Sweet Valentines Day Labor

Amid contractions 9pm 2-14-09

Yes I was that big! I have lost 24 lbs in 9 days!

The day I went into labor was the most beautiful day! It's definitely in the top 3 days of my life (in no specific order). It was Valentines day :-). The day started with me having an appointment for a manicure and pedicure at 9am at a super nice natural nail care clinic. The women there joked and told me that they would make sure to not hit the labor points in the feet when they were giving me my pedicure. We spoke about whether I was ready, and I told them that I felt a lot more ready than before, and he can come when he wants now! Boy...was he listening. The manicure and pedicure were just what the doctor ordered, I felt so happy and excited for the rest of my day.

I came home to find a beautiful arrangement of white(my favorite) exotic flowers on our table with a card and lollipop from my husband. I was so surprised because I was not expecting anything for v-day. The card had such sweet words from David and he had also written me a separate letter with a poem! YES a poem, and it rhymed! And yes, it was all written by David. I was so impressed, didn't know he had it in him! Anyhow, then David proceeds to cook me what he called "my labor breakfast". I laughed when he said that and just ate away, it was delicious.

We then spent the day in the good company of some of my great friends, Mandy and Cristina. We baked cookies, and played Clue and just had a good time as good friends, enjoying my last days of a prego me. After they left I went to the mall with a friend to buy a gift for Karys, I was looking forward to going to her birthday party the next day. I joked to my friend that it was good that her and I were going to the mall, as it would "prep me for labor". Funny how everything would turn out.

I came home in time to celebrate a v-day evening with my hubby and cook him a nice dinner. While cooking I started to have some contractions. When the food was ready, at 9pm (thank goodness it was a late dinner) I started to realize that my contractions were really consistent. I was having them last 1 min. long and they came every 4-5 min. David kept saying we should go to the hospital, but I was in denial. We went upstairs and just prepped things in case I was truly in labor. After 4 hours of consistent contractions we decided to call my doctor who told us to head to the hospital.

When we got to the hospital I was 4 cm dilated. It was now 2am, five hours after my contractions started. They admitted me right away. I was still in denial. I asked the nurses "are you sure you want to admit me? I can go back home if it's not real labor". They laughed and said "you're in labor". Time passed and I dilated to 6 cm after a few hours. I loved managing my contractions by walking around, using the bouncy ball and getting in the hot tub. For me, labor was really fun and a chance to spend some very special time with my husband (even though he slept through most of it, haha). Then after a couple more hours I dilated to 7cm. We all thought Gabriel would come any minute. Well he decided to enjoy his last days in my womb and took his sweet time. I stayed dilated at 7 cm for 12 hours. The doctor told me it was completely abnormal to not continue to dilate. Typically you dilate 1 cm an hour. Well that was not the case for me. The doctor wanted to do all sorts of interventions: break my water, give me pitocin, epidural, do a c-section. I was having none of that. It was funny, it made things awkward with the Dr., nevertheless she let me call the shots.

After staying at 7cm, I decided it would be best to see what happens if they broke my water. So they broke my water and it made my contractions stronger, and a little crazy. We for sure thought it would help me dilate to 1o cm in no time. My contractions were going crazy. Lasting 3-5 min long with little to no break in between them , maybe 20 seconds in between. So for about 3 hours straight all I was doing was breathing my lamaze breathing. My legs were shaking from all the tension, and I was still not dilating. Gabriel dropped further down the birth canal and was bumping against my cervix. Since I was not completely dilated the chance that my cervix would swell was really high. Swollen cervix= automatic c-section. I was not having a c-secton. Gabriel was in great health, never distressed, and so was I. There was no reason to have one.

The only possible solution to avoid a swollen cervix was an epidural to ease the tension in it. The nurse believed that my crazy contractions were causing me to not dilate because my cervix was not having any time to relax and dilate in between the contractions. After 34+ hours of a medication free labor I decided to avoid the ultimate intervention of a c-section by getting a small dose of the epidural to see if it would help my cervix relax and dilate. They administered half a dose of an epidural when I was 8 cm dilated. It still took 4 hours, but I finally dilated to 10 cm!! They believed the epidural helped my cervix finally relax and dilate. The rest after that is history. I only pushed for 15 minutes and out came our angel Gabriel. It was love at first sight.

All in all... I loved my labor, every single minute of it. I loved the contractions and managing the pain, it was such an awesome challenge, and I would do it again in a heart beat. The day I went into labor was such a beautiful day, and going through labor was also such a beautiful experience.

So what started my labor? A lovely manicure and pedicure, a sweet valentines day breakfast, lots of love, and friends, a walk around the mall, and a home cooked valentines day dinner! And being in denial of it all!

Gabriel at 2 days old

A photographer from Bella Baby Photography snapped some pictures of Gabriel on his 2nd day of life. We are just so in love with him. He is the most perfect baby.

A post about our labor day is still coming! Sorry we are being so slow! All our day goes to admiring his beautiful face!

Our Little Angel

Gabriel David Durrant decided to join us a little early and we are so happy about that! He was born at 2AM on 2-16-09 after 38+ hours of wondering if he should come out into the world! We are all doing really great and love this new edition to our family. He was 7 lbs 8 oz and 20 inches long.

A longer post will come soon about the labor, and our new little adventures with him!

Gabriel Update

Gabriel on 2-9-09. So cute.
He really is posing in this pic. Keith, he did blue steel for you!

A lot has happened with Gabriel lately. He sure has made us nervous these last couple of weeks! Starting with the fact that we found out I was already dilated and the next week found out that he was breech. :-/ We only have 14 days in counting til our due date. However, our doctor thinks he can come anytime. Here are the reasons why:

• Jan. 29th 2009- My cervix was already dilated to 2 cm (Doctor was very surprised and told us at that point he could come any time)

• Feb. 5th 2009- Still dilated to 2cm, but found out he was breech! Offered two choices, an external version to flip him, or schedule a c-section. (click on the links to learn more about each procedure) We told the doctor that a c-section was absolute last resort, and we wanted to schedule an external version to flip him. She scheduled it asap.

• Feb. 6th 2009-Checked into St. Mary's Labor and Delivery. Got a few shots, including an epidural to numb my midsection so that my abdominal muscles would not spasm when our doctor performed the external version. If there was a complication, an emergency c-section would have to be done right away. We had a few scares during the procedure, his heart rate dropped from 160ish to 80ish at one point. On average, the procedure is only 58% effective. The procedure was successful! FYI, St. Mary's only does about 6 external versions a year, and my doctor had only done a couple in her entire 20ish year career.

• Feb. 12 2009-Gabriel is still head down! Yay! I am now 3 cm dilated and 80% effaced(cervix thinned out). My tummy is measuring at 41 weeks, in reality i'm 38 weeks. Anytime according to the doctor! Yikes... :-)

We are lucky that Gabriel is a "very happy" baby according to the nurses and doctor's at St. Marys. He is really strong and healthy and we are so grateful. Hopefully the rest of the pregnancy will go without much surprises and we can have a natural delivery. Please pray for us. The thought of a c-section really scared us. After much research on my part, I do not see a single benefit to c-sections, unless it's to make sure that a healthy baby is born. So if for some reason Gabriel's health is compromised during labor, we will not hesitate to have one. One thing that we have learned in the last couple weeks is that a birth plan sure can change! And it's ok if it changes, as long as Gabriel get's here happy and healthy.

In other news, we finished Lamaze. The classes were amazing! Both David and I found them extremely helpful, informative, and exciting! Labor wise, we are so ready, bring it on! According to David, it was the best spent money on Gabriel to date! I agree. We learned so much and it's not all about breathing exercises like people think. Even though the class was pricey, it was so worth it. We are also done with Gabriel's room! I love it. It's a soothing room, and i'll post pictures soon.

Our two year dating anniversary is tomorrow, 2-13-09. I have to say that I didn't think love could grow so fast and deeply. I love David so much and know that i'm so lucky to have such an angel of a husband.

Please keep us in your prayers! The more the merrier!