Baby Graham was born on July 2nd (Monday) and we couldn’t be more in love! On June 29th (Friday) I started having contractions about every hour or less but was only dilated to a 1. On Saturday they started increasing and were about 10 minutes apart most of the day. I started doing lots of goddess pose when I felt good and then a lot of cat/cows when I was going through a hard contraction. The relief on my back during cat/cows definitely helped the pressure and pain. Sunday morning I was down to about 5 minutes apart and decided to go to mama space for a class and some zen because I figured it was the day! I contracted through class but yoga was a wonderful distraction so I continued to do as many comfortable poses I could at home that day before my contractions were finally down to 4 minutes apart for over an hour. We went to the hospital and I was only dilated to a 1 and was sent home. I spent the whole night up having contractions and trying to do as many cat/cows as I could and hip opening stretches to move the baby down! By Monday morning my contractions were about 2 minutes apart and I went back to the hospital. At 9 AM I was dilated to a 4, by 12 I was dilated to a 6 and at this point I asked for an epidural because I hadn’t slept in 48 hours or hardly eaten. My water broke after the epidural and by 2 PM I was dilated to a 10!
I pushed for about an hour and Graham was born. I saw his head and the tops of his shoulders starting to come out and out of nowhere I sat up, bent over and pulled him out myself and placed him on my chest. Labor and birthing was a magical experience and having the strength and flexibility to pull him out myself was the icing on the cake.
He’s perfect and so far recovery has been a lot more painless than I ever imagined. I was lucky to have a safe and healthy delivery but I also think a lot of it is due to staying strong and healthy throughout pregnancy by walking and attending mama space yoga classes. I will definitely be returning during my next pregnancy! Thank you, Carol.
