Afterwards. . .

Richard held her first. I love the pictures of him holding her. Already such a good Daddy. I just realized that I don't have any pictures of Laurie holding her. I'm not sure how that happened.

Here are all my pictures of everyone holding Miss Maggie.

Grandpa and Grandmo.

Aunt Gwen with Uncle Mike looking on.

Grandma.

Nana.

Once I was finally done with all of my stuff, someone brought us food. I ate a couple of bites and passed out. Richard told me I looked like someone that had passed out on a subway. I have a picture somewhere where you can see me in the background and I just kind of hunched over, passed out. What can I say, labor is not for wimps.

Here is Uncle Jeff. He was there while I delivered but not in the room. He still loves to tell how I screamed scary movie screams and it scared him. I don't even remember screaming. He also accidentally looked in the tub post-birth and saw lots of blood, etc. and as Mark said,"You can look but you can't unlook."

Maggie's Here!!!

After she was born, Betty immediately put her on my chest, although at first I didn't even realize it. She also put a towel over her so everyone was asking,"Carrie, what is it?" I didn't even look, I knew it was a girl. From the start, Richard and I had known. I just said it's a girl. Can you imagine if I'd been wrong?

I don't really remember any of this, which really stinks. But at least I had these moments. I remember her turning purple because I had the water so cold. Sorry, Maggie. I remember Richard and Laurie being so happy and Richard telling me how much he loved me and thanking me for bringing our baby into the world.

She is so beautiful. Right from the beginning she was the most beautiful baby ever. She had a strong grip and bright blue eyes.

 This is the cord cutting. I remember this. She didn't breathe on her own for a couple of minutes which doesn't matter as long as the cord is still attached. So we rubbed her body to encourage breathing and warm her up. She went from dark purple to a much more healthy pink. Then while I held her, Betty protected her skin and let Richard cut the cord. As soon as it was cut they took her out of the tub and swaddled her to let her warm up. I had to stay in the tub for much less fun things.

Labor and Delivery Pt. 7

This was when labor really kicked in. It was very intense and super painful. Nothing helped. Richard, Laurie and I laid in the bed and they talked to me, held me, rubbed various parts of me, etc. Mom, Gwen and my friend Rosalie took turns rubbing my feet or hips. And while this sounds wonderful, I couldn't even appreciate it (or rather I couldn't enjoy it, I was still grateful).

Everything is so hazy from this time until pretty much the next day. I remember being in the tub for a while. I remember trying to eat and drink but throwing everything immediately back up. Betty "accidently" breaking my water, which is so horrible. Laurie, Richard and I finally got a good thing going. Richard held, rubbed, etc. me while Laurie talked to me. She repeated the same things (Just let the pain wash over you; you can't do anything about it so don't fight it) over and over in the same voice and would touch anywhere on my body that she could see me tensing and tell me to relax that part. It worked great. Around that time Betty checked me and I was 7cm.

But I guess my contractions were getting further apart so Betty wanted to put some kind of cream or something on me to speed up labor. And RICHARD said no, we just want to do this naturally. The same guy who asked Betty when we first talked to her about possibly being our midwife,"If you take her to the hospital if anything goes wrong, why not just start at the hospital?" At this point, I started pushing not because I felt any urge to but just to see what would happen. And after a couple of minutes of that I decided I was ready to have the baby. Again I have no idea why, I never at any point felt any urge to push, I just kinda decided I was going to do it. I have no idea why it worked. I kicked everyone out, decided I wanted to get in the tub and did just that.

By the time I had stripped and gotten in the tub, I really was ready to have the baby. I remember feeling a burning sensation which Laurie told me later is common when the baby crowns. So I got in my cold water (I was hot, I refused to let them turn on the hot water) and started. I couldn't have been in there too long. I remember Betty and everyone trying to get me to push and me just ignoring them. Then Betty yelled at me and made me move around and hold my legs and push. I really felt like if the baby came out, my entire bottom would just burst open (sorry, but I really did). After pushing a couple of times, everyone could see the baby's head and were super excited. So Betty, in an attempt to get me to push harder, told me to reach down and feel my baby's head. At this point I don't know why but I thought I had delivered part of the head (oh silly, silly optimism) so I reached down and realized she was still entirely inside me, I was a little freaked. But in one big push a couple of minutes later, everything came out. I mean her entire body, the whole thing. It was quite shocking to everyone.

Labor and Delivery Pt. 6

The car ride was interesting. Although I hadn't been sick at the house, Richard had to pull over so I could throw up on the side of the road. So, yeah, that wasn't fun. When we got there Betty had already been there because another couple had just been sent home because she wasn't far enough in labor. So that just fueled my fears. If you are not at least 4 cm dialated, Betty sends you home. I was very scared about being sent home. So she put me up on the table and warns me that changing positions causes contractions. Very true. Then she did the pelvic and told us I was only 3 cm! But I guess out of the kindness of her heart she let us stay.

Richard and I had taken our birthing class with Betty and her big thing about early labor was to take something, like Tylenol PM, so you can try to sleep through early labor and save your energy for the hard stuff. So she gave me a shot of something and blissfully, I slept from about 7am until about noon or 1pm. I did wake up to hear the other mother come back and have her baby in about 30 minutes (seriously, it was crazy fast). And that made her and I the 5th set of mothers ever to labor/deliver at the same time there. Thank God I got the room with the tub. Well, I would have gotten it anyway, the other lady wasn't interested in/afraid of a tub birth.

Labor and Delivery Pt. 5

For the next 2-3 hours Laurie, Richard and I laid in our (Richard's and mine) bed. Richard talked to me and held me, Laurie took notes and timed the contractions and I had contractions. After about this time it really all starts getting hazy. At about 6am I called Betty and told her how long I had been contracting, how long my contractions were and how far apart they were. She said to come on in. So Laurie and Richard got everything ready and off we were.

Labor and Delivery Pt. 4

And sure enough at about 2 am the contractions were uncomfortable enough to wake me up. I didn't want to wake Laurie or Richard yet so I just mostly paced around and felt generally shocked. Ah, yes, I did not believe that labor could be that bad. And I tell you now I cannot remember what the pain felt like but dear Lord. So I was shocked. Laurie had to get up at 3am to give me my antibiotics (because we had broken Betty's rule and had Nan do a pelvic to see how far dialated I was). When she got up I kind of ran at her expectantly. I don't know what it is about pain but it always seems like it will feel better if someone else is there. And I guess it does.