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I had my baby :)

Mama AngelinaMama Angelina member
in D.C. Area Babies

We welcomed our second son, Mason Madrid (Madrid is my Spanish grandmother's maiden name), on January 24th at 10:41pm.

He weighed 7lbs, 6oz and is 20 inches long.

Here is the long version of M's birth story for those who like to read them:
 
3:30pm - my water breaks when I get out of bed after a nice nap.  I call DH and tell him to wrap things up at work and come home, but I am not yet having any contractions.

5:30pm - DH arrives at home soon after contractions begin, which are short in length (30 seconds) but regular and quickly gaining intensity.  He helps me through them as we take care of the last items on our to-do list.  On the phone, the doctor tells us I can labor at home until the contractions become unbearable, or I could go to the hospital now if I wanted pain relief.  We are hoping for a med-free birth as I haven't reacted well to pain medications in the past, so we decide to stick it out at home.         

7:30pm - my friend comes over to help with Owen and give me moral support.  She is calm and super helpful, even making me laugh in between contractions.  Things really start progressing and I have to focus hard to make it through the pain for the next two hours.  I start to get nauseous and feel weak and irritable, which told me I was in transition stage of labor and better head to the hospital!   
9:20pm - We take the 15 minute ride to the hospital, which was possibly the most miserable experience of my life.  "What was I thinking staying at home so long?!?" was pretty much my recurring thought as I white-knuckled it and irrationally demanded DH run the red lights (after looking both ways, of course!).

9:45pm - We are finally in a hospital room, and I strip down as I'm feeling so hot and restricted by my clothing.  I get on all fours because the contractions are coming so quickly.  A nurse starts an IV in one of my wrists, and I want nothing more than to donkey kick her for jabbing me right in the middle of a strong contraction.  I can feel them wrap around and seize my back muscles, confirming that the baby is still in a posterior or "sunny-side up" position (the way Dr. Tchabo said he'd been the last few visits).  Owen was also posterior and I recalled the intensity of the back pain near the end of my labor.  I begin to doubt myself and am feeling like I can't go on any longer.  I ask if I can have something for the pain in my back.  Anything!!!  They check me and we're all kind of shocked to discover that I am 9cm!  I had a total of 72 hours of labor with Owen (prolonged early labor), so I couldn't believe I had progressed that much in just a few hours.  

They estimate I would have about 15 minutes before I needed to push, and it was definitely too late at that point for an epidural or any other pain meds.  It takes me a minute to accept the fact that I would really have to do this all by myself, but I figure I can endure 15 more minutes since I've come this far already...and I focus on 'breathing the baby down' as they instructed me.  I moan (and curse) my way through the next 10 or so contractions, and DH is doing his best to encourage me and cheer me on while the nurses and doctor are running around getting the room prepped.  I feel the baby's head pushing on my tailbone and I rock on all fours to release some of the pressure from my lower back.  DH puts hard counter-pressure above my sacrum, the way we'd practiced in Bradley childbirth class 3 years ago.  It was a while back, but he remembered just what to do.  

Soon I am 10cm and complete, and I feel the urge to push.  For the next half hour I mostly squatted and curled around my belly with all the strength I had, half-praying, half-yelling to the Lord to get my baby OUT!  I could feel the baby slowly descending with each push, which was pretty neat but also crazy intense!  Then after another set of the worst kind of back contractions, they told me that the baby's head had turned and was now in the correct position (no longer posterior).  And with a few final pushes and coaching from the nurses and doctor, my little boy was here!  They remarked how big he was for being an early bird, and it was no wonder he decided he'd cooked long enough and it was time to meet his family.  It was such a relief and a reward to finally hold my son after all that hard work.  He is just perfect.


I am doing Mason's newborn shoot tomorrow, but here are some snapshots from his first week at home.  Big brother Owen is over the moon with his little brother!


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