I never did post the birth story, so for those who are interested I will recreate it here for your pleasure :)
Although both of my children were born on their due dates, the birth experiences, while both rewarding, were completely different. Since Gaius came so fast, we were extremely worried that we wouldn't make it to the hospital this time, since it is 45 minutes from our house. Our game plan was to make our way to our doula's house (about 15 minutes from the hospital) for most of the labor, if we felt that there was anything happening. For those reading this who remember, there were many signs that Gaius was coming in the weeks prior to his birth, like dilation and loss of mucous plugs and contractions. With Althea, there was no movement towards labor until the Friday before she was born - I was only 1 cm dilated as of the Wednesday before she arrived.
So on the Friday before she was born (the 9th), Brad and I went out to eat. During dinner I started feeling the same contractions that I had with Gaius (the non-painful ones I had all day with him). After dinner we walked around and the contractions seemed to be coming in around 5-6 min intervals. We called our doula to prepare her for the possibility of the birth, and went home, albeit slowly (remember, we live 45 minutes away). When we got home, Brad went on his weekly XBox game and my mom and I sat on the couch playing computer games. The contractions kept coming, but I wasn't so sure anything was happening. At my mom's urging, I called the dr. and he said not to worry unless they got closer and more intense (painful). Given what happened with Gaius, we finally decided with my doula at around 11 PM to drive to her house, just in case. We waited there until around 1:30 AM and it became clear that nothing was happening that night. We went home disappointed and pretty exhausted.
Saturday was uneventful. The non-painful contractions were pretty sporadic and non-consistent.
Sunday was another story. In the morning I had some pretty intense, sporadic contractions. My whole family was sluggish and non-motivated until my mom started nesting for us all. She began directing Brad and my fathers attention to the small projects that needed to happen around the house. They began working while Gaius, my mom and I went off to purchase some of the items needed for said projects. While shopping I would occasionally get these intense contractions that made me stop walking for a minute or so.
We got home around 3 PM and made some late lunch. As we sat down, my mom started tracking these contractions. They were again around 5-6 minutes apart, but these were intense, not like the other contractions. Again we called the doula - she asked if I had eaten that day. I told her I had just eaten a cucumber salad. She told me to start loading calories into my system to prepare my body in case we were a go. No need to tell me twice to eat, so I ate a whole bunch of leftovers. After that, we decided to finally install the car seat - again, just in case.
We decided to move to Amherst, halfway to the hospital. Brad got some dinner and then we got ice cream. We finally arrived at our doula's around 6:30/7PM. She gave me a small dose of some herbs to help things along (shhh don't tell the hospital!). We chatted for a while, and then decided to go for a walk. I wasn't sure how I would handle the walk, especially since the contractions made me stop for a minute or so. Once we got started though, I was able to walk through them. We walked up to the dike by the Connecticut River. I was started to get disappointed, as it seemed like there was no real progression occurring.
We got back to Michelle's around 8:30 PM. Not sure what to do next, someone suggested we play some Scrabble as a distraction. So we did play until the contraction started coming about 2-3 minutes apart. Michelle finally suggested we move to the hospital, just so we'd be there. Her exact quote was "even if you are only 2-3 cm dilated, at least we'll be there." So we called the doctor and went on our way.
We arrived at the hospital around 10:30 PM. Made it up to the hospital room and changed into my birthing gown. I wasn't ready to take my bra off yet (this is important later). The nurse had me lay on the bed to hook up the fetal monitor. The heart rate was on the low side of normal - which was/wasn't alarming? The dr. arrived to check my cervix and he had to wait for a couple of contractions that were on top of each other. Finally he took a peek and I was 8-9 cm already. He stated that my water would probably break and everything was just going to come out all at once. Then he left the room to change into scrubs.
When he left, Michelle suggested Brad help me out of my bra. He unhooked it, and I turned to my right to get it off one shoulder. I never moved from this position. I grabbed the railing of the hospital bed and needed to push. The next thing I knew, Michelle told me it was okay to push since the doctor was back. Not sure exactly how it happened, but the doctor broke my water and I pushed once screaming - her head was out. With the next push, I screamed bloody murder since I just wanted her ALL the way OUT! and out she came! I had no idea what time it was and was utterly surprised when they told me it was only 11:33 PM. I was very happy, since the 11th was not only her due date, it was also my grandmothers birthday.
My recovery was great, since there was no tearing. I was up and walking about within 2 hours as we moved to the recovery room. My throat hurt from screaming, but otherwise I felt great and we finally had our little girl :)
Josh is careful not to drop Althea - and gets out a few smiles in return :)
No pictures, but Anne got in some diaper practice as well.
She can't wait to meet our new friend in October!!!
