As everyone who reads this blog (or generally knows us) knows, Jason and I spend a lot of the pregnancy working with the midwives at the DC Birth Center for a natural birth at the Center. Well not surprisingly this was not Lilah's plan :). (Warning: Labor details to follow, so skip to the end if you don't want to know.)
Aprox, 7:30 on Friday night I realized that Lilah was soon to be on her way as my water broke - a sure sign that labor is beginning. However, I had no contractions at the time so knowing the midwives would tell me to eat dinner and head to bed - off to Darryl and Beth's for a home cooked meal we went - talk about it being hard to keep a secret. After dinner with no sign of contractions yet to come, I talked with one of the midwives who said (not surprisingly) "Go to bed as you will need your sleep and we will talk in the morning". For all of you who may be doing labor math - the Birth Center will allow you to go 48 hours after your water breaks before they will induce labor if everything else looks good.
So Saturday morning comes around and Beth calls to tell Jason she had a dream that we had the baby and didn't tell her - wow the look on his face when he hung up the phone without saying anything to her. With only sporadic and slightly painful contractions at that point., we talked to the Birth Center again and agreed if my contractions had not started and were progressing by mid-afternoon (after long walks with Hunter) I would try to take Castor oil, a non medical remedy that in many cases can induce labor. And boy did it! By 9pm both moms were getting packed and we were getting in the car to head to the Birth Center to follow our plan as scheduled. (NOTE: Here is where Jason gets extra kudos for not driving off the road while his wife was having contraction 2-3 minutes apart). It was at this point that ALL of the natural birth class work we had done kicked in and was worth every class and every penny spent.
As promised when we arrived at the Birth Center there were two midwives - Maria and Diana - truly the most exciting site my sore eyes (and back) had ever seen. They had the room set up for me and were ready to go. So for anyone who doesn't know - this is where it got fun! Upon checking to see how far along I was - we discovered that Lilah was no longer (if she ever was) head down - instead she was a butt first baby! (insert jokes here). So the good news is I was 7cm along - the bad news was that was no longer a good thing as breech babies are not delivered naturally and we had to keep her contained until we could get to Washington Hospital Center for a very unscheduled c-section.
So this is where the kudos to the Birth Center folks begin. Clearly this was not our plan or their plan - but turning the plan on a dime (or a butt - hehe) they could not have been more wonderful or supportive. It would have been quite easy at this point for craziness to ensue, but they kept it calm, reassured me constantly and made sure that Jason and they were with me every step of the way. To keep the rest of this very long story from becoming too much longer - Lilah came out healthy, happy and screaming her lungs out - just perfect. We got discharged on Tuesday late afternoon and are so happy to be home.
I plan to keep this blog going as Lilah grows since it has worked so well for our pregnancy at keeping in touch with friends and family. So check back frequently and we will update when we can. The first update will be fun filled information on our first pediatrician appointment later today as well as our sleepless first week at home.
Thank you so much to all our friends and family who have been there for us the last few days. Jason and I can not express how grateful we are and also how happy we our that our little girl is surrounded by so much love.
Go LRB!
1 comment:
Lets see some more of those "stock" photos.
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