A Labor Story

Well it's true. You do not know what labor is like or will be like until you are in the moment and experience it for yourself. This philosophy is entirely against my personality and everything about how I approach life itself. I am a planner. I am in control of my choices and what happens when. The process of having a baby and caring for a baby has been and continues to be the most humbling experience of my life.

As most of you know, I planned on having an all natural labor. This meant to me, laboring mostly at home and then arriving at the hospital at the perfect time to deliver pain medication free.  I looked at labor competitively and compared frequently to running a half marathon. However, everything that occurred was the opposite of what I planned for. The end result was more amazing and beautiful than anything I could have dreamed. My little one arrived one week late. I had at scheduled induction for 41 weeks. Pregnancy is supposed to be only 40 weeks long. Well, when week 41 arrived and I had no new signs of labor, I arrived at the hospital at 8:00 am for a scheduled induction.

Here I am all smiling, not knowing what's about to happen. I am hooked up so they can monitor his heart rate and the frequency of my contractions. I was induced with a foley catheter around 9 am. How that works exactly is kind of TMI so ... you can google it if you are interested. They broke my water after that... and then labor started pretty quickly. 

 Here I am using a "birthing ball" to endure the contractions. It is pretty much an exercise ball with a towel on it.  I like this picture because you can see what time it is.

 Well, needless to say, things got pretty intense, pretty fast. Eric told me to art it out. I told the Dr. to get me an epidural. After all  the pain, even after the epidural, and pushing for an hour, at the end of the day... well at the end of my doctor's work day, little Robert James was born !

 Robert James, born at 4:17 pm on July 26th 2012.

Total labor was approximately 7 hours! Wow.
This is a picture of my first moments with my son.








So, there you have it! My labor story. I have officially joined the sacred club of women who are mommies and who have gone through the rite of passage known as labor and delivery. And now for all of the joyous pictures of Bobby' s first few hours of life with his family....