Introducing Grayson Daniel Wilcox

Grayson Daniel was born on January 18, 2011, at 4:18 p.m. He weighed 7 lbs 6 oz and was 20 inches long.  This was my 2nd VBAC, and was a lot harder than the first.  Here is his birth story.  Don't read if you don't want to know the details. ;)

My mom came from Seattle on Monday afternoon.  I had been telling Grayson that his Birthday would be Monday night or Tuesday, so I guess he is a very obedient baby.
Tuesday morning at 8:45 a.m. I rolled out of bed achy from a long night at 9 months pregnant . I went to the bathroom and saw blood, so I knew something was starting. Called my midwife, Gretchen Faucett, and she said to wait around and see if any contractions started. By about 10 a.m. I was sure labor was starting--I was getting contractions about 10 minutes apart that didn't feel like my normal Braxton Hicks contractions.

Allen and I showered and got ready to head to the hospital (about a 40 minute drive). I got to Labor and Delivery and they put me in a closet. LOL Ok, not really, but it was not one of their regular L&D rooms, it was just a tiny monitoring room. Pretty sure they thought they'd be sending me back home. I was checked and 3-3 1/2 cm (same as I was at my appointment last week). DH and I walked the halls for about 40 minutes and they checked me again at 12:45 p.m. I had made some progress (though, only to about 4 cm), so they admitted me and gave me a "real" L&D suite.

Around 2:45 they checked me again and the nurse said I was still at 4cm. My midwife "agreed" with her at the time, but told me once she left the room that I was more like 6 cm.  She broke my water at that point and the contractions started coming stronger and closer together. And boy, were they intense! A little before 4:00 I called Gretchen in and told her I was feeling more pressure and thought it would be time to push soon. She stayed with me through a few contractions and agreed that he would be here soon. I started pushing at about 4:00 and he was born at 4:18 p.m. on 1/18/11. He weighs 7 lb 6 oz and is 20 inches long with lots of blonde hair. I think he looks like Allen.

I had absolutely NO pain meds this time. No epidural, not even stadol/nubain like I had with Torrin, and believe me it was HARD. With Torrin I remember feeling little to no pain while pushing. It actually felt good to push (of course that was only for 7 minutes). But this time, pushing was TOUGH and I still felt the contractions through the pushing. My mw said he was kind of at a weird angle and it took a bit for him to get under my pubic bone. I ended up with only a tiny tear or two, so I just needed a couple stitches for that.

Grayson and I are doing well.  He is a little jaundiced, so we've had to go in for some heel pokes, but his numbers are stable now and should be dropping soon.  He is nursing well and is already starting to get chubbier.  Though, he still has those cute scrawny little legs.