it's day four. on monday 19 december at 8:40pm, i gave birth to a baby girl, madeline eleanor. she weighed in at a whopping 9 pounds 15 ounces and was 22 inches long, and i'm sure i speak with no bias when i say she is absolutely beautiful.
i don't know how to document all the changes happening, nor do i suppose anyone else cares enough to read about them, but i had to record a bit about our amazing birth experience:
after springing a leak the week prior to my due date and feeling a bit like a leaky faucet for a few days, my waters broke properly at 3am on 19 december, one day past our due date. contractions started within the hour, and we spent all of our early labour at home. we took a walk outside along the river, where i remembered to take my photo of the day (!), worked on a jigsaw puzzle with my mom, who is here visiting us, used the TENS machine and even spent some of my more painful early contractions doing the seagull breathing and positioning i learned in pregnancy yoga. richard was incredibly supportive and active throughout the labour, giving me a foot massage, saying nice things and generally doing everything he could to make me comfortable.
lucy, the doula we hired to attend our birth arrived at about 11:30am. she provided great advice and distraction as the contractions came closer and closer together. when we finally ventured into our local st peters hospital at 4pm, my contractions were 3 minutes apart and lasting a minute. i took off the TENS machine, and got in the birthing pool, where i spent the next four hours, with water as my only pain relief. after 1.5 hours of (i have to admit, excruciating) pushing at the end, i gave birth to madeline standing up over the pool, with lucy and richard holding me up and both richard and me able to watch the birth.
the labour was by far the hardest thing i have ever done, but absolutely worth every second. despite her size, i am healing up quite quickly and had no stitches due to the magic of water. she is gorgeous and healthy. i still can’t believe how lucky we are.
richard wrote today about everything he has learned in his few days as a new dad. i will probably bore everyone with a similar list of my learnings when i get time to write again, but first some thoughts on pregnancy. i think there's a lot of luck that comes into play when it comes down to the birth experience, and we were on the lucky end of the spectrum. but if i were to do this again (wow, can't really think about that too seriously at the moment) the top things i would make sure to repeat are: 1) swimming and walking through pregnancy to try to keep off excess weight and keep fit 2) reflexology 3) pregnancy yoga and/or hypnobirthing classes to learn about breathing and relaxation techniques 4) hiring a doula to attend the birth (lucy was amazing) 5) using lots of positions (i didn’t lie down on a bed once during labour) and 6) finally--having a water birth, definitely.
Congrats!!!
Posted by: Dan Melchione | December 24, 2005 at 01:58 AM
Oh congratulations mommy! Thats so wonderful so near to Christmas too! All the best to you, Richard and your newest family member!!!
Posted by: Michel | December 25, 2005 at 05:26 PM
Congradulations on the wonderful new addition! And she was born on my favorite day of the year (my birthday). It is a wonderful day to have a birthday!
Posted by: Rebecca | December 27, 2005 at 05:31 PM
Congratulations, Shannon! All the best to you and your family! Madeline looks so adorable!!!
Posted by: David Huynh | December 28, 2005 at 12:26 AM