My Pregnancy and Hunter's Birth

Well, I guess we should start our story with Hunter's birth.  So many of my friends with babies and blogs have these amazing multi-part birth stories, but all things considered I think ours is fairly normal.  We found out I was pregnant on March 29th and I had a wonderful pregnancy.  I was nauseous until I hit about 13 weeks along, living off of dry toast and Ginger Ale.  After that though, everything was very smooth sailing.  Every milestone was hit on time, ultrasounds were normal, and I, honestly, loved being pregnant.  After waiting a long time for this baby, we were beyond thrilled for his impending arrival.

3/29/11 - We're pregnant!

5/11/11 - Hunter 10 weeks and 1 day

6/1/11 - Hunter 13 weeks and 1 day

7/27/11 - Hunter 21 weeks and 1 day; even to this day, he likes to have his hands in front of his face like this!

Me around 36 weeks pregnant, early November

So, towards the end of my pregnancy, my doctor became concerned that I was carrying a big baby.  From that very first appointment on May 11th when she looked at the size of my body versus the size of Jon's, I must admit, she was concerned.  But, she seemed to think she had actual reason to be concerned towards the last 6 weeks or so when I was "measuring big."  Jon and I understood her concerns but had spent many, many hours preparing for a natural birth.  (We took a class on the Bradly Birth Method; bradleybirth.com.  We highly, highly recommend it if you're considering a natural birth.  We must warn you though, it's a bit of a Pandora's Box.  You'll probably learn way more than you ever wanted to know and see way more videos of women giving birth than you ever imagined possible.  For us, the information was invaluable.  We are so grateful to our teacher and classmates for the experience.)  We were confident that the baby God created within my body would be just fine during a natural delivery (and that I would be fine, too, of course!).  We consulted with and sought advice from friends who naturally delivered big babies and did everything we could to prepare for his arrival.  

Well, our doctor insisted that we have one last ultrasound (something we did not want to do) to measure the baby and see just how big he was.  From our preparation for the birth, we learned that these types of ultrasounds could be off by as much as a pound.  When we asked our doctor this, she heartily agreed that they were not reliable, but she insisted that it would give us a starting point from which to make decisions about how best to deliver the baby.  Basically at this point, we were trying our hardest to preserve our dreams of a natural delivery while at the same time respecting her years and years of experience and wish to keep me and the baby healthy.  We gave in to the final ultrasound and at 39 weeks pregnant we were told by the ultrasound tech that our baby was 8 pounds 12 ounces already.  Our doctor estimated 1/2 pound of growth per week on average, so on my due date the baby would be 9 pounds 4 ounces and by 41 weeks (the longest she lets patients go without being induced) the baby would be around 10 pounds.

When I saw my doctor on my due date, she insisted that we schedule an induction.  She said this would be the only way I could possibly deliver naturally, as the longer we waited, the bigger the baby was going to get.  I really wanted to let my baby pick his own birthday, if you will, but I knew my doctor was only going to let us go 7 more days anyway.  My mom was in town from Texas for the birth and so scheduling the induction not only made my doctor feel better, but assured that my mom would be present to meet the baby.  So, we set the induction date for 4 days later, and started the count down!

Ok, so maybe my birth story is also a multi-parter.  I applaud you if you're still reading down this far.  This has actually been a lot of fun for me to write out.  Stay tuned for the rest!