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Sofia Zoé Sex: girl Born: 06 March, 2008 Age: 0 years & 177 days Birthday in: 188 days Starsign: Pisces Development: See the 5 months page. Biggest achievement so far: -

Birth details

Type of delivery: Vaginal (without pain relief)
Duration of labor: 6.5 hours
Weight @ birth: 8lbs 10oz
Length @ birth: 20.5 inches

Sofia-Zoé`s birthstory

At 8:55am I got my first contraction. It was stronger than the contractions I had been having over the past several days and actually was painful (but definately bearable). I timed the contractions and they were all 4-6 minutes apart, so I knew it was labor. I got in the bathtub and that helped a lot. I planned on a natural birth so I wanted to stay home until labor really progressed, so we grabbed a bunch of last minute things and headed for the hospital. At 12:15 I got my first exam and was shocked that I was already 7-8 cm! The midwife and nurse could not believe that I was texting, joking, and talking on the phone at that point. It was busy at the hospital so we waited in a room where they did the fetal monitoring for about 20 minutes until I could get a labor room with a Jacuzzi. I`m really glad I did that, I spent almost all of labor in the jacuzzi and it really helped. When we got to the room the midwife broke my water and I felt a gush of warm liquid. I remember saying that the contractions hurt worse at home than at the hospital, and the midwife said that is because the endorphins kicked in (thank God for endorphins!) The contractions were DEFINATELY bearable until I went from 9-10cm. But even then, it was only the peak of the contraction that hurt like hell. The intense pain only lasted for about 2 hours. I got out of the tub and suddenly felt like I had to push. The pushing was harder than I thought it would be. We started on a birthing stool and then moved to the bed, where I was inclined and my boyfriend and a nurse held my legs to the side while holding each hand. I kept saying that I couldn`t push her out because her head was too big and I knew I was going to rip. The midwife said I needed to start pushing harder because the baby didn`t like having its head squished! That scared me and suddenly I really got the hang of pushing and saw her head in the mirror! Wow... full of black hair!! It was weird because I couldn`t even tell when I was contracting because there was so much pressure. The nurse had to feel my uterus to see if it was hard. A few more pushes and her head was almost out. It was a weird feeling when I was pushing really hard.. it hurt but it didn`t.. I can`t explain it. But I was soo tired, and pushing required so much strength. With the next contraction I felt her head come out and a bunch of amniotic fluid. I said to the midwife, can`t you just pull her out? Because I was so tired of pushing. But I pushed again anyway and suddenly she was crying in my arms!! It was 3:30pm, labor lasted only 6.5 hours. I was half crying half laughing because I was so happy to finally have her! It was the best moment of my life. I started bleeding a lot and they had to give me a shot that helped with the bleeding. That was the only drug I got during the entire labor. The midwife started pushing on my uterus REALLY hard.. THAT hurt. Then I pushed one more time to deliver the placenta. I asked if I ripped and the doctor said I had a little rip. It was a 2nd degree tear. She started stitching it.. wow that took a long time for a little rip! I think she sprayed some kind of numbing spray so I couldn`t feel the stitches, and that helped. They weighed Sofia and she was 8lbs 10oz! Huge! Her length was 20.5 inches. I would definately encourage every mother-to-be to have a natural birth, it really wasn`t that bad and I feel so empowered and strong now! Plus Sofia didn`t spend her first moments all drugged up from pain medicine.

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