e squared: It's a....

GIRL! Marian Ivy was born October 6, 2013. 7lb 12oz, 20 and 3/4 inches long.

Remember how in my last post I said I didn't think Schrodinger was inclined to come out any time soon? Ha, joke was on us. I wrote that post around 9:30 that night. We finished watching the football game (they lost) and turned on Doctor Who. Jim got me an ice cream sundae and I said to him, "If I end up actually going into labor tonight I'm sure I'm going to regret eating this." We stayed up until 12:30 finishing the serial we were on and went off to bed.

At 2am I woke up with stronger contractions than I had had to date, though they didn't seem particularly strong to me. They were coming fairly close together- 2-3 minutes apart- though they were only lasting about 30 seconds each. Regardless, around 2:40 I told Jim to call our midwife, Sarah, and our doula, Brooke, and have them start driving over, since we knew it would be about an hour or so before they would arrive. We fully expected them to come over, hang out for a while, and have my contractions stall out, as we had had several false alarms like that with Ella.

After he called them, Jim filled up our jacuzzi tub for me so I could relax a bit. My contractions weren't that bad but I definitely had to breathe through them. Between contractions I just sat back in the tub- the jets felt amazing. Meanwhile Jim worked on getting things ready for the delivery. He got the bed all set and started working on setting up the birth tub. While he was in the midst of getting the birth tub blown up, I started to feel really nauseated. He brought me over the trash can and I puked. After that point I told him to forget about the birth tub for a bit because I needed help with the contractions. They still weren't terrible but emotionally I didn't want to be alone and I needed him to coach me through them. In retrospect I was in transition at this point.

I remember asking Jim what time it was because I kept on thinking that I just had to hold on until Brooke and Sarah arrived. It was around 3:50 at this point. I told Jim I wanted to get out of the bath and go use the bathroom because the contractions were picking up and I thought I might not want to move again for a while. I sat down on the toilet and immediately felt like I needed to push. Jim told me in no uncertain terms that I could not give birth to the baby on the toilet and he helped me move to the bed.

Right at this point Brooke arrived. Jim told her I needed to push. She threw on some gloves and they got Sarah on the phone. Sarah was still about ten minutes away and suggested they help me onto my left side, as this would slow things down. I was on all fours at this point and when Jim tried to move me I'm pretty sure I yelled at him to get his hands off me and that I HAD to push. Everyone was super calm, despite the craziness. Sarah asked Brooke and Jim what they could see of the baby. They weren't quite sure, but they thought they were seeing the cord.

As soon as I heard the word "cord" I started to panic a bit and started swearing. Cord prolapse is one of those rare complications and even though it was statistically unlikely, I had been scared of it happening. They told me I had to get this baby out NOW and I got down to work.

Turns out, they actually were seeing her head, which became apparent with the next push. One push after that and her head was out, and then with another push she was born. Marian was delivered by her dad at exactly 4am. She came so quickly that her head was still completely round.

I picked her up and held her against my chest while we all had a "holy shit did that just happen?!" moment. It was about five minutes before any of us thought to check whether she was a boy or girl.

About ten minutes after she was born Sarah finally arrived. Things got a little dicey at this point because I was starting to lose a lot of blood. Sarah had been willing to wait for my placenta to deliver on its own, no matter how long that took, but with the amount of blood loss she decided we couldn't wait any longer. She gave me a shot of pitocin to help my uterus contract and hopefully get things going, and Brooke and Jim helped Marian latch on and nurse. After a few minutes my placenta started to come out- except for one piece that was stubbornly hanging on. Sarah had to manually extract that piece before my placenta fully delivered. That was a thousand times more painful than any other aspect of labor or delivery, but it stopped my bleeding. Even though it was horribly painful, I never felt frightened or worried because everyone was so calm. Sarah later told me that with the amount of blood I lost she would have normally sent me to the hospital and it was only because I was lucid, calm, and talking to them throughout the whole thing that she allowed me to stay at home. I think I was so high on the after-birth endorphins that it would have been impossible for me to be anything besides alert.

Other than the placenta issue my labor and delivery were a dream. Marian's birth was absolutely incredible and I felt amazing afterward. I got everything I wanted with it. I felt completely in charge and in control of everything, and just trusted my body to do what it was meant to do. Marian's birth made me feel strong and empowered- the way every woman should feel after doing the most awesome thing she will ever do.