During the last part of the labor I couldn't remember why on earth I had wanted a natural birth, it was very painful, but my recovery was so easy even though I tore a little bit and had to be stitched up (he was born with his hand up by his face - not enough room for that :). I was SOOOO happy the labor was over. It took a few minutes to transition from relief that the labor was over to excitement about Cole. I was shaking and crying and had so many emotions, it was a little overwhelming. Thomas was such a fabulous labor partner, so encouraging even though he had gone 2 nights with very little sleep and was completely exhausted. Carol Ann was indispensible in helping me do it naturally from a mental/emotional side, and Grace from the hospital side.

I had an unmedicated birth, no pain meds at all, and Dr. Wolfe allowed me to drink water the whole time so I didn't have to have an IV. I also was able to have intermittent fetal montoring so I could move around, which I did a lot of. I walked for awhile, then sat on my birth ball and rocked, etc. Grace Marsh, a friend from church who is an L&D nurse at St. Dominic's where I delivered, came up there just to be my nurse which was such a Godsend because she was the one who really helped us with doing it naturally from the hospital side.

I was in fairly mild labor from 10pm on Monday night to 10 am on Tuesday morning. At that point the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart and lasting 1 minute so we went to the doctor's office and I was 5cm dilated and 100% effaced. They sent me over to the hospital where Carol Ann, our doula, met us. I labored until about 3:45 before I was 10 cm. I pushed for about 30 minutes (it seemed much shorter than that) and then Dr. Wolfe came in and after 3 pushes he was out!

The very mild contractions that they 'induced' me to have on Monday night for the stress test never stopped and they just kept getting stronger. I had had some contractions in the doctor's office on Monday afternoon, though, so I'm not sure if I was already going into labor and the stress test just helped it along, or if the stress test was just enough to send me into labor. For the stress test they give you just enough pitocin to make you have 3 contractions in 10 minutes, then they watch the babies heart rate for those contractions and make sure it's strong, which it was.

Cole Joseph Dent was born after 16 hours of labor at 4:19pm on October 28. He weighed 8 lb. 12 oz. and was 20 inches long (although Thomas said he saw them measure him and it was NOT an exact science).