As with any birth story post, I begin by warning you that if you are squeamish about messy medical things or just don't plain care to read a long story about medical things, with no pics included, this post isn't for you. I do actually plan on putting up a few recent pics but they are currently on Brett's phone and he is currently not here. Since all 3 kids are napping soundly *big grin* I might as well take this opportunity to record for posterity's sake Parker's birth story.
As you know, Parker went the full 40 weeks and arrived right on schedule on his due date, August 8th. My mom had been here for a week and was leaving in 3 days so I was getting pretty anxious. Brett went off to work and my mom took Adie and Chase to the park. I started feeling contractions around 8 am. They weren't too terribly strong, but pretty consistent. I was a little hesitant to call this labor because with my other two my water broke first so I was unsure how to tell if I was in labor or not. My mom came back just before 9 and I told her things were getting consistent so maybe today was the day. I called Brett shortly thereafter and said maybe he'd better come home and then I called the birth center to tell them I thought I might be in labor and my last labor was 3.5 hrs total so with a 45 minute drive to the birth center we didn't want to wait around and they agreed.
We arrived at the birth center just after 10 am, chose a room (they have 3 rooms which are similar to a normal bedroom - a queen size bed with a quilt, a dresser, a rocking chair, a big tub and a bathroom). I chose the room with the biggest tub :) My contractions by this point were 3-5 mins apart and some were quite painful, but nothing that wasn't manageable. They checked me and I was completely effaced and dilated to a 5 so we figured we'd have go time pretty soon. This was good because we didn't bring a lot to do to entertain ourselves. Both Adie and Chase's deliveries were fast and hectic and we expected about the same this time around. They drew the bath and I hopped in for a while, which was very relaxing, but nothing was happening. After about an hour we were really bored. There wasn't even a tv in the room. Brett had a couple of movies on his phone, (to entertain children) so we started watching Ratatoille. Then, we kept waiting. The contractions remained consistent, but not much else was going on and my water wasn't breaking. Brett went to Chipotle and got us some lunch, and it was really nice to have a big veggie burrito (don't you love those with the peppers and onions - yum!) as fuel for the upcoming birth. The midwife came back in to see if there was any action and suggested I take a shower and maybe a nap, which I did. She came back just before 3 and asked if we wanted her to break my water because it didn't seem like anything was going to progress until that happened. We gladly agreed. I had dilated another centimeter or so but really we might have been there a lot longer waiting for that water if she hadn't broken it and let's just say I was very full of fluid. I really felt so much bigger and fuller this pregnancy than the others and it wasn't just because the baby was bigger. There really was so much fluid. No wonder Parker was remaining comfortably inside me.
Breaking the water was all it took though. Those contractions came hard and fast and I was trying to remind myself why I choose to do this without drugs as I wandered around the birth center, working through the contractions. And let me just state this right now, Brett is an awesome birth helper. He will do whatever he is asked and was always there to give me a back rub or hold me steady or whatever I needed for any given contraction and he doesn't get squeamish about all the nastiness that is labor and delivery. (Thanks, Babe!) After a while (can't say I was watching the clock) I hopped back in the tub. Sweet relief! The contractions that were starting to become really difficult became bearable again. I worked through a number of those and before too long I felt ready to push. I told my midwife and she said she'd check me to make sure I was fully dilated, which I pretty much was so she gave me license to push whenever I had the urge. This was also very relieving and something I didn't necessarily experience with Chase's birth. I just remembered pushing being really difficult and painful and not a relief at all. Not many pushes later I could feel the head coming, which is not a pleasant feeling but it also gives you hope that you are almost there.
Before too long his head was out, which is what you always look forward to because usually the body just slips right out without much effort. Not so this time. Poor Parker's shoulders were stuck. The midwife told me I needed to get out of the tub and onto my hands and knees. I knew she meant business because with the things I've read about child birth, that probably means the baby is in difficult position and they need to work quickly. To say being pulled out of a tub with a baby half way pushed out of you is a strange sensation would be a bit of an understatement. That moment had to have been one of the weirdest feelings I have ever experienced and will probably be what I remember most about this birth. While on my hands and knees, the midwife saw that Parker's cord was wrapped tightly around his neck so they had to cut it right then. Then, she had to rotate his shoulders to get him out, all while I was screaming and pushing on my hands and knees (told you not to read this if you're squeamish). It wasn't long before he was out, but his entire head was bruised and he wasn't breathing. After a minute of giving him an oxygen mask we heard that blessed cry and could breath a sigh of relief. Although he wasn't breathing for the first minute of his life, I never felt panicked. I felt he would be alright and we feel very blessed that he was. I was then helped to the bed where they did some fun sewing. The local anesthetic they used wasn't quite strong enough so I felt a bit more of that stitching than I wanted to, but after all I had just experienced it wasn't worth saying anything. I just wanted them to finish up and be done.
The birth went very well up to those last 2 dramatic minutes, but my midwife and nurse were fantastic. They handled everything so well and so calmly. I felt we were in very capable hands. In fact, one thing that was so different about this birth was how calm almost the entire thing was. Even in the midst of hurrying to get Parker out, there was so much calm and my midwife, while coaching me, was always so calm. The whole birth center experience was a very relaxing, almost zen-like experience which I really appreciated, even if Brett and I got a little bored during the waiting periods. That being said, my midwife said mine was the messiest birth she has ever seen, so she might not have looked at as being so calm. Seriously, it was pretty bad and I was just grateful we weren't in charge of cleaning it all up. Because we were at a birth center and everyone was healthy and happy (I'd been walking around for hours and Parker was going great) we were discharged before 9 pm that very day and were home by 9:30 that night. It was really nice to not have nurses waking me up at all hours of the night to check my uterus and vitals and to be able to sleep in my own bed and not one of those cursed hospital beds. The birth center was a great fit for me.
Speaking of zen-like, I call Parker my zen baby because he also has the calmest demeanor. He almost never fusses, mostly just when he's hungry. He is content to lay in the bouncer or just about any where you lay him. He eats and sleeps like a champ. The first few nights I got almost no sleep but that's because I again attempted to put the baby in the same room to sleep with us and that just doesn't work for me. I am too light of a sleeper and all those little noises will keep me up all night, despite being dead tired. We also had to figure out the type of blanket he likes to be swaddled in. After a bedroom shuffle of the older kids and making a dedicated nursery across the hall from us (much to Adie's chagrin because she didn't want to give up her room) Parker has demonstrated he is an amazing sleeper. He is 8 days old and last night he only woke up once between 9:30 pm and 6 am, and it only takes him 20 minutes or so to finish a feeding! There is no way our other kids even came close to that. If having a bigger, later baby results in this easy of a post-partum period, bring it on! I have never felt better a week after giving birth. I almost feel normal. Don't worry, I feed him plenty during the day and he likes to cluster feed in the late afternoon / evening, so he gets plenty to eat. I suppose we can't count our chickens before they hatch, and things might change, but right now, I am reveling in the fact I don't feel like a crazed, sleep-deprived zombie. Hence, I am writing this post while all 3 kids take long naps. Normally, I'd take advantage and catch a nap myself.
So, there you are, Parker's somewhat dramatic entrance into this world. Like I said, so far, he is a newborn dream. I have felt so good I went to church on Sunday, I sent Brett back to work early and even took all 3 kids by myself to Walmart yesterday and none of those things were at all overwhelming. We are crossing our fingers that it continues, but life with young kids is always unpredictable so we shall see. We're just enjoying it while we can.
