Arlo James 's Birth Story

My birth story begins at 7 am monday morning. I woke up to what I had been feeling previously the last few days around the same time each morning, light menstrual like cramping but it had usually fizzled by 9 am in previous days so I stayed in bed changing positions. This time I noticed that the consistency of contractions seemed to be about 10 minutes apart by 9 am I decided to empty my bladder to see if that would help as well. Upon wiping I noticed I lost my mucus plug. So then I thought something was going on. Sat on my birth ball for about a half hour as my hubby got my son ready for breakfast and the day. Noticed that the contraction were still coming consistently every 10 mins. I decided to take a bath to see if that relieved them as well. It did not and by 11 am the contractions were 7-8 mins apart and lasting 30-45 seconds. I knew this was labor by that time. I called my doula over to my home around 11 am. She was there with me laboring at home until we decided to head to the hospital around 3pm. I was 5 cm upon being admitted. less than 2 hours later I was at a 9 cm. I labored in a birthing tub for a few hours where my water broke. I had a hard time pushing him out in the tub and had to get out and push him out in a side laying position. He was out and crying with three pushes. Born at 39+4 weeks pre e and hellp free, all natural birth. only using the birth tub for pain relief. The recovery has been night and day compared to my first son born by induction at 34 weeks.
Mommy and baby are both healthy and the entire experience was so surreal.

	Comment from Quartz3 » Posted Dec. 4, 2014 8:16am Anything new with you?
	Comment from Quartz3 » Posted Nov. 3, 2014 12:28pm Maybe you're going to have a very quiet baby, who knows? When my doctor told me about kick counting, when I was pregnant with my son, she said the fact that he would sleep at times didn't matter as he wouldn't sleep for more than 30 minutes at a time. I spent numerous morning extremely anxious after that because there were times I felt barely anything before the afternoon! And then he would kick as normal for the rest of the day. Well, sure enough, after he was born, he spent basically 3 months sleeping!
	Comment from Quartz3 » Posted Oct. 30, 2014 7:01am Haha, it's the same in my birth club! Although maybe it'll come when we're a bit further along and have exciting stuff to post about, like finding out the gender. I'm hopeful! Other than that I've been good! I'm having my NT scan in three weeks and trying to keep sane till then! How about you? You've been quiet lately!
	Comment from Quartz3 » Posted Oct. 13, 2014 10:34am Wow, on both sides?! I had no idea bursitis could be a permanent thing. I had a colleague who got cortisone shots in both her hands because she had tendonitisâ?¦ so I'm guessing your situation would be similar. That really sucks!
	Comment from Quartz3 » Posted Oct. 11, 2014 6:17pm What happened to your hip?
	Comment from Quartz3 » Posted Oct. 9, 2014 6:57am I'm doing good! Bored out of my mind with this pregnancy lol - I always find early pregnancy draaaaaaags alooooooong... I'm lucky not to have any big symptoms (no nausea! yay!), but that only accentuates the feeling that nothing is going on for the longest time!!!! How are you?