Birth stories, to me, are testimonies of miraculous life events. They are examples of love, empowerment, and a humbling dose of real life. I loved reading birth stories as sources of encouragement leading up to my own delivery and I've been looking forward to sharing my own. I shared a brief recap of
our daughter's birth story when I first began to blog in June of 2013 and now the time has arrived to share another.
Both of our children are truly miracles. We battled against
infertility for both of them and it was only through God's blessing that they were conceived. I've grown to embrace our struggles with infertility because they have made us that much more grateful for our children and they have brought us blessings that we would not have otherwise experienced. I share all of this to preface what I consider a beautiful story. To some it will probably not seem very significant. To some it may even seem a bore, but to me, it is a treasure. It is our story. It is the (lengthy) story of how our son entered the world.
There are many reasons why I consider our son's existence miraculous and each milestone during my pregnancy was a reason to rejoice. One issue that I combatted throughout the course of my pregnancy was hypertension. I dealt with this during my daughter's pregnancy as well and I was well versed in what that could potentially mean for me come time for delivery. It was my hope to have our son naturally and without an induction. I feared what an induction could mean and I was already at a higher risk for a C-section for various reasons and I did not want to add to the likelihood. I watched my sodium intake, took my meds and worked hard to keep my weight gain at a minimum (under the supervision of my doctors.) I was proud of having only gained 17lbs during this pregnancy and I was feeling good about things as my due date neared. However, about 6 weeks prior to my due date, my doctors discussed the probability of an induction based on my rising/inconsistent blood pressure numbers and the impact it was having on the baby. I must mention that my doctors only discuss induction if medically necessary, thus I knew it was serious.
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| 37 weeks |
Around 37 weeks we decided that we would induce at 39 weeks (July 5) unless something more serious occurred . Upon a quick check, we learned that I was already at 3cm and 50% effaced. Based on the early arrival of my daughter and my current numbers, my doctor did not believe that I would make my induction date...and she ended up being correct.
My husband was due to return to work on July 1. I was secretly praying that the baby would either come before that day or not make any major changes until the day of our induction. We live almost an hour from the hospital, he works about an hour from home and I could not wrap my head around trying to get our toddler taken care of and work my way to the hospital without him...although one would do what she must. I woke up the morning of June 30th feeling what I thought might be contractions but they were only occurring about once every hour (beginning at 6a.m.) I never even knew I was contracting with my daughter so I was not sure what I should be experiencing. By around 1p.m. I was pretty certain that I was feeling contractions and I began timing them. They were happening about every half hour. By 2p.m. I was experiencing them about every 10 minutes. My husband took my blood pressure and it was also elevated...both were signs that our doctor had told us to look for and call if they happened. I contacted Labor and Delivery and they told us to go ahead and come in.
We dropped our daughter off at the sitter's house. She would be staying with her at whatever point we were admitted to the hospital. The "pains" I was feeling were very mild and I almost believed they would probably send us home. After all, I wasn't doubled over and my water had not broken. We arrived at the hospital and I was examined. I was making a bit of progress despite the monitor only picking up what appeared to be cramping. My doctor was convinced that I was in labor and wanted to go ahead and admit me based on my blood pressure. I was still 3cm but was now 75% effaced. She did a membrane sweep and that really helped to get things going. My contractions steadily became stronger but still manageable. At around 5:30p.m. we were officially admitted, had contacted our sitter, had met the staff members that we would be working with through the rest of our labor and delivery and had settled into our room.
My first labor and delivery were very quick, especially for a first timer. From start to finish it was about 7 hours (4 hours of which were actually active labor, with only one of those hours being the actual transition phase) with about 7 minutes of pushing. I did not have medication of any kind and had every intention of doing it the same way with this delivery. Things don't always go the way you plan...
After about 5 hours of strengthening contractions, they checked my progress. I was only at 4cm and 80% effaced. What?! Are you kidding me?! I wanted to cry. I settled in again and knew that I needed to try and get some sleep, especially since there was nothing that seemed to be speedy about this labor. Of course, my contractions continued to pick up and I became more uncomfortable, so as my husband slept, I tossed and turned, attempting to remain comfortable.
At 1:10a.m. my water broke...and it hurt! I was not expecting the pain and I called out to my husband telling him what had happened. We buzzed for my nurse who came in immediately. I told her that I was certain my water had broken and as I shifted, the flood gates opened. I knew what this meant. Based on my last delivery, once my water had broken, my contractions almost immediately became more intense and delivery was just around the corner.
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| The next day... |
As my contractions quickly became much more painful and closer together, I readied myself. I was going to do this and I just knew that my son was moments away from greeting the world. They checked me after about an hour and I was only at 6cm. I wanted to cry. Why were things progressing so slowly?! After some time I had to make a decision. I was physically and mentally exhausted from having worked through so many intense contractions (they were coming about every minute to minute and a half). I could not imagine how I was going to muster up the strength to deliver our baby. I opted for an epidural.
Because of the intensity of my contractions, it was a little more challenging to place the epidural but the anesthesiologist was amazing and with the help of my husband and nurse, I was eventually hooked up and good to go. It took a bit for the meds to kick in and I only had what was necessary to take the edge off of the pain. I could still move and I could still feel pressure. After the epidural was placed, I was checked again. This time, I was at a 9 and about 90% effaced. However, N was not tolerating the contractions and was showing continuous signs of distress. My doctor and I discussed what that meant and what may have to happen if he was not delivered in the very near future. I prayed for him to move down. I prayed for my cervix to fully dilate and I prayed for his health and safety as the minutes ticked by.
A little after 4:00a.m. my doctor wanted me to do a couple "practice" pushes to see if we could get him to lower since he was still not stationed where we needed him. She told me that at any point she told me to stop, it was because he was where he needed to be and she needed to get the remainder of the delivery team in there. Within two contraction, she told me to stop. The team rushed in and within what seemed like seconds they had everything ready to go and it was time to bring our baby into the world. I pushed for about 3 minutes and our son graced our lives at 4:15a.m.
I soon learned that the reason he was not tolerating the contractions was because the cord had been wrapped around his neck 3 times. Praise Jesus for keeping our sweet boy safe. He was perfect. He had a beautiful cry, strawberry blonde hair and the sweetest little face. He was immediately placed on my chest and eventually his daddy got to cut the cord. For the next hour we lay skin to skin. I soaked in the surreal moments as the fact that we were now a family of four began to sink in.
While I know words can never convey the true emotions that are experienced during a time like this, I am so glad to be able to share my heart. I consider our family to be abundantly blessed and to our Lord I will forever be grateful. The past few days have been trying as we adjust to new (lack of) sleep schedules, living around the needs of an infant and trying to balance and plan intentional time with our toddler. However, I cherish it all, for I know this too shall pass and our babies will grow up too fast.
