Your name: Brigid
Partner’s name: James
Baby’s birthdate: May 10, 2013
1. What is the best part of being a mom?
Knowing that Matthew and I were made for each other. I feel such a strong connection with him that grows every day. I love watching him grow and develop and I am so excited to see what kind of person he will become!
2. Give us the cliff’s notes version of your birth story.
It’s really hard for me to write a short version of my birth story because there are a lot of complicated reasons for why I ended up making the decisions I did. That being said, here’s my attempt:
I woke up around 2:30am the day Matthew was born. I usually woke up several times during the night so I wasn’t surprised but something felt different. The dull lower back pains I had been feeling all week seemed to be stronger and regular. After about an hour or so I decided to start timing the pains and discovered they were coming about every 3 minutes. Because I had also started having some bleeding I called my doctor. She told me to come to the hospital.
After checking in and going through triage (where I learned I was 3-4 centimeters dilated), I was given a labor and delivery room around 6:30am. I did pretty well with the contractions for a while, but as they got stronger and longer I started to feel incredibly tired (since I’d had virtually no sleep the night before). I became unable to relax between contractions. After being stalled for several hours at 8½ centimeters, I decided to have an epidural. After that they broke my water and my doctor determined I was making better progress, meaning no pitocin would be necessary (yay!).
A few hours later I felt ready to push. I pushed for about 1 ½ hours. Matthew had been face up but at the last moment he turned so that he was face down! He was born at 5:14pm. Matthew was very alert and wide-eyed immediately after birth and he was so incredibly beautiful!
3. How do you find your “me time”?
I’m in graduate school part time and those two nights a week I have class are pretty much the only times I am away from Matthew. I miss him a lot but it’s fun to spend time with adults talking about things that interest me.
4. What’s the last non-baby related book you’ve read?
Right now my spare reading time is mostly for school books. But I guess other than that I last read Mrs. Pollifax and the China Station. I love the Mrs. Pollifax books and re-reading them helped me to get through stressful times during my pregnancy.
5. What’s the most useful baby product you have? Why do you love it?
In the beginning I would say that the most useful baby product for me was the Boppy. We had a difficult time with nursing in the beginning and the Boppy was a huge help in keeping both of us comfortable and supported as we worked our way through the challenges. Now I would say the best baby item we have is Matthew’s Oball rattle. He absolutely loves it! It was the first thing that he was really able to play with because it is so easy for him to grip. There are so many great things about this relatively simple toy, and I would definitely recommend it!
6. If a newly pregnant mom asked you why she should take classes here, what would you tell her?
Shining Light is an amazing place to be if you are an expectant mother. I spent most of my pregnancy away from Pittsburgh in an area of the country with virtually no resources available to me. About 6 weeks before Matthew was born I first came to Shining Light. I truly wish I had had access to it throughout my entire pregnancy. Shining Light is a peaceful place full of knowledgeable, encouraging and compassionate people. I believe that one of the most important things for a healthy and happy pregnancy is support, and Shining Light truly provides this.
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