Isaac's Birthday
As much as I love reading other birth stories, I surprised myself with this feeling of needing to keep Isaac's birth to myself for a while. His birth replays in my mind almost nightly as I watch my little boy sleep next to me. It isn't the birth that brought anything I wasn't necessarily expecting, but it's my baby himself that brought more emotion and feeling to my life than I could have ever imagined.
I spent the last bit of my pregnancy pretty miserable. My belly was so big and crammed that it was impossible to find relief. At our 39 week appointment my blood pressure was high, after rechecking it a few times our midwife suggested bed rest and wanted us to come back in two days for another bp and urine test. Matt checked my blood pressure while we were home and it stayed consistently high, so as my due date came and went, I started to prepare myself for a hospital birth as I was completely convinced that was the route we would be forced to take.
Our Birth Story
We woke up Monday March 7th and rushed to another appointment at the birth center. I hadn't progressed at all and still had no signs of labor, the midwife suggested a membrane sweep to hopefully encourage labor. After a long day we spent the evening watching movies, I fell asleep at eleven and Matt woke me an hour later at midnight for bed. When I got up I felt nauseous and as soon as I laid in bed I felt light cramps that kept me turning from side to side. By 3am I was still wide awake and knew I was definitely in labor as the cramping had grew more intense. I decided to move to the living room & timed a few of the contractions which weren't exactly consistent in early labor, going from 10 minutes to 3 minutes apart. I had been up the entire day before and knew that I needed sleep since this was really labor, but sleep was impossible. Just as I would start to drift off a contraction would wake me and just a few short hours later each contraction was already requiring my full attention. Eventually, when the sun had finally set, I woke Matt and let him know we had a baby on the way.
I showered and tried to keep myself busy, but the pain was defiantly uncomfortable and I had a difficult time finding a groove to settle into. I had also planned to eat in early labor for energy, but each time Matt offered something to snack on, the thought made me too nauseous. We spent the next few hours drifting around the house going through our checklist while still trying to find comfort during contractions. I was so tired I just kept telling Matt all I wanted to do was take a nap before we did this. At one point I went into Isaac's nursery to say a prayer, and seeing all of his sweet things just waiting for him brought the most relief I had felt so far, it was defiantly encouraging.
Matt called the birth center around 1 o'clock when the contractions were five minutes apart, and the midwife suggested we try and wait a little longer since this is our first baby. At 3 o'clock we took one last look at the life we had grown accustomed to, told the pups goodbye, and walked out the door. The car ride was absolute terror. There was plenty of traffic and my contractions jumped to 2-3 minutes apart, all I could think about was opening the door and running away. I can't imagine what any cars next to us must have been thinking about the crazy faces I was probably making. We finally made it to the birth center at 4 o'clock and I was 5cm dilated. We settled into the birth room and time started going pretty quickly, after laboring for a while our midwife asked if I wanted to get into the tub, um YES.
Once the water was full she checked my progress before I could get in, I was 6cm. The warm water was amazing! The pain was still very present, but I was able to completely relax between contractions. We had only met our midwife at my appointment the day before and I am so incredibly grateful for her. I can't imagine what our experience would have been like without her with us.
This was the best part of my labor... I was more comfortable than I had been since labor started. Matt was on one side of the tub and our midwife on the other, we were all three laughing and chatting when suddenly my water broke. Matt and I both saw it happen but it took a moment for us to catch on before I said it out loud. That was an exciting moment that didn't last long at all, the very first contraction after my water broke was complete hell. This is when things got a little blurry. I want to be as honest as possible here, but it's difficult to find a way that describes what my experience was like at this point. Everyone saw things intensify as Matt tried encouraging me that our baby was so close to being here, and the midwife told me she needed to check me and I just remember saying no but somehow she managed as she announced to everyones surprise that I was fully dilated and ready to push. The pain was so fierce I felt like I was in and out of reality. My contractions were right on top of each other and I didn't have time to catch up which became really overwhelming. During pregnancy I had wondered if I would know how to push efficiently, but our little guy was in a hurry and I literally didn't have to push until the very end, my body was doing the pushing on its own. There was so much pressure with each contraction, it was amazing to feel him moving further down with each one. I remember feeling so exhausted and out of it that I would occasionally ask how dilated I am and they would remind me that I'm already pushing. I really felt like it was never going to end during this stage, I remember putting my head down in the water at one point and literally feeling like I was walking the line between life and death. That's when Matt told me that he could see our baby's head and he had hair! For some reason I didn't believe him until the midwife told me to feel his head, that was just amazing. Matt held my left hand and a good friend held my right hand and with the next contraction I pushed and looked down to see his head completely out. We all got excited and everyone cheered to push with the next contraction and out came the rest of his body!
At 7:43pm our greatest joy was born and placed on my chest. He was so beautiful and perfect.
My labor was quick and fierce, he was born only an hour and a half after being told that I was 6cm. I remember asking how long we had left at 6cm and one of the other midwives replying that it would be sometime after midnight. I'm glad that my boy had plans of his own and came quickly.
March 8, 2011
7:43pm
8lbs 1oz
21 inches
I showered and tried to keep myself busy, but the pain was defiantly uncomfortable and I had a difficult time finding a groove to settle into. I had also planned to eat in early labor for energy, but each time Matt offered something to snack on, the thought made me too nauseous. We spent the next few hours drifting around the house going through our checklist while still trying to find comfort during contractions. I was so tired I just kept telling Matt all I wanted to do was take a nap before we did this. At one point I went into Isaac's nursery to say a prayer, and seeing all of his sweet things just waiting for him brought the most relief I had felt so far, it was defiantly encouraging.
Matt called the birth center around 1 o'clock when the contractions were five minutes apart, and the midwife suggested we try and wait a little longer since this is our first baby. At 3 o'clock we took one last look at the life we had grown accustomed to, told the pups goodbye, and walked out the door. The car ride was absolute terror. There was plenty of traffic and my contractions jumped to 2-3 minutes apart, all I could think about was opening the door and running away. I can't imagine what any cars next to us must have been thinking about the crazy faces I was probably making. We finally made it to the birth center at 4 o'clock and I was 5cm dilated. We settled into the birth room and time started going pretty quickly, after laboring for a while our midwife asked if I wanted to get into the tub, um YES.
Once the water was full she checked my progress before I could get in, I was 6cm. The warm water was amazing! The pain was still very present, but I was able to completely relax between contractions. We had only met our midwife at my appointment the day before and I am so incredibly grateful for her. I can't imagine what our experience would have been like without her with us.
This was the best part of my labor... I was more comfortable than I had been since labor started. Matt was on one side of the tub and our midwife on the other, we were all three laughing and chatting when suddenly my water broke. Matt and I both saw it happen but it took a moment for us to catch on before I said it out loud. That was an exciting moment that didn't last long at all, the very first contraction after my water broke was complete hell. This is when things got a little blurry. I want to be as honest as possible here, but it's difficult to find a way that describes what my experience was like at this point. Everyone saw things intensify as Matt tried encouraging me that our baby was so close to being here, and the midwife told me she needed to check me and I just remember saying no but somehow she managed as she announced to everyones surprise that I was fully dilated and ready to push. The pain was so fierce I felt like I was in and out of reality. My contractions were right on top of each other and I didn't have time to catch up which became really overwhelming. During pregnancy I had wondered if I would know how to push efficiently, but our little guy was in a hurry and I literally didn't have to push until the very end, my body was doing the pushing on its own. There was so much pressure with each contraction, it was amazing to feel him moving further down with each one. I remember feeling so exhausted and out of it that I would occasionally ask how dilated I am and they would remind me that I'm already pushing. I really felt like it was never going to end during this stage, I remember putting my head down in the water at one point and literally feeling like I was walking the line between life and death. That's when Matt told me that he could see our baby's head and he had hair! For some reason I didn't believe him until the midwife told me to feel his head, that was just amazing. Matt held my left hand and a good friend held my right hand and with the next contraction I pushed and looked down to see his head completely out. We all got excited and everyone cheered to push with the next contraction and out came the rest of his body!
At 7:43pm our greatest joy was born and placed on my chest. He was so beautiful and perfect.
My labor was quick and fierce, he was born only an hour and a half after being told that I was 6cm. I remember asking how long we had left at 6cm and one of the other midwives replying that it would be sometime after midnight. I'm glad that my boy had plans of his own and came quickly.
March 8, 2011
7:43pm
8lbs 1oz
21 inches
beautiful photos! I'm sure you will treasure them and this post forever :)
ReplyDeletemuch love♥