Introducing...

Dax Christian William Robinson, born on 10.18.2009 at 6:18pm, weighing 8lbs 4oz, measuring 21.5" long.

Here's my birth story (we delivered at Ingham County Regional Medical Center):

Saturday afternoon my fluid started leaking - I just thought it was pee, but after the continued leaking and "smell test" (amniotic fluid has more of a sweet odor to it) I realized this was fluid and not pee. I was having contractions about every 7 minutes lasting for 60-90 seconds. I honestly didn't want to get my hopes up because of all of the irregular contractions I had been having for the past week. Derek was a little worried and called our friend who is an OB at Ingham, he told him about the fluid as well as the contractions and he said that we needed to go in stat because my water was breaking. I didn't really want to head in, but we decided to at least confirm if this was "it" or not. The minute I hopped into the car my contractions stopped. We arrived at labor and delivery, and they proceeded to call my mid-wife to have her come in and check to see if it was my water or not. Once she arrived she did the tests, we were told that if it was amniotic fluid the swabs would turn blue right away, and they were bright blue. This meant that we weren't going home, we were staying until the baby arrived. They were pretty concerned that I wasn't contracting, my mid-wife said that they wanted to induce within 12 hours of my sac breaking...this would have been about 4:30am! I was only dilated to 3cm, so she said that if I wasn't progressing by 7-8am they would start me on petocin. We got checked in and transferred to a labor room, they started me on the IV for the group b strep (this was why they wouldn't let me leave, they were worried about the risk of the baby getting an infection), and we tried to go to sleep. In the morning, our nurse came in and tried to help me start contracting normally, by giving me a birthing ball, encouraging me to do squats, and she even massaged the pressure points on my ankles. NOTHING! At this point I started to freak out a little bit. I've heard nightmare stories from other women about the contractions on petocin, and I started getting worried that I would end up needing the epidural because of the petocin. They decided to wait until noon to induce me.

I had a breakdown around 11:15am about having to be induced, but Derek was great, he prayed with me and just really helped calm me down. They started the drip at 11:45 at 2 whatever per hour. The nurse let me know they would continue to increase the amount by 2 each 1/2 hour as needed. Within a few minutes I started having contractions, nothing too intense. Around 2pm things started to get really intense, so Derek had my mom come into the room to help calm me down and help me relax. The nurse we had, Karen, was just phenomenal. She did a great job of suggesting different positions for managing the pain and different ways of trying to relax, she gave Derek some things to try out as well. They had a great hollow rolling pin that they filled with hot water that he would roll on my lower back during a contraction. Around 4:30pm they checked me and I was only at 4cm. Around 5pm I felt the need to start pushing, but tried to fight it because in my mind I was only at 4cm. After a few agonizing contractions of trying to not push, I told the nurse, she checked me and I was cleared to start pushing. I pushed for 1 hour 15 minutes, and I think the worst pain I ever felt was the crowning. They say it's a ring of fire, more like my crotch is being ripped out of my body. I'm sure every person in the labor and delivery unit heard my screams. Thankfully it was short lived and our son Dax Christian William Robinson was born at 6:18pm. He weighed 8lbs 4oz, 21.5 inches long and his head was either 14 or 14.5 inches around. I tore in 2 places but they were very minimal. Our midwife did a great job of helping me to push in the right way to not tear as much. Seeing our son made the pain entirely worth it in the end, that's something I never could understand until I actually went through it myself.

Ingham was great, we had 3 AMAZING nurses, the staff was phenomenal, we don't have enough good things to say about them. They were very accommodating to our wishes in our birth plan, and very supportive of all of our requests. We were able to hold the baby right away and spend lots of time with him, they only took him to the nursery 2 times, once was to weigh him at midnight and the nurse brought him right back, and then again for the circumcision. Derek was able to go with Dax for the procedure and stay with him after. They offered me pain meds right away, and made me as many ice diapers as I needed/wanted. They also gave us more freebies than we know what to do with, including a blanket and hat. We stayed a full 24 hours, and I thinks that next time around we will take advantage of the 48 hour stay! I felt like a train wreck (and still do) and it was so nice to have people waiting on us hand and foot. I think the only complaint about the hospital that we had is that dads don't get to eat for free, they have to pay for their meals, but I really can't complain about that!

Here are some pictures of Dax: