Birth Story

We'll start from the beginning...

I got a phone call from my friend Margaret in the morning and she wanted to go for a walk... her goal: to induce labor. Funny, and I actually said yes. During the walk I had normal tightening contractions but nothing unusual. After the walk my mom and I decided to go get our hair cut, just to get ready for the baby photos to come! =) Then we bought special blue nail polish at Walmart and painted our nails all pretty. A short time after that my mother decided that she would start "nesting" and began to clean my kitchen and dining room. More of a stress inducer than anything, I laughed and welcomed the help as I sat on a chair and pointed to where things went.

Shortly after dinner, around 7:00ish I began feeling contractions that were a little stronger than I had felt before. At 8:00pm we decided to go for a walk. While out for our walk I had to stop a few times to let it relax because now they were becoming a little painful, but nothing bad. Jeff took Cambree home to go to bed and I walked over to my friend Margaret's house (who lives one street behind us) to see if she wanted to keep walking with me. No answer, so I walked home. I realized that I had 3 contractions just on the way home and thought that maybe I should actually look at a clock this time. They were 5 minutes apart! OH BOY, guess I better finish packing my bags!!! At 11:20pm the fun really began when my water broke! Luckily I happened to be sitting on the toilet! Let's just say the "high pressure burst" would not have been fun anywhere else in my house! LOL! Called the hospital and my midwife called us.

12:30am we were off on the long drive to the hospital (one block away from our house, haha). We were joking before all this that we would just walk over when I was in labor, but it was midnight and windy! Got all checked in and monitored in Labor & Deliver. They checked me at 1:30am to see and I was only 4cm dilated. I thought it was going to be a long night... So far I was doing great without any medications! At 1:45 I got into the jacuzzi tub to labor. That's when all heck broke loose! It didn't seem like I had very many contractions in the tub but each one I had I thought I was going to DIE! At that point I then waited through 2 or 3 more contractions to make my decision: I wanted the epidural and I WANTED IT NOW! I didn't want anything less than total paralysis! Perfect timing when my midwife walked in to check on me just as I was attempting to get out of the tub to get an IV started for my epidural. At 2:30 I got onto my knees to get out of the tub when it hit out of nowhere. My body started involuntarily pushing. It was the weirdest feeling, I couldn't stop it. It felt like vomiting convulsions only out the other end! My midwife Djina and nurse then stepped in to help! Djina coached me out of the tub as I was almost hysterical because I couldn't get up! We barely made it to the bed when it hit again! She checked me and I was dilated to 10cm!!! Well that was my clue that I wasn't going to get ANY drugs! UGGG! I began trying to push with my body instead of just freaking out each time it happened. I can now say that childbirth is the worst physical pain I have ever, or will ever feel in my life! I felt his head at one point at it was half out for about 15min. The skull bones were compressed together and the skin was all wrinkly. Not what I expected! Djina was great about letting him come slowly and stretching me as he came. Warm compresses were the only ounce of relief I felt! Finally at 3:07am Mason Jeffery Oesterle decided to join us in this world! He was a blue baby with the cord wrapped around his neck but didn't hesitate to make any noises! Our healthy little BOY was placed on my chest and not disturbed for 2 1/2 hours! What a wonderful time to bond!

Healthy baby, No drugs whatsoever, Only 2 small sitches, Fast labor... not to bad!

Next time, I think I'll call ahead for my epidural! =)