my baby is 1 week old today and she is utterly perfect. in some ways this past week has flown by in a complete blur. in other ways, they have been some of the longest, most grueling days i've ever experienced. this birth story is going to be on the longer side so here's part one...
Saraya was due May 21st but everyone knows babies are on their own schedule when it comes to the whole being born thing. Justin and i were as prepared as we could be and just very anxious to meet her, but otherwise just patiently hanging out. on the 25th i had an appointment and the midwife offered to sweep my membranes. without going into gory detail, it basically involved her checking to see how dilated/effaced i was and "clearing some cobwebs" if you will to hopefully stimulate some hormone production and speed things up. there's no guarantee with that sort of thing but it was just comforting to feel like i was doing something i guess. anyhow, while she was checking things out, she noticed that my water bag was "bulging" and said that things really could happen anytime now.
the next morning, around 7am i woke up and went to the bathroom only to discover that my water broke. or at least i thought it had. after double checking differences between water and urine, i called the midwife to let her know. around 830 am, i started having contractions. the majority of the morning was spent periodically checking my temperature, timing contractions, and ensuring we had everything we needed in the car. i was trying to relax and even had a little lunch but we were getting sooo excited. after the contractions were around 5 minutes apart and at least a minute in length we decided to start heading towards the birth center. (it's just 35 miles away so without rushing and with traffic it took nearly 45 min to an hour to get there) but when we arrived, i was only 4cm dilated. never had a number seemed so far from 10. we were told to go for a long walk.
it was a nice day in balboa park and it's right next door so we decided to walk around there. all that really happened was that i hobbled around at a snail's pace vomiting every couple of minutes. so there went lunch. and then there went the jamba juice. and after that it was just water in, water out. i will say that labor vomiting is unlike any other nausea. it wasn't like being sick or drunk. it was purely reflexive and relieving. finally, it was time to go back to the birth center. surely i was fully dilated by now.
*sigh* 7 cm was definitely progress but i really thought i was farther along. at least i wasn't vomiting anymore. fast forward to 430 in the morning. i have been in labor for 20 hours. i am tired and can't bring myself to eat anything. i just don't have an appetite. i'm barely drinking juice and water. i'm only 8cm. and we're quickly approaching 24 hours since my water broke. the pressure of a deadline looms over me now because if i'm not fully dilated and seriously in the process of pushing, i will be forced to move the whole operation to the hospital. and then the contractions start doing the opposite of what they're supposed to. they started slowing down and become noticeably less intense. we are coming to the greatly disappointing realization that we will have to go to the hospital. it's not the end of the world and the most important thing is that we get her safely delivered but it's disappointing nonetheless and getting scarier by the minute.
part 2
part 3
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