Evan James - Waterbirth story, pics included! *10/28/09*

Little Evan is here. Actually, he's not very little...9 lbs 12.4 oz at birth! My BIG little baby.  :)

It all started Monday, 10/26, around 4:30pm. I started having regular contractions about 3 minutes apart. I timed them for almost 2 hours because I had had a false alarm the week before and wanted to be sure this was it. I called my doula, my midwife, and my mom (she was supposed to come pick up our other 2 kids). That's when the drama started. My mom wanted me to drop the kids off at her house on my way to the birth center...while I was in labor! OMG! Since she said that, I got stressed out, and the contractions stopped.After I calmed down, they picked right back up again. So we decided to meet my mom (yeah, I know, my mom's ridiculous), and head to the birth center.

Once we got there, I was checked. I was only at 4cm, but at least I had progressed a little from last week when I was at 3cm. Long story short- it took about 31-32 hours of pretty easy labor to progress from 4cm to 7cm. Once I got to 7cm, I was stuck. I had been at 7 for going on 12 hours. My midwife had talked to me the night before about possibly breaking my water. I wasn't sure I wanted to, but she came in and said she needed to break my water or transfer me to the hospital to get Pitocin. I chose to have her break my water. This is the only part of my labor I'm not 100% happy with. Now I will never know when he would have arrived by himself.

After my water was broken, things started progressing VERY fast. She broke my water at about 11:30am and within about 20-30 minutes of that, my contractions were super intense (I'm not 100% sure on that time frame. Once they became intense, time became a blur). I tried to walk through them, but I spent most of my time hanging from my SO's shoulders trying to rock my hips instead of walking. Then I tried the birth ball which felt great at first but quickly turned painful. The only thing that gave me any relief was laying back, kind of arching my back.

The tub was so big that it took what seemed like forever to fill up. Once it was finally full (at about 1:45pm, I think), I got in. I wasn't in there very long before my precious baby Evan James was born at 2:21pm. I looked at him in amazement. I couldn't believe he was finally in my arms, my perfect boy.

I have some pics:

Laboring in the water.

A little meconium in the water, but it was OK.

New parents...again!  :)


He knew exactly what to do!
Evan James. :)

We're both doing great overall. I didn't tear at all and I felt great just a few minutes after he was born. Evan was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect (ventricular septal defect, specifically) at 2 days old. It's a hole in between the left and right ventricles of his heart. The cardiologist said we will just wait and watch it. So I have to take him to the pediatrician and cardiologist a little more often than I usually would, but that's ok.