Birth of Brandon James Oct. 10, '98

I decided to get in the shower at 12 midnight. It felt so good! I leaned forward on the shower wall and let the water hit my lower back during the contractions. The effect water has on the body during labor is miraculous! When I got out of the shower the contractions were 2 1/2 minutes apart and lasting 30 to 50 seconds. They were becoming a lot stronger. I still sat out on the porch swing. Something about the back and forth movement made it easier to deal with the pains. I was having mostly back labor, and in between contractions I was having these sharp pains in the creases between my legs and torso. I'm not sure what it was, I think he was sitting on a nerve, but it was VERY painful!We called Michelle and she got to the house at 1:10A.M. She had told me that when I became less talkative and more serious that that would mean we were close. I told her I didn't think that applied to me because I was still talkative and was in a pretty good mood, even though I was having serious pain! She said "yea, O.K., we'll see!" She did an internal exam ( which really hurt by the way!) and said when she put her fingers in, my cervix was completely closed and as soon as she touched it, it immediately opened to a 5! She gave me the go ahead to get into the water tub. I got in at 1:25. Oh man did it feel good! I had also rented a jet pack with the tub, so I was able to get the massage on my lower back. Heaven. I held on to the sides of the tub and swayed from side to side. Again, like the swing, something about the rhythmic motion made it easier to deal with the pain. We had gotten Carl up when I got into the tub. He was so great! He sat next to the tub with an ice chest with water, juice and washcloths to wipe my face and neck. I couldn't have asked for a better coach! With each contraction I would squeeze my thighs as hard as I could, because it gave me something else to concentrate on. Michelle checked me at 3:35. I had dialated to a 7...7?!....I know the norm is to dialate 1 centimeter every hour but it seemed like I had been in labor for so long! ( I had!! 24 hours at this point!) I was disappointed to hear that I was only at 7. I got back into the tub. I was feeling very discouraged. I announced that I was never doing this again, and wondered if it was ever going to end. I think that I was going through transition. They say that that's when those feelings set in! At 5:30 Michelle checked me again, 9 3/4. I had a lip of cervix still. Damn! nothing was going right. I had done everything, I had created a relaxing calm environment with the candles and the tub. I had been patient in waiting for each step to take place, but it just wasn't going the way I had planned! I was thinking to myself that my sister wasn't in labor this long! Why was I? It REALLY hurt when she checked me! She was trying to push the rest of my cervix out of the way so I could start pushing, but it hurt so bad that I was telling her to stop and get out of there!!! I was so tired by now and I was starting to fight her. ( I had 1 hour sleep in the last 24 hours!) She told me start pushing, maybe I could finish dialating by myself. I got back into the tub at 6:40, still trying to dialate to 10. The mood of my support team was changing, they weren't so chatty anymore. This was getting serious! I was crying at times and moaning louder with the contractions, sharing my despair. Up until then everyone had left Carl and I alone while I was in the tub, but now everyone sat around the tub, trying to encourage me. Shannon kept telling me that once I dialated to 10 and started pushing that it would feel so much better. I was sure that I would never get any relief! I was trying to doze off and on in between contractions.