Mack's Arrival

Have I mentioned that I LOVE reading women's labor stories? I've been known to troll mommy blogs in my free time looking for another labor/birth story to read. It is just amazing how incredible and unique each experience is for each woman. It is like a special club that I get the privilege to be apart of, like, "women should rule the world because they make and birth babies club." And because of this, I would lay awake at night wondering how our little man would enter the world. Would it be the same or different than the first time (Charlie's labor story)? Would my water break, the contractions start or would I have to be induced? These questions plagued my mind day in and day out, but especially in the weeks leading up to the big day. So here it is, from the 37th week to Mack's big day...

For those you guys that know me, I am extremely competitive. Everything in my life is a race or competition, including pregnancy. It wasn't necessarily a race against other people, it was more like, "how fast can I gestate a baby?"And the first time, I did it in 37 weeks. WIN! 37 weeks = full term = perfect! So although my official due date was November 4th, the due date in my head was definitely mid-October. So when that came and went, I was really down in the dumps. I had failed at having a full term baby, early. Get it?
I proceeded to think that the baby was coming every single day after that date. I was 3cm dilated, 50% effaced and then 75% at my doctor appointments, my body was getting ready but baby wasn't coming fast enough for this gal.

And like everyone said, he wouldn't stay put for forever.

On Monday at 1:30ish my water broke and our adventure began. I wasn't having any contractions at the time, so they admitted us, monitored the baby and inserted an IV (just in case of a need for a blood transfusion or I chose IV pain meds). Well, I hate needles...have I ever mentioned that? My hatred for needles is more of the reason I chose natural child birth with Charlie than the need to have a natural labor experience. So when she did the first IV and poked through the vein, I was a bit shaken. On her second try, she inserted it into my hand and it was pinching me enough to make me uncomfortable. So within minutes, as she was talking about the possible need for pitocin if my contractions didn't start within a few hours, I was getting severe tunnel vision and nausea. I ask for a barf bag, but proceed to pass out and convulse. When I came to, I felt like I was waking up from a bad dream. Several nurses had rushed into the room and everyone was staring at me. Nick was clearly shaken up, he had turned a nice shade of white...as was my newbie nurse...the one that caused all this in the first place! I was a bit embarrassed, I had just failed my first test of birthing a baby naturally, passing out from the flippin' IV!

I have to admit, this incident, threw me off my "A" game a bit. After the incident, I was open to anything. I knew I didn't have a lot of control over how my body was going to progress and if the need for pitocin did arise, it would severely lessen my ability to have a natural birth again. I was just going to go with the flow...

I recovered pretty quickly and they allowed us to walk around the hospital campus to see if I could get my contractions started without the need of cytotec or pitocin. And that they did, by 4pm, they were coming every five to eight minutes and were painful enough that I had to stop walking and talking to get through them. I knew the doctor would be there between 5:30-6:30pm to check my cervix, so as my contractions moved closer together, I was getting anxious to see how far I had dilated. Up until seeing the doctor at 6ish, my contractions were manageable and when he checked me I was at 5cm. Not great, but progress and I was managing the pain or so everyone thought. These were becoming pretty intense, pretty fast but my nurse kept talking about how well I was handling the pain. See, here is the thing, I don't like to show pain in front of people I don't know, so every time she would walk into the room, I am sure it looked like very serene pain management. But I do remember yelling at Nick (more than once) to FOCUS when we were alone.
Jekyll and Hyde, maybe?

So my next move was to the bath, because what is a good labor story if it doesn't involve a little bare ass in the air on all fours nakedness? The minute I entered the bath, I couldn't seem to take the contractions one at a time...which was always my goal. I kept thinking, I can't do this for another five hours (women generally dilate a centimeter an hour). It seemed to be the only thought in my mind, as the contractions were only giving me 30 seconds to a minute break between them. So just then, I decided I didn't care...I just wanted a baby, I wasn't willing to deal with the pain. I asked Nick to go tell the nurse, that I had decided to get a spinal (our hospital doesn't have an anesthesiologist on staff 24 hrs/day so they can only administrator spinals). She came in again and told me that I was managing the pain too well and that I should try to go a little longer, but I had made up my mind and nothing she was saying was going to change it. So she called and I had about 15 minutes to get out of the bath and get dry...

As I stepped out of the bath at 7pm (less than an hour after I was checked at 5cm), I felt this overwhelming need to push. My nurse checked me right there and I had dilated to a 10! And just then my mindset completely changed. Pssht! Spinal, I don't need no Spinal! I can totally do this thing! That is when chaos entered the room, the doctor was called, they begged me not to push, but I couldn't help it!

My pushing phase was still pretty intense, but nothing I couldn't handle, because it went so fast. This, my friends, is the power of a positive attitude. When I thought I had five hours left, I had made up my mind that I couldn't possibly do it. But when I had dilated to a 10, my body's ability changed. It's crazy how your mind is so in control of your body. Now, it still took me a good 30 minutes to get him out, and it wasn't until I had let down my guard and let out a few good screams, did I start making progress, but he flew into the doctors arms...all (almost) eight pounds of beautiful!

Mack Hamilton Waelty came down the birth canal so fast, both of his eyes had subconjunctival hemorrhage and his eye sockets are a little bruised. But I can only hope that he knew how badly we wanted to meet him and love him and he was willing to sacrifice his post-birth photo ops to meet us too! 

It's crazy how fast our love came flooding out. As a parent to one child, I always wondered how I could possibly love someone else in the same way, but just like that, in a mere instant, our love grew indefinitely for this little creature in my arms. 

Welcome to the world, Mack, thank you for completing our little family!