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.