Birth...it's painful, it's intense, it's beautiful, it's so incredibly amazing!!!
And I feel so blessed to be able to be a mother and to have experienced it four times.
Here is Jude's birth story.
My best & most amazing birth so far!
On Saturday, October 10th, our day started out like any other. We got up, had breakfast, got ready for the day and then went grocery shopping. We came home, had lunch, I put away the groceries, played with the kids for a bit, and then Liam and Alanna took a nap. While they were napping I posted my menu plan for the week and talked about how I had been hoping pushing the grocery cart around that morning would have put me into labor but no such luck. I spoke a little too soon because not long after posting my menu post, I felt a contraction. I thought it might just be a braxton hicks contraction but knew it felt different. It was not just making my stomach tighten and making it a little hard to breathe but it was slightly painful and way down low in my stomach and mainly in my bottom. I told Nathan that these contractions felt slightly different so I was going to pay attention to it but also told him it could just be nothing so I wasn't going to stress over it.
At 5:15pm we headed to dinner at Texas Roadhouse with some friends of Nathan from his work to celebrate a birthday. The kids loved it. They loved all the peanuts and the rolls and ate way too many of both. They didn't touch a bite of their dinner so yes, it was one of those nights where I totally just let them eat a crazy dinner solely so they would be happy and I would not get exhausted because I was not feeling my greatest. The contractions were not very close together at that point but I was having enough to make me uncomfortable. The kids were angels through the whole dinner and we really enjoyed ourselves. When we got up to leave at 8pm, I started to feel the contractions harder and told Nathan I was really starting to feel uncomfortable.
We started timing the contractions on the way home from the restaurant. We were about 30 minutes from home and the contractions were consistently 8 minutes apart from the time we left the restaurant until about 9:30pm. At 9:30pm they went from 8 minutes apart to about 5 minutes apart. At this point I was still debating whether I should tell anyone that I was in labor because I was just uncertain that I really was. I kept thinking maybe they would stop or maybe I was just overthinking it and they were just braxton hicks. I'm not sure why I was so in denial about the fact that I was really in labor because the contractions were so close together, consistent, and painful. I knew I wanted to labor at home as long as possible with this birth to avoid being at the hospital in labor for hours and hours like I had with my other births. So I guess I was just trying to stay at home and not rush up to the hospital for nothing. I spent from 9pm-10pm straightening up the house, and packing up the rest of my hospital bag. I had just packed most of my bag earlier that afternoon and had a list of things still to pack sitting beside my bag. It's a good thing I had packed my bag that day because my head definitely wasn't in a place to be worrying about what to pack. I got in the shower around 10pm and had three contractions in just the few minutes I was in there. When I got out and was dressed, I told Nathan I didn't think I should stay at home much longer.
We called Nathan's parents at 10:30pm and told them to go ahead and start heading up here. At 10:50pm we called our small group leaders from church who were watching the kids for us until Nathan's parents could get to our house. Nathan's parents live 1.5 hours away from us so we had to have a back-up babysitter in place in case Nathan's parents couldn't get to our house in time. Rick and Kathy (our small group leaders) live 30 minutes from us, so while they were on their way, we finished packing everything up and got things loaded into the car. My contractions were only 2-3 minutes apart and had been for some time. They were very strong and I just kept hoping that when I got to the hospital that I would be farther dilated than 5cm. Rick and Kathy got to our house around 11:35pm and we left for the hospital around 11:45pm. I started shaking pretty bad as soon as I started walking to the van. I thought surely I'm not in transition already but I know that I always shake in the beginning of transition. We got to the hospital just around midnight. Nathan grabbed all of our stuff out of the van and we headed into the emergency room.
They took us up to room 202 and I got changed into my gown, slippers, and robe. I threw up shortly after arriving at the hospital which is always a sure sign of me being in transition.
Once I got changed, the nurse checked to see how dilated I was. I prayed "please be more than 5cm cause these contractions are so painful already!" She said "You're at 8cm!" Thank the Lord!!! So I was 8cm and in transition. I knew I was only a short time away from holding my sweet baby boy.
I was strep B positive so I had to be on an IV with an antibiotic right away. You're supposed to be on the antibiotic for 4 hours before delivering the baby in order to ensure that nothing gets transferred to the baby but I knew I wasn't going to last another 4 hours. Things were moving really quick with my labor. The midwife came in to the room shortly after I got changed and said she could break my water to help move things along faster. But, when she went to break it she said that his head had moved down in the way and she couldn't reach it.
I sat on the edge of the bed in-between contractions and once a contraction started I stood up and leaned on Nathan, wrapping my arms around his neck and breathing through the pain. I kept my eyes closed through most of the contractions and thought about my kids and holding Jude. Nathan is always so supportive during labor and makes me feel so much stronger.
I was able to talk and even smile in-between contractions up until about the last eight. At that point they became so intense. I remember asking the nurse "will I remember when I need to push?" The very next contraction the urge to push was so overwhelming. I grabbed Nathan's shoulders and said "Oh I have to push now!"
The nurse went out to find the midwife but she was still delivering another baby. She came back in and told me to go ahead and get in bed and get ready to push. Just then another midwife came into the room. She was not the midwife on call, but was at the hospital still because her last birth for the night had just ended and she hadn't left the hospital yet. My midwife was on vacation but the midwife who delivered Jude was my second choice and I was so happy when I saw her walk into my room!
When she checked she said Jude's head was up pretty high and it might take a while to push him out, but on the first contraction and push, my water broke.
It was a huge gush and relief of pressure and then the midwife said his head had moved way down. On the next contraction I pushed his head out ...
and then took a few breathes and pushed out his shoulders. After that, the rest of his body came slipping out and in an instant he was in my arms! All wet, slimy, slippery & so incredibly beautiful!!!
He came out so fast. Only two contractions and maybe three to five minutes of pushing.
Nathan and I were so happy he was here and were so in love the moment we saw him.
My midwife checked for tearing after I pushed out the placenta and I had a small first degree tear. She needed to sew it but right before she did, I started shaking pretty violently. It was making my whole body ache, especially my back and my stomach. I went into a small panic because the pain was so bad and I couldn't hold Jude while I was shaking that much. She tried sewing my tear but I was crying and trying so hard to control the shaking but couldn't so she decided to give me some medication through my IV to relax me. As soon as the medication was in my system, the shaking stopped and I was instantly able to calm down....
During this time they weighed Jude and took his measurements and my Mom and Nathan took some time holding him.
Nathan held him next to me while my midwife fixed my tear so that I could still see him.
Then when she was finished, I finally got my sweet baby boy back and was able to snuggle him, nurse him, and Nathan and I were able to spend some time loving on him together....
It was an amazing birth...everything I dreamed & prayed it would be!!!
We feel beyond blessed with how God worked everything out just how we hoped it would go. We are so in love with our little Jude and are so happy he is finally here with our family!
*These birth photos were taken by my best friend & very talented photographer Kimberly Norman.
I am so blessed and forever grateful to have had her there for the birth to capture these amazing memories for me.
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*You can read my post on "My Tips To Having A Natural Childbirth"
here.
