Perry Willows birth story.

I've been meaning to post this for months... and was asked by many people for me to tell the story, and here I am almost 4 months later finally posting! I am going to keep this as PG as possible, but come on, it's child birth.. is that possible??!?!

My due date was August 23rd. I was lucky and had an EXTREMELY easy pregnancy. The last month was horrible of course, but I don't know many women that enjoy that last month. When my due date came I was EXTREMELY sad Perry hadn't come yet. Like... I cried about it. Kind of pathetic I know, but you go so long telling everyone that date, and thinking your baby will be here by then, and when it comes and they still aren't here.. you start to question if they will ever come! Or if there's even a baby in there! I know that's crazy, but I wanted to meet her so bad I was just so bummed out the entire day and night. I went to sleep not expecting much, because I had gotten my hopes up every night and day for the past month... And it didn't help that I was dialated to a 4 a whole week and a half before the girl actually came. Doesn't help when your midwife says "Oh I'm SURE she'll be here by your due-date. I will be very surprised if she doesn't come". Ya. THANKS A LOT! So like I said, I had been dialated to a 4 and 75% effaced for almost 2 weeks... starting to think this deal wasn't happening.

Anyway.. the day after my due date I was in a great mood. I started doing EVERYTHING people had told me to do to induce labor (except drink castor oil.. wouldn't allow myself..). I decided to run a mile on the treadmill.. then go on a 5 mile walk outside to run my errands... walked to safeway, then whole foods, then target. Then when I got home I got in the pool and jumped around, as well as doing squats. COME ONNNN BABY! I had so much energy that day. I made dinner and then Bobby and I decided to go to our favorite local ice cream place (Theno's Dairy) and get some rockin ice cream. We came home and decided to watch some Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. :) The day before I had gone in to see my midwife and she told me that in my spare time I should bend over the couch or ottoman on my hands and knees and sway my hips back and forth to get the baby in the right postion. So I decided to do this while we were watching our show. After doing it for about 10 minutes (about 9pm) I sat on the couch and felt some leakage... I looked at Bobby and said "umm something just happened. I know I didn't just pee my pants..." There wasn't a big GUSH like I always heard happens when your water breaks... but I got up and sure enough there was a nice liquid spot on the couch. Bobby was sure it wasn't my water... but I called my mom and she said that I should call my midwife. So I did, and she said "Yup! That's your water. Your water is leaking. If you don't go into labor by 6am we will need to induce you.. but for how dialated you are I think you'll start on your own". So then within 5 minutes of getting off the phone contractions started up. I was still able to move around a little and talk through them... I called my mom and told her to get on the road because I didn't want her to miss it and I wanted her in the room. SO her, my sister and brother got on the road around 10pm that night. My mother in law called and insisted on staying on the phone through a contraction... she wanted to hear? lol (my crazy mother in law ;) ). I even got to talk to Cara!!! Anyway... contractions came on pretty strong.. Bobby discovered a cool app on our smartphones that helps you keep track of contractions. After the first few contractions, my contractions started being 5 minutes apart and lasting for a minute. I called my midwife and she wanted them to be that way for an hour before calling her back. In between contractions I finished packing.. then it got so bad I couldn't move around anymore. After I had these contractions consistently for an hour, I called my midwife. She had asked me if I wanted to do this naturally. I said that I would like to, so she said that I should stay home as long as possible so that I was comfortable. I told her that the pain was getting bad, and I wanted to go to the hospital now because I was worried about the sitting position for the carride. (I had been doing different positions that I had learned in my labor class, that were super helpful but sitting was not one of them). So we got in the car and made our way to the hospital. Bobby and I had to fill out some paperwork before going into our room, and every few minutes I had to take a break and go squat against the wall hanging onto the bar. Boy that was fun. All I wanted to go do was get into my room and go sit in my squatting position because that's the way I felt the least amount of pain. We got into our room, and the nurse got me changed and monitored me for a half hour before they checked to see my dialation. My midwife came in and checked me and I was still at a 4 1/2. I then decided I wanted to get in the tub because I had heard SO MANY amazing things about it. So I got in... it felt good for about a minute. Then a contraction started and I started shaking and immediately had to get out... then came the throwing up. Good times. So I went back to my comfortable squating position where I lingered in and out of sleep. It's crazy how you mentally just have to check out of your body because of the pain. I took the advice from a few friends to just try as hard as I could to relax my body and when I felt the urge to tighten up, do the opposite... as much as possible anyway. It was hard... but it works. I also just kept focusing on my little pdub and visualize her coming out and meeting her.

I had always said I wanted to see if I could do childbirth naturally. I wasn't necessarily against an epidural, I just wanted to do it natural if I could (for lots of reasons). But I always said that I've never been through it, so I had no idea what it would feel like, so if I ended up getting the epidural I wouldn't beat myself up over it. However.. as my pregnancy went on I felt stronger and stronger about doing it without any pain relief, and like Bobby says.. I'm pretty strong minded and when I set my mind to something, I generally do it. There were many times during labor that I thought "Wow I can see why someone would want an epidural", but I never seriously asked for one or even thought about getting it. I just thought... my body was made to do this, and she's it's only a day out of my life of pain, and it's for my daughter! So that made it a little easier for me.

My mom finally arrived around 12:30 and I was so happy to see her. Bobby had been so great, staying by my side the entire time, rubbing my back, doing whatever I asked. I had an amazing nurse and AMAZING midwife, she was there through all of it, and had such great advice on helping me breathe correctly through the pain. By the time my mom got there, I was at a 7, and I was currently in "back labor". The baby was facing a not so ideal way.. so she wanted me to get on the bed and sit on my knees bending over a medicine ball to help get the baby to turn. After I was doing that for a while, she said "okay we really gotta get this baby in the right position", so I had to lay on my side. Oh. My. GOSH. The pain amplified by about a billion and I threw up again, along with getting the shakes pretty bad. I was dehydrated from throwing up so much that they had to IV some liquids in me. I was in so much pain that I couldn't even feel the needle going in. Yet again, good times. Right when I got into this position I hit transition and I wasn't getting any breaks in between contractions... If I was they were few and not very long lasting. Within about a half hour, I felt the urge to push. I yelled "She's coming! I need to push!" Sure enough my midwife checked me and I was at a 9 1/2, and almost 100% effaced. I wasn't completely effaced so my midwife didn't want me to push yet which was extremely hard.. she helped me with my breathing which helped keeping me from pushing. I had heard from so many people that breathing didn't do anything blah blah blah.. well at least in my situation, the way I breathed and did my hee hee hoos made a HUGE difference on not only keeping my body in check, but it helped with the pain! Soon I couldn't keep the pushing from happening and it was going down. I also had been told by those who did it naturally that the pushing wasn't as painful as the contractions. Boy was that not true for me. This may be a little dramatic, but when the pushing started happening I literally thought that that must be what it feels like to die. Your body just takes over and the pain is so outrageous and you can feel every last bit of it. About 20 minutes into this... her head was there and the midwife said "She has brown curly hair!" I was like "SHE DOES?!?" And I started crying. Don't know why... but the fact that she had hair just really made me happy. I was not expecting that! The nurse asked if I wanted a mirror and I said no... then they had me touch her head and I cried even more with happiness and I heard my nurse say "I think she wants the mirror". SO she got it and I was so happy she did! It was seriously the coolest thing ever. Shortly after that Perry was all the way out and on my chest. Born Thursday August 25th 2011 and 3:21am. After 6 1/2 hours of labor she was so beautiful and alert and nursed perfectly right away, she just knew what to do! Bobby and I cried and we were immediately so in love. The second she came out the intense pain was gone, and nothing else mattered. She was perfect, and healthy, and everything I'd dreamed she'd be.

Many people have called me crazy when I say this, but I loved childbirth. Right after she was born I said I would do it all again tomorrow. There is nothing like going through so much pain for something you never imagined you could love that much. I loved being present physically for the whole thing, and experiencing it was amazing. Best thing I've ever done.

Now we have this beautiful little drama queen, and we love her more than words could ever say. She is such a good baby. She'll be 4 months on Christmas, sleeping 6-8 hours through the night, and is now going to sleep on her own! (without having to be rocked for an hour). She smiles constantly, and loves to chat it up. She's discovered her hands in the last few weeks and can just stare at them forever (as well as chew on them). She's SO close to rolling over, and we got her first REAL laugh a couple of days ago. She loves baths. I give her a bath before she goes to bed every night, and I sing to her. She absolutely loves it. I love every second I get to be with her. I miss her when she's sleeping, and I love that I get to be home with her. Bobby and I are so grateful for such a beautiful little soul that has made us better people.