Mason Clark*

October 30th, 2009 1:52am
9lbs even, 21.5 inches

*Whew. Talk about a whirldwind labor and birth.

At 2:30pm yesterday I started my normal pattern of prodromal labor. The contractions were puney and really never got unbearable.
I honestly had no idea I was in real labor.
I had called my midwife just to keep her updated on my "early labor" and at 11pm she wanted to come over, just to check things out.
I obliged. I told her that I really thought she was wasting her time. And I expressed my pure frustration at all this damn "prodromal labor".
She checked me and I was 8cm’s at 11:10pm. What!? Seriously?!
The contractions were maybe a 4 or 5 on the pain scale. I was breathing through them a little, but could still talk through them and really.. they weren’t regular. Or long.

I called Josh’s mom and hopped in the tub around 11:30pm.I still was in completely denial that I was in active labor. I kept thinking to myself that there was no way I was that far along and it was going this easy. I was getting the number ready to pull up in my phone to call Danie (invisible*ink) and next thing I know, the second contraction I have in the tub, my water breaks.
Hoooo boy, contractions definetly hurt then!
I was complete at midnight and started pushing around 12:30pm.

My labor sure was easy but man was pushing a bitch. I was getting so frustrated with myself because I had no issues whatsoever pushing with Xavier. I pushed a measley 14 minutes with him and he was out.
Not this little (er, not so little…) sucker. I pushed for nearly 1 1/2 hours and it was pure torture. I had a lot of problems getting his head out, and then even more problems getting his huge shoulders out.
And then I lost a lot of blood. I was really out of it for several hours. I lost a lot of blood with Xavier, too (I thought I had lost 500cc’s with him, but looking back at my records, I lost 800cc’s with him), but I must have had a better iron store at that point than I did now because I blacked out a couple times and never felt a bit of it with Xavier.
After a few good meals and several naps, I’m feeling pretty good now.
Still weak, still very tired and still bleeding quite a bit…
but nothing to be concerned about and I’m taking it easy.

Josh’s mom is here for the weekend. So I have help, which I greatly appreciate.
I’m hoping to have enough strength to stand in the shower here pretty soon.

I can’t believe how much hair this little guy has. And he looks just like his Daddy.
He’s a pretty big kiddo, too.
13.5 inch head. 14 inch shoulders. A full pound larger than my midwife predicted. (Which I totally knew would happen.)
And a decent 21.5 inches long.
He’s nursing like a champ and I’m completely in love.
The boys have already seen their little brother on webcam and are thrilled, too. 🙂
Josh got a couple pictures this morning and hopefully we’ll be able to webcam later this evening.
He’s a proud papa.

And I hear that old familiar sound of diaper filling… so I better go. =)