This little girl had quite a time getting here. So here's the story:
On Friday the 22nd of April I was 9 days overdue. I was walking every day, taking blue cohosh, and that night I even tried castor oil (did nothing... in case you wondered). We stayed up timing some weak contractions for a few hours and finally at 11 they were fading away so we gave up and went to bed disappointed.
I awoke a little before 2 and my pants were all wet. I was a little confused and went to the bathroom. It was only after I had some dry pajamas on that I thought maybe it was my water that broke. My dry pajamas slowly started becoming wet and I realized it was my water! I was not a bed wetter! Wahoo!
Since I wasn't having contractions yet I wasn't quite sure what to do so I called my Bradley instructor Trisha. She told me to wait a while, try to rest and the contractions would come soon. I didn't get a chance to rest because almost as soon as I hung up the contractions hit, and they weren't kidding. Almost immediately I was in concentration mode trying to get through some pretty painful contractions. By 3 a.m. my mom had gotten to my house and when she saw how hard the contractions were and knowing my water had already broken she said we better get to the hospital because things would probably move pretty quickly.
I listened to mom and we were settled in at the hospital by 3:30ish. The contractions on the way to the hospital were painful but not too awful and it seemed like my body realized we were ready to go because it got down to business as soon as we were inside the hospital. The nurses checked me and found that I was at a 4 cm (I had been a 3 at my last doctor's visit). One of the most painful parts of the whole experience was getting my IV in. The poor nurses had to squat down on the floor to try and get the right angle because I was trying to be in comfortable positions on the bed. They tried and failed 4 times and finally had to call a someone from the lab to just draw blood for the sample because they couldn't get it from my IV line (this is where I think a home birth would be beneficial).
Anyway, we got past that and Trisha arrived and broke out her oils and tried to make me as comfortable as possible. The next few hours looked about like this:
Jesse pushed on my knees during contractions... helped big time, and mom pushed
on my back at the same time.
Trisha rubbed my legs with some essential oils and got a heat pack for my lower belly...
it felt awesome!
Concentrating...
Annie's hands were nice and cool :) and her voice was very soothing.
aww... they love each other :)
At around 5:30 I was getting anxious to know if all my hard work was doing anything so I asked the nurse to check my progress (they hadn't checked in between because I had requested on my birth plan that they not do vaginal checks unless they needed to. It was nice not to be bothered until I was ready!). It turned out to be a motivational boost because I had gone to 5+ cm. I felt like all my work was paying off!
Trisha encouraged me to change positions and go to the bathroom as much as possible to help the baby move down. To be honest, the LAST thing the world I wanted to do was move from my comfortable position into a position I knew would be more painful, so I would wait for a few contractions and gather my courage and then I would hop off the bed and head to the bathroom and then do a few contractions standing up or leaning over the bed. We also did a few like this:
With me on my knees and my birth team pushing on my back and hips. It was more painful than my upright position but when I sat back up on the bed I could tell the baby had moved way lower... I almost felt like I had to push!
When I started feeling pressure and a strong urge to push through contractions (about 7:00 a.m.) I asked the nurse if she would check me again to see if I would be ok pushing through my contractions. She said I was at about 7 cm and I could push a little, but not too much because I wasn't dilated enough yet.
I had a moment with Jesse where I felt sooo happy that we had made it this far and we just both started crying because we were so happy this was actually happening and that we were almost there!
I know most people's idea of natural birth does not include this type of happiness and snuggling... especially not kissing! But I was surprisingly normal in between contractions, I could talk and relax and even crack a joke or two, even up until it was time to push. Don't get me wrong, I still went through periods where I felt overwhelmed and unsure of my ability to get through this, but with the help of my positive birth team I soon got through those times and was able to concentrate and regain my confidence.
Around 7:30ish I really felt like pushing and that's about when the Doctor got there. He said that most of my cervix was out of the way but there was still a part of it in the way that made me only dilated to about 8 cm. The nurse (who was pro-natural birth, lucky us!) and the Doctor kind of talked back and forth about what to do. The nurse was saying I should just push and try to push the rest of the cervix out of the way and the doctor didn't seem to like that idea much... I think he was used to epidural births where they could just wait through some contractions and let the cervix move out of it's way on it's own.
Meanwhile I was ignoring both of them and just pushing through the contractions because it felt better to. The next thing I remember is the nurse saying to the doctor that he better get his gear on because the baby was starting to crown!
Sorry guys, nothing glamorous about pushing...
I remember Trisha reminded me while I was pushing to pull on my legs and push my elbows out and I remember nodding my head no. I felt like my hand were glued to the bed and the only muscles that worked were the ones pushing out the baby.
These poor ladies :)
and then...
somone told me to look down, and when I did there was this huge release of pressure and I saw her little body half way out. She twisted her hips a little and there she was!
I cannot believe what a beautiful experience it was. Painful, sure. But what is a reward without the hard work first?
Lillian is truly a beautiful reward :)
To summarize: Lillian Beth Callahan was born on April 23rd, 2011 (10 days overdue!) at 8:08 a.m. She weighed 7 lbs. 6 oz. and was 18.5 inches long.
Also, Special thanks to my friend Joelle Taylor for the AWESOME photos that help me relive one of the best experiences of my LIFE and special thanks to Jessica Jenkins for providing breakfast to the birth team :)
He completed the 2.4 mile swim in 1 hour 16 minutes and then transitioned to bike:
About 8:30 in the morning I went up the road from our house and watched him come down Telegraph and turn up Washington Parkway. He knew I was going to try to catch him there so he was watching for me and yelled my name when he saw me. I about dropped the camera while I was jumping up and down screaming for him. He seemed fresh and full of energy, but the long day was just beginning! I didn't get a very good picture but luckily Matt and Joelle got some great ones of him on his bike:
You can see the sweat dripping off his face! It was a hot day!
I went out to Kayenta to watch him on the 2nd loop of his bike course and he looked really hot and tired but happy. He said that second loop is what really tried his determination... it was so hot and after hours on the bike he was tired, but he kept going.
Luckily we had so many friends following him around I would get texts periodically from people who saw him. Everyone that saw him said he looked great and he was happy and smiling. I can't believe that after hours and hours of grueling endurance he still had energy to wave and smile! CRAZY! 
His 26.2 mile run took him 5 hours 51 minutes for a total time of 14 hours 19 minutes! Can you believe that in 1 year, Jesse went from Ironman volunteer who had never ran more than a few miles, never biked, never swam... to an Ironman FINISHER?!!!
Jesse made these shirts for our whole family... even a onesie that was waay to big for Lillian:
