On the day that H was born...

Baby H.

A few pictures of baby H, the proud papa, and me the day before H was born.

I have never gone into spontaneous labor. I have always wanted to. I was hoping that this would be the time that it would work for me, but it didn't turn out that way. I went in on the 24th for a non-stress test. Everything was fine, but my doctor and I started talking about options. I was already dilated to a 3 1/2 and 60-70% effaced. I was having contractions like mad, so we figured the baby would come any time. I really wanted my doctor to be there, and since he doesn't live here I was willing to work around his schedule. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do....wait and have this baby, or have the doctor rupture my membranes. He said he would let me wait until 42 weeks if I wanted to, but who wants to wait for 42 weeks when you are already 40 1/2 weeks. That just seems like forever. So I came home and discussed the options with my dh. We decided we would go in the next day and have the doctor rupture my membranes and get things going. I was started this way with my last daughter as well. Things went much quicker that time. The doctor broke my water, and I had my baby 3 1/2 hours later. We figured things would go faster this time, but they didn't. When the doctor tried to break my water, it didn't work too well. He said usually there is a forebag of water below the babies head, but there wasn't one. The membrane was right over my daughter's head, and her head was directly over my cervix. With some pushing and prodding (and my baby had the scratch marks on her head to prove it) he finally got a slow leak going and said he would come back in an hour and see how things were going. I was disappointed to find out that I was still only dilated to a 3 1/2, but I was about 80% effaced. I had been having tons of contractions all week, and had hoped I was further along than that. So after he broke my water we waited. We had hoped to have her in about 3 hours, but 3 hours later I was only dilated to a 5, but things were progressing, so we kept on waiting. My contractions were getting harder and harder. I have had all of my kids natural, but I think I was the most scared with this one. After 3 others, you know exactly what you are getting yourself into, and it doesn't sound like much fun. I have been so stressed out the last 5 months that I wasn't mentally, physically, or emotionally prepared to go through labor, so the task seemed extra daunting to me. Thing started progressing faster and faster until I could finally start pushing. It took a few more pushes than anticipated, but my baby finally arrived at 8:15p.m. I was so relieved and excited when they place my little daughter on my belly. It was a sweet moment when I could look into my husband's teary eyes and know that together we had created another miracle. We are so glad to have little H in our home. She is a sweet little baby already. She even let me sleep in two 4 hour blocks last night, so I feel like a totally different person today. I hope she stays on that schedule. Welcome to our family H.