene and Karen (the student midwife) soon came into my room to check my progress. It was 3:30 and I was at 6cm.
To kill time and help with the pain we decided to walk around the halls. Eventually I ended up in the Jacuzzi. I was able to relax fairly well in between contractions. I sat in the tub for around 2 hours. When I got out I felt like I was getting ready to push. They checked my cervix and I was at 9cm. Almost ready. When the time came I tried many positions. Standing with the bar, standing with Wayne holding me (while I pee'd on his shoes I might add), toilet, hands and knees, and many more. After pushing for over an hour the midwives had me go onto my side and try there because they could tell that I was getting tired. As I pushed they kept saying "Good job, you are almost there." In which I thought that maybe I was crowning and I was almost done. That was false hope. Because I was no where near that point. Finally when I was actually getting close (I knew this know from the burning ring of fire) I looked and spotted his little head. It looked like a potato was coming out of me. It freaked me out because I thought that me was going to be some sort of mutant or something. While I was pushing I could feel his head breaking through to the outside world. But every time my contractions would stop and I would relax and his head would pop back inside of me. At that point I was getting fairly mad and my body was exhausted. The next contraction I was going to get his head partially out and hold it there in between my contractions so that I could get him out of me. I was determined. I did one more big push and his head came! One more and he was OUT! The most relieving feeling in the world. At 9:37 after two hours of pushing out little Ezra was here. The midwife handed him to me and Wayne and I were so excited. He was so perfect and not a mutant. At this point I was going to try and nurse him, but little did I know this was going to be impossible. I was torn from my head to my toes. They never actually told me how many stitches, but I was bound to the bed for over an hour while they did their handy work on me.
I have never been that tired in my life, but so filled with joy and excitement at the same time. I feel so blessed to have been able to have the natural birth that I had prayed for. Ezra did so well the entire time with no complications. He is the joy of our lives and we can't imagine loving anyone more than we love him.
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