There really is so much I want to blog about in my at home labor experience but there is such an abundance that it is hard to even begin.
On January 25, 2009, Ryker John Chadwick came into this world at 2:49 a.m. After a great day of mild labor and a pedicure to help take my mind off of it, real labor kicked in right after we put Copeland to bed. Josh, Mom, and I watched Juno as I began to kick into high gear of active labor. The contractions started coming every 8 minutes or so. Oh, I forgot to say that earlier in the afternoon Mom and I hiked up and down the stairs a zillion times to get the labor going…it worked! Back to watching the movie…its funny because right as Juno started going into labor is when it really started to get intense. So I went upstairs to change into my “labor outfit.” I ended up staying upstairs because the contractions were coming about 5 minutes apart. Josh was my leaning post. I just leaned on him during each contraction. It felt so much better to stand up and conquer the contractions that way. What a symbol of love, too! Anyway…Jessica, my midwife, came over after I had had consistent contractions about 5 minutes apart to set up the birthing tub. Oh man…the tub felt so unbelievably good! It was so warm and soothing. She let me have some contractions in the tub and then went ahead and checked me and…I was already at 10 cm… holy cow! I totally missed the transition!!! That was the worst part with Copeland and here it was I was already through it. Time to push. Ha. Well…long story short- I pushed for two hours. Eventually, Jessica broke my bag of waters after an hour and a half and then…wham! Out came RyRy about a half an hour later. It was so beautiful and peaceful being in our own bed. It was so special. We just laid together as a family amazed and in tears of the whole experience. Ryker got to have his placenta attached for about an hour afterwards and Josh cut the cord and had a “tour of the placenta- the tree of life.” Fascinating. I got to take a shower and crawl back in bed and sleep with my little man and my Man next to me until morning. No hospital beds, no interrupted sleep by getting my blood pressure checked, or lactation consultant checking on me- LOVED IT! I had two of my favorite people there with me- my amazing hubby and my mama. And not to mention that Copeland, even though she was sawing logs, she was there with us. She got to wake up to having a brand new baby brother in the house. She is doing amazingly well with being a big sister- always wanting to help out.
Alright, I better quit while I am ahead and not go off on a tangent. Love to you all.
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