A pretty big number

We got settled into the room and squirmed around with a lot of NO!, NO!'s until we found a laboring position that worked. I tried being on the ball, but somehow found another use for it.

Here's the position:
Sitting on the bed (I KNOW, after all that prep and fussying about being able to walk around, I wanted to sit), legs in an open butterfly position, bottoms of feet touching, birth ball in between legs, leaning forehead against ball, allowing every muscle to be completely relaxed.

So, the birth ball was used as a headrest. Hah! That's one pic I wished I had captured. Kirsten was behind and to the side doing hip squeezes every contraction. After a short while, Darren hopped in on the left, while Kirsten had the right. At some point later they switched sides and we realized that I liked it stronger on the right side.

I know I haven't talked much about the labor before now, but here's when it really start to matter. They were getting GOOD. Up until this point, it had been really good practice in breathing and staying relaxed. Don't get me wrong, they were something, but now it was really something...and...I knew it was going to get much harder.

The nurses witnessed a few contractions before Dr H came in.
Always a pleasure to see his smiling face.
We talked about the day, the progression of contractions and strength of them, and then he got to witness a few himself.

It was time to be checked.
Ok, so I had a number in my head...I think everyone did. After all, I've seen this happen 4 times. I know these were GOOD, solid contractions, and I had stayed very relaxed. I believed my body was opening up and doing as it should. Plus, we'd been at this for a while. Kirsten had a number too. Although she didn't tell me at the time, we were both thinking 6. But, I had resolved that I'd be really good with anything from a 4 to a 6, and hey, I'd take bigger too. : ) And after watching my contractions Dr H said, "Well, I'm hoping to see a pretty big number here." I figured he had one as well.

Seriously, when he said that, I was even more hopeful. I mean, how often does your doctor say something like that? It wouldn't be wise, right, to get my hopes up about a big number unless he believed it would be one. Plus, I've watched 4 births, Kirsten had doula-ed more than that, but Dr H, he's seen A TON. He knows his stuff.

But at 4:55pm, I was 2cm,
100% effaced, -1 station.