I was soaking through towels like crazy–so I figured my water broke.  I stayed home for a couple hours calling everyone (like school to tell them I
wasn’t coming back from Christmas break to teach anymore, my mother who had
just seen me to the airport 12 hours ago, etc) and I sent my husband to work
because I wasn’t having any contractions. Had a nice big egg breakfast
even. I drove myself to the hospital at about 11am, and Claudia had beaten me there.
She was upset by a new policy (don’t know if this is just AF hospital or
what) that said she was required to check to see how dialated etc I was, but
she checked me and said I was a 2.

So then they put me in my birthing room and got that blasted heplock put in-
my worst fear! But I did awesome! I think it was the only time I have ever
gotten through a needle without hyperventilating. But I just focused and
relaxed and got through it. My first big success!

Meanwhile, my husband’s boss found out that I was at the hospital and kicked
him out, so he came over and watched tv with me. I walked in circles, went
back and forth to the jacuzzi, and tried everything that Claudia could think
of to get labor started, but we got basically nothing. We showed her the
birth plan, and she was awesome about it. She offered us juice and food
(even though the cute little nurse got scared when Christopher brought me a
sandwich from home, we just ignored her), brought in the birthing ball, and
was really helpful. We told her we didn’t want to do pitocin, and she said
that she understood compeletely but it was her advice to use it. Basically
she said that since I was so early and on the antibiotics, the pediatricians
would be very concerned about Tyler and the longer we drew out labor, the
more concerned they would be. She didn’t force us into it, but we talked
about it and decided that since she said she would take us off once labor
was clearly started that we would take that option. We set a goal that if
we weren’t making progress by 5:30 then we would start the Pit. When the
nurse came in at 5:30 to start it we proudly told her that we had managed 3
contractions 8 minutes apart, and she told us that “that isn’t progress. No
progress is made on your cervix until you are 3 minutes apart” and started
the Pit. We were so happy when her shift ended, because every other nurse
was wonderful.

But once the pit got into my system, that was all I needed. A half an hour
later my contractions were ideed 3 minutes apart. I think we were only on
Pit an hour or so. At first I did great, focusing and breathing just like I
learned. The first 3 hours went by really well. At that point I have to
admit I started to lose focus and it started to hurt.  Every once in a while I would focus through one, but I certainly wasn’t doing as well as I wanted to. I didn’t expect all of my body to instinctually want to fight like that!

At about 11pm I started to lose focus quite badly- that
was 5 hours into it. The contractions were really really strong, and when
Claudia told us that in her experience I was looking at a 4 or 5 am birth, I
really lost focus. It wasn’t her fault for telling us that, we might have
even asked and that really was her experience. But I shouldn’t have
listened. With that time frame in mind I started telling Christopher that
the epidural didn’t look that bad anymore because I knew I wouldn’t make it
that long. I still know that. But thinking that made me lose any focus I
had, and I even threw up. Dang it!

But I didn’t have to hang on that long! The reason the contractions were so strong is because they were accomplishing so much. I was pushing a half an hour later. I kinda did a combination of pushing and breathing down. So I mostly pushed him out.
I wanted to laugh though when he started tearing. I could feel the baby
wanting to come out, and I could hear my husband getting so excited that he
was right there and everyone telling me to push harder and he would come
right out- but my body was just saying “let’s just hang out here for a while
and not push cause that hurt lots”. Baby won that battle though- he was
ready even if I wasn’t! Down he came, and it was only a little tear. I
just watched them cleaning up Tyler while they stiched me up and did even
better than I did with the heplock. Tyler was born at 12:02 am on January
3rd.

So it was about 5.5 hours of labor and a half an hour of pushing, and I had
my little Tyler! He was 6 lbs and 10 oz, which isn’t bad for such a premie.
We don’t think he was that premature, we were totally guessing on the
date. But they searched their hearts out for something to be wrong with
him, and all we got was a litle jaundice a few days later.

One of the things that amazed me the most is how good I felt afterwards. I
was a bit tired, and being sore down there made walking akward, but
otherwise I felt absolutly fine. That is very different from most things
that put you in the hospital- most injuries have pain that just never goes
away. But a half an hour later I was cheerfully chatting on the phone with
everyone.

I just want to thank you again for everything! Our birthing experience was
just wonderful, and even if I didn’t do as well as I wanted to I know now
what I need to expect for the next time and can’t wait to do better next
time. I recommend this to all my friends, even if most of them look at me
like I am nuts and tell me that they would never even think of going without
the epidural. I just laugh when they tell me I was lucky to have a short
labor and delivery for such a calm baby, because I know that none of those
things were accidents at all. They just like to use that as their excuse
that they could have gone natural too if it was only 6 hours instead of the
20 they are bragging about, and I try to explain to them that the chicken
might come before that egg.Tthey never buy it, but I know better.

Thanks again for everything!

-Sarah, Christopher and Tyler