Praises From the Nurse

Adam and I are happy to announce our new baby girl, Lillian Jane. She was born on Dec. 31st at 11:45 pm. She was 7 lbs. 7 ox. and 20 inches long. We were quite surprised that she was born before the new year but happy to claim the child tax credit for 15 minutes of being parents.
If you remember, it was really nice outside that day, so in the morning I was finishing up some yard work that I hadn't done before winter and then we took the dog for a long walk. Up to this point, i was trying all the tricks to get labor going, but nothing seemed to work. I had actually resigned to going back to work on Monday. After the walk I noticed that I was having some blooding and I thought maybe I was leaking fluid or something, so I called the clinic. Of course, it was closed because of the holiday so I was on hold for 20 minutes waiting to speak to the operator who then put my call into the on call doctor. The doctor suggested I go in to get checked, so we went to the hospital around 1:30. The monitor was showing contractions 3 minutes apart and I was 4 cm dilated. However, I was not feeling any contractions.
We walked around the hospital for an hour and then I could kind of identify a "cramp" but nothing strong. I was 4 1/2 cm and still having contractions 3 minutes apart. We thought for sure they would admit us, but they didn't and wanted us to walk around the hospital another hour. We didn't really see the point in this, so we decided to go home instead.
It was a little confusing because we didn't understand what was going on and what exactly they were looking for. They suggested breaking my water, but we declined and said we wanted to see what would happen naturally first. Adam was very adamant about not having my water broken. So, we went home and within 30 minutes the contractions became stronger and I could no longer talk through them. We stayed home for two hours and then went back (the hospital staff had bets that we'd be back in one hour).
I went in the tub for a good hour, but preferred the birthing ball for the majority of the time. I was side lying for a little bit, but then used the bar over the bed to have gravity on my side. Ultimately, she was born with me leaning over the b all. I found it most useful to push when my body felt the urge to push, which the nurse was very supportive of. We did have a great nurse who was very relaxing and supportive of our birthing plan. Not once was an intervention suggested or an IV ever given. Adam was also fantastic and was by my side the entire time either rubbing my back or talking me through the contractions. All in all, it was what we hoped it would be like. Our nurse said we were the first successful Bradley method birth she had seen in a long time, so we thank you Coral.
Susan and Adam Mildren, Milwaukee