Oh the beauty and pain of birthdays. We are picking up with where we left off in the birth story with a quick recap of part 1.

Again this is a disclaimer. Today we are telling a story about birth, if it is not your style check back later this week for your regular scheduled programming.

I come from a line of strong women who in two generations have given birth to 21 beautiful babies, each via c-section. I was 2 weeks past my due date and my body had made absolutely no signs towards delivery. So we went in to the hospital to help my body along. After two rounds of a vaginal softener, cervadil, and 24 hours my body was 1cm dilated last we checked and I was having strong regular contractions.

At this point in the story, I had never felt this uncomfortable in my life. I am not sure if uncomfortable is even the right word, because it is not like I was expecting comfort, it was more the anguish that I was not expecting. Stuart thought I was progressing along, but I wouldn’t dare be that hopeful, out of fear I would be disappointed again. The last six times someone came in to check my status they would leave saying the same thing, “high and hard”. Read More →

Share along...3200

This week I celebrate my birthday. Over the last two years I have learned that birthdays really should be a celebration of your mama (and often papa too). So as I reflect on my wonderful mama and the celebration of birth, I’ll share with you Anna’s birth story. Its a little long, so it will be posted in two parts.

Why Share?

The last few month of my pregnancy I became curious and nervous about the actual birth part of having a baby. As a first time mom, I was consumed by all the changes that came with being pregnant, that I thought little about the next step. But knowing that pregnancy was not a forever state, it was time for some research.

In order to prepare, Stuart and I attended a great birth class. The instructor was wonderful, kind, realistic, and offered tons of practical advice. Despite it being the perfect class for new parents, for some reason I left with a ridiculous amount anxiety and felt totally overwhelmed. Looking back I was just so uncomfortable with every detail of giving birth – the noises, the pain, the fluids, all of it.

For a while I just stuffed up my ears and pretend the birth day was never going to come. But eventually a wise man, my husband, reminded me how awesome my body was and how he wanted to support me through it all. I figured I better get over my unfounded anxiety, because the day would inevitably come, and my attitude would either help make the birth a great experience or an awful one.

Read More →

Share along...1310