His birthday Aug 4th

David Christopher was born on Aug. 4th at 10:14 a.m. He was 8lbs. 6 oz. (The exact weight I was when I was born). He was 5 days late and that's okay because he's perfect. I went into real labor somewhere around 2-3a.m. that morning. My contractions were starting out at 10-12 min. in between and they were painful, but not unbearable at all. The pain was recognizable as different from the practice contractions  previously because my right leg had a pain that would shoot down from the hip to the calf. Ouch! So I sat on the ball to try and make the most of the contractions--hoping that I would dialate faster. Does that even work? Who knows. Around 6a.m. I was sure that the baby would be coming today because the contractions were now 8-10 min. apart and they were requiring me to ease through them on the ball and do the breathing exercises. I called the midwife and told her that we would likely be heading to the hospital around 8 or 9. A quick shower and a few contractions later I called her at 7:10 and told her that I decided I needed to go to the hospital now instead. She said she could meet us at 7:30 at the office, check me and then we could head over to the labor/delivery floor. I told her I would be there early and wait for her. Chris and I got there and she checked me--I was at a 5! I was a little disappointed because I was sure by the pain that this baby was on his way soon. So she suggested that we head over, break the bag of waters and see how fast we can get the baby here. I was pretty sure I didn't want her to break the bag of waters because I wanted to spare myself as much pain as possible until it was time to push, etc. Undecided as to what exactly I wanted to do we walked over to Labor & Delivery (out and around the hospital instead of the shortcut--through the hallways--again to speed up labor). At 8:15ish I was breathing through some yucky contractions and strapped to the monitor to allow them to get a straight 20 min. monitoring of our baby's heartbeat and doing some intake questionnaire that I could really have cared less about. The questioner then proceeded to tell us all about his formerly red haired head and his child rearing woes. When he left the nurse and the midwife were trying to get me to decide how I wanted to proceed--hot bath/bag of waters breaking...? I sat there and was just in a stupor--not wanting to have the extreme pain, but also not wanting the slower recovery that comes with the epidural. I finally convinced the midwife to do the tub after I had her check me and I was at a 7 instead of breaking the bag of waters (about 9a.m.ish). Tub was ready around 9:20--I got in and had 3 contractions and felt I needed to push--either that or go to the bathroom. I now see the allure of birthing a baby in a tub. I absolutely did not want to get out of the tub. Moving sent me into another contraction. Not moving and the contractions were about 5 min. apart. I got out of the tub about 9:45 and it took me a few minutes to be able to make it back to the delivery bed. She checked me--yup at a 10. I gripped the mattress as tight as I could, bit the pillow so that I wouldn't scream this time and remained on my knees through the pushing and that was so HORRIBLE. Why did I do it without an Epidural? Who cares about an additional hour or so of added recovery time....I'm sure something could have gone wrong with the epi, which is why I chose to do it without, but what if everything was fabulous--I could have been in heaven. Most of the time I was also plugging one ear and for some reason it helped, but only a little. The PAIN! Still too recent of a memory. So fresh that when we were at the MN state fair last week and observing the "birthing barn" where all the new animal mothers to be were housed to birth their babies at the fair--I spent the time cringing and then ultimately leaving a little sooner than I would have otherwise--muttering to myself, "Too soon, too soon".  Back to David's birth story--summary: 

1. I have very effective, but widely spaced contractions, which surprised the midwife and ultimately led her to believe that she did not need to break the bag of waters to speed up labor. This is no surprise to me since it has been this way for all 4 births. I need to be more forceful with orientating my midwives/doctors to this fact so that we're all on the same page. I think I come off as a little too relaxed when talking about it so they are relaxed--too relaxed.

2. Breaking the bag of waters or not--the pain was probably equally painful--too soon to talk about.

3. If there ever is a next time I will not allow myself to not get the epidural. This is crazy talk and you all are my witnesses that will help me identify non-epidural seeking Sarah as 'crazy Sarah'.

 4. I am absolutely in love my new little baby boy and my three girls--how did I get to be so lucky?! With all the pain involved I can see why mothers have had more instead of just one and done.