Aedan's Birth

I was pregnant with my first child in July, 1996. I lost my mucous plug Sunday, July 21, 1996 at 7 p.m. At 4 a.m. Monday the 22nd, I was awoken to my water breaking. There was lots of gushes. I called my midwife at 5 a.m. just to let her know what was happening. I went back to sleep at 6:30 a.m., but could only sleep until 7:30 a.m.. That is when my contractions started. They were very spuratic coming only 5-10 minutes apart. They surprised me how much more they hurt than even my most painful Braxton Hicks. I ate like normal, a lot, and walked everywhere. The contractions were a lot more painful if I sat down or laid down. Everybody kept saying that we would have a baby tonight. I was so excited. My midwife insisted on coming over to check the babies heartbeat. He was doing great, so she left. My friend and my mother stayed up with me all night, while my husband and my father slept. Actually I did nap from midnight to 1 a.m. So now it is Tuesday morning, and the contractions weren't really getting any closer together. All day today, I did the same as yesterday, eat and walk. Around 3:30 p.m. I took some castor oil. It wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be. At 7 p.m. my husband and I went into a room and did some serious nipple stimulation. By 7:30 p.m. my contractions were in full swing. Coming ever 2-3 minutes. My midwife arrived with her assistant at 8:30 p.m. At around 10:30 I had her check me for the first time because I had an incredible urge to push. My midwife could not find my cervix. The baby had dropped so fast, that my cervix got caught behind his head. So she picked his head up, and pulled my cervix around. I didn't get to 10 cm until 1 a.m. I yelled the entire time that I wanted to push so bad. I knew I couldn't, but I just wanted everyone to know how uncomfortable I was. That was very hard for me. Finally, with some help from my midwife I got to 10 cm. The began the pushing stage. I had been dying for hours for them the let me push, and on my first push I regretted that!! I absolutely hated the pushing sensation!! I pushed every where though, on the floor, on the toilet, and on the bed. I tried squatted, but hated that too! Finally, at 4:59 a.m., after 4 hours of pushing, and a couple of snips, my midwife pulled my 9 pound, 2 ounce healthy baby boy from me. That is 49 hours after my membranes ruptured! He had a 14 1/2 inch head, and was 21 1/4 inches long. When he was finally born I remember thinking how lucky I was that we were at home. The pain was gone, I was on a wonderful high, and no one was going to take my baby away from me to check him out. His Apgar scores of 9/9. We named him Aedan Glenn. One of the most amazing things was how fast I healed. I didn't have any problems with my stitches. I was given 4. I am looking foward to having another home birth. That will happen around October 1, 1998!

Jo Anna Koreiba
JoHBmom@aol.com