So, I did this post a several months ago, like almost a year ago, and I found it today hiding out in my drafts folder. So, here we go! Their isn't really to much to tell. I mostly just sat around and moaned for two days haha!
This has bean a long time coming, I'm finally giving you my list of things that I used during my natural labor. I labored for two nights and one day, with three weeks of pre-labor. I thought this kid would never come, ohmygoodness! Finally he did, of course, with two hours of pushing, which was actually pretty darn great. Thomas was 10 days late, so wednesday (when he was 8 days late) when I went into my midwives appointment I was going to need to get a full anatomy scan and monitoring, which I really did not want to do because he was moving just fine and I wasn't concerned. Thankfully my midwife let me wait until friday to be monitored, however I was not even a cm dilated so she suggested that I take castor oil. I tried so many things before this, so i decided to give it a try. (I should add that I really don't believe in forcing labor, and I think that taking the castor oil might have been why my labor was so long and hard. However I didn't want the added stress of the full anatomy scan right before having him.) After 33 weeks of definitely feeling like I was in labor it really kicked in, but my contractions stayed 5 minutes apart the whole stinkin time so I couldn't tell how my labor was progressing. Finally at 7 in the morning my water broke so we headed to the hospital. Amazingly, I wasn't tired even though I hadn't slept for two days. My contractions wouldn't let me unfortunately. I'm not really sure when I was in transition, but I'm guessing it started on my way into the hospital and ended once I got in their. I would forget what the contractions felt like right after they ended, which I am incredibly grateful for. Once I got into the hospital my contractions basically didn't even hurt anymore, I was 8 cm dilated at this point. About an hour later when the midwife came in she told me to push. I actually really enjoyed this part, other than being told what to do. I felt so good that I didn't want to push as much as they were wanting me to. I wanted to enjoy myself instead but noooo, could do that! Haha!
- Joy essential oil. I breathed this oil blend and applied it topically to help ease the contractions and to keep me in a positive mood. This helped so much at easing the contractions. Like, so so so much!
- A warm fuzzy blanket. I love to snuggle my fuzzy blanket when I don't feel good.
- Comfy pillows. Especially my king sized feather pillow (keeps its shape better than just down feathers) and my buckwheat pillow. I used my feather pillow to hug and to support my belly and I liked the buckwheat pillow for putting against my back for some hardness and counter pressure.
- Grape juice. For some reason grape juice made my contractions not hurt as much.
- Warm tea, I did a blend of nettles, oat straw, spearmint, red clover, raspberry leaf, and chamomile. This helped give me nutrients through my two nights of labor when I wasn't hungry.
I didn't do really anything else, except make sure that I didn't hold my breath or anything. I just let the contractions do their thang. I didn't even use that playlist that I spent months putting together. but I sure as heck used it later when I needed soothing music for Thomas.
Books that I loved and provided inspiration for birth