My name is Rosa, I'm 22 years old and I've been married since 6/7/08. We are expecting our first on November 9th, and we are both VERY excited.

*Arri was born 11/4/09*      


Labor Story

I don't remember much, it seemed to happen really fast...
Monday evening around 9pm, I stood up after peeing and a gush of SOMETHING came out. I thought it MIGHT be my water leaking but I wasn't sure. I went in after I started getting bloody show and we did the amnisure test and it was NEGATIVE. My water didn't break...so I went home.

I continued to have bloody show all day on Tuesday, but no contractions. I woke up around 1am Wednesday morning with contractions about every 5-7 minutes. I used contractionmaster.com (I think that's what it's called) and it was AWESOME. Me and my husband watched Cake Boss on demand, but I don't remember most of it, haha. After awhile of them not getting much closer together, I decided to go back to sleep. I woke up again around 6am and they were 3 minutes apart. I called the midwife on call at 7:15 and she told me by the sound of my voice when talking through a contraction that she could tell it was too early for me to come in. She told me to take a bath/shower and see what happened. They STOPPED, I was pissed. I went back to sleep for awhile and when I woke up, they were WAAAY worse than before, but they were about 7 minutes apart. They stayed that far apart until about 12:30, then they were 2 1/2 minutes apart and awful. I couldn't talk or even think through them. All I could do was click my mouse and tell myself it would end soon.

We got to the hospital around 2:30 in the afternoon and the nurse checked me. I was 3cm and 90% effaced. I decided to take a shower, and I stayed in there for about a half hour. It helped a LOT. The midwife came in and check me after an hour and I was 4cm and 100% effaced. I asked if I could please take a bath and they said yes and moved me to a labor room with a tub. I laid there FOREVER waiting to get in the bath because I was waiting for penicillin from the pharmacy (I was GBS+). I was getting MAD I was in so much pain and they weren't letting me do what I wanted. By this time, I had no concept of time. All of a sudden, I started shaking like crazy, but my contractions slowed down and I actually felt BETTER. The nurse told me sometimes this was how the body reacts to transition. I was shocked that I was moving so fast but I was in too much pain to get checked, so I FINALLY got to get into the tub. It felt sooo much better. I had like 3 contractions there and asked to be checked because I felt sooo much pressure. I had to get out of the tub because she was having trouble checking with me in there and they don't do water births at my hospital. When I got out, I was at a "stretchy 8" she said. Even then I thought it was kinda funny...she said just wait and tell her when I felt like pushing...which was like 5 contractions later. I was 'ready to push' but I really didn't FEEL like it...this part was sooo hard for me. I pushed on my side a couple times but I was too tense for it to do anything so she told me to roll onto my back. I pushed for an hour (seemed like a shorter time). And THEN I FINALLY felt her slide out. It was AMAZINGLY relieving. Pushing was sooo hard for me emotionally, I really just felt stuck and like I would never get through it, and when she finally came out, I was SOOO HAPPY. They put her right on my chest and I got to hold her while they cleaned her up. It was amazing. We tried breastfeeding right away and she took to it like a pro, I was sooo proud of her. She was 8 lbs. 4 oz. and 20" long...APGAR score of 9 both times.

I'm so tired I'm stopping now. I know I left out a lot of details, it was sooo blurry for me. One of the things I remember most clearly is being in complete disbelief that I went ALL NATURAL. I always talked about it, but never really believed that I could do it, and I DID! My husband was there the whole time, I should give him more credit, but I wasn't really paying attention to him. He did a great job though, he was very caaalm which I badly needed and he was really supportive. I was so proud of him, he even cut the cord, which he originally thought he wouldn't want to do...she's sleeping on daddy right now so I am going to take this opportunity to sleep before my sister and her kids come over.

Thank you so much! And congrats on your baby! :]