May 7, 2009 {Ellen & Tony: roaring like a crazy lion viking warrior}
I’ve been meaning to email you but you know how crazy things get! So Oliver was born at 8:53 am on Wednesday morning and weighed exactly 7 lbs. On Tuesday morning at 3:30 am I had gotten up to pee and water gushed onto my bed. I checked it with the paper Christina had given me and sure enough, it was amniotic fluid! So at 9:30 am we went to the birth center and Christina gave us some herbs and sent us off to get acupuncture since I was having erratic contractions that were pretty low intensity and far apart. We went for 2 walks, I did some prenatal yoga and a lot of waiting (impatiently).
I putsied around all day and we had dinner with Christina at my house and things were getting moving. I took some castor oil and by 8:30 pm was having moderate contractions at regular 8-10 min intervals. Tony went upstairs for a nap as we were all convinced it was going to be a long night and my mum and I stayed downstairs. I used my birth ball during contractions and it helped A LOT. I also started getting in the shower at around 10 pm when the contractions were 5 min apart and much more intense.
Tony and I went upstairs around this point and “watched” some funny shows and just labored together on the bed. It was getting way more intense and I was not paying attention to the TV at all anymore. I was sleeping in between contractions and still getting in and out of the shower. At 1:30 am Christina came over and did the first vaginal exam and I was only 1 cm dilated, she manually dilated me to 4 and man, did that hurt. I threw up!
I pretty much lost track of time at that point and was just focused on making it through each contraction. When I finally got in the tub it was so much more comfortable. When Christina checked me she said I had an anterior lip and that was preventing the baby from descending. She had to get it off his head. That was so painful….but helped so much. I was roaring like a crazy lion viking warrior person and ended up having Oliver on the floor of my bedroom after 1 1/2 hours of pushing. He had a hand up to his cheek and the other arm behind his back and a super short cord… he didn’t even reach my boobs when he was passed to me.
Tony was amazing, he was calm and supportive the entire time and there is no way I could have done it without him. It was by far the hardest, most painful thing I have ever done in my life and I am so proud of myself for doing it at home and not giving up. Christina, Jodi and my mum, Nancy, were wonderful. It was the perfect birth team.
Oliver is so cute, I can’t even stand it. I love him completely and he is worth every second it took to get him out. Thanks for everything!
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