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Rigel Tanner Yax's Birth

Rigel Tanner Yax was born Wednesday at 8:56 pm. He was 9 lbs 8 oz., 23 inches long and 14 inch circumference. He looks just like his dad's baby pictures, but it looks like he might have gotten my color eyes! :-)

First off, I was induced, with some trepidation. They estimated him to be 8.5 pounds and after much thought I agreed. At the beginning of this pregnancy, I would have laughed in your face if you would have told me I was going to agree to an induction! The induction started at 8:30, with the iv drip.

I also had my water broken, another thing I was AGAINST totally. I agreed because it helps the pitocin work better if the water is broken, according to what I have been told. I made it firm that if labor did not progress WELL I would not be a happy camper with a c-section. And then my doc and I agreed that I would have antibiotics if that was the case, to prevent infection.

Thirdly, I was planning to not have any epidurals or pain meds. I was determined like hell to go through this all the way all the pain. UH, try back labor. That could change your mind quickly. :-) So anyways to make a long story short I had an epidural after 5 hours of hell. And to top it off, the epidural only took to one side at first, so they had to monkey with it and increase the dose and finally then my left side took. I am glad I let my mind allow me to have one. It took the edge off enough so that I couls concertrate on pushing him out without spending intense energy on alleviating my back pain.

When it came to pushing, I was not comfortable pushing in squat, or in any of the other positions that I had planned to use (I did like side pusing though, and that was very helpful as I began to push!). I wanted to be on my BACK, the position I swore I would not allow because of making my uterus work against gravity! But I pushed Rigel out quite well, and not once do I regret my last hour of labor on my back. I did do pelvic tilts between contractions, though, and ladies that feels good and helps for back labor. I only felt comfortable at the end with my legs in a V up in the air, Josh holding one leg up and my sister-doula Nora holding the other, with the doc or the nurse at the end of the table, helping me focus on where to push.

Finally, the worst blow to my birth fantasy was when the doc said I would need an episiotomy. I was DEAD set against this going into it. I did the research in clinical journals, I knew the risks of a tear from the epis., yet I am glad I got one. Given Rigel's size and shoulder width, it was very possible that alone I would have gotten the same (3rd degree tear) or worse. And fortunately my tear is not bad, it is not that painful yet. Even BMs are *manageable* right now.

I guess my whole point in writing this is that no matter how much you plan, it might not go that way. You might get there and just totally see things so differently. I know today that I am a little disppointed, but I am 99% glad I did all the things this way. I hope this will give some of you some inspiration, and help you keep an open mind when going into birth. :-) Good luck to all you pregnant ladies and see you here and on misc.kids in the future!

Andrea