Jessica,

First of all, I wanted to thank you for all your teachings and guidance during my pregnancy. The yoga really made it just that much more wonderful.

It's been 2 weeks since I gave birth to my daughter, Stella Bernadette Reynolds. Just now I'm able to take a second and tell you my birth story.

I swear I was in labor for a week, that's what it seemed. I went into the hospital on October 5th on a false alarm ... contractions were 5 min apart, but they weren't strong enough to be doing anything, so I got sent home at 2cm dialated and 80% effaced. Oh man, the waiting ... everyday revolved around me going into labor, feeling contractions then they would just stop, it was a pain in the butt. Then October 10th at 1am the real contractions started. My mom was right, I did know the difference.

At 1:30 am the contractions felt like they were right on top of eachother, so we went to the hospital. Honestly there was no time for birthing balls or walking the halls ... they were just unbearable. I got to stay this time and my contractions were 1 min apart and extremely painful ... which was caused by DEHYDRATION. So ladies, word of advice, drink a hell of a lot of water, because contractions 1 min apart are not fun. I opted for the epidural, which I was open to in the first place, and amazingly ... haha ...everything felt better.

The baby wasn't in stress and everything looked fine, but I wasn't dialating. I was at 5 cm for 4 hours, so they had to give me pitocin. Finally at 5pm my doctor kicked everyone out so I could get some rest and prepare for the pushing.

At 6pm, I was ready to push ... actually I felt ready a LONG time before that, but they make you hold it in, which really sucks. They let my epidural wear off so I could feel for the pushing. The babies heart rate went up to 200 and then it went back down. There were a lot of things I was unaware of, and if I was I would have opted for a c-section, but I was completely out of it, and my husband didn't know anything, so I just listened to what doc said (which I found out later was extremely dangerous for the baby, and extremely hard for me). I guess the doc wanted to do a vaginal birth, so I kept pushing. I pushed for 3 hours ... every push the doctor saying "HARDER ... I don't want to have to do a c-section." I was going to kill her. My husband said I was blue in the face and I kept trying to breathe my way, and they kept telling me to hold my breath. I wish I would have took charge more.
Anyway, the labor all together was about 20 hours,and at 9:38pm, Stella was born. She was 9lbs 3 oz, and 22in long. Huge.

If I could give any advice to mothers to be it would be to go into that delivery room prepared and know your stuff. Luckily, my daughter was healthy and everything turned out okay in the end, but things got crazy and there was nobody there to stand up and change them, which resulted in a very hard and strenuous labor for me and my baby.

Labor isn't supposed to be fun though. Anyway, on a lighter note, my husband and I are in love, and our daughter is doing great. A little bit of
breastfeeding problems, but the women at The Pump Station have really helped us out and we've got it down now.

Hopefully I can stop by sometime and introduce you to her.

Thanks again for everything,

Christianna Reynolds