Amazing 10 lbs, 6 oz Vaginal Delivery!

On Monday the 17th, I had extreme nesting; running around the house, cutting tags off of every single baby washcloth and pair of socks, organizing baby toys, leaving a trail of unfinished tasks throughout the house. After finishing everything, I realized that I'd have "nothing to do the next day" so I called up my family and asked if I could come visit to keep my mind busy and distracted from the wait. Starting that evening, I began having contractions, but I had been having regular contractions on and off for a week. However, those contractions usually only continued for 5-6 hours and then stopped. These kept coming, though very irregular.
On Tuesday the 18th, I went in for a 9 am check up with my doctor. Though I had been 80-90% effaced since Christmas, it has been very hard to check for dilation since baby's head was so far down ( a good "problem") :) However, last Tuesday, my doctor announced that I was 3-4 cm. She suggested I go home and take a nap, so i called my family and said that I wouldn't be coming to visit them after all. I caught a short nap and then around 11 am felt my first strong contraction. From 11-2ish, I fiddled around on Facebook and email, timing my contractions on contractionmaster.com. John I kept testing regarding my progress since he was at work.
By 3ish, I started kneeling against furniture and rocking during contractions. John got off of work and we made it to West Allis Hospital around 5ish. From 5ish-7 am, I slowly progressed from 3.5-6 cm. Because I was so tired going into labor, I started getting scared that I would not be able to handle transition and pushing. Reluctantly, I chose to sit, most of the time, either upright or semi-reclined so that I could sleep between my contractions instead of trying all the positions that I had planned. I had John hold my hand while I took deep breaths and gave low moans to cope with my contractions. John would stop me if my moans started getting higher in pitch and remind to go low and open.
The choice to sleep turned out for the best. By 7:30 a.m., my doctor was on call and broke my water. The nurse, Dawn, was fantastic and encouraged me to go through transition in a side lying position. It was painful but helped the progress. She encouraged me if I felt the urge to push to only do so gently and not bear down fully.
When I was fully dilated at 10 am, she had me stand and hold on to John and we pushed through several contractions. Then they had me back in the bed in a couple different positions. After 1 hour 45 minutes of pushing, out came baby! John got to announce it was a boy! Robert! We waited to cut and clamp the cord. Robert had kept one hand by his head when coming out which caused a little tearing. When it came time to weigh him, the nurses were all saying "I bet he'll be about 9 lbs." They put him on the scale and all stood gasping! I said, "What is it?" "10 lbs, 6 oz."!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My doctor said that because of his size and his hand being by his head, I had just delivered the equivalent of an 11 pounder!
Overall, it was a very wonderful experience! The nurses never offered meds and took every part of our birth plan seriously! They kept saying that I was very focused (thank you, Coral!!!) I know the knowledge and the mental preparation from the class, as well as the wonderful pelvic rocks for positioning, helped this natural birth become a reality!
Julia, John and Robert Anthony, West Allis