Amelia Gerda (slideshow)

Well, she's here! I am sure many of you heard it through the grapevine. But our dear daughter, Amelia Gerda entered this world on June 7, 2008 (or 6-7-8)at 12:36am. She weighed in a 6 pounds 8 ounces and measured 19". It was a hard labor, but a short one at that. Here are the particulars... I was on the phone talking to my mom at 3pm on Friday 6-6... assuring her that I am doing well and that she need not come to Oregon until at least after my next OB appt. Then about 3:07 (yes, I was looking at the clock), I felt a major contraction radiating from my back to my front and lasting about 90 seconds. I thought, oh that was a contraction. I did need to do some breathing through it... luckily my mom was talking about something so I didn't need to reply to her story. Then after the call, I got up to go put something away and felt like I needed to pee. Hurridly, I ran to the bathroom and then I felt a gush of water. After that I called Brad to tell him my water broke and to come home. I then called the doctor's office. They called me back after consulting with the doctor and said to come on in to Labor and Delivery and I was all set there. Jack and Nancy arrived and picked up Emmy. Brad arrive home at about 4:30pm. We dawdled a bit as Brad cleaned out his lunch stuff and loaded the car. He was more in a panic than I. I hadn't felt anymore contractions sine the 3:07 one... and the only thing I felt was water dripping out of me. We made it to the hospital shortly after 5pm. I was checked at about 5:30p and was told I was 95% effaced and almost 3cm dialated. Brad and I dawdled in the room and just talked for awhile. At 7pm, he went to get dinner and I had a fruit platter while I watched Jeopardy. At 7:30pm, is when the contractions got stronger. That's when my night nurse came in and visited with me. By 9pm, I was 6 cm dialated. I had extreme back pain with labor. I told Brad I needed to go pee. I was in pain!!!! The nurse offered me fentinol. I said yes... Brad said are you sure? (good coach, eh) While I was in the bathroom, I felt like I had to make a BM. While I was still in there, I told him I needed to push. Brad said no, don't push. The nurse said let me check you again. At 9:30pm I was 9cm dialated. The nurse called the oncall doctor who was Karen, the nurse midwife... yes, my doc was supposed to be on call but because of some other obligations, she asked Karen to take the Friday night shift. At 10:30pm, I started pushing. But dear little Amelia refused to turn. She was born sunnyside up... facing the ceiling instead of the floor. I pushed lying on my back, on my side, with a squat bar, but the only thing that seemed to help was to push lying on my back. Karen tried to turn Amelia, but she was stubborn and refused to turn. Finally around midnight or close to it, I got to feel her head as I got really close to her being born. And then she finally popped out. It was a great feeling to get the head out. The shoulders and the rest of the body was easy. In all, from the time my water broke to when Amelia made her grand appearance was about 9 hours. From active labor til she made her appearance, it was 5 1/2 hours. Karen had said that if Amelia was face down, she would have been born within a 1/2 hour! But we're all doing good. The family of three is now resting comfortably at home after staying at the hospital for just over 24 hours. Woo hoo! The Bradley Method was a great experience, but I hope next time the baby will be face down during delivery! Ah... yes... just wanted to let you know... I was hitting double peak contractions from 730 on. One would start, go down a little and then another one would come right after that. Anyway... here are some pictures of Amelia. More to come on how things are progressing...



click here to see the slide show.

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