And the Story Goes

I know some people absolutely love birth stories, and others, well, they'd rather not have that level of detail. So, fair warning, this is Chase's birth story because I want to write it down to remember it and hey, it's a pretty significant event in our lives, so definitely blog-worthy. In my mind I had the idea of what would be the perfect birth scenario, but I certainly didn't really think it would turn out how I wanted it to in my mind. However, things went actually almost perfectly according to plan. We feel very blessed.

It all started Wednesday, Aug 12th. My mom flew in, arriving at our house around 11:30 pm. My mom is a school teacher and with Chase being due on Aug 22, my mom was trying to figure out when the best time to come visit would be since we didn't know exactly when he'd come and she needed to be back for preparation and the beginning of school. She bought a ticket for mid-August and another for mid-September. That way, in case Chase wasn't born by the time she came the first time, she'd definitely get to meet him in September. We talked a few times though about how nice it would be if he were born the day after she arrived so she could be there for Adie and have the maximum time to meet her new grandson. Imagine my surprise when, at 7:30 the next morning my water broke. As Brett explained earlier, we were chilling in bed, avoiding getting out of bed for a few minutes, when my water broke. With Adie, it wasn't super obvious my water had broken, but I had absolutely no doubt about it this time. I couldn't believe our luck. My mom hadn't even been here 12 hours yet. The other great things about the timing were that Brett has every other Friday off and this happened to be one of his long weekends, so he wouldn't have to take so much time off. I was hoping for this as well. Also, I was really hoping to not go into labor in the middle of the night. Adie was born around 7:30 pm. I was hoping to have another daytime birth. It just sounded so much less tiring. I also had a fear that I would go into labor in the middle of the night when my mom wasn't here and we would be frantically calling all our neighbors to find someone we could wake up so we could drop Adie off. Multiple people said they'd be happy to take her when the baby came, I just was worried I wouldn't be able to get a hold of someone right when we needed to. Anyway, I didn't need to worry about that since he wanted to come during the day, when my mom was here. Seriously, it was perfect timing!

After my water broke, I wasn't in a super big hurry. Sometimes, you don't go into active labor for a while, even after your water breaks, and I wasn't getting a ton of contractions, and they weren't too strong yet, so I was nonchalantly grabbing some last minute items for the hospital, unloading the dishwasher, etc. I really didn't want to be in the hospital laboring for a really long time, so I wasn't in a huge hurry. I did call my midwife group about a half hour later though and they suggested I go to the hospital since we live about 40 minutes from the hospital, I had group B strep and would need to get some antibiotics pumped in me and I had had some high blood pressure issues the last few weeks. We hopped in the car, on our way to the hospital, at about 9 am.

At the point we left, my contractions were about 15 minutes apart. They still weren't extremely painful either. I figured that even though we had a kind of long drive to the hospital we were going to make it in plenty of time. As we were driving my contractions were starting to get more and more painful, and were quickly coming with more frequency. By the time we made it to the hospital they were about 2 minutes apart and were hurting pretty badly. Checking into the hospital only took a few minutes, but it felt like an eternity. They were asking me if I was sure my water had broken. At this point I was starting to feel like I needed to push, so yes, I am pretty dang sure my water had broken.

They got me into triage to check my progress. I got on the lovely hospital gown. How I hate those things! Then, the nurse checked me and declared I was completely dilated, so they immediately whisked me away to a delivery room. Another one of my perfect scenarios had come true. I wouldn't be in the hospital very long, but I did make it in time. I didn't want to be giving birth on the side of the road. I got there at the perfect time, in my mind.

The nurses were getting me all hooked up the fetal monitor and an IV when my midwife arrived. In my perfect scenario, I only wanted intermittent fetal monitoring and no IV because I wanted to be able to move about freely. My midwives knew this and had written it into my orders. However, because I had group B strep, I would need an IV at the beginning to get the antibiotics in, then they were going to hep lock it. Because I was so far along when I arrived, they were trying to hurry to get the IV in. I have horrible veins and it takes people a few tries usually to draw blood or put in an IV, so I really hate it. As they were about to poke in the IV, my midwife told the nurse I didn't need to be tortured with an IV since I was so far along, so I didn't have to get an IV at all. Yes! Yet another great outcome for not being at the hospital for a long time.

Now for the hard part, the pushing. I had read a lot about how to manage the pain while getting through dilation, but that was all taken care of while we were in the car. Besides, I have decided my contractions aren't as painful as a lot of people describe theirs. I have read and heard lots of accounts about people throwing up from the trauma and the pain, and how pushing is such a relief after all the pain of going through the contractions and transition. However, for me, the pushing was way more painful and the other stuff was pretty easy to breathe through and deal with in comparison. I pushed for about a half hour. It was easily the most painful thing I can remember going through. It was so hard to direct all my energy where it needed to be. There was one point where I just yelled that I just wanted to get him out of there. I would have been all for a forceps delivery at that moment. I just wanted it to be done and over with. I just felt I had no more capacity to push or deal with the pain. I started crying too. I felt like I had hit a wall. It's one of those moments when you feel like you can't go on, the low point. However, when you push through, a calm determination comes over you and helps you get through to the end. After that little cry, I just felt calm and was more focused in my pushing. I had been praying through every contraction too, which I think helped. At some point, my midwife mentioned "the Ring of Fire" (which is such an apt description for the stretching going on during the pushing stage) and I couldn't help but think about Johnny Cash. That was a good temporary diversion. After about a half hour of pushing, we got to meet our little boy. Right as he came out they handed him to me to put on my chest. As I was pulling him up, his eyes popped right open. It was amazing. It was like he just turned on. He was born at 10:52 am, so from start to finish, my labor was less than 3.5 hours.

The nurses cleared out some of the fluid and Chase began to exercise those lungs right away. He got a 9 out of 9 on his APGAR and was as healthy and pink as could be. They wiped him down but, did it quickly and gave him back to us and left us alone with him for about an hour, which was so nice. Adie was really cold and her heart rate had been dropping during her delivery, so they only held her up to me for a few seconds and then took her off to the nursery for a few hours. This time, we got to have immediate bonding time, which was so nice.

I felt so much better after this delivery too. With Adie, I had a forceps delivery and tore really badly, and lost a lot of blood. I was also very shaky and itchy after my epidural. They tried to get me to get up and go to the bathroom and I couldn't walk. I fainted and almost threw up a few times. I also had to be catheterized. This time around, I felt that instant relief as soon as he was born. In fact, I felt amazing. I did tear a little bit. Chase really likes his hands next to his face and refused to move one of his little hands away from his head when he was born. However, it only took a few minutes to stitch me up. It look about a half hour when Adie was born. When they came to wheel me to my postpartum room this time, I pretty much hopped right down and walked on my own without a problem. I felt really good. The nurse helping me commented how I was ready to go back out and work in the fields. The only pain medication I have used at all is some ibuprofen. I was a fan of the more powerful stuff with Adie for a little while (although I had tried to just do ibuprofen). Anyway, the recovery this time around has been sooooo much better than it was with Adie. I was bored of the hospital after about 12 hours this time around. I felt well enough to go home. I was such a nice change.

In any case, I got my natural birth, w/o an IV, or even hep lock, on the exact day and time I was hoping for. How does that happen? I feel very blessed. I feel the Lord blessed us with so many tender mercies. Don't get me wrong. I would be grateful for any scenario that resulted in a healthy baby, but the fact that we got that and pretty much every other thing I was hoping for is simply awesome. Now, I am just waiting to go back for my postpartum visit to get the clearance that all is back to normal. I am dying to go on a run.