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12259188 tn?1428960836

The Stork Arrived at Carle Hospital

So the calculation of the first day of my LMP due date was spot on! I went into labor around 9:45 pm on May 1st and had my sweet son on May 2nd at 11:30 pm. I did a completely natural, non-medicated birth and it HURT SO F**KING BAD. I will NOT sugarcoat that. He is 7 pounds and 4 ounces, 20 inches, loves skin-to-skin contact, and very nocturnal. I'll post more details later! Good luck and God speed everyone!
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Avatar universal
Congrats!

You go mama.  :-)
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Avatar universal
Awww, that is wonderful news! Congratulations! Your're one strong woman. I intend to go the same route and hope I don't need any medical interventions.
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Avatar universal
Congratulations!!
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b4b
Congratulations!
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Avatar universal
Yay!! Congratulations!! You are one tough cookie. Lol :-)
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Avatar universal
Congratulations! :)
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12259188 tn?1428960836
Later meaning 10 days later lol.*** Now I realize why women dissappear off of this app after they have their baby - being a mother is exhausting (yet rewarding) at the same time! Anyways, here's my long blurb on my labor.

1) No matter what I did (walking, sex, nipple stimulation) NOTHING brought on my labor except for my son. He truly came when he wanted to!

2) You will know and realize when you're having contractions. Mine started when I was on the phone with a friend, but I thought they were Braxton Hicks and I eventually went to sleep because they continued. When I woke up, I knew that I was in the early stages of labor. Once they are strong enough, you can start counting them. Don't worry if your numbers aren't perfectly matching up - the only thing that remained consistent with my contractions (until I started having them randomly twice as long) were that they were a minute long. The time in between them ALWAYS varied by seconds, but they averaged out in the beginning to be 3 minutes a part.

3) To couple the above, I got sent home during the early stages of my labor because my contractions weren't strong enough (11.5 hours before my son's birth). If you don't feel like making the trip, only go in once your contractions are so bad that you can barely stand up, talk, crack a smile, etc. When that started happening to me, I was less than 6 hours away from pushing.

4) Centimeters dilated, blah blah blah! My midwife team didn't bother to check because it's sort of a false indicator. I was 1 cm dilated and had only 5.5 hours to go before I birthed my son. So if you're barely dilated, then don't panic. Some women dilate early and stay that way forever, others go from 0-10 within a few hours.

5) Don't worry if you haven't lost your mucus plug or your water doesn't break when you know that your contractions are real. I lost my mucus plug and my water broke naturally at nearly the same time, and I was already in the hospital and about 5.5 hours away from the time of my son's birth. Don't worry, it will happen.

6) When your midwife or doctor says not to push; especially if you have trusted them for 9-10 months, then you probably aren't ready to. I was only at 7 cm and was in the worst pain of my life, and couldn't help but to push. At the end of my labor, I had a 2nd degree tear which had to be sutured up.

7) Ladies, especially if you're going natural - if it feels like you're going to die and your mouth has gotten fowl with curse words, then you're probably almost there. When I reached the point of asking about an epidural because I was delirious, I was at 8 cm and my midwife out of instruction told me that it was too late.

8) When it's time to push, CONCENTRATE. Tune everyone but your midwife or OB/GYN out. Once I started focusing on pushing out of my vagina instead of just bearing down (which may cause you to poop), my son came out faster.

9) The Ring of Fire wasn't bad to me compared to my contractions. I actually felt at peace pushing because they seemed to have all went away. Sure you'll feel the burn, but compared to being in labor for hours, I would push over and over again if I could opt out.

10) ENJOY BEING PREGNANT. It gets so much harder to sleep once your baby is born; especially if you plan on breastfeeding every 2-3 hours.

11) ith that being said, don't give up on breastfeeding! Your milk will come as long as you exclusively feed and/or pump. I never thought that I would produce milk and now I create about 3 ounces a feeding.

12) GET ALL THE HELP YOU CAN from family and/or friends. They can help clean or watch your baby IN YOUR HOME where you and baby are safe and sound (stressing this because I made the mistake of traveling 2.5 hours for my family to take care of me and baby and now I have bug bites all over me from sleeping at my aunt's house blah blah blah I won't go any further).

Last but not least, cherish every moment you can with your little one. Motherhood is fun but with anything, it definitely has its challenges. Although all of my observations and experience was just from my perspective, I'm definitely just another guppy behind a phone. I'm not a doctor, but I have surely crossed over into the sisterhood of motherhood! Good luck!!!!!!!
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Avatar universal
Congratulations and sound advice! :-) x
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12259188 tn?1428960836
Thank you all! And if you want to go natural, don't let anyone stop you. I'm 21, just finished my bachelor's degree yesterday, and never took a labor/Lamaze type class since I had so much going on; but regardless I made it through. Believe you can and you're already halfway there! :)
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Avatar universal
You're story is so inspiring. I too am doing a natural birth with a midwife and am 22. You go girl, I know it may norm have been easy but you did it and had the birth you wanted and that's all that matters. Enjoy motherhood, I am also ready for motherhood and due in 7 days and am thrilled with doing a natural birth! xo : )
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Avatar universal
You're story is so inspiring. I too am doing a natural birth with a midwife and am 22. You go girl, I know it may norm have been easy but you did it and had the birth you wanted and that's all that matters. Enjoy motherhood, I am also ready for motherhood and due in 7 days and am thrilled with doing a natural birth! xo : )
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12259188 tn?1428960836
Aaaaw thank you newmomii! :-* Good luck with your labor and may it be a quick one! Congratulations on your little one, too! ^_^
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