the end of ROUND 4

First arriving at the hospital

So I opted out of getting my membranes stripped at my Tues. appointment and I was still dilated at 4cm but 60% effaced. My midwife was going out of town Thurs. but I still wanted to go into labor on my own. After going to sleep Tues. night I was awakened throughout the night by contractions that I needed to breathe through but I would go back to sleep after. When I got up in the morning, I debated if I should go into work or stay home and get some more rest because I was a little exhausted from the night. I chose to go in since it was only a 4 hour shift. I was having semi strong contractions but they weren't close together. My shift ended at 12pm and as soon as I got home the contractions went up a notch but still weren't close enough so I ate lunch and thought that would calm down the contractions if I wasn't in labor. I tried to time it but kept forgetting what time it started but I knew that I had  5 in a 45min time period and I called my midwife because with each contraction the pressure gave me the feeling to push. So my midwife told me to head to the hospital. I didn't want to go because I didn't want to be sent right back home so I told Etu what my midwife said than I started painting my toenails lol. Etu was like, uh do you think this is the right time to be doing that? I only wanted to take my mind off of it and tried to think of anything I needed to get done before baby arrived. After about a half hour of B S-in, we headed to the hospital. When I got there  at 2:00pm, sure enough I was still 4cm and now 70%. I was monitored for about an hour with not much going on labor wise. The nurse called my midwife for further instructions, and when she came back I was told to walk the halls for an HOUR... so boring BTW! After an hour passed, I was "checked" and I was 5cm, that was at 4:30pm. The nurse called my midwife and when she arrived she broke my water. By 7:30pm, I hit my 9cm wall. I don't dilate to a 10 on my own. So my midwife stretched "it" as I pushed. After about 4-5 sets of 3 pushes he was born at 830pm. I could feel Etu's tears falling on the side of me as I struggled to keep my eyes open because I was balling from the pain. They placed baby on me for skin to skin, and it was magical. Baby went from screaming to silence as soon as he was on me, I LOVED IT! When they took baby to get his measurements, I was a little surprised to hear 9lbs 3oz but I was shocked to hear his length of 23in. He's a great addition to our family and I'm thankful to the Lord for trusting me with him and grateful for my husband's priesthood blessing that helped me cope with labor. Initially we were planning on naming this baby but Etu decided to let me dad since we have our older sons names from both his parents side and my mom's side. The name that was chosen is Saiaiga Tolefoa after my dad's maternal grandfather. Baby Sa is what we call him for short.

going home =)