A week ago...

At this time last week I was in pretty much pain, in the throes of labor, about to leave for the hospital. My project for the week has been to write out my birth story. It has taken longer than I thought to process the event and write it out. I promise it will be posted by the end of the weekend. I almost have it written and now I am going through photos. Sundee took 512 photos at the hospital and has been busy editing and uploading all week. I now have 225 of the best to sort through and decide what to post on the blog. They are all so precious to me but I know that some are more of me than many of you will want to see plus only a few of you would want to look through all of them.

Since I have so many photos and such a long birth story, I thought I would post a "cliff notes" highlight version tonight. Later this weekend I will post the full story with pictures.

Looking pretty miserable during a contraction.

Friday July 18th - my due date
1:00 pm - My first sign of labor being in the near future was losing my mucous plug and having "bloody show" (sorry if that is TMI)
4:50 pm - First contraction that was strong, painful, and obviously not Braxton Hicks in nature. It woke me up from a nap.
6:00 - 8:30 pm - Jesse, Amy and kids came over for dinner. During this time the contractions got stronger. I was still able to be social but decreasingly so as the evening went on.
8:30-9:15 pm - I began timing contractions with no pattern established. I called my birth team to alert them that I was pretty sure I was in labor.
9:15 pm - I took a bath to try to see if labor would slow down. Instead it increased and I threw up.
9:45-11 pm - I labored in our bedroom and bathroom while trying to finish packing hospital bags. Still no steady pattern as far as length of contractions or time between them. I could not get comfortable in any position and felt like the head was very low. I called my midwife at 10.
11 pm - I threw up again. I start to feel the urge to push and tell Sam that we really need to go to the hospital. We pack up the car, make calls and drive to the hospital.
11:45 pm - Arrive at the hospital. Have one contraction on all fours in the foyer of the hospital. I am sure that looked pretty funny, especially since I forgot to put on shoes when we left the house.
11:50 pm - I am checked by the nurse and found to be complete - 10 cm dilated, 100% effaced, 2 station. They tell me to wait to push if possible so that my midwife can arrive.
Saturday, July 19th
12:04 am - My midwife arrives.
12:18 am - They break my water.
12:35 am - My OB arrives followed by my sister in law.
I push through 3-4 contractions.
12:42 am - Caroline is born.
12:44 am - My doula arrives.

Feeling much better, holding Caroline!

So, from the first sign of possible labor to the birth was almost exactly 12 hours. From first contraction to birth was 8 hours. What I would call "active" labor was about 4 hours and I pushed only 3-4 times. Not technically defined as "precipitous labor" but almost. Pretty quick for someone who was considered a first time mom by the medical community due to my first birth being a c-section with no labor.

Because it was so fast, I had none of the interventions that I was trying to avoid. I had no IV antibiotics, not even a Hep Lock. I had no drugs at all. I am so glad that I decided not to have a repeat c-section but to have a VBAC. The experience was so different and the recovery has been so easy compared to last time.