Prenatal Yoga Helps with a Cesarean Birth

Here is Ting's story of the birth of baby Addy. She knew she was having a ceserean from the moment she conceived. Ting came to Prenatal Yoga with me every week starting at about 10 weeks pregnant. Althought she didn't need to use the postures to help with labor pains, yoga taught her how to use her breath to relax her mind and body before and during the surgery. Her body was so strong from all the yoga that she healed and recovered amazingly fast!

Enjoy reading Ting's Testimony:

I recovered really quickly with my c-section with Addy compared to Jack's. With Jack, I was in labor for 22 hours then ended up having a c-section so I have to recover from both labor and surgery. With Addy's scheduled c-section, I was rested and as my doctor said, the muscles and tissues were fresh. By the time I got out of the hospital I was up and about. I also attributed the speedy recovery to pre-natal yoga! I was a lot stronger physically the second time around.

The day of surgery, I did a lot of yogic breathing while I was at pre-op. My blood pressure was high because I was very nervous! To help calm my nerves, I did yogic breaths and chanting ohms. On the operating table and recovery room, I felt nauseous but I kept doing yogic breaths to keep nausea at bay. It worked like a charm. Even though I didn't get to use yoga poses like cat-cow, I got to use other yoga principles.

Thanks Shelly! I miss going to your yoga classes. I am going to continue my yoga practice - it's the only "me" time I get for the week.

Baby Anella's Birth Story

Anella's Birth Story is filled with wisdom and grace! Amanda used Hypnobirthing and Yoga to birh her baby without the use of medication!


Mommy's side of the story:

I'll begin at the beginning. We went to our 38 week appointment on August 7th and I asked Dr Biter to check my dilation as I had been feeling some shooting pains in my cervix area. He checked and let me know that I was 2-3cm dilated and almost completely effaced. I must admit although I knew labor could still be weeks the excitement built immediately. I lost my mucus plug on Saturday the 8th and yet again I just knew it could be any day. The night of August 10th, I went to bed at 10pm and started feeling light surges, immediately figured "this was it!" I laid in bed aware of each surge, at about Midnight I woke Wayne up to get him to time the surges, they were between 7-5 minutes apart and lasting 20seconds-1minute. We were up all night and decided we wanted to wait until Dr. Biter's office opened to get checked there rather than go straight to the hospital. When we arrived, the cervical check showed that I was 3.5cm dilated and the baby's head was low "very low." At this point we figure labor is imminent. At our next weekly appointment August 14th I didn't have a cervical check but I did mention that I had been having a light leaking and found my underwear to be wet on a constant basis. Dr Cap let me know that there was a chance that I had a pinhole leak in my water bag and that it would continue to leak. Yet again the excitement and anticipation was overwhelming. I just couldn't wait to meet my baby. Sunday August 16th I woke up at 2am to my bloody show, it was much more blood than I had anticipated and we immediately called Dr Biter's office. Dr Cap called us back and let us know that I would most likely go into labor in the next 24 hours so try to get some rest and call back when my surges were 5-1-1. I attempted to go back to sleep but was too excited, I turned on my relaxation CD and was asleep within 30 minutes. When I awoke at 8am I figured that once I got up and moving around the surges would start. No such luck, at 10am I called Dr. Biter's office again and Dr Cap had me come into the office to check my cervix. Wayne & I had a wedding to attend at 1pm, Wayne was a Groomsman so it was important to know if we should go to the wedding or not.

When we got to the office Dr Cap immediately did an ultrasound and everything looked
great there was still enough amniotic fluid and baby's heartbeat was perfect. He proceeded to check my cervix and let me know that I was 3-3.5cm and more effaced. He told us to go ahead and go to the wedding I'd most likely go into labor that evening or in the next day. So we went and danced the night away. At the wedding I had some surges but nothing that made think that I was in active labor. I was hoping we'd get home from the wedding and once I got in bed things would kick into gear. No such luck.

On Wednesday August 19th, I woke up and when I stood up I had a gush and assumed this was my water breaking. Yet again we were on our way back to Dr Biter's office to get checked since again surges hadn't started. Dr Cap checked my cervix again only to be told it was the same as Sunday. We left the office disappointed and discouraged again. That night we went to bed at 10:30pm I awoke at 12:15am for one of my first of many bathroom trips, once I lied down back in the bed I immediately had a big gush and felt a slight pop and woke Wayne up and told him my water broke, I was able to make it to the shower to have the rest pour out of me. Wayne called Dr Biter's office and Dr Cap called back and said "Try to get some rest, call us back when our surges were 5-1-1 or if we were going to head to the hospital." I did my very best to get back to sleep but immediately the surges kicked in and honestly the anticipation and excitement was consuming and I was just so excited to finally meet my baby. Wayne was able to go back to sleep, I woke him up at about 1:25am I had been timing my surges and I was ready for him to take over the timing. We got up and both got in the shower to labor some, I made Wayne shave my legs and we both just did our best to relax and prepare for what was in store. We were in the shower for about 1/2 an hour, and I found that the surges I had while in the shower were more manageable. As I got out of the shower and started to get dressed the intensity in my surges picked up and as each one approached I would stop and get myself completely relaxed. After we got dressed we headed down the stairs, our birth plan had us doing the majority of our laboring at home seeing that we are less than 5 minutes from Scripps Encinitas. I got downstairs and was having Wayne time the surges at one point I asked him if there was any pattern and he said "not really, they're between 4-2 minutes apart, lasting between 30seconds-2 minutes." I am not sure what made me say this but I told him I thought we needed to go to the hospital. I really struggled with this decision because it was completely opposite of our birth plan and I didn't want to do the majority of my laboring at the hospital, but something just made me need to go.

We arrived at the hospital at 3am, they took us back to our room, I got in my gown, they attached the baby monitor and the nurse checked me. She told me I was 3.5cm and 90% effaced. I felt defeated, I didn't say anything to Wayne and he didn't say anything to me but later we both spoke about it and we were both really disappointed we both pictured spending hours at the hospital. While lying in the bed on the monitor I must admit I felt completely out of control, I felt as though the surges were in control of me and I had no power over them. I was so frustrated by this because this is not how envisioned my labor, I had visions of being in control the entire time. I was able to breath through my surges and I kept repeating the following affirmation in my head "My body and my baby know how to work together in complete harmony." I didn't realize at the time but Wayne was video taping this part of my labor, and looking at the video I look as though I'm in full control and am working through the surges efficiently. Seeing it from that perspective gave me a different point of view and made me realize that the out of control feeling was something that stemmed from this not being in my 'vision' of my "perfect labor."
After monitoring the nurse let me know she spoke to Dr Biter and he wants me to walk around to progress labor. It's now 4am and I get up out of the bed, I asked for a birthing ball and I sat on it against the bed for all of 2 seconds it wasn't the best position for me, which I found quite interesting because when I pictured laboring I pictured using the birthing ball. Then I was slow dancing leaning against the end of the bed, as I was doing this I felt another gush and it felt like yet again my water broke. I asked the nurse if my water could have broken again and she said that there's a chance earlier that it only 1/2 broke or I had a fore bag and that is what broke earlier. I told Wayne that I wanted to get in the shower. He changed into his trunks and we slow danced in the shower. While in the shower my surges continued to intensify I had moments where I was unable to find my focus, Wayne would put his face to mine and do the slow breathing techniques we learned from Hypnobirthing and he would immediately bring back my focus. A few times in the shower I questioned my goal and was starting to lose hope that I would have a natural unmedicated delivery. I had started to get quite panicked and disappointed in myself. All my life I had imagined my labor and delivery without medications, I never understood why people would need drugs for the most natural experience on earth. I felt as if I was failing, as if I wasn't good enough. I of course kept this all to myself, at one point I said to Wayne "I just don't think I can do this," he pulled me close and told me what a great job I was doing and that I could do it. At about 4:30am I got out of the shower and was just trying to find a position where I could not only be comfortable but relax and I was finding it very difficult. I had been drinking water all night and decided to sit down to see if I could empty my bladder, as I sat on the toilet I leaned back against the wall and found the perfect position. I was finally able to bring myself into complete relaxation for close to 5 minutes even during all the surges I was having, I was so relaxed I don't even remember how many surges I had, I do know that at this point in my labor my surges were very close together and I had very little time between them. Then all of a sudden I had a surge that made me need Wayne's assistance as sitting was not comfortable, I stood up and we yet again slow danced, him holding the majority of my weight. During this surge I yet again questioned my ability to do this unmedicated, I couldn't help but think how good it would feel to just get rid of all the pain, the thought brought me to tears, I so badly wanted to experience every sensation of birth and delivery. I was so angry at myself for even considering it. Once that surge passed I found myself in need of squatting through the next few surges, during one of these I said to Wayne with panic in my voice "I can't do this, I really don't think I can do this." He told me yet again what a great job I was doing and kissed my forehead. With just these simple words and kiss on my forehead he had given me more strength to get through the next few surges, I decided I didn't have to make any decisions one way or another at this point I would let things happen naturally. I decided to sit back down on the toilet. As I was sitting there I noticed I had A LOT of pressure. I mentioned to Wayne that there was a lot of pressure. He immediately pulled the emergency cord next to the toilet and the nurse was there within seconds. I told her I was having a lot of pressure and she asked me to get back on the bed so she could check me.
I lay back down on the bed (the last place in the world I wanted to be) and as I laid down Wayne said "There's blood" I immediately got a little excited by his announcement but nothing prepared me for what the nurse said next, she checked my cervix and said "We're going to have a baby." The words whirled around my head, how could we be ready to have a baby it had only been 1 1/2 hours since I got there and I started at 3.5cm, how is it I'm already 10?????
I hear her call out over their intercom system that she needed immediate assistance in my labor room, to page Dr Biter immediately and to let the Dr on call know that he may have a delivery. I said "I'm waiting for Dr. Biter." I laid in the bed feeling like I was in a dream, how was it that I had only been at the hospital for 1 1/2 hours and now I'm about to deliver my baby? The nurse let me know to breath through the pressure, and Wayne was standing at my side giving me light touch massage and helping me with my breathing. At this point all of the pain I had been feeling was completely gone the only feeling I had was pressure, intense pressure but there was no pain, I kept breathing through the pressure and just knowing that my baby would be in my arms within the hour was enough to get me through.
Within minutes Dr Biter was walking through the door, I have never been so happy to hear his voice in my entire life. He sat down at the end of the bed and said "That was fast, are you ready to have your baby?" I said "YES!"
Dr Biter had me do different methods of pushing we started on my back, then we moved to my left side, my right side, he had a nurse hold one end of a towel and I held the other. Dr Biter used perineal massage to help during delivery, I must say that pushing is nothing what I expected. I had no pain, no burning. When my baby's head started to crown Dr Biter asked me to reach down and feel the head, all I could feel was a full head of hair. After 45 minutes of pushing my baby was ready to be born, Dr Biter asked Wayne & I to reach down, and the three of us delivered our baby onto my chest. I had never in my life felt so accomplished and so much love. I asked Wayne if it was a boy or girl? He looked down, and said "It's a baby GIRL!" We both immediately started crying.

My water broke at 12:20am and at 6:01am I had delivered my beautiful daughter 8lbs 4.7 oz, 20 1/4 inches of perfection. I NEVER expected my labor to progress so perfectly.
After allowing her cord to stop pulsing Wayne cut the cord and the nurses took Anella to be weighed. As they were weighing her I asked the nurse if I could get up to go to the bathroom, she paused and said "did you have an epidural," I said "no" and she said "Yes we can walk to the bathroom if you feel up to it," I said "Of course I do, I feel great." She walked with me to the bathroom and spent the entire time commenting on what an amazing labor this was for her to see and how impressed she was by not only the speed of it, but my control and ability to labor and deliver without a single drug or intervention. I felt accomplished, successful, empowered and more than anything that I had the PERFECT labor for me

Wayne and I spoke about my labor many times since that day and we both agree that without Hypnobirthing there is NO WAY that our labor would have gone so smoothly. He was so much more comfortable having learned not only the breathing techniques but the signs that things were happening. Had we not taken Hypnobirthing I can say that there would have been a very good chance that I either delivered at home, in the ambulance or on the toilet at the hospital. Hypnobirthing gave both of us the confidence that my body knew exactly what it was doing and that we needed to trust the signs it was giving us.

I cannot thank you enough for giving us the tools we needed to have our dream labor and delivery. Anella Paige Green was born into a calm, relaxed and loved atmosphere.


Daddy's side of the story:

Carol, let me begin by thanking you so much for your wonderful teachings and support. As Amanda wrote, I can truly say that without Hypnobirthing, there is no way our labor would have happened as it did.


The most important things I took from your classes were knowing how to trust Amanda's body and instincts, the ability to help Amanda focus on breathing, and knowing the signs of progression. This last point is one I thank you for...knowing when to call the nurse prevented us from having a baby in the bathroom.


We had quite a few false impressions of when the labor was starting. Over the course of two weeks Amanda and I were going through ups and downs of thinking we were ready and finding out we weren't. It is hard to know what is real when you've never had the sensations before. Needless to say, when Amanda's water broke at midnight, I was not very hopeful as we had been through this before. She had me call the doctor's and Dr. Cap called and said to call back when we were ready to go to the hospital. I fell asleep and Amanda woke me later to time the surges. I had a cool app on my phone that you had talked about that timed these surges and showed a cool little graph. Well, this for us was useless. Amanda's surges were not consistent and I had no idea if she was 511 or 211 or what. After a shower we were downstairs in the kitchen. I stared cleaning up the dishes, started the dishwasher and took the trash out. Then Amanda said we needed to leave. I immediately trusted her to know her own body even though our surges were not yet 511. Amanda has always been very in tune with her body and baby this pregnancy so I trusted her.


I filmed her laboring in the garage and was in shock that this was my life. We got in the car and started to the hospital with little fan fare....no speeding or going through red lights like in the movies. We were almost to the hospital when I remembered we were supposed to have called. Oh well. We arrived at Scripps Encinitas and at 3am had great parking close to the entrance. I picked up the phone and were were let into the birthing pavilion. I have to say here that we were expecting to have our baby at Dr. Biter's new birth center, but throughout our experience at the hospital we both agree that it is an amazing place. The staff are awesome!


During the next two hours Amanda was laboring. I had the cheat sheet you gave me but honestly it made no sense to me. I just followed my own way and gave Amanda light touch and whatever she needed. After the monitoring I could see she was overwhelmed by her surges and offered her what I could. She was so into her body that she could not answer my questions and I had no idea if I was helping or making it worse. When she had good surges, I reminded her to focus on her breathing. When we were in the bathroom she was getting panicked and I got close to her face and breathed loudly, this caused her to follow my breathing. I believe this was your suggestion Carol? After a while she said she had a lot of pressure. I remember from your birth story that pressure was a sign of imminent birth, so I pulled the emergency cord. The nurse was there soon and after checking she said the crazy words...."we're having a baby!" WAIT! WHERE'S DR. BITER????


Our love for our OB is strong as he has seen us through a miscarriage and has been such a great friend during the pregnancy (as has Dr. Cap). We could not envision having birth without him. Luckily he showed soon and got right to business. He told Amanda to start pushing, and even though purple pushing was against what we head learned, it was what was working for Amanda. Again, trust your body and know that whatever works for you is right.


I had Amanda's left leg and she pushed against me and after some time I could see some hair. Our baby was coming. She still pushed and the baby was crowning. I remember thinking how small the baby's head was (the size of a tangerine). Then she pushed more and the head came out (wow, a lot bigger!) My baby had a full head of dark hair...where did that come from? After some more pushes, Dr. Biter asked Amanda to take her baby.


Throughout all of this I had no idea if I was of any use. I tried my best to help. After it was done, Amanda told me that I helped a lot. That my words and actions helped her deliver naturally.

Jackson's Birth Story

Rochelle's ceserean birth story is a beautiful example of accepting what is and full-heartedly embracing each moment of the birth of her son.

When My husband and I started talking about having a child, I had wanted to be able to have a natural childbirth if possible. I had even changed physicians because my OBGYN had wanted to do a c-section from the beginning. My road to becoming pregnant was long in many ways because I was diagnosed with a Bicournate Uterus and Endometriosis years before even meeting my husband. I had several surgeries to correct what they could and to remove the Endometriosis. I had also been on several medications including a drug study to try and control my Endometriosis over the years with no relief of symptoms. I was given bleak odds by several OB's and went on a search. I am a nurse so I asked around to find a good doctor, which I did. From our first meeting she was much more optimistic about my odds of getting pregnant and sustaining a pregnancy. I was still at a high risk for a preterm infant but I decided that I was going to have positive thoughts about getting pregnant. One of the best thing that my doctor told me was that she could see no reason for me not to have a natural childbirth after reviewing all of my medical records ( which is like a bible).

Well low and behold we got pregnant after only a few months of trying, I was in shock!!!!!! I decided that I would continue with my Yoga which was good for my physical and mental well being. I loved going to class and also took up water aerobics and walking my dog to try and keep in shape to help with labor. My pregnancy was fairly easy except for a little nausea in the beginning and some hip pain in the second trimester. All of my Doctors appointments went well and they said that he was strong and that I looked good. I started to have a lot of Braxton Hicks contraction in my third trimester and I decided to take it easy and listen to my body. My husband started walking the dog and I was counting down the weeks for my maternity leave.

My husband and I started our birthing classes and I had a friend who was going to be my Doula ( my husband is a bit squeamish). On our second week of class I found out that my son Jackson was breech. At that time I had a feeling that he was not going to turn ( stubborn like his mom). I knew that he had been in that position for awhile from where he would kick me. We tried several tricks and exercises to try and get him to turn but I think that he actually got mad when I put ice on my stomach (he started hitting me from the inside). By 34 weeks it was apparent that he was there to stay and with my uterus shape we could not do an external inversion. I was then put on the books for a C-section. It was weird being able to pick the day my son was going to be born. It was definitely not the way that I had planned it. I decided that I was going to look on the bright side. First I got pregnant and had a great pregnancy. I know so many couples who can't even say that. Second I decided to take advantage of knowing when my son was going to be born ( I can be a bit of a control freak so knowing when he was coming was nice), I could get everything ready for him. I made meals and froze them, and was able to make all of my appointments before he was born and tie up any last minute projects around the house. I got a pedicure the friday before. The best part about planning his delivery day was that my Grandmother was able to be here for the birth of my child. My family lives out of state and my mother is deceased so it was great to know that I would have the support of my family there.

The day of the c-section was here and I was as nervous as can be, I could hardly sleep and was so thirsty and hungry. Even with all my planning it was still one of the biggest days and I was worried about if Jackson would be healthy and if I would be a good mother. That is the downside of planning... no turning back. I did some Yoga breathing that morning and downloaded some George Winston on my ipod to help keep me relaxed because even though I was not going through labor I wanted a positive and calm experience. the birth of my son was fairly uneventful it went like clockwork and 2 hours after I had checked in on that Sunday morning I was the mother of a beautiful baby son Jackson Thaddeus Mann 7 pounds 19.5 inches. We were able to hold him while they finished closing me up and I was able to breast feed him within an hour and a half after he was born. He was a champ and didn't know that that was the way he was supposed to come out. My husband was even able to be in the delivery room ( there was a drape so he just kept focusing on me). I look back and think how lucky I am to have a healthy and happy baby and for me I will never regret how he came out because the import thing is he did come out and he was healthy.

I don't know what I'll do if I get pregnant again but my doctor has already said I can try for a Vaginal delivery but after my last experience I might ponder that for awhile.

Welcome Baby Jackson!!

Congratulations, Rochelle and Jamie!



Jackson entered the world on 4/5/09, weighing 7 lbs 19.5 inches!

Congratulations, Bonney!

I gave birth to little Shannon Josephine on Wednesday, April 1st, exactly one week past my due date. She is a great baby and weighed 7 lbs, 10.9 ozs. and was 21cm long.

I am pleased to say I had a natural birth, no epidural. It's tough for me to say how long I was in labor because I was experiencing irregular labor contractions (4-20 min apart) and decided to go to my doctors appoinment Wed. morning to see how far along I was. So my husband and doula went with me and we discovered I was already 5 cm dilated! My worried doctor ordered us straight to the hospital.

Overall, it was about 47 hours of laboring, but counting hospital time, it was more like 7 1/2 hours. I was very lucky to have a wonderful staff working with me at Sharp Mary Birch. Some of the nurses heard I wanted a natural birth and said they requested to work with me. I am very grateful for all the support and encouragment and I'm not sure how I would have accomplished my goal without it, escpecially from my wonderful husband and doula, there for every contraction and push.

Throughout my labor, my body wanted to go into various yoga poses, and there was no contraction too strong that my deep yoga breathing could not get me through. I miss your class and I've been eager to give you an update. Thank you for all your positivity and encouragement along the way.

Manali's Birth Story (Baby Sid)

A friend was planning on attending Shelley's prenatal yoga class, and checked with me (I was then 31 weeks pregnant) if I wanted to join her. I was never much into yoga, but decided to go for the classes. My pregnancy till then had been really hectic, so I thought the yoga class would give me some bonding time with my baby. I was hoping to have a natural birth, but was open to other options too. And I certainly wasn't expecting the yoga classes to help me with a natural birth. Little was I to know.

At my 39 week check-up my doctor was preparing me for other options. I had till then not felt any contractions and my cervix had softened just a little. I was a little worried as I drove back home. I thought I was probably going to have a planned delivery. But the very next day, I felt some contractions in the wee hours of the day. The contractions went away in a few minutes, so I thought they were false labor pains. During the course of the day, I felt contractions again, and they kept coming at regularly intervals. Every 30-40 minutes, I felt mild waves. And then the intervals kept getting shorter, the duration of the contractions kept getting longer. My husband came home by 4:00 pm. The cow position (getting on all fours) was helping me. So for every contraction, I would get into the cow position. At 7:00 pm we called our doctor's line. I was told to leave for the hospital in an hour. As predicted by the doctor, my contractions got more intense in an hour and we headed to the hospital.

At the hospital, the nurse checked that I was in active labor. I was 5 cms dilated. I was asked and I said no to the epidural. In the labor room, an IV needle in my arm, with the fetus monitoring in place, we were left to ourselves. It was around 9 pm. The nurse was to check on us every couple of hours. I was watching the clock every so often. I would try to get to the floor for every contraction (didn't feel comfortable getting into a cow position on the bed which was quite narrow). By the time I would get myself off the bed with my husband's help, I would feel the contraction easing away. I remember shouting at my husband for not getting me off the bed faster. Eventually I got tired of getting off and then back on the bed. I am just 5 feet tall and getting back onto the bed was a huge effort (my husband was keeping a safe watchful distance to comply with my wishes). Then I decided to just sit out the contractions. I remember closing my eyes and remembering Shelley's mantra "ride the pain waves, embrace pain". And it really was easy after that. I didn't budge from the bed after that. My husband was keeping a watchful eye on me. At 11:10 I remember paging the nurse. I was 7 cms dilated. Again we were left on our own. I slept. The contractions would wake me up, and I would ride the pain waves. Both me and my husband were snoozing though. I again paged the nurse at 1:00. I was about 10 cms dilated. My water bag was blocking the baby's descent, so it was broken by the doctor.

The contractions started coming in at a greater intensity, but the pain was gone. However, I wasn't prepared for pushing. The pushing part was the most painful part of my labor. Every push was encouraged by my husband and the nurse. The doctor periodically checked on me. I was also given oxygen whiffs a couple of times. After about an hour of pushing, I was almost about to give up. At that stage, I just wanted the baby out. I kept saying that I won't be able to do it. I asked for a mirror to check on the baby's progress. I was told that it would not help much. After what seemed like an age, the doctor started putting on gloves, and a mirror too was provided to me. That really encouraged me, I could see the crown of my baby's head. After some time the baby's head descended and it started hurting me so much that I really didn't need any more encouragement to push. The last big push. And my baby boy was born.

Ariana's Birth Story

Feb. 21st Sat.- I felt crampy/crappy starting around 8 pm-continued all nite long, but managed to catch sleep here and there...

Feb. 22nd Sun.- I was woken up at 6:30am by a definite contraction! We called our doula, Diana Kayat 9am to give her a heads up, today might be the day! Had contractions steadilyincreasing until 3pm, then they stayed the same until 6pm. We managed themwith a lot of vocalization, breathing, and couples yoga postures! (thank you Shelley!). Myhusband Ernest and I felt confident working through the contractions by ourselves until around 7pm when they were 6-8 minutes apart and one minute+ in duration.Then we called for reinforcements! Diana armed with essential oils, massage toolsand her wealth of knowledge and expertise arrived around 8pm!!

I had eaten a light breakfast and a sandwich for lunch which came UP unexpectedly right beforeDiana arrived. As a small bonus, I did feel better after throwing up!!With Diana, we worked on a lot of cat/cow poses and double hip squeezes.For me these were key, because Ariana was "sunny side up" and I was going through "back" labor.We labored on..haha :) ...until I had thrown up again, pressure intesified, and contractions were 3-5 minutes apart.Then we drove to the hospital.

We checked in at 10:30pm, at 11:30pm I was 3cm dilated, 90% effaced, and -1 station.At that point it had been over 17 hours of back labor, I was exhausted from pain, lack of sleep and nutrients, and I was only at 3cmwith a long way to go. I felt discouraged, and worried that I would not have the reserves to push when the time came (resulting in a c-section :(.So at that point I asked for an epidural.

Feb.23rd Mon.- At 1:45 am I received the epidural which numbed only my right side. The anesthesiologist's strategy was to lie on my left sideand keep pressing the button and dose myself...everytime he checked on me he said the same thing....it never worked. At 2am I was 5cm dilated, 100% effaced, -1 station. Then my water broke! What a cool feeling! We all dozed off and on until morning. At 8:30am I was 6-7cm, 100% effaced and -1/0 station according to nurse Elena. Dr. Eisenhauer did an exam and thought I was not nearly that far along and wanted to start pitocin. I requested to wait until his next exam to see if things would progress on their own.At 12:30pm nurse Elena checked and I had progressed to 10cm, with a cervical "lip" on my left side. I thought it might have been all thatlaying down on my left side. Dr. Eisenhauer then checked and said I was 5-6cm! They both advised me to start the pitocin, and I did. I was veryupset and as expected my contractions ramped up in intensity...I was so grateful to have my husband (my champion :), and doula Diana (worth her weight in gold!) there with me. What great support!

Finally at 5:15pm, 10cm, 100%, and +1 station I got the okay to start pushing!At 7:19pm (37 hours of labor) a healthy Ariana Selene was born!! 8lbs. 3oz., 20 1/2 inches.It was all worth it, just like everyone says!