War Stories

Once I was visibly pregnant, it seemed that everyone I met wanted to tell me the story of their child's birth. I had been warned that this would happen, especially with women who had particularly difficult experiences. And overall it was fine-- I actually enjoyed meeting other moms and hearing their stories. But until I experienced Vivy's birth I didn't get why they wanted to tell me all this personal information. But now I do! A birth story is a mother's war story. My friend Mary J said that now that I have experienced birthing a baby I am in a league with all the other mothers in the world, both past and present, who have this shared experience. And now I have my own war story to share. So here's a short version:

My labor was pretty textbook until I started experiencing some back labor. We didn't know that Vivy's head was pressing against my pelvis and back in such a way that the right side of her face was hitting my pelvis with every contraction. After over an hour of pushing, my doctor Chris realized that Vivy was brow presenting (if you want to read more, you can at www.birth.com.au). The long and short of it is that she came out right eyebrow first which is the "broadest" way a baby can come out. .02% of births are brow presenting, and most of them result in a c-section. So for her to arrive here through a vaginal delivery is pretty incredible. Needless to say, both her recovery and mine have been a little longer and harder than expected, but were both doing really well now. Here's picture of Vivy's other side (the one we didn't post initially, and I wish you could see her bruising better) and one of her with Randy the other day. And I won't show you a picture of my bruising! ;)