Judah Everett was born on Sunday February 6th at 9:10pm. He weighed a whopping 8lbs 7oz and was 20 1/2 inches.
Labor went fairly well albeit long and slow. We started what seems like an eternity ago - on the 21st of January. Contractions were consistently 45 mins apart but nothing crazy hard. They would go to an hour and a half apart then back to 45 mins - for a week. nice! I stopped working that day, sure that I would be having our baby soon. Dr appts were just showing that I was dilated to 1 maybe 2 but nothing more. UGH! It was ok though, we knew it would be fairly soon.
Fast forward a week when contractions stopped. Dr appt came and went and the dr was sure that I would have the baby that week. nothing. The next week ... nothing.
On the evening of the 5th (1 day past my due date) I started feeling the contractions again and also had some of the lovely mucous plug situation happening. The contractions were every 30 mins and we decided to try to sleep through it to see if it got worse. The entire night it was every 30 mins. In the morning about 6am then went to every 15 minutes, then at 8 to every 6mins. We decided to wait an hour or so and see what happened. At about 10am we decided to make the trek as it was consistently every 6 mins and there was now bloody show happening.
We checked into the hospital at 10:45am and were allowed to walk around after an hour of monitoring. Every hour we would be monitored and then be able to walk for an hour. We were only dilated to about 3 at this point so the nurses called the dr (who happened to be the on call dr as ours was off that weekend) who said that they could keep us for a little while to see if I progressed and if nothing happened to send me home. Dave and I were determined not to go home so we walked and drank water like it was going outta style! Each time we walked the contractions were consistently 6 mins - when we had to be monitored they were less so. We did have some crazy loooong contractions while on the monitor (like 4 mins long) where they were a bit concerned about the baby but it all worked out fine. I wasn't dilating and the nurses didn't want to send me home but they didnt know what to do. We were there until 6:30pm and one of the nurses suggested I get induced. I freaked out but she said that she knows I wanted to do this naturally but we werent progressing - she asked if maybe we could break the water bag to see what happened. I was hesitant as it meant that we wouldn't be able to walk around but at this point I was exhausted and hungry and sort of out of ideas so i agreed. The dr came in about 15 mins later and broke my water - it was 7pm.
Here is where it gets intense - the contractions finally got productive and real. I had a bit of a hard time concentrating but it felt so good to know that this was really happening this time! Dave was so great, helping me breath and reminding me that I was doing great, After about an hour and 45 minutes of the contractions I started to feel pressure so they called the dr. She came in about 5 - 10 mins later (it gets hazy at this point) and said i was dilated to 9. They all said that I was almost ready to push and I told them "no i AM ready to push now" and the dr said that it would be fine to try and let me do this just to see. I pushed and it felt incredible and the dr said "oh there's the head!" Dave looked down and said he saw a head full of black hair. I pushed a total of 4 pushes and Judah emerged - lustily crying up a storm! Dave watched the entire birth and said "its a boy, look at our son!" and he put Judah on my chest. Dave cut the cord and I felt amazing. Judah cried the entire time they had him away from me and when they placed him on my chest again he nursed like a champ!
We are all recovering at home where his breastfeeding has been a bit troublesome but he is doing incredibly well with a mixture of breastfeeding and formula. I have attached 2 pictures, 1 at birth and 1 that was taken today. He is a dream!
