Ariana Soleil is here! (erinh2005)

erinh2005 · April 2014

Woo hoo we did it!!!

Short version: Ariana Soleil born by natural vaginal delivery (2nd deg. tear) on 4/22/2014 (39w5d) At 8:08pm weighing 7lb11oz and 20in long!

Long version: Following my OB appt. Mon. where my Dr. checked me and said I was a stretchy one cm (but it would be optimistic to say I would go into labor this week as a FTM: due date 4/24/14) I went to get up to pee at 2am Tues morning. I felt a little gush and saw that I lost the rest of my mucous plug. I wasn't sure if the extra fluid was water bag or something else so I laid back down and attempted to time my contractions. But no luck as they were not spaced evenly (but annoying enough I wasn't able to go back to sleep all night). So with just 2 hours of sleep I got up and showered early Tues. a.m. I had a wax appt. and planned on attending a breast feeding class in the afternoon. And DH was finally packing his stuff for labor with the possibility that my water was leaking. I wanted to give myself the best chance for a med-free vag. delivery so since my contractions still weren't evenly spaced I decided to go about my day. With the car finally packed DH drove me to my wax appt. at 11am so we could be ready to go to the hospital together if needed. I called my Dr. to let her know about the possible amnio leak, and she said to go ahead and get checked to be safe. So it is now 1:00pm and after getting signed in the midwife checks me to say I am now a 3-4cm but water bag was intact. (The fluid turned out to be from a yeast infection I didn't know about?). They had said since I was hoping for a natural birth I should go walk around for a while and get rechecked at 3:30 (two hours later). So DH and I walked around the Beverly Center for two hours. I had to stop for each contraction (which seemed like 3mins apart) but it freaked me out to time them since we were going back to the hospital either way. So we checked back in and she said I was now a 4-5cm! Contractions were coming frequently and the nurses kept making comments that I was the calmest patient on the floor and I was managing really well. This was very encouraging for the birth plan I wanted! So as I labored the hours kept going by... I would be checked every once in a while and each time I had made progress! There was finally a series of two contractions where I felt the BM sensation that everyone talks about. I told the nurse and upon checking I was 9cm. Dr. finally broke my bulging water bag and instructed the nurse to allow me to start pushing. This was HARD work. Not only the most pain I've ever felt, but the hardest work I've ever had to do. The nurse was great at coaching me through since I've never done this before! And she finally calls in the Dr. And from there it was only a matter of minutes before Ariana was placed on my belly while I was being stitched up from a 2nd deg. tear. Such an amazing experience for this proud mama!!!