Abraham Kalama is Born!!!

On 11/11/11 Abraham Kalama was born at 3:07 pm.  He weighed 6 lbs 13 oz and 19 3/4 in long.  He has been a joy since he was born and is growing so so so fast.  I have been wanting to document his birth story since even before he was born, and I am finally getting down to it.                          Here is Macy happy while Mommy was in labor.

With Macy, I was kind of talked into getting an epidural and pitocin, and I wasn't a fan.  So with this labor and delivery, I wanted to do it all naturally.  I was still going to be in the hospital with an obgyn, but I was gonna go without any drugs or an i.v.  My mom had told me a long time ago that I was the only one of her children that could have a baby on 11/11/11.  I thought she was crazy, but she must have known something cuz it worked!  My due date was on the 18th, so the 11th was exactly one week early.  The doc told me that he would induce me on the 11th if I wanted, but I was not going to give up my natural childbirth.  I did all the research I could on the internet about all the different methods of childbirth like hypnobirthing and the bradley method.  I took from them what seemed to fit for me.  I would visualize each night and try to prep Clark with affirmations to repeat to me when I was in labor.  I also read every birth story I could and watched video after video of natural childbirth.  I still had my worries, but I was determined to do this.

 On the 10th, I went to the doctors office and they stripped my membranes.  I was 2+/3 cm dilated and 80% effaced.  My mom and I went to the mall and walked walked walked.  That night she pushed on my pressure points and I took evening primrose oil.  The next morning nothing had happened.  I was pretty bummed, but I was still gonna try to go into labor.  After a little bit of trying to go into labor and having pretty consistant braxton hicks, my mom heated up a hamburger for us to share.  I took 2 bites and I felt a really strong contraction that peaked went down and then just peaked again.  Then I felt a gush of fluid.   I said, "I think my water just broke."  When I stood up, I was pretty sure it had, but when I got to the bathroom I saw that it was blood and a lot of it.  My grandma called at that moment(12:00) and asked if anything was happening.  I told her what was going on and she said the same thing happened when she went into labor with my mom.  I was worried that maybe my placenta was tearing off, so we just grabbed what we could and ran.  Macy hadn't even been changed for the day or had lunch. 

On the way to the hospital, I tried to get ahold of Clark who was at school.  He doesn't get reception in his lab, so I called his friends wife to call her husband to tell Clark to go to the hospital.  It's a good thing that worked, otherwise he would have missed it.  My mom wasn't really sure that I was in labor, but I knew that I was from the very consistant contractions.  I guess I just handled them well.

Once at the hospital, I told the nurses what was going on and one of them kind of freaked me out that I was gonna need an emergency c-section.  Luckily the nurse assigned to me was very calm and reassuring.  She said I would just need to have constant heart rate monitoring on the baby because of the large amount of blood I was losing.  His heart rate was great and he wasn't in stress the whole time, thank heavens.  I asked my nurse if she could tell how strong my contractions were and she said,"you tell me, you seem to be handling them well."  That was such a nice compliment.  I then warned her that I dilate quickly so be prepared.  She was scared to check me at first, but after talking to the doctor, she did and I was 5 cm.  Pretty soon after, I needed to use the restroom. I walked over and while going I started to get super light headed.  After a little bit of apple juice, I perked right up, but they still wheeled me back to the bed.

This is when the intensity of the contractions picked up.  I was 6 1/2 cm, but I knew that wouldn't last long.  I was stuck sitting on the bed, which was exactly what I didn't want, but I worked with it.  I tried getting in new positions, but the way I felt the best was just sitting with Clark's hand on my lower back.  I felt really tired and could hardly open my eyes.   When the contractions got stronger, I started to make an "oh" sound, and Macy copied me which was so cute. Between contractions I could still talk and enjoy myself.  The one time I lost it was when I was trying to move positions and my foot got caught in the cords.  I was standing on the bed on one foot in the middle of a contraction and I yelled,"I'm Stuck!"  I got checked shortly after and I was 8 cm.  This is when my mom and Macy left the room.  The nurse called the doctor and he arrived a couple minutes later, checked me at a 9 and broke my water and left the room to sit down.  He said that I was way too calm to be doing it all natural.  After the next contraction I felt the urge to push.  The nurse checked and said all I had left was a lip.  The doc came in and checked and said I was good to go.   I just kept saying,"I need to push, I need to push."  The doctor told me to push if I felt like pushing and not to if I didn't.  I love that he gave me the freedom to follow my body. 

Pushing was the craziest thing I have experienced.  It was like I wasn't even there and my body just took over.  I didn't even feel any pain.  I never realized how strong a uterus is until I felt it push so strongly.  The doctor had to give me an episiotomy because my previous scar was not tearing or stretching and he didn't want me to tear somewhere else (this was the only bummer).  Abraham was born 7 minutes after I started pushing.  The moment he came out I said,"That is the best feeling ever!"  I have never felt such a good feeling in my life, it was amazing the relief I felt.  They waited just a bit to cut the cord and placed him on my belly.  After weighing and measuring I got to nurse him and he latched right on.  He was so alert and calm.  I felt great and even walked from my delivery room to the recovery room.  Right after Abraham came out, the doctor asked me if I had a method I used...I said that I just researched and did what came to me.  The pediatric nurse said that I used a sing song method because my oh's sounded like singing I guess.  My labor was 3 hours and 7 minutes...awesome!

 I love how good I felt after having Abraham and how much better my recovery was.  I think the second time around is also better because I know what I am doing and am not stressed about everything.

 Clark loves his little man.

 After walking to the recovery room.

 Macy loves her brother...sometimes a little too much.