Matthias Scott Geer

Matthias came Monday night at 8:56p after only 3 hours of labor. He weighed 8lb 10.5oz and is 20in long. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect labor and delivery. I didn't post much about my journey these last 9months with deciding on having Matthias at a birthing center, but I can definately say I'd do it again that way in a heartbeat....well maybe not that soon ;).

This is Matthias's arrival story...

Sunday, November 28 (a week past my due date) I began having early labor contractions. They stopped after 6hrs. On Monday morning I had a sonogram to make sure the baby and placenta were still healthy, and they were. Both the baby and the placenta indicacted that Matthias might not arrive for another couple of days. All day Monday I had very irregular contractions but by the time we sat down for dinner at 6p I started having contractions every 5 minutes that I could not longer just sit through. I swayed my hips at the kitchen counter or in a doorway through the next 30 minutes of contractions. We hopped in the car at 7:30p and for the 30 minute ride to the birthing center I labored on my hands and knees singing praise music in the backseat of the Explorer. We came to one stop light just as a contraction was ending and I told Scotty that you never know what's going on in the car next to you. ;)

We pulled up to the birthing center at 8p and my contractions were every 4minutes. I sang and swayed my way up to the front door. I spent about 30minutes in the shower working through contractions and then moved to a clawfoot tub to work my way through the next bit of labor. By this point singing through contractions was out the door and we were now groaning through them. Scott gets 5 stars for his performance as he counterpressured every contraction on my lower back with his hands and moaned his way through the contractions with me. Every word that came out of his mouth was what I needed to hear, especially when it came time to push. The midwife never had to tell me to "push," my body was telling us when to push. Scott reminded me over and over that my body was created by God to do exactly what I was doing and I could have sworn he was moaning a low "ooooppppeeennnn" as I was pushing, but he says he wasn't. I'm chalking that one up to a God intervention.

Lots more details of course but I'll leave that up to personal conversations for those of you who care to know ;). This labor and birth was much less chaotic than the first two. My midwife described me as joyous and I cherish that thought. Would I do it again? Definately.