Birth Story - Vanessa Version

So, for the last little while I have been kind of agonizing over not really being able to remember Vanessa's birth day.  I checked the blog but for some reason (probably for the sake of forgetting pain and wanting to have one more kid) I didn't write it down.  I checked my emails and remembered that I have a friend, Alicia, who I like to give the detes about laboring/birthing my children. 

The following is for my own sake.  If I don't blog it I will probably forget again!  But if you're curious, by all means read and enjoy.

A few days before Vanessa decided to make her appearance, I was having mild contractions but nothing major.  So I called my parents to come and take the kids.  They came but once they came my contractions were less intense and very far between.  So, we asked my parents to take them anyway and Jeff and I decided to hit the mall for some walking - to try and get the labor going again.  We hit the mall but nothing changed.  We were almost done and then I got a call, it was our realtor.  When we found out we were pregnant with Vanessa we decided it was time to move out of our 1 bedroom apartment and get some more space.  After a long search and more searching for something we could afford, we decided we should put a hold on looking for a house.  So, this call came as quite a surprise.  The realtor told us that the sellers had accepted our 2nd offer and that the house was ours if we wanted it.  (this might actually be the reason for my not remembering the birth because the house kind of happened all at the same time.)  So a couple of days later, we were busy doing loan stuff, finalizing our credit stuff, everything I could think of when Vanessa decided that it was time.  But I think she knew that this needed to be fast, so I call it fast and furious.
Monday, May 11, 2009.  The first contraction I felt was at 1am and i knew that was it.  They came pretty consistently from then on and by the time my parents arrived, 45 minutes, I knew that I couldn't wait around at home much longer.  So we went to the hospital and checked in.  Once they found out that this was my third baby they were pretty quick and very attentive.  With the first 2 they kind of left me in the room alone most of the time.  The labor was intense and it progressed pretty quickly.  I remember asking the nurse if I could walk around because I did not want to have to sit in that hospital bed the whole time.  This time around I was going to be more open about how I wanted things to go and though I was in a hospital I wanted as little hospital as possible.  So, the nurse told me I could walk around if I needed to but they would rather have me stay put since it's my 3rd baby.  Something about the 3rd baby makes nurses and doctors nervous.  Anyway, I was about to get up to walk around and my water broke.  It was the first time that I've experienced that and I told the nurse and then I remember her saying, "Now you definitely have to stay in bed."  I was so annoyed but kind of glad because I knew that it meant Vanessa would be arriving soon.  It was pretty intense after that, I progressed pretty quickly.  I brought my music and plugged in my headphones and tried to focus on music and not the pain.  My mind trick was this:  the contraction will end just like the chorus on the song will end...and it worked for a little while.  Thank you Kanye West and Alicia Keys.  But it didn't last too long before it was so intense that I knew little Vanessa was ready.  Let me tell you, I am so grateful it went quickly after that because I don't think I could've handled much more.  I just kept telling myself that it will end soon and that after all that I would be looking at a beautiful miracle and that's what got me through it. Also can I say how much I hate when they say, "Don't push."  The doctor told me not to push but I pushed anyway, because that is what my body was telling me to do to relieve the pressure.  I pushed maybe 3 times and she came out.  The experience was so immense that by the end of it I was in a million levels of emotions and feelings.  I could still feel pain and the doctor isn't the most gentle.  So...she was born at 4:18am...pretty fast.
I will say this, I came into this pregnancy knowing that I did not want a repeat of what happened when David was born.  So, I read a lot about laboring and relaxing and allowing the body to do the work that it was intended to do.  I wanted a homebirth, but our finances weren't the best and we had insurance so why not use what we are paying lots of money to have.  Anyway, but I did prepare myself mentally for what I knew was going to be the hardest thing to do.  It took a lot but I knew that I would be so much happier about things and be able to recover a lot quicker if things went more the way that I wanted them to.  It's funny because some of the most stressful situations:  buying a house, having a baby, new job promotion all happened to us in the span of a week or so.