Another birth story for you today, this one told from a dad's perspective and with my students' permission. This one is VERY new, hot off the birth presses!

Our first sign that something was up was a little "bloody show" on Sunday night. About an hour later, a little more came out (we were at a Tony viewing party). An hour after that, D felt like we needed to go home as she was leaking more. At this point we were unsure if it was just mucus or if it was some of the bag of waters.

We Uber'd home and about 15 minutes after arriving home (thank goodness not in the Uber!) her water broke, an obvious "gush". Fortunately she had put a pad in (since she was leaking) and we were able to clearly see that the fluid was yellow/green, obviously a warning sign. Still no contractions at this point.

We called our doctor and she asked us to come to the hospital to be checked. We arrived about 1:30am and after being examined (2 cm dilated estimated at that time) they admitted us and started a pitocin drip.

Thanks to our Birth Matters class we felt pretty informed about everything going on and understood the concerns with meconium (which is also why we were glad to go right to the hospital rather than trying to start laboring at home).

Contractions started in the next couple of hours and by 10:30am they were strong enough that D asked for her epidural (which was part of the plan all along).

We had a couple of hours of respite with contractions around 5 min apart on average but the epidural helping the pain a lot. By 1:30pm we were 5 cm dilated and 90% effaced. The next couple of hours were pretty difficult as D was feeling a lot of pressure and pain even after a "top off" on the epidural. At 4pm we were just about to explore some additional pain management when our attending doctor examined D again and determined she was fully dilated and it was time to push. D had had the urge to push with her last contraction. I don't think we ever consistently had contractions closer than 4-5 min apart.

Pushing was about an hour (?) though of course it felt like forever. Our doctor did an amazing job and apart from the drugs there were no interventions, and the baby had a vaginal birth. D had no tearing, which was a delightful and welcome surprise! She was a real trooper during the birth, especially considering she hadn't slept at all the previous night. She really kicked into another gear during the pushing, when it didn't seem like she had another gear left!

Baby Ned Born June 13, 2016 at 5:27pm (38 weeks) 6 pounds 6 ounces