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Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Welcome to the family! Christian's birth story

Introducing the newest member of the family,

Christian Alexander Richardson!
December 6, 2009 8:13 AM
8 lbs 14 oz and 20 inches





"Little" Christian surprised everyone with his lightning fast entry early Sunday morning. I woke up about 4:30 AM with the same back labor contractions I had been having for the past few nights. I expected them to subside like the other nights, but instead they got more intense and by 5:30 I knew it was Christian's birthday! It had been a really tough week since Charlotte is cutting her first molars; all three of us were running on just a few hours sleep every night, so I tried not to wake Charli and Daddy who were snuggled up together peacefully after a long night of intermittent sleep and back to bed cuddles.

I used all of the labor positions outlined on www.spinningbabies.com to turn him around since he was "sunny side up" aka posterior - head down but facing out instead of in - which can make labor and delivery long and difficult. Around 6 AM he successfully turned around and labor really picked up! Right about the same time Charli woke up very upset that mommy was laboring in the tub and had not invited her to play in the bath! So Charli and I played foam letters in the bath while daddy gathered our things for the hospital.

I called my wonderful friend Dawn to let her know that it was Christian's birthday so she should get ready to take Charlotte for us at some point that day... little did I know that less than two hours later he would already be here! I was feeling like labor was progressing and decided to time my contractions... they were already 2-3 minutes apart at 7 AM. I called the doctor and told them to expect me. Shortly after that point I decided to let Dawn know that she needed to come NOW, that I couldn't wait since she had to travel about 30 minutes to get to us. Less than 20 minutes later she arrived safely (no speeding tickets!) and we were off to the hospital about 10 minutes to 8.

By this point all I could think was that I couldn't do it! I was in so much pain and I was ready to kill for some pain meds - I thought I still had a lot of laboring left to do!
Eric ran a few red lights, but we arrived safely at the hospital and headed up to labor and delivery. We stepped off of the elevator and eric was holding me up because I was in too much pain to stand. The nurse says, "what's wrong?" from behind the desk so I told her "baby is coming!!" Everyone just stood there and looked at me except one nurse delivering a food tray who rushed over and helped us in to a room. They asked me to put on a gown and give a urine sample, but my water broke as soon as I sat on the toilet! Eric was panicked that he was going to be born in the bathroom, so he and the nurse helped me to the bed. She checked my cervix and we were all shocked to find that I was already 8-9 centimeters dilated.

For the next 5 minutes I had to sign paperwork while everyone ran in different directions to try to get an IV, find a doctor and get ready for delivery. The whole time I was saying I couldn't do it, but Eric said "too late, you are doing it!!"They had me on my side telling me not to push and to wait for the doctor to show up, but he was coming fast and within 10 minutes of being at the hospital he was on his way out! 5 pushes and out came our baby boy in less than 2 minutes. He was delivered by the nurse who was close enough to catch him.

And so we had a SON!

In our rush to get upstairs, we had no camera to take pictures and resorted to our phones to catch his first moments. Everyone in the room was in awe of this almost 9 lb baby who couldn't wait to make his grand entrance. He was breastfeeding within 15 minutes and hasn't stopped since!

The doctor made it about 45 minutes later, but our nurses were all wonderful and I could not have been happier with our birth experience. Our time in the hospital was short and Christian, mommy, daddy and big sister are settling in to life at home with one more.






5 comments:

  1. He's absolutely adorable, congrats!!!

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  2. He is so handsome! What a wonderful birth story!!

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  3. He is a cutie! I love the birth story and I am SO jealous of your quick labor!!!

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  4. Congrats! He is adorable and you had a great birth story. Mine was similar with my second.

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