at 5:50 pm Thursday June 7th, 2007 Ainsley Hazel Christensen came barreling into the world. She weighed 6lbs 1oz and was 19.5 inches long.
I guess it all really started Wednesday afternoon. I had an appt w/ my midwife who checked me out, gave me cohosh (an herb that gets contractions going) and sripped my membranes for the 2nd time. On the way home i started having contractions. My midwife said that if they were still going on past 4pm that meant they were for real, and not just the cohosh. Well at 4:30 they were still going strong, and starting to hurt more than my previous ones had, and seemed to be getting stronger as they went along. So my mom decided it was time to come up. She threw her stuff in the car and got to my house by midnight. Around then the contractions had kind of mellowed out and I decided to try and get some rest around 3am. The next morning i was still contracting but seemed further apart. We called my midwife and she had me come in and checked. I was still only dilated to a 1, but the head was really far down and my cervix was stretchy, so they decided to give me another shot of cohosh and something to make me sleep and a pain pill to help me stay asleep.
So I got home and took a nap, waking around 3pm in worse pain than i'd felt yet. As I got up and moved to the living room to see my mom and sister Candice, it just got worse. It had me on my knees, it was so bad! and it was happening every 1-2 mins. We called my midwife and she said to take a hot bath, watch it and then if it kept getting worse to call her in an hour. So I got in a bath and they kept getting worse and i worse, i honestly thought i was gonna die! it was like nothing i'd ever felt! So i told Tom, there's no way I'm waiting an hour.. this is horrible now, we have to go!
So we called and told them we were coming and jumped in the car. I think the car ride to the birth center was the worst, the pain kept increasing and there was really nothing i could do about it, and i couldn't really change positions or anything.
Well we got to the birth center at 4:47pm, I walked into the room and fell on the floor sobbing. I really didn't think I was going to make it. In between the horrifying bouts of intense pain my midwife checked me and i was dilated to a 5. They'd filled the jacuzzi tub while i was on my way there, and so I got in there to try and ease some pain. It felt SOO much better that at this point i decided there was no way i was getting out. I started pushing almost immediately, the contractions would come and my body just took over. My water still hadn't broke and at time I could feel it coming out of me. It was so weird, like a water balloon.
Tom was great, sitting by me, holding my hand, helping me remember to breathe, telling me how proud of me he was and how much he loved me. At one point they asked him if he wanted to see something coming at the other end, but i needed his hand an wouldn't let go. :)
My water broke as her head crowned, and my midwife got me to move from the reclining position i was in to my knees for 2 pushes and her head came out all the way. Then i laid back as i had been, and another push or two and this person came sliding into the world! It was the most surreal thing. My midwife brought her up out of the water and immediately laid her on my chest. The first thing I said was "It's a person!" I couldn't believe she had just come out of me. It had been excruciating pain, and now there was this whole new person. They tell me i went on to say that another 4 or 5 times, lol. I just couldn't believe I'd done it, that it was over and she was there.
Tom cut the cord. :) My mom and sister had watched the whole time from the side. I think Candice is traumatized and has decided she doesn't ever want to have kids, lol. But now I was just amazed, I felt almost completely better right away. They had me get out of the water and checked out the damage my little freight train had done barreling thru. (They had tried to get me to stop and rest and let the skin stretch when her head was crowing, but I just couldn't stop pushing, i just physically couldn't) I did need a couple of stitches and we're pretty sure I bruised my tail bone. Then i was able to take a shower, put on clean clothes and watch my new miracle getting checked out. And she was perfect, of course. :)
They gooped up her eyes, gave her a shot in the leg, and inked up her feet to put feet-prints on her certificate. We were hungry so Kirty (who surprised me by showing up just after she was born) went and got us burgers and cheese fries from the training table (my choice), and we ate while all this was happening, and Ainsley and I both started to figure out this whole breastfeeding thing. At about 11 they'd done all they needed to on our little bundle, given us a bunch of stuff and advice and we were ready to go. We packed up our precious cargo and headed home. It was so nice to be back in our comfy house, and so weird that life had changed so much in the few hours since we'd left it.
