My natural birth story (very long)

So here is my birth story of Cailin May.

On Wednesday, three days after my due date, I went in for a dr's appt. at 4:30. My dr. checked me and I had progressed to 2cm (yea!) finally and so he was able to strip my membranes (this was at about 5pm).

After I got dressed I went to the bathroom and had a little bit of spotting. DH (Andrew) and DD came to the appt. with me and we drove to McDonalds for dinner after. In the car I started having cramps and by 6, in McDonalds, I was having contractions.
We got home and Andrew put DD to bed and I called my mom to give her an update, as she would be driving to WI from OH when I went into labor. I told her I was having contractions that were about 5-7 minutes apart and to pack a bag, but would call her in a couple hours just to confirm it was labor/that we were going to the hospital. After that I start cleaning up the house, doing last minute packing for my hospital bag, etc. Andrew actually went over to school (across the street) to play guitar for an evening service. He kept his phone on him and I was to text him if I needed him home.

I finally took a shower and stayed in there for a while. My contractions went to 2 minutes apart at around 7. It didn't concern me becuase they weren't super painful yet, and the same thing had happened when in labor with Alli. But while in the shower, I was starting to feel a little pressure with each contraction. Not pushy-pressure, just pressure. So I got out and dressed and texted Andrew. He was home in 30 seconds, I swear! So I called my dr. and he said he would call the hospital for me. I also called my mom who was shocked we were going already.

So at about 9:45pm we headed into the hospital. We got there and checked in, got settled in the room, IV in, checked (4cm), preliminary questions out of the way. I asked to be able to move around so they took the belly monitors off but stayed connected to the IV and Andrew and I went and did laps in the hallway for about 20 minutes. They were coming about 1 1/2 minutes apart and I had to stop for each one to breath through them. It really helped to lean over and rest on the rails on the walls for each one. I had to go to the bathroom and they were getting stronger, so we went back to my room. I then asked for the birthing ball, got set up on that and pretty much stayed there the rest of the labor. I sat in front of the bed so I could lean over on the bed during each contraction. Andrew sat on the bed and ran his hands through my hair with each one, which felt really nice. I also tried to bounce on the ball between contractions and if I could, during them.

The contractions were getting stronger and stronger and I really tried to physically and mentally relax and open up my pelvis during each contraction. I visualized my cervix dilating more with each one that I didn't tense up during. That was my goal, to not tense up, to let the dilating and baby descending happen.

At 12am the nurse had me get into bed to check me becuase I was feeling quite a bit of pressure at this point and the contractions were pretty strong. I was at 7cm so she said she would call my dr. to come on in, since they knew I had only pushed for 20 minutes with DD.

He got there at 12:45 and by that point I was feeling a lot of pressure. I was still at 7cm so he went ahead and broke my water to see if that would let things happen faster. He then left the room to let me continue laboring I guess. Well, within 2 or 3 contractions I was feeling MAJOR pushing pressure and it was VERY difficult to breath through and not push. The nurse just kept saying, Breath, don't push. The longer you don't push the lower the baby will come down before pushing.    It was just SO difficult. My vocal level reached a high at this time. Before this I was able to keep it at a higher pitched Hmmmming sound. Trying not to push I started saying Shhhhh or Fffffff really loud. Finally at just before 1am I had a contraction where I felt her coming. I yelled out, It's coming!!!

The nurse then said with the next contraction to give a little push to practice and she would see if I was complete or not. I knew at this point that if I did a push it would be a big push and the baby would come, so I decided not to really do anything. Just a little nudge. So then she said, OK, with the next one I really want you to push. At this time I thought, "OK, there is no dr. here, the bed isn't taken apart, the warmer isn't in here, but she is telling me to push and I need to push, so I'M GOING TO PUSH!!" So I did. Cailin started coming out very quickly which surprised Andrew and the nurse but not me. The nurse was telling me to stop pushing, to breath, while pushing buttons and yelling for "someone get in here NOW!!!". In that first push Cailin came out until her head was halfway out. The second push during that contraction delivered her the rest of the way. I looked down and there was this incredibly bloody baby laying between my legs on the bed and I just started saying "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry". About 15 seconds after she was born, nurses started running in the room as well as my Dr. A little too late

Because no one was in the room at her delivery, Andrew was able to announce that she was a girl, which didn't even register with me. A couple minutes later (if that) I said, did you say she was a girl? I then opened her legs to look. I had been SO convinced that she was a boy, haha... She was just so beautiful and so calm when she came out. I was going back and forth between being in complete amazement over her, over what had happened and repeatidly apologizing.

So after everyone got in there, they put the baby on my chest and started tearing apart the bed, putting the stirrups up to check me out and deliver the placenta, which came out without in pushing. The dr. just gave a couple tugs. He then told me that I had a small tear on the bottom that would need 2 stitches and a small one on the top that he wouldn't do anything to. That wasn't that bad, even though I was completely aware of him giving me the anesthesia shot.

In the 25 minutes following her birth, she laid on my chest for about 10 minutes and then they took her to check her out and get her wrapped up. I noticed during this time how much blood had come out. It was everywhere. She was covered, the bed was covered, it was on Andrews shoes, I was covered in it all down my legs and even feet and then on my chest where she had been laying
.
After she got wrapped up they gave her back and I nursed her for the first time. She latched on within 15 seconds - it was great. She has been a great nurser ever since, latching on correctly and quickly every time.

Recovery has been really great this time. MUCH easier than with DD, which is what I had heard. What I hadn't heard is that the "after-contractions" you get are actually worse with each child you have. I can now confirm that that is very true. The cramps from those have been far worse than the stitches and bottom pain, although already MUCH better this second day. My bleeding is also super light already by the second day. Almost non-existent actually.

So overall, everything went great. From the time I got my membranes stripped to when she was born was just about 8 hours, and with just 1 push, I would say it was a successful event, even though there wasn't a Dr. present, haha...