Welcome to the World, Kiefer!

Whew! What an unexpectedly long labor... 44 hours. It started at 2:00 AM on Friday, May 25th. Because this is our first baby, I had no idea when I was supposed to head to the hospital and I didn't want to look stupid and get there too early. So, I hung out at home, went out with my Mom for a while and by 6:30 PM the contractions were close enough together and uncomfortable enough (couldn't talk through them) to head to the birthing center. Our wonderful Doula, Marah MacRostie, met us there. The Hypnobirthing techniques and birthing tub were great until I became very tired at around 4:00 AM on Saturday, May 26th. When the midwife checked me and told me I had not dilated much (3 cm), I almost lost it. They gave me something to help me sleep for a few hours so I could rest up, but I woke up every 5 minutes or so with contractions.

Feeling better in the morning, we continued with the Hypnobirthing techniques, but as I wasn't making much progress, the midwife broke my water around 11:00 AM. A few hours later, there was still little progress, so we agreed to the midwife's suggestion of Pitocin. Ugh. Drugs and an IV were not what I had envisioned. This was such a tough decision for us because we wanted a natural childbirth.

By 4:00 PM back labor, which I had had almost from the beginning, was becoming unbearable. The regular contractions were do-able, but the back labor was not. It was present during contractions and after... basically all the time. At first, counter pressure helped me get through them, but eventually no change of positions or techniques seemed to work and I was so stressed and tense during the contractions (which came in waves of three) that I was getting even more tired. It was so awful and I had no idea how much longer I would have to go that I finally decided for an epidural. I got it around 6:30 PM or so and it enabled me to get some rest before pushing started at 10:30 PM.

And finally he was born at 11:11 PM! He was a lot bigger than I had expected (8 lb, 12 oz). He's so beautiful and we're so in love with him!