Better Late Than Never

I've been a blog stalker for awhile, never feeling like I had enough to share to start my own.  But with little Miss Amelia in our lives and our family and friends spread out across the country now seems like as good a time as ever to get one started.  I'll start with Amelia's birth story and then we'll see where we go from there.

 Amelia began her entrance into this world on Monday, January 3, 2010 at 4am with what the midwife referred to as prodromal labor or "false labor".  My contractions ranged from 6 min. to 15 min. until about 4pm in which Amelia decided she was done and needed a break.  Mommy and Daddy were a bit disappointed as we were exacted to meet our little bundle of joy, but Mommy was also glad for a break from the contractions.

The next day contractions started up again and lasted until Thursday at 9pm.  This time the contractions were different and centralized in my lower back ranging from every 10 min. to 45 min.  It was at this time that we realized the baby was posterior or "sunny side up" which was causing the excruciating back pain.  If there are any women out there that have experienced this I have a whole new level of appreciation for you.  Holy cow is it painful.   Sleeping was quite rough.  By the time I would finally relax enough to fall asleep, another contractions would start.  The only time I could get any sort of relief was when Tym would jam his fist into my tailbone.



By 9pm on Thursday the contractions started to get closer together and stronger.  We called the midwife and she arrived around 11pm.  By 1am I was dilated to 6 cm and in excruciating pain but excited that we where making progress.  By 8am I was dilated to 7cm but my water still hadn't broken.  To help speed things along we decided to go ahead and break my bag of water.  Unfortunately it didn't seem to help speed things along as much as we would have hoped.  At noon the midwife checked me again and I was still at 8cm.  At this point I was pooped and about at my wits end.  So we decided to blow up the birthing tub in hopes that it would help get me those last two cm.  Unfortunately that didn't do the trick.  It got me to 9cm but no more.  At about 3 we decided we had tried everything possible at home and decided to head to hospital.  


When we got to the hospital they checked me and I was back to 7cm.  I'm not sure how you digress, but apparently when you transport that can happen.  It was probably a good thing because I'm not sure they would have given me an epidural if I was still at 9cm and at this point I needed the epidural.  Boy was that epidural amazing after 5 days of back labor.  It's funny because once the epidural set in I started feeling the contractions in my stomach which I hadn't actually been feeling because the pain in my back was so bad.  


So I continued to labor at the hospital with the help of the epidural.  By midnight I had made it back to 9 cm and it was looking hopeful that I was still going to be able to have this baby vaginally.  However then the contractions started to slow down.  They gave me some pitocin in hopes that it would speed them up again, but that didn't seem to work either.  Evidently our little Amelia was stuck and there was nothing that my body or hers could do to help her out.  At 3am Sat. morning we decided it was time to get her out of there via cesarean.  It was such a hard decision to make, as Tym and I both wanted so badly for this to be a natural experience, but it was a decision that had to be made.  By 3:30 I was in the delivery room and by 3:53am she was here.  All 8lbs 2oz and 21 inches of her!  Which was much more than Mommy had expected!!

Once she was out it was evident that she had been stuck in the birthing canal.  If you look carefully you can see the circle on the top of her head.

Once I saw her I knew we had to name her Amelia.  Amelia was a name that I had loved since the beginning, but upon learning of it's meaning "industrious and hard working" Tym and I decided to move away from it.  However, her birth was certainly a difficult process for her and I and therefore what better name to suit her then one that means hard work.  We decided by pairing it with Joy, it sounded a little happier, as it was certainly joy filled work that brought her into this world.

The grandparents were VERY excited to finally meet her and to have everyone safe and sound.  I'm pretty sure the week was just as stressful for them as it was for us.


We had 3 days of recovery at the hospital following her birth.  The nurses at Pomona Valley were so nice and we both feel blessed that the transition to the hospital went as smoothly as it did.  In choosing to go with a midwife we knew we where taking a chance in not knowing who our Doctor or nurses would be if we had to transport, but everyone was just wonderful.