the birth of Doak Bailey

Saturday morning, December 1st I had some signs that labor might be starting, but I put them out of my mind because I didn't want to get my hopes up! Saturday evening during and after dinner I had some contractions but thought they were just Braxton Hicks. I went to bed around 12 midnight. I don't think that I really went to sleep that night. I started having contractions early Sunday morning and around 1:30am I got out of bed to see if they would stop if I changed positions. The contractions continued so I got online to time them on contractionmaster.com . I woke Keri up around 3:30am to have him help me time the contractions while I took a shower. I told him to go back to sleep for a little while and I think around 4:30 or 5am we got up and started getting things together to go to the hospital. We also woke up my Mom and Dad who were here visiting for the weekend. I was able to breathe and talk through the contractions really easily at this point and my main area of pain was in my back. I sent Keri to Walgreens to get some thermacare heating pads just before 6am. He picked up some breakfast, ate quickly and then we went to the hospital. When I got to the hospital I was dilated to 4 or 5cm and about 80% effaced. We got checked in and put in a room right around 7am-shift change time. My nurse came in and talked to me and I told her that I was trying to go for a natural childbirth. (I decided around 34 or 35 weeks that I wanted to try to go without an epidural and I was a little nervous that my OB and the hospital staff might not be supportive). My nurse, Janet, was wonderful though. She brought in an exercise ball for me to use and started my IV antibiotics for the group B strep. She put my IV on a heplock-once the antibiotics were finished she unplugged me from the IV so I could walk and move around without being confined to the bed. I used the exercise ball tons or stood up and leaned on Keri for most of my labor. I was checked around 11am by the nurse and she said I was 8cm. I thought things would move pretty fast from here. I was listening to some awesome instrumental/nature sounds music on the ipod and was really doing well concentrating on the contractions. My OB came in shortly after 11am and checked me-he thought I was only 7cm. I was a little upset, but Keri gave me a quick pep talk and we continued on. All throughout the day I focused on small goals. Addie and Mom and Dad came up around 1pm and that was a nice distraction. Around 2pm I was checked again and was still only dilated to about 7cm although I was fully effaced and he was at a very low station. My nurse and OB brought up the topic of breaking my water. I knew that breaking my water would really move things along and make the contractions much harder and I just wasn't sure what to do. So we took 30 minutes or so to discuss and then we decided to break my water since I hadn't progressed for about 3 hrs. Things started getting really unbearable after that and my OB figured out that Doak was posterier (face up). I had been having major back pain for the past few days so hearing this made so much sense. The main pain in my body all during labor was in my back. From then on I was in so much pain, looking back it was like a bad tv movie-I was screaming, thought I was going to die, etc! I ended up asking for some drug to get me through to pushing and was told I couldn't have any narcotics (can't remember what reason they gave). So I asked for an epidural. All along I had told Keri to remind me why I was wanting to go natural and if I asked for an epidural to distract me and try to talk me out of it. But I looked him in the eye and told him I didn't think I could go on any longer and he could see how serious I was! It probably took 10 minutes for the anesthesiologist to get there and Keri and Janet really had to stay right by me to help me make it through those contractions. After the epidural took effect we rested for about 30 minutes. Then Janet and Dr. C came in and started getting ready. We pushed for about 20 minutes and then Doak arrived! After he was born Dr. C and Janet said, "oh, he's kind of a big baby!" We had no clue he would be so big and even after he was born we were thinking he might weigh 8lbs or so. No one could believe it when the nurse read the scale that he was 9lbs. 8oz.! Doak got all cleaned up and we got a chance to bond as a family for a few minutes while I nursed him. Keri went out and announced to our (shocked) family and friends all the details and he brought Addie back to meet her new little brother. She did great and was so sweet to him. Then everyone took turns coming in to see and hold Doak before the nursery nurses took him for his bath. Doak is the sweetest baby. He sleeps all the time and is nursing really well. I feel really good, just a little sore, but I'm recovering well and slept better last night than I have in a month or so! We're blessed to have had mom here this week and Keri took 4 days off to help out too. Addie is loving her role as big sister and we couldn't be more blessed to be a family of four!