Daxton's Birth Story {part 1}

After weeks (quite literally) of anticipation over meeting our little guy, I'm so happy to finally be able to share an actual birth story with you all! Here are all the details of his grand arrival....

As most of you already know my labor was rather strange this time, with us thinking that from all the signs he would actually be born early. Needless to say once contractions and other symptoms dragged on for days (or more specifically weeks) I was more than a little tired and frustrated with not knowing when it was really going to happen! There were so many times it seemed like actual labor had finally set in only to have it gradually slow down a few hours later, leaving me in an almost constant state of exhaustion since it happened alot at night. Not to mention more than a little sore!

Went on like that until my "official" guess date that we were going by which was the 23rd. I was due for a check-up on the same day if I hadn't had him yet so we had discussed me just coming in later in the evening and doing some things to help labor along possibly. I was already contracting a good bit again and figured some oils, herbs, etc just might be what I needed to get things going! Blake and I drove up and stayed a few hours while trying a couple things the midwives recommended. We ended up going out to Wal-mart but having to come back because my contractions got so strong and close together with all the walking after taking the herbs and rubbing oil on my stomach. But after thinking this was really going to be the day they once again got further apart and didn't really do a lot beyond me dialating 1/2 a centimeter after all that time. We decided to just go home and wait it out. Again. I was so tired of it all but also so determined to just let him come when he was good and ready!

On Friday I was worn out and hurting a lot from the day before so just tried to take it easy around the house. Still hoping that things would get started for real before long. I actually ended up not having too many contractions that day though and went to bed discouraged over feeling so bad with no end results of a baby in sight. I just kept thinking that if I got any more tired that I wouldn't have enough strength to even labor well, much less feel like taking care of a newborn afterwards! But since I was dialated to about a 4 and his head was very far down before leaving on Thursday I knew something surely had to happen in the near future so I tried to remember that and keep my hopes up. That was sometimes easier said than done though, of course. Y'all know how those pregnancy hormones and emotions can be!

Okay, sorry to leave you hanging but since this is already a long post I'll have to finish the story later. :-)

*Stay tuned for the rest of the story soon!*