Monday, October 20, 2014

signed, sealed, delivered. the story of atticus james.


joel left bright and early on october 1st, to pick his mom up from the airport. i had agreed (reluctantly) to come in around noon to start the induction process. after taking bella to school, getting his mom, getting her signed in and picking up bella, joel returned right at 11:45am. 
we got his mom settled, and at 12:30pm, we walked to the hospital. 

for the next 4 hours, i sat in the waiting room. they took some blood and ran some tests and i sat. at 5pm, i went back with the doctor, and she explained to me that, yes, my baby was huge. while there is a margin of error of about 20%, he could be smaller, but he could be bigger. and he could get stuck. (side note: i did not want to be induced, and did not agree with the assessment that i couldn't birth this kid, but i was tired of fighting a fight that had been going on for 4 weeks, and with a due date that was relatively up in the air, i was also second guessing everything).

i was resigned to what was happening at this point and so i think i probably muttered some kind of, "letsjustgetthisoverwith", noncommittal statement and sat down.

i was given a pill form of cervidil with instructions to go away and come back in 2 hours. joel and i went for a walk through the vineyards, looking for a place to eat dinner, and then went back to our room to watch some episodes of castle. (another side note: while i hate being induced, i do like the calm moments of "just us" before our new arrival. it's like a last meal.last hurrah before bringing another little munchkin on board) i went back at 7pm and they put me on the monitors and decided nothing was happening and that i could go to bed and get another dose in the morning.

so we went to our room, put back on some castle and i laid down. i fell asleep around 10 and at around midnight, i woke up to a contraction that wasn't painful, but was a little....strong. ish. so i went and sat in the shower for a bit, before climbing back in bed.

at 1:50am, i woke up, pretty uncomfortable, and stood up. i felt something weird, and some pressure, and i decided that it was probably time to go. so i woke joel up and we headed to the delivery ward. the short walk down the hall consisted of walking quickly and then stopping about every 30 seconds to prop myself on the wall and breathe through contractions. i got there, and was hooked up to the ctg machine (finicky machine that measures contractions and the baby's heart rate), while the midwife prepped the delivery room. about 2 minutes later i had had 2 painful contractions and at 2:12am, i rang the bell and told the midwife that things were definitely getting serious.

we walked into the delivery room at 2:15am, and my contractions started to get painful. i want to take a minute to describe the delivery room-it was amazing. there were woven wraps hanging from the ceiling, tied in loops at various points, over big squishy mats to stand on, there was a giant tub on one side and a large round chair/bed thing in the middle. low lights, aromatherapy, music, these blue curtains that looked like clouds woven into the sky. it was a beautiful, very un-clinical, very peaceful room.

over the next 15 minutes, i had contractions that were painful, but short and during the breaks in between, i felt present and pain free enough to joke with joel and ask for water. at 2:30am, i started pushing.

{at 2:36 a,. atticus james came into the world
at a whopping 9lbs, 7oz and 23 inches long. 
ten fingers, ten toes and a perfectly round little head.}





i delivered completely free of any pain meds, and kneeling on the giant squishy bed/table thing. it went too quickly to get in the tub, but that aside, it was better than any birth experience that i could have imagined. no tearing, no getting stuck, no complications.

the midwife was amazing-through the whole process she told me how amazing i was doing, she had this calming presence and voice and was very encouraging. afterwards, when she got me settled into my room, she thanked me for allowing her to be present and share this experience with her. she told joel, "we did a great thing here!" right afterwards.

and unlike my births with bella and cora, this experience was this amazing bonding moment with joel. it was just the 3 of us-the midwife, joel and me. there were no bright lights, no people running in and out of the room, no medical equipment, no sterile feeling environment. and for moments here and there, it was just him, encouraging me through a contraction and cheering me on.





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