Remy's Birth Day

Remy was born on his guess date at 12:28pm. He weighed 8lbs 9.5oz and measured 20 inches long J

I had gone to sleep around 11 listening to all my Hypnobabies tracks because I wanted to get in more practice. I woke up at 1:20am to a warm lil gush of water in my crotch. I look over to the computer and Mikey is awake and I reach down and touch myself to see if it was real..."Mikey, I think my water just broke" "You've gotta be kidding me!" "Nope, why?" "Because your hypnobabies tape was talking about you dialating..." lol.

Mikey runs to the car when I ask for a diaper so I don't leak over everything. He grabs EVERYTHING and drags it all up in one trip. Diaper on!

Time the birthing waves, 40sec-1min every 4-5 mins. Call the midwife. She says "go back to sleep and rest, call back in 2 hrs or whenever you wake up." Pass out. Wake up around 5:30 from pressure waves. Lasting 2mins every 5-6. Call the midwife, "time to come down!" Wake up Mikey... I'm slacking. We shower. It feels really good. Pressure waves aren't intense, but just enough to wake me up. I know that Remy will be a fast baby. Trying to feed the cats. Trying to make sure I have everything. Walking feels good. Grab something to munch on. Guzzle down a CIB and a banana. Mikey tells me I'm slacking and orders me "out to the car." He runs down to start it to warm it up for me only to find that it's slightly moist and that he left the car door open when he went to get the birthing supplies at 1:20am!

He repacks the car. Helps me in. Now to start our long journey. He took the back bumpy way because it was faster. So much pressure on the bumps! Really uncomfortable, but center switch...ahhh, releif. We stop at his parents house to trade the car for the van. (both his car's cv joints went on Saturday and we were to go to the shop on Tuesday) Thankfully his mom is still sleeping so she doesn't bother us that she wants to come too. I don't have to tell her no. *sigh* no 'oh shit' bar in the van(I think it's really a hanger holder...) He drives and we talk. We talk about our future. We talk about how excited we are. We talk about anything. We turn on the radio and find nothing but talk shows and bad music, not that we expected anything good on the radio...He turns on a station that has music that I start singing to. Mikey leaves it on for me(even though he hates 'pop'). We talk some more.

We get about 2/3rds the way there...and more potholes. I cry anticipating the discomfort. Lack of 'oh shit' bars messes me up so I push on the roof of the car through pressure waves. Pulling the 'oh shit' bars is so much easier and better...(I will remember that for next time lol) Really gotta pee. It's been almost 2 hours since I've last peed. We get caught in a little traffic. It's not horrible, at least we are taking the bumps slowly.

Yay! Wawa. We stop for supplies and a bathroom break. "Mikey, can you grab me apple juice, milk and a thing of fruit?" I pop into the bathroom and find that after I pee, the toilet makes the pressure waves stronger, I gotta get to the birthing center faster. Quickly, we depart. Only about 15 more minutes drive.

When we arrive the midwife and nurse assistant are there. "Can I get into the tub?" "Of course! I'll start the water." My midwife asks the starting questions. "How far apart?" "How long?" "How are you feeling?" "Make sure to drink." "We'll leave you alone but will check in on you every now and then." "Call for us if you need us." "Call me before you start pushing." OK.

With what little modesty I have left I put on a t-shirt and hop into the tub. Wow, t-shirt in the tub is so uncomfortable! *tosses modesty out the window and tears off the t-shirt* Moving around to find comfortable positions. ATM lieing on my back in the water. Mikey is in with me holding my hand just in awe. He's doesn't know what to do. I lie in the tub for a little while. Then it gets a bit uncomfortable and I pop out. "Nurse, can you check me?" "Sure, do you feel the need to push?" "Not yet, I'm just curious. Please tell me?" "7 almost 8 cm." Mikey looks at me in awe and slightly afraid! Later I find out that he didn't think I was that far and he was surprised that I got so far so fast. He's worried he won't be able to help me during the birthing.

I end up in the shower. I like water. But I want cold water. In the shower I start to feel the urge to push. I tell Mikey "get the midwife! I wanna push!" He RUNS out of the bathroom and to get the midwife and nurse. Midwife checks. All is a go.

I don't push unless I feel I need to. I breathe through the pressure waves. I let him come down on his own. I'm on my hands and knees rocking through the pressure waves. He's coming out...the midwife notes a lip on my cervix in that position and she has me move to on my side. I can't do it comfortably that way...She turns me on my back. I didn't want to be on my back... He's pushing on my back and it hurts. I move around struggling to get comfortable. "You're not supposed to be comfortable, you're having a baby." That really tears me down. I look over to Mikey and start to cry. (He hasn't gotten to study my hypnobabies with me much. We were going to do the fear release when we woke up. He feels so unprepared he doesn't know what to do...) He just holds my hand and tells me I'm beautiful. It works though even though I don't want to be on my back. The midwife starts telling me to push. "You have to push to get this baby out. You can't keep breathing through the contractions like that." This was the woman who told me to try hypnosis for childbirth. This was the woman who was most willing to work with my birthing prefrences. But now she's not. I feel so betrayed. I can't though. I have to get Remy out safe and sound. That's all that matters. Mikey holds my hand and helps me through this. He's worried. The midwife and nurse are making things sound like they are horrible. They start using the word pain and keep telling me to push. I can't get out of myself long enough to do anything about it. Mikey knows what I want but isn't good at communicating it. He looks at me and tells me we'll get through it. He tells me that I'm so strong and that he would never be able to do this. He touches my forehead and tells me "relax." The midwife has me grab and pull my legs back and tells me to push. I do. The ring of fire, good name for it. I breathe through a few pressure waves only to get yelled at by the midwife again. I reach down to touch his head because I want to and she tries to stop me. I hit her hand away and touch him anyway. He is MY baby. I stop pushing again and breathe through a few more.

Finally the midwife tells me that it is the last push for the baby and so I give it everything I've got. The feeling of him coming out of me is  amazing. It is a great release. Then she places him on my abdomen...he has a short cord. I look down at him and he opens his eyes and just looks at me with eyes wide open. At that moment, all the discomfort disappears. We wait a few minutes until the cord stops pulsating and Mikey cuts the cord. There are no words to describe the way I feel...the only thing I can compare to seeing Remy for the first time is the way I felt when I knew that Mikey and I were in love. At that split second in time, I knew I would do anything for him.

Something slips out of me...two baseball sized clots...then the midwife tells me to push again...so I gently push..out comes the placenta. I guess the baby made the hole a little bigger. The placenta was about as big as a college math text book and as thick as one too!

That's pretty much it. Then we stuck around at the birthing center for 5 hours before they let us leave and we went home and everything has pretty much been a blur since then...but a happy blur J