He is here!

Alexander Tyler Broxterman was born on Sunday, August 16th, 2009 at 7:24pm. He came out a whopping 10 lbs, 2 ozs and 22 inches long.

Alex's birth was a hard fought for delivery. Our birth story actually starts the Thursday before he was born. I went in for my weekly ultrasound and midwife appointment. The perinatalogist as usual wanted me to schedule a c-section for the next day, and as usual, I just tried to ignore him. He sent his report up to my midwife and I went and saw her later that day.

After much discussion and a few tears, we came up with a game plan. We would spend the weekend trying to get me to go into labor, if we where not successful then I would have a c-section on Wednesday morning. Our plan for the weekend involved stretching my cervix on Thursday, stripping my membranes on Friday and Saturday, and me taking the German Birth Drink on Saturday afternoon. For anyone who doesn't know what any of that is, you are better off. ;) Let's just say I was in for a very uncomfortable weekend.

After my appointment on Thursday, I went home and called Matt with the news. He as always was very supportive of either situation. He was going to go to my appointment the next day, which as it turns out, I am so glad. That night, I was very uncomfortable and didn't sleep well at all. Friday morning, we went in to see Leslie and she stripped my membranes. As it turns out, that hurts alot. I was glad Matt was there to hold my hand through it. Then I went home to wait and see if I would go into labor that night. No such luck, but I did have a lot of cramping, heart burn and no sleep. Saturday, Matt got up bright and early to go get a bike ride in before our midwife appointment that day. I am glad he was able to get his ride in since he has not been on the bike since. Just another example of how great my midwife is, she came in on Saturday just to strip my membranes again and give me the birth drink. The german birth drink is a combination of castor oil, almond paste, apricot paste, and some herbs. You drink it with 6 oz of champagne, which is just about the only good thing about it. We left the appointment, got some lunch and champangne and went home. At about 2:30pm, I drank the cocktail and went to lay down for a while. I watched Jersey Girl, which is not that bad of a movie. About the time the movie ended, I had started noticing that I was really crampy.

At about 5:30pm, I was noticing that I was having regular contractions and started timing them. I sent Matt a message, that I was having contractions, but not to get excited yet. I wanted to make sure they where the real thing and not false labor. Matt, being the excited daddy to be, came straight home and we called our Doula Sara and Midwife Leslie. We agreed to check back in later that evening and Matt and I went for a walk. We walked to the end of the street and back with Bandit. By the time we got back from our walk, I felt pretty confident that this was it, we where going to have a baby!

We decided to go get some dinner with my parents, so we went to Anna's pizza. By the end of dinner, I was getting pretty uncomfortable and squirmy. I was ready to get back home. Our game plan was to stay at home as long as we could, then go to the hospital. At about 9pm, I was coming out of the bathroom and stopped in the doorway to the kitchen, when all of the sudden there was two large gushes. My water had broken, or so I thought. It turns out that it had only sprang a leak. We called Sara and Leslie again just to let them know what was up. My contractions started coming faster and more intense. They where coming approximately every 2-3 minutes, so we called Sara back and asked her to come over. Sara is our Doula. She is a proffesional birth assistant and was there to support both Matt and I during this process. She was an invaluable part of our birth and we highly recomend hiring a Doula.

Sara got to the house around 11pm, I think. I get hazy about time at this point. I was having contractions about every 2-3 minutes and definitely had to stop and concentrate through each one. Sara helped me by suggesting various positions and having me get in the shower for a while. At approximately 1am, we decided to go to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital, and the nurses strapped on the fetal montior and the contraction monitor. Baby was doing great, and I was having nice strong contractions. Leslie arrived shortly after and checked me. Unfortunately, she didn't have good news for me. I was only at 4 cms, after being in labor for 7 hours and starting my labor at 3 cm. She also noticed that I still had my bag of water. Apparently, I had sprung a leak that fixed itself. She asked if I wanted to go home, or stay. I chose to stay, I could imaging that car ride again.

As the night progressed into morning, I was walking laps around the hospital, sitting on the birth ball and trying to rest some. But, my contractions had started to get further and further apart. By 7 am, they had disapeared. I was devistated. Why had my labor stopped? What was this going to mean for my birth? Leslie came in and finished breaking my bag of water. We were going to give it a little time to see if my labor would kick back in. She said I should try to get some rest while I could. I tried to lay down, but my mind was racing to much and I could not rest. About 9 am, Leslie came back to discuss our options. We could either, go ahead with the c-section, or start a pitocin drip to restart labor. We discussed the positives and risk of each senerio. After much discussion, I decided to go for the pitocin. I really wanted to avoid the c-section, and felt that I needed to do everything I could before I allowed it to happen.

As the nurses came in to start the drip, my contractions started again. We still went ahead with the drip, to insure that my labor would not stop again. I labored for about 4 hours with the pitocin, and was starting to feel the exhaustion of how long it was taking. I didn't know how much more I was going to be able to do. My midwife checked me again and I had only progressed to 5 cm. It was that news that made me decide to have the epidural. It was the hardest decision I have ever made. My midwife was concerned that if I didn't get some rest, I would not be able to push out my baby when the time came. She also told my husband on the side that we where looking like a midnight delivery at the rate I was progressing. Neither told me that, which was good. I looked at how long it had taken me to get to 5 cm (19 hours), and the fact that I had not slept, and decided to get the epidural. I cried the whole time I was making the decision and for a while after. I felt such disapointment in myself, but I had to do what was best for Alex. My midwife was also concerned about my back labor and wanted to see if we could get Alex in better positioning.

The next 30 minute where the longest ever. Once I had made the decision to have the epidural, I lost my ability to cope with the pain and just wanted it to be over. It is a interesting thing, how you go from coping to not.

Once I got my epidural, I spent four hour taking 15 minute naps and being flipped from side to side. Each time I woke up, I could feel more and more pressure. I knew the time was coming soon. My midwife came in the check me and I had moved from 4cm to 10 cm in the 4 hours I had been resting.  She still wasn't ready for me to push him out yet.  I had to labor him down some more, 2 hours more.  When I finally told the nurse that I could not wait anymore, Leslie came in and checked me.  Alex's head was right there.  So we went to work.....58 minutes later, Alex was born.  10 lb 2 oz, 22 inches.  He was the most beautiful sight I think I had ever seen.

Learning to just go with the flow...

I think Alex is trying to teach me how to just let go and trust everything will be okay. I had my weekly ultrasound and midwife appointment today.

From the begining of my pregnancy, I had decided that I wanted a natural child birth. This is actually a very different than what I alway thought I wanted. I had always said that when I had children, the doc better be chasing me in the door with the epidural. Then I got pregnant and it was like a switch got flipped in my head. I started researching everything and realized how much better it was for me and Alex to have as natural of birth as possible.

So over the last 10 months, Matt and I have been preparing for our child's entry into the world. We have selected a fantastic midwife, taken our natural childbirth class, hired a doula to help during labor, and have been mentally and physically preparing for the upcoming birth.

Well, today I found out that I may not get my natural birth. Not only is it possible that I will not have a natural childbirth, but I also may end up not getting to labor at all. I am 40 weeks and 5 days into my pregnancy, and if I do not go into labor by Wednesday morning, I am scheduled to have a c-section. This is just about the worst senerio I could have come up with, and now it is my reality.

We are going to do everything we can to get labor going in the next few days. Tomorrow my midwife will strip my membranes, and Saturday if I still haven't gone into labor, I will drink the birth drink. I am okay with going into the c-section at least knowing that I did everything I could to get him here naturally.

August 9th came and went....

I am officially one day past my due date. Yesterday was August 9th, which was our EDD (Estimated Due Date). According to my Bradley class, most first time mothers who plan on natural childbirth go 10 days late. Ugggggg, I don't think I can take another 9 days of waiting.

Matt is also not a big fan of waiting. He really wants to see his son and start being a dad.

We spent the past weekend going to the Forest Hill Farmer's Market on Saturday morning and the Watermelon Festival on Sunday morning. Both were fantastic! The farmer's market was fun and we were able to pick up some fresh veggies, and chocolate cake mix. I have developed this infatuation with chocolate cake since becoming pregnant. We also met this really cool woman who makes cloth diapers. Matt and I are both upset by the amount of waste our child will produce in his first two years of life. We are seriously considering at least supplementing with cloth diapers at home. The ones that the woman makes are really cool. They snap on and off, and are the diaper and cover all in one. They also grow with your child from 8 lbs to about 28 lbs. So in the long run, they would save us money too.

Sunday, we went to the Carytown Watermelon Festival. It was very hot, 97 degrees, but we had a great time walking around. Matt found these really cool barrels that you can put whiskey in and age it. Supposedly, you put in cheaper liquor and then let it age for 3 weeks or so and it come out tasting like the more expensive version. They are oak barrels and seemed very well made. Matt is now infatuated with them. We walked around for about 2 hours, which was the time limit placed on me by my midwife, ate lunch at Nacho Mama's and went home. I have never been so tired. I was telling Matt that I wasn't that tired after completing my Olympic Distance tri. I took a nap and spent the rest of the day resting and hoping to go into labor.

It is now Monday morning and I am still pregnant. I guess we will have to wait and see when Alex decides to make his grand arrival. There are lots of people anxiously awaiting his arrival.

39 weeks Prego

We offically became 39 weeks pregnant on Sunday. I delveloped high blood pressure approximately 2 weeks ago and was placed on bedrest for the duration of my pregnancy. Luckily, my BP has come back down in the two weeks since I was put out on bed rest.

Yesterday, I went for my weekly ultrasound to check on Alex's progress. We found out that he is a rather large baby, somewhere between 9 lb 11 oz and 10 lbs. Yes, you heard correctly, we are potentially have a double digit baby.

He is healthy and very active, and so far the midwives a very happy with his progress. There is a slight concern about his shoulders and the possibility of them getting stuck during delivery, but we will cross that bridge when we get there.

Welcome!

I wanted a way to capture the adventure that Matt and I are getting ready to undertake. This seemed to be a great way to do that.To back track just a little bit, Matt and I found out that we would be welcoming a new addition to the family back on December 2nd. Matt still likes to make fun of the fact that it took 3 test and google to convience me that I was reading it correctly. Needless to say, we where both suprised to see that we were going to become parents. It was quite by accident that we even found out. I had suffered a bout of depression following the death of my grandfather and aunt earlier in the year and was concerned that maybe it was coming back. I had been very emotional, tired, and feeling just run down for the previous week. I had made an appointment with my doctor and just wanted to be able to say with 100% certainty that I was not pregnant when he asked. Boy was I suprised to find out that I was indeed pregnant.

The last 9 months have been an crazy flurry of activity for us. Matt got a new job in Richmond and moved back home in January, we put our house on the market that month as well. I got a new job in March and also moved down to Richmond. We sold our house in May and have been preparing for our new addition ever since. Note to self: Do not move while pregnant ever again.

My pregnancy has gone pretty smoothly. My first trimester was a little rough. I missed having Matt around, had morning sickness, emotional mood swings, back pains, gave myself food poisioning, and spend two weeks in bed sick with a upper respitory infection turned sinus infection.

Second trimester went by very smoothly. I had more energy, stop throwing up, and was able to start feeling like a human again. Matt and I were even able to take a couple of camping trips and go white water rafting down the James River.

We are officially due on August 9th, 2009. We have decided to name our son Alexander Tyler Broxterman. Alex for short.

We are planning a natural, unmedicated child birth. In preparation for this, we have selected two wonderful mid-wives to be our primary care provider, a doula named Sara to help us through labor and delivery, and have surounded ourselves with a great community of parents to be who are also looking for an natural, unmedicated birth.