the labor story

I finally have enough time to sit down and put the story in writting for all you to read! Although I do not know if i will get all the way through it..we will see. I do not type that fast! So on Wednesday Mom and I were walking around 3:00 or so and I started having contractions but they were not consistant and I was not sure if they were actual contractions or if it was false labor so i did not say anything. We took it easy that day and when Mike got home from work I sugested very casually to watch to water birth video that came with the tub. Mom and I took a walk again later and ran into my neighbors (she is 5 months pregnant) they had asked if it was going to happen anytime soon and I again casually said I think he is pretty content in there and although I feel a bit of pressure I am not sure when still...! I did not want mom or mike to worry or ask me everytime I moved if i was okay and if I was in labor...etc...SO when mom went to bed I told mike that i had been having contrations during the day and not to worry. I was going to bed and I will wake him up if anything changes. I did not sleep a wink! I was up at about midnight trying to count my contractions but without luck. It was really hard to relax and breath through them and count (especially with no clock) so at about 2:00 I woke up MIke and asked him to help time the contractions. They were 2&3 minutes apart right off the bat. VERY intense and VERY quick right off the bat. Mike was like...should we call the midwives now? Yeah. While I was talking to the midwives and having contractions there was a miscommunication about the next step and when they were going to arrive. I thought she said that they would be here in a couple of hours and she actually said call in a couple of hours and update us. I took a hot shower and told mom the midwives should be here any moment it is probably about 4:30 by now right..? She said no Amy, it is 6:15! I was totally shocked, I had been laboring for 4 hours already and the time had flown by. So I was starting to have a pushing sensation come over me and told MIke that maybe he should call the midwives and see what the deal is. They were here a half hour later. By that time I had dialated to 6cm and was already in the tub. I got out shortly after to get some stretches and walk around. At this time I was in the "be thankful and rest" stage. The contractions had slowed down an bit and were not quite as intense for a bit of time. I had totally lost all concept of time by now. I labored a bit out of the water and by the time I had dialated to 8 they suggested that I get to the location where I want to birth him be it in the tub or what have you. SO i got in the tub and was not progressing much. I really like the tub for laboring and am only a bit dissapointed that he was not born in water. I was very aware of the fact that i had no idea what i would want while actually laboring so I did not have my heart set on a water birth. I just thought it would be really rad to do so. He was born on shore! There were several different positions that I tried to see if any worked better than the other. He did not really want to come out. I spent a good 2 hours pushing..talk about exhausting. The thing that kept me going through out the whole process was that i was not going to the hospital. This baby was not going to be born at a hospital. He was positioned posterior and everything that I read about that position was long painful back labor. Luckily that was not really the case. He was born in 9 hours and I didn ot have too horrible of back labor. Toward the end his heart rate began to drop a bit so they put an oxygen mask on me, it was amazing how instantly it affected him. I was so very much in a my zone that I all I could hear was his heart beat and not the midwives talking so at one time I remember asking MIke if his vitals were okay because they were checking them every minute and I could not hear their reportings only his heartrate on the doppler and to me they sounded okay but I needed confirmation. When he told me they were perfect I went back into my zone and inside of myself. There was not a chance we were going to give up now. The only time I opened my eyes or made eye contact with anyone was when I needed confirmation that we were both doing okay. Finally we changed positions again and that seemed to do the trick. A few more strong pushes and his head was finally out. It was such a huge cone head due to being in the birth canal sooo long. I though at first it was the whole body because it was so big and oblong...when I realized it was only the head I had to go back to work. Again a few more strong pushes and I saw instantly that it was a boy. I did not say anything until Mike got to see for himself as well. I fell back on the bed and my first words were..."holy f*#k" there was a round of chuckles from all in the room and the rest is routine. They got him all warmed up and breathing eventually Mike cut the umbilical cord and I delivered the placenta and the midwives left us to hang out for about an hour at least before coming to do the rest of the routine stuff. My best friend Cory showed up 45 minutes after the birth! We sent a text message out to him at the beginning of labor and he just showed up when he could...great timing! All in all it was a pretty smooth labor and a hell of alot of work! I would not change the way it unfolded for anything. We were both very fortunate and I would never want drugs to hinder the instinctual behaviors that came over me. I suggest everyone try it naturally before desciding to take advantage of medical intervention. Granted it may make it easier but I could not imagine not experencing those maternal emotions. Once again thankyou all for your support and great energy during this experience.