My husband was amazing - I would not have continued on natural childbirth without his encouragement and clear-headedness at all the times I needed it! Here's a bit of a synopsis of her birth story.
My labor contractions started by waking me 5:30am on Sunday morning. I labored at home until about 8:30pm, when we headed to the hospital. There was never a "this is it" moment, or a surety we weren't going too early. But went we did. I was 4-5cm dialated, but with contractions 60-70 seconds long and ~3 minutes apart, so we did what we thought best. In retrospect it made the night very long and uncomfortable for J (at least at home he could have really slept in his own bed for a few hours!). I did not need heavy coaching during all that time, although he was coaching and helping me from the very beginning.
I was a classic "putterer" case, in Bradley-speak (I realized that myself, by Monday morning when I was only a 6-7cm dialated, and even told J that). My midwife had taken the weekend off entirely, and turned her cell phone off (I knew ahead of time she was doing it, but never really figured I'd go early). As it was, it did not matter because J was entirely what I needed. We had awesome nurses that were so so wonderful (another God-send), but they pretty much left us to labor ourselves as J had it well in control. By 12 I had the urge to push, and 12:50 started after the doctor came by and checked the baby and me (at this point, I let them break my water, since we thought it could hurry things up and I was tired of being in labor at this point). Let's just say after an hour and a half, the baby had moved further back! And the doctor started giving us a lecture on trying pitocin, possibly an epidural, and the moving to a c-section if those failed. He was ready to go and called me "failure to progress" (seroiously, after only 1 1/2 hours). J and I knew we should continue, as the baby had been doing awesome on the fetal monitor with every contraction. Let's just say, an hour and a half later, Elyana came into the world! Another doctor delieverd (which I was glad for) and it was amazing!
We are so so overwhelmed with this little girl. She is precious and so good and is just beautiful. She has stolen our hearts. Being a mommy is the most wonderful thing, I am loving it so much and treasuring every moment with her, even the sleepless nights. It is amazing how a child like this can erase the intense pain of the last three years. We stand in awe at what a precious gift she is.
Here are a few beautiful pictures.
