Our Birth

Every time a baby is born, a Mother is, too.  And i mean EVERY time.  So, our baby #5 came along ON her due date.  First time for everything... many firsts this time, actually.  So, see... even with #5 there have been many NEW things/experiences... ways i've been born into being a Mother to a new little human being.

Evelyn Margaret Joy Gollihugh
We're calling her EmJ (sounds like the letters M and J).
She was born on June 10, 2013 at 4:18am.
My smallest baby: 8 pounds 2 ounces.  (I did ask for a smaller baby this time.  God is GREAT!)
She was 20 inches long.
At her 72 hour visit she was 8 pounds.  Not bad given how difficult a time she's had fully latching!

Labor started a little while before it STARTED.  Through the night for three nights before it really kicked into gear.  So, starting on Thursday, the 6th, i had light contractions... the kind that don't rise and fall... they just ARE.  Not fun, but also possible to sleep through (for the most part).  Saturday night the contractions became rise and fall and came once each hour.  They were strong enough to wake me, but i fell back to sleep after each one.  It worked out all right except that i was too tired to go to church first thing in the morning.  I slept (except for the hourly contraction).

Baby wasn't moving all that much and since i hadn't had my scheduled weekly visit with my midwife, i was feeling a little anxious, so called and asked her to come check on the baby.  She arrived around 330pm.  I was 2 cm dilated and the baby was doing just fine.  The 2cm wasn't exciting at all given that i've walked 3 for MONTHS before!  But at least it was more than it had been a couple weeks earlier.

By around 830pm labor kicked into gear.

I already knew i was pretty much IN LABOR because i got totally stuck on finding two things: a picture of some pictures i wanted to paint and our camera.  Both are still missing... unfortunately, i've pretty sure i threw away the picture while looking for it.  :(  (I'm pretty sure it was in something else i threw out.  grrr)  The camera... still just totally missing!  Pretty sure i know who has caused it to go missing, but she's not spilling any useful information.  another GRRRR!

I KNEW i was in labor when i started sobbing because i couldn't find the picture.  I mean, all out CRYING hard.  Yes, I realized then that i was in labor.

It was probably around 130am or so that i knew things were getting close to time... or, at least, i felt like they were.  Jessie called my midwife around 2am.  She arrived around 3am.  She had enough time to set up.  Her assistants arrived right around 4am.

Backup.  Karen checked me soon after she arrived.  When she told me i was 7cm dilated i almost freaked out.  Interally, i TOTALLY freaked out.  Why?  7 is good, right?  Okay, well... yes, for the most part.  Especially from a 2.

HOWEVER...

When Karen arrived for Jmy's birth... over 2 years ago... i was 7cm dilated.  Jmy wasn't born for another FIFTEEN HOURS!

Do you understand my reason for feeling a bit upset?  If not... well, i'm pretty sure you've never had a long labor before.

So, i felt like i was going to go NUTS in my head.  I went to the bathroom and applied rose oil to my abdoment, clary sage to my inner ankles and then Jasmine to my abdomen... all within about 30 minutes.  Probably not the best idea if i wanted to maintain any semblance of control over pain or manage anything... at that point, i was just sure i didn't want to be in labor for another 15 hours!  The pain of contractions went from around a 6 to around a 9.9 in SHORT order.  The contractions also increased in length and intensity... of course.

Around 4am my waters broke.  Meconium.  Can't find baby's heart tones.

"Time to get that baby out, Tori.  Try lying down so we can try to get these tones.  Okay, baby likes this.  Stay this way."

That didn't last long as i was totally ready to push very quickly.  Two pushes and our little girl entered the world... tearing me front and back.

My smallest baby yet.  Biggest tear yet.  Ironic?  Yes.  Frustrating, too.  ahwell....

So... considering ACTIVE labor... i was probably 'only' in labor for around 8 hours.  Pretty stinking awesome considering my "shortest" labor before EmJ was 21.5 hours!  Took me 4 tries.

Oh... and the fact that labor started COMPLETELY on it's own this time is completely and utterly wonderful and fantastic to me!  Yes, i augmented... but i did NOTHING to get things going or make sure they KEPT going.  Praise the Lord for changing me so that i can now trust my body to do what it's meant to do!!