.birth story - part one.

once upon a time i had a baby.

the end.

Elliot Douglas Robertson: Born May 1, 2013 at 4:14 pm weighing 7lbs 5 oz.

That was the story for people who don't want to hear all the details. Those of you who do, stick around- but I will likely talk about how yucky placentas are and things of that nature.

At 4:30am on Wednesday morning Kevin was leaving for work and I was having some hip discomfort from what I assumed was a massage I had the day before. The discomfort was mild, but enough to keep me awake so I listened to my hypno birthing cds as I usually do when general pregnancy issues keep me up at night.

Around 6:30am I heard a small "pop" and felt like the baby kick me hard in the crotch. (baby was head down and there was no way he could have kicked there) I knew instantly that my waters were breaking. I got out of bed and held in the waters until I got to the toilet where they all came out. **mildly gross fact: I captured some in a cup just to make sure that it was my waters. there was that cheesy vernix that babies have on them floating around in there, which signaled for sure that I was going to have the baby sometime in the next day or two!

I texted Kevin letting him know that I wasn't having contractions yet, just some hip discomfort, and I would text him if things picked up. Well, it didn't take very long for my hip discomfort to turn into mild cramps that were becoming rhythmic. I decided to time them just out of curiosities sake. They were much less uncomfortable than period cramps so I knew it couldn't be real labour yet. The cramps were about 3 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute long. I gave my midwife a call just to give her a heads up. She said to call back when I thought I was in active labour, or when I chose to simply breathe through contractions instead of talking during them.

Kevin arrived home at 8:30am so he could start me with my hypno birthing. He read to me the scripts prompting me to relax my body and rolled a massage ball over my hips. I ate a big breakfast in the meantime to make sure I had the energies for later in the day. (hurray for shreddies and bananas). We called my midwife around 11:00am letting her know that I preferred now to be silent during my surges. She suggested we meet at the birth centre around 12:00 noon for an assessment, and if I was in active labour- I could stay and hang out in the birth tub! (I was so looking forward to this, the bathtub at home is small and awkward and I couldn't wait to be in the big one!)

The car ride wasn't very fun, it was jolty and my cramps didn't like it much. I started to have pressure in my butt. I felt like I had to take a gigantic dump. When we got there she checked me and I was 7 cm. Kevin and I were both so surprised to hear that. The morning wasn't intense or too uncomfortable in the least.When we heard that news, I knew that this was 100% possible to have a natural birth and I knew that I had been doing a good job letting my body just take over and being calm and relaxed through my surges. We kept listening to the hypno cds through the whole thing. She let me get into the tub which was SOOOO nice. Like amazing. I cannot stress how enjoyable it is to be in a warm tub of water while laboring. I also very much enjoy being in the nude, so that could have added to the awesome.  I felt very calm and in the waves of surges that came over me were so natural and wonderful feeling, knowing that Elliot was making his decent through my body and getting ready.  I honestly loved every minute of these stages. She checked me a half hour later and I was 9cm so she made me get onto the toilet into squat position to try and reach 10 cms. I didn't like this part very much. I missed my warm water!  I just hugged Kevin and with each surge I squeezed his legs while he stood over me and rolled the ball on my hips.

Thankfully I only had to be there 15 minutes before she let me back into the tub. I just relaxed in the water between surges for about another 15 minutes until I started to feel the hugest urge to poo I have ever had ever. This one was a doozy. Now that I look back on it, I am kinda grateful that all those iron pills made my stool into hockey pucks during pregnancy. I am not one to brag... but I think I am pretty good at pushing out those hockey pucks. Turns out, babies are harder and larger than hockey pucks.

I started pushing with each surge. Just a push or two each time, allowing baby to slowly make his way down. I came into this being paranoid of tearing so I took it as slow as humanly possible. I pushed for 2 hours with the surges. Taking nice relaxing breaks in between each surge. My legs are killing me today because I was pushing against the side of the tub sometimes with a ferocity that would have frightened Chuck Norris himself.   His head kept coming in and out and in and out for an hour until it was just close enough to come out. Kevin was watching the whole thing. He kept telling me- "Oh, I see the head! You are almost there! And then I would relax between the surge and he would say "Oh, never mind. We lost him." For the last part I got on my hands and knees in the tub and used some good leverage to get him out once and for all. It took one last surge and he just slid right out. My midwife swam him under the water until I turned around and then brought him out and put him on my chest.