She's here! Ella Isabel Neal Dietzman was born Friday Oct. 22 at 8:39pm. She weighed 6lbs 6oz, and was 19in long.
I started having (stronger) contractions Thursday night about 11:30. At first I tried to ignore them and go to sleep, but by about 1am, I couldn't lay in bed any more. I got up and sat on my exercise ball and watched HGTV and just tried to relax. They were pretty strong and regular throughout the night, but not very close together. I had some other signs that made me think it was probably the real deal, but I'll spare everyone the details :-) Jeff's alarm went off around 6am Friday and I told him I thought he better stay home. We spent the day kind of just putzing around. The contractions were pretty uncomfortable, but still irregular, like 3-9min apart.
Around 5pm I decided to try again to lay down and rest. I laid down on the couch and was sort of drifting in and out between contractions. Around 5:20 I started having a particularly strong contraction. I was trying to breath through it and all the sudden I felt what I thought was her moving in a weird way, a big pop, and a huge gush of fluid. Even with all that it still took me a second to realize my water had broken. I told Jeff and he ran and got some towels and we managed to keep the couch dry.
I knew the contractions would start getting stronger pretty quick and within about 5 minutes they were much stronger and closer together. We called the midwife and let her know, she said to come in when the contractions got to be 3-4min. By about 6:15 the contractions were coming every 2-3min and they were really strong. I wanted to go to the birthing center so I could get in the tub. So we headed that way.
The car ride was terrible. There was traffic and every bump was brutal. We got to the birthing center about 7pm. Betty checked my cervix and said I was only 4cm! I think I might have cried, I was so discouraged. She had started the bath for me, so I went and got in. It was only about half or so full, the hot water had run out. I really didn't get much relief from the bath. I think the contractions spaced out a little and I actually dozed a bit between contractions, so maybe it did help some, but the contractions were still insanely intense. I got out a bit later and tried some different positions, but nothing seemed to help.
At some point I started pushing even though I was thinking it was too early, it was the only thing that gave me some relief. Betty came in then, which was about 8pm and checked my cervix again and said I was about 9 and 1/2cm. I was relieved! That was the first time in a while I felt like I might be able to do this. Betty told me to go ahead and start pushing if I felt like I needed to, I didn't really feel like I had a choice anyway. I tried a few different positions, and then decided to get back in the tub. That seemed to do the trick. She was born about 15 minutes later.
She was pink and crying immediately. We stayed in the tub for a little while and then moved over to the bed. We hung out and tried (unsuccessfully) to nurse for about two hours. Then Betty came in and weighed and measured her and did all the foot prints and stuff. Then all the family came in and saw her for a little while. Around midnight, we packed up our stuff and went home!
We've all been doing well. I'll try to post more updates later. It's time to feed her again.
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