Oh man…. I’ve been so eager to do this blog post but I’ve been SO TIRED for the past week and a half that it’s taken until now. I’m sure you understand :] So… Myles is hereeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! We have been waiting and waiting for 10 months and he’s here!! He came 5 days late, on December 8th and it’s been amazing and exhausting ever since. He sleeps like a champ, sneezes more than I think anyone on the planet and poops and farts a ton {he’s one of us!}. Words can’t describe how much we love this little person and how much more happiness he’s brought us.
So, you may have heard via Facebook or someone that I had a long, LONG labor. We decided to have Myles at home in our bedroom and it was the best decision we’ve ever made {other than to get married and get pregnant, haha}. I’ll try to summarize this very long story. I went into labor at 10pm on the 6th so I decided to try and get some sleep since I’d be basically running a marathon soon. We went to bed and it didn’t work, my contractions were too strong already to sleep through. So we woke my friend April up and decided to try and watch a movie to distract me- yah right. My contractions were coming as close as 2 minutes apart and lasting up to 6 minutes!! WHAT THE CRAP!!! Keep in mind contractions are basically supposed to be 5 minutes apart and last 60 seconds in early labor. So we did this until 3am then called my midwife, Kim, to come over. She came, I was 1.5 cm dilated, nothing to write home about. She wanted me to take a hot bath to slow down my labor and get some sleep. Did that, it didn’t work, they came stronger. We slept between contractions and they were now 5 minutes apart. I managed this from 4-7am and at 8am our Doula, Mary, came over. She took one look at my stomach, my weird contractions and said he was in a slightly weird position. UGH!!
So we had to move him, and to move a baby you have to do whatever you do for at least 30-45 minutes. At this point I’d already been awake for 24 hours, luckily Gray got to sleep for a couple hours which was great! So we did this thing where I had to lift my belly when my contraction started and do these dip lunges essentially, and Gray had to do it with me and put pressure on my back because I was having back labor. We did this for 1 hour and 15 minutes! My contractions were still double and triple peaking, lasting 4-6 minutes. We continued on all day, then April had been at our house since Dec. 2nd but now had to go… she’d pushed her flight back twice already and my labor was just too long, she had to fly back to Long Beach. That was the start of mental breakdown number one. Mary called Kim and had me talk to her on the phone, she said it sounds like I’m still in early labor, THAT was really frustrating. It had been nearly 18 hours!! So around 5 Mary wanted us to eat dinner and go on a walk, she was going to run and do something. The second she left I broke down crying, I was SO tired and SO frustrated. My contractions were way stronger than they should have been for how dilated I was and I wasn’t progressing. At this point I was considering going to the hospital for pain killers. I REAAALLLYYY didn’t want to go but I didn’t think I could do this anymore. Grayson was telling me it’s ok if I want to go, that I tried and I’m not letting anyone down, he was crying to because he was upset for me and exhausted as well. We went on a walk outside and that didn’t help, I had 10 long contractions in the few minutes we were out there, every 4 steps or so. More crying, then we called Kim to come NOW. I needed to figure out what to do.
She comes an hour later and checks me “I have good news, you’re 3 plus!”. WHAT!?! That’s good news!?! It’s been 21 hours and I’m only 3cm dilated! I was about to throw in the towel but still no part of me wanted to. If we go to the hospital it will be NOTHING like what we’ve planned, and they’ll more than likely give me a c-section because we can’t get him to move into the right position. We took a shower and cried more, Grayson told me it’s ok if we go, but he really thinks I can do this. That really helped, so we got out with a new outlook. Mary and Kim really helped calm us down and tell us we could do this. We decided to keep going.
THEN… they decided to do this technique that they try to avoid if at all possible because it’s really painful for me, but decided it was necessary. They needed to move the baby so that he’d be pressing on my cervix and actually making me dilate, so they had me get on all 4s, laying my head on my arms, so butt in the air. They stuck a sheet under my belly and had someone stand over me, pull the sheet tight and shake it back and forth, basically jiggling the baby out of his position.. for 30, painful minutes, through all my contractions with no break. After the 30 minutes they sat me up into a squat and he slid into the right position. After this things really started to progress, YESSS!! I went into transition {8-10cm} pretty quick which lasted about 3 hours. {Funny, they say the longest it will last is 2 hours.. haha. This is considered the most painful part, people puke, cry, ask for drugs, etc}. Oddly enough, this was the best part for me. The contractions were REALLY intense, but I knew they were doing something now. She had me sleep between them {so in 1-2 minute intervals} because I was falling over before and needed sleep. Kim and Mary slept too, Grayson was…. amazing. I can’t say enough about how amazing he was, there is no way I could have done that without him. He could read my breathing and cues to know when I was starting a contraction and was at my side, holding my hand, talking me through it, every single time. My body kept involuntarily pushing, which made it hurt a lot more. They were moving up to my lungs and covering more of my body. After 2.5 hours downstairs I was ready to get in the tub and finsish this. So we went upstairs, had all kinds of problems with the tub, haha. The temp had spiked and the pump didn’t work so they took off our screen and were dumping water out the window, hahaa.
I had to lay there and wait! Yikes! I was 7/8cm!!!! THANK YOU JESUS! I got in the tub and it was freezing because they were putting cold water in it to cool and it all settled at the bottom, I was shaking but refused to get out, haha. My body kept pushing, it was making the contractions so bad and Kim said my body was trying to break my water, so try to break it. I tried and tried and could NOT break it so I asked her to break it. She got me out, went to break it and said “Oh! That’s his head you’re pushing!” haha, what?! She popped my water and got me back in, I asked her how long first time mom’s usually have to push, “one to four hours”… ok, I’m going to plan on 3, I was NOT mentally prepared for 30 hours of labor but I can be prepared for this. So I start to push and this was the first point in the entire labor I clenched down at all and made any sound that resembled pain, it REALLY scared Grayson and he started to cry. I consoled him, telling him it’s ok, my body has to do this to get him out, he’s almost here. Did another push, yelled a lot, I had NO control over the sounds I made, it was crazy. He cried again. Then Kim and Mary said not to let the sound out, push it down, that really helped. I was also trying to hold it in for Gray’s sake.
Then they asked “do you want to touch his head?”. haha, no, scarryy! But I did, they asked how far he was, if I could reach him “yah he’s about 2 finger knuckles away”. That caused some excitement, he is CLOSE! With each, enormous and really painful push I got him inches closer. “Call our parents to come back!!” I yelled. They all went back to my mom’s so we could push in peace, but wanted to be here to hear his first cry. With each push he went pretty far. Grayson was supposed to catch him and Kim said “ok, it’s going to be 2 or 3 more big pushes” but I was such a pushing champ that on my next push his entire body came shooting out all at once!! He went from barely crowning to out all at once. All the sudden I am holding a baby against my chest, I’m crying, Grayson is crying, Myles is crying! HOLY CRAP!!! I just pushed out a baby, I just had a baby!! We have a baby! It was the most surreal moment ever. I just did that, I just went through 30 hours of intense labor and pushed out a baby in our bedroom with no medial help, no drugs, nothing but people and support.
They got me out, he was laying on my chest, they never took him from me, they did everything they needed to do with him right on my chest, Grayson got to cut his cord. I still couldn’t believe that all just happened and it’s all over now, we have our baby Myles and he’s beautiful! Crazy sideways cone head and all. He was born at 2:54am and weighed 6 pounds, 11 ounces. I can not express enough gratitude for Kim and Mary, for a home birth, for Grayson and his amazing support. Both Kim and Mary said they were so impressed with how well we went through that together, they wish they could have video taped it to show other couples. Kim said she even teared up when Grayson was crying after my pushes and I was consoling him. It was such an amazing experience!
It was funny, our good friends came over later that day and asked if I’d do it all again, I said “right now, no.. but ask me in a week and I’ll say yes”. And now, yes I would, in a second. He was worth every minute of pain and exhaustion. I can’t imagine not having a baby at home in the water.
Wow….. that was not short, sorry, but it’s a good story! Ok, now onto the photos of his first week of life.
This is when labor started on the 6th..
About 2am, I got to be in labor by my fire and Christmas tree, amazing. April took these photos so they’re a little out of focus, hahah. Love you April!
Mary had me get in the tub for a few minutes of relief {as much as I could have, haha}
I know this photo is blurry, but this is when I was in transition downstairs.
just a few minutes old.
Grayson cut the cord!
The only picture of the 3 of us so far.
Mimi {my mom}. The only photo of when his head was all crazy, it went away in about 2 hours.
Pop Pop {my dad}
This is Grayson’s favorite photo, me after it all… haha
the next morning.. well technically the same morning since he was born at 3am,
I love this photo :]
after a 3am nursing, no sleep :]
oh sleepy bear.
Grayson bought me that necklace for after I had Myles.
hahahah we thought this was so funny, what a little ham, posing.
This is my favorite photo. I made him that bunny {Professor Bun Bun}
Gigi {Gray’s mom} was up for 12 days helping, AMAZING to have her there!!!!!
This picture kills me, he’s so stinkin cute!!!!!
THAT FACEEEEE!!!!!
lounging with daddy. haha
such a cute yawn :]
So there is it! His first week of life. Plenty more to come of course!
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love love love the floppy awards!!!!
Yay for floppy awards!!! So great! That grand entrance is my favorite of all grand entrances in the history of grand entrances. You guys rock which makes it pretty obvious why your couples rock so much too. <3
LOVE THESE!!!! They always make me laugh!! I still can’t get over the superhero themed wedding…it was GENIUS!!!
Love the lost little rooster! Lol!
love em!
the colors are pretty in the last one!
Best post ever! So good!
14 thumbs up for the floppy awards!
Hahahahaha I’m at my school in the library cracking up at all of these pictures and people are looking at me funny. I don’t care. HA these are amazing!
Nice ideas to fill in on the wedding program.