Baby Blog

The 42 Hour Miracle - June 11, 2010

In welcoming AkiAnne into the world, it wasn't necessarily a cake walk. For those of you who follow me on Twitter know that we were planning on an all natural home birth for our little angel! I started prelabor on Friday and by 10:30pm was having regular contractions all through the night. They were 7 minutes apart and regular! You are considered to be in active labor once they are 3 min apart and last for a minute. We were prepared to have our munchkin on Saturday the way that things were moving along. When it was about 9am on Sat the contractions slowed down to 15 minutes apart which wasn't what we were expecting. This had made the midwife question if we were just having " false labor!" Apparently woman usually have Braxton Hicks contractions and some contractions in the months leading up to birth, well I never got those, instead what we later discovered is I got them all the day before labor! Now as the day is progressing my contractions are 5 minutes apart and 30sec-1min long so were expecting the transitional phase is right around the corner. The midwife is notified and her assistant arrives shortly there after.

I have such an amazing support system ready for the big moment! I have my husband, KenGee, by my side, my best friend Melissa flew in from Milwaukee, my dear girlfriend Jessea, Lauren, the midwifes assistant, and finally my midwife Tonya arrives.

Now the early evening has approached and my contractions are 3-5 min apart and 30-60sec long for the past 3 hours. Now mind you we haven't slept a wink, as it is almost impossible with these contractions. Midwife checks me and I am dilated 1cm, we need to get to 10 before the transitional stage, yikes! Tonya explains that this is gonna be a marathon not a race! She leaves knowing that we have alot of time still and tells us to call in the morning at 7am or if things progress to call in the middle of the night! Thank goodness Lauren stayed, wow was she ever a God sent! I continue for the next 3 hours with extremely painful contractions and wonderful back labor. I had thought wrestling and all the broken bones were painful, ha, there is nothing that compares to labor, especially now that we are well over the 24 hour mark, so exhaustions setting in!

I was alone with Laruen and Kengee in my room trying to relax during the contractions and just staring at a watch to see when one would end. It felt like the never ending story! They were getting so painful I thought surely she was about to come. Lauren brought Melissa and Jessea back in the room for some fresh scenery and help to get through these contractions! We have now been in active labor for over 6 hours. We phoned Tonya as we had to be ready...

Tonya arrives to my relief for seconds but to my dismay we were only dilated 2-3cm. We then proceeded with breaking the bag of waters to speed up the dilation! With many more hours of now the most painful contractions and over 36 hours of no sleep, I was absolutely exhausted! My little munchkin wasn't in a perfect position and due to my exhaustion when the contractions came I couldn't relax to let her get to where she needed to go. She was coming sunny side up with her cute little hand by her face and due to me not relaxing upon contracitons she couldn't flip to fully dilate me. At this point I felt and with the advice of the midwife we needed a little help.

At 9am on Sun morning we transferred to the hospital. I was so thankful to have my full support team still with me every step of the way! They brought my birth plan that I had prepared prior and we were pre-registered at the hospital in case of a situation like this. I was admitted right away and they took great care of us all. Then it was finally time for the Transition...

The pushing began and seemed like a walk in the park compared to what I had already experienced for the last 42hours! Then the big moment came, daddy cut the umbilical cord and the miracle had arrived... AkiAnne Rose Ehrlich was born at 4:27pm on Gods day! She opened her eyes wide right away and then we heard just a little cry, we knew she was just fine! Having her immediately brought to my chest for bonding and feeding was the most beautiful thing you can ever imagine. Then it was finally true, we were a family!

She then was given her Leboyer bath by the midwife to help her unwind from the transition, what a beautiful site to see! The fun surprise was her red hair and blueish/grey colored eyes! We had joked about her getting red hair as both my dad and Kengee's dad has red hair and she got her GranPapa's eyes! She was so perfect with her slightly slanted Asian eyes like daddy and cute little nose! She looks just like her daddy's baby photos and mommy couldn't be more proud! After all, she did pick a handsome daddy! :) We counted that she had 10 fingers and toes and said a prayer for knowing how truly blessed we were that God gave us this little miracle.