New Baby...Finally!

We finally welcomed our new baby boy on Wednesday, March 12, 2008 at 7:24 a.m. at Vanderbilt Hospital. His name is Rylan Bradley Staats and he weighed 9 lbs. 4.5 oz. I was so thrilled because he was 5 days overdue and I was determined this time to not be induced. Since I used a midwife this time and not an OB, I was more in control of my delivery than the last 2 times. I decided that since this was my last hoorah (last baby) that I wanted to do things as much my way as possible. I used a wonderful midwife at Vanderbilt who was very patient and very encouraging to the natural birthing methods. This is how my labor started.... My mom arrived on Monday, March 10 to help with the boys and help me if I went into labor during the night. On Tuesday morning I woke up and was having some signs of beginning labor so I called my midwife who told me to come in to be checked and hooked up to the monitor. Brad and I went in on Tuesday afternoon about 4 p.m. and they determined that my water had broken and that labor would probably be imminent within 24 hours. They hooked me up to the monitor and the baby was responding perfectly so there were no worries there. They told us to go grab some dinner and see if anything happened so that we didn't have to make the 25 minute drive back home in case labor really started. We went to dinner and nothing happened... We arrived back home around 7 p.m. My midwife then called me and explained that if I did not start labor on my own before 9 a.m. the next morning that I would need to come and be induced because they did not want me going more than 24 hours with my water broken without labor starting. So I went to bed discouraged and frustrated because induction was the last thing I wanted to endure for a third time. I hate Pitocin with a passion and wanted as natural a birth as possible this time. Brad and I went to bed at about 11 p.m. because I was not feeling very relaxed and had still not started any strong contractions at that point which made me very disappointed. I awoke about 2:15 a.m. with some strong contractions that were about 7-10 minutes apart. I let them continue without waking up Brad for about 1 hour. Once they became pretty intense at about 3:30 a.m. I woke him up and told him we needed to go to the hospital. By the time we were in the car the contractions were getting closer and stronger - about 5-6 minutes apart and very intense. We arrived at the Vandy ER at about 4 a.m. and got checked in, during which I was having contractions about 5-6 minutes apart. By the time I finally got into a room and was instructed to put a gown on, I was sick and vomiting. I found out that meant that I was rapidly progressing which makes you sick. I never did get a gown on and proceeded to the bed and into labor with just a bra on. When we arrived at my room I was dilated about 7-8 cm. It then took me about 2-3 hours to get all the way to 10 cm. During that time I was able to move around and do whatever necessary to control pain. I finally decided to get some Stadol through my i.v. to help with my tension and some of the pain. However, I did not use an epidural this time and even though the pushing was painful and intense I am glad that I stuck with my decision because I was able to feel the baby and enjoy him more after delivery and I was up walking around as soon as I wanted to be. Let me just add that I did interview several doulas, even though I did not end up using one, and one of them sold me a book on Hypnobirthing. I read this whole book, practiced the things I was supposed to (to my husband's entertainment) and felt very confident in my abilities to get through this delivery relaxed...but when the camera was taping you can hear me say that "this relaxation stuff is crap". I'm not sure how much affect this book had on my experience but I do know that I did what I set out to do...have a more natural experience. The experience was much like I expected it to be and I was pleased with all of my decisions regarding the whole process. It was definitely more intense and painful than I would have ever imagined but at the end I felt a wonderful sense of accomplishment rather than being drugged up or numb from the waist down. My midwife was wonderful and I would use her again without hesitation (even though I know this was the last one).

Thank you to my husband, Brad for being there and encouraging me to stick with things the way I wanted to do them! I love you! Thanks to my mom for all of her help and to our families for coming up and spending time with us and the new baby. And thank you to my friends who encouraged me to do this thing naturally!