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The longest labor ever...

Well, after 35 long hours of labor, Madeline Elizabeth Spencer is here. So here are the gorey details:

After getting home from work Friday night I started having some cramps and knew that meant something was starting. I talked to my midwife and she said not to get excited, but just get some sleep to rest up for the real labor. She said if the contractions were bad enough to wake me up, then we knew something was happening. So we went to bed, trying not to think about what was coming within the next day or so.

Then about 1 AM, the contractions started. I wanted to immediately start timing them so we could see if we needed to call Christy (our midwife). They were about 5-7 minutes apart, but they kept jumping around and not staying consistant. But they were painful. I couldn't lie down during them and I definitely couldn't get any sleep. Every once in a while I'd doze off in between them. Ken was awesome. He stayed awake right along with me and helped me time the contractions. They never stayed consistant enough to be able to call the midwife. We were supposed to wait until they were 5 minutes apart or less, lasting for at least 1 minute and doing that for at least an hour. The contractions were lasting for about 30-50 seconds, but not consistant.

So Saturday came and Christy advised us to just try to live life like normal for as long as we could and even try to take a nap if possible. So we went shopping at Target, painted our bathroom, visited with my Aunt Terri, talked with my mother-in-law and just hung out around the house, all the while having to pause every 5 minutes or so to breathe through a contraction.

Then it was time for bed again, and I was exhausted. But I couldn't sleep through any of it. I only managed to take little cat naps between the contractions. Ken stayed up with me again, timing everything. At about 3 AM, the contractions strengthened and became so bad that I started throwing up. Now if you know any useless Melissa trivia, you may know that I haven't puked since 5th grade. So that tells you how bad the pain was.

At this point we called Christy again, even though my contractions still were not less than 5 minutes apart on a consistant basis. Since it sounded like my pain was pretty bad, she agreed to go ahead and come over to our house to check how far along I was. To my relief, when she got there I was at a 6 or a 7!! I was SO afraid that she'd check me and say, "Oh, Honey you're only at a 2." This was the best news I had heard all day. There was finally a light at the end of this!

So I went ahead and began laboring in the bathtub to help my muscles relax and move the contractions along. At first nothing was happening. But after about 2 hours, the contractions strengthened again. I seriously felt the change from active labor to the transition phase (which is supposed to be the most painful, but shortest phase) so I was happy, knowing it'd be over in a couple hours.

I dealt with the contractions for another hour in the tub, and Christy thought she should go ahead and check me again. I was officially at a 9!!! So they had me start doing contractions in new positions, using gravity and relaxation techniques to help my pelvis open more. After another couple hours of doing this, here came the worst part. Christy could feel Madeline's head and could tell she was turned to the wrong position. Her back was facing my back. So now we had a new mission. We had to get her to turn so that I could push her out more easily.

Christy and her assistant Abby prayed over me and asked God to turn Madeline. We tried having contractions in different positions and then all the sudden I had the urge to push when I was on my hands and knees. Christy checked Madeline's position again and she had turned!! Yay!!!!!!

Christy had told me that some moms prefer the pushing stage of labor over the rest. I still cannot figure out why that is. That was the most painful part in my opinion. You still have to have horrible contractions, but now you also have to push, causing more pain! Youch.

So I was pushing my little heart out and then I find out that the bag of water is in the way. So I'm fighting super hard trying to get out water??? Um no. So Christy broke my water and I got to start pushing Madeline out. By that time, my mom, dad and sisters were all on one side of the bed watching in amazement with looks of pity on their faces. I didn't care who was in there at that point, I just wanted her out of me.

Christy had also told me ahead of time to listen for her coaching while I was pushing. She was going to help me ease her out to prevent tearing. Well, I heard Christy say "ok, now is the time to stop pushing and breathe" but I didn't care. I asked her how many more times she thought I'd have to push and she said 5. I decided I was getting her out sooner than that. I pushed 2 more times and her head came out. Christy told Ken to hurry up and come down there so he could help catch her, but as soon as he started to move, she popped out and Christy had to lunge to literally catch her. Everyone in the room keeps laughing about that still today. :)

So she was born. Ken started crying and couldn't stop. Christy put her between my legs so that I could see her. It was amazing. She was perfect.

This experience was the most difficult, but most rewarding one in my life. Ken and I bonded like never before and the wonderful person he is was so evident through it all. I found out that I can do it and if we have more kids later, I'll do it again. I'll definitely have them all at home though, because if I'd had the option of drugs in the hospital, I would've taken them.

So there they are. All the details you ever wanted to know and more. :)