Tuesday, October 4, 2011

becoming a rockstar birther.

*warning:  this post contains links to videos of labor and other "mommy and daddy only" videos.  also, i speak pretty candidly about my birthing experience and use some "mommy and daddy only" language*

i was made to be a mom.  only two weeks in - with my beetle sleeping sweetly on the couch and the inevitable ending credit Grey's Anatomy monologue, complete with sappy love montage on the tv - i was made to do this.  days of cuddling and cooing and long afternoon naps with beetle on my chest...riiiiiight.

i'm writing this now, because this is the first time my hands have been free all day.  all. day.  It's 10pm and I haven't showered, am still in my pjs and lu hasn't let me stop holding/nursing her all day.  all day.  not kidding.  this is not what i expected...none of it is.  

let us begin with lua's birth.  

because i was adamantly against all drugs/intervention during labor (i actually contemplated doing a freebirth),  andrew and i decided to go to a free-standing birth center.  andrew did the research and found the BBCi am still amazed at his trust and willingness to jump on the "natural, normal childbirth" bandwagon, having never encountered it before.  thanks, babe:) the Brooklyn Birthing Center happens to be the only free-standing (meaning it's not connected physically to a hospital) birth center in NYC.   all the ladies there rock my socks and i owe most of the pride i feel in myself to them. yay for warm and fuzzies.  

anyhoot. we find the birth center, 41 weeks go by and i am totally comfortable and ready to sneeze little beetle out in a tub, or at home, or on the subway (how many hits do you think that would get on youtube?!?  there's always next time, i suppose) and make my way home for a long nap. 

ok.  maybe i was a little too confident in my birthing abilities.


looking back, there are a few things that i did to "prepare" for normal/natural birth that should have been replaced with other, more realistic things.   i could've signed up for a hypnobirthing class, read my bradley method books, met with other expecting moms, meditated more...instead...


things i did to prepare for childbirth:


1.  purchased a color coordinated "labor outfit" and tried it all on to see if it would flatter my curves- Ha!  I ended up wearing this old sports bra the whole time.
 2.  practiced my "push face" in the mirror.  i did this quite a few times, actually. i imagined a face that was serene, yet focused.  a face that, if it had a name, the name would mean: beautiful warrior.  you know the face.  the braveheart face.  sadly, from the few photos i've seen, i was never able to accomplish this well-rehearsed "push face".  I could've won as a contestant on Who's More Grizzled, though.


3.   did a dry run of my labor day make-up and hair.  i was supposed to look like a supermodel who just finished a P90x workout, instead i looked like uma thurman in pulp fiction - the overdose scene?  ya. bingo.


in a nutshell, i imagined my birth would be something like this. it was, instead, as i remember it, more like this.  there was a lot of yelping, cussing, pleading, moaning and wanting to NoT MoVE. there was only one point at which I didn't think I could go on and surprisingly only one time did I cry at andrew, "you have NO idea what i'm going through!". i remember loving the water and loving that my mom was there (i had originally been nervous about this - i love you, mom!)and i remember feeling like my body had taken over and i was just along for the ride...

BUT... i did it.  after 12 hours of labor and only one hour of pushing, lua delancy met her rockstar mama for the first time.  

i rocked.  andrew was so good at reminding me of this during the hard parts - i pushed all 9 pounds of lu out the way i wanted to. the only intervention i had was what felt like my oh-so-cool midwife doing this to my nether-region in an effort to get lua's big ol' noggin out.

i am so proud and astounded that i was able to finish something so difficult.  if only that was the only difficult part about being a parent!


p.s. - i know there are lots of moms out there who'd like to hear all the nitty gritty details about lua's birth, so I'll be writing a more detailed description in a later post.  check back soon!


p.p.s - if you have a minute, please friend the Brooklyn Birthing Center on Facebook!





1 comment:

  1. You are such a good writer! And you are a warrior! And I LOLed at your birthing outfit description!

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