And hope seems fled –
With only tears of sorrow shed
When His love is hard to find
In the chaos of my mind
In the darkest of the night
Yet the world is full of light
I see the Love
of God’s own Lamb
In newborn baby Abraham.
~Jenny Cahoon
My sweet friend, Jenny wrote that, only knowing half of the struggles I had with this pregnancy and not knowing any details about my Sweet Abraham's birth. I probably won't give most of the pregnancy details here because that's not what you came for. You came to read about the birth!!
Alright, we're going to start at our appointment on Monday, Oct 5th. I had my regularly scheduled Dr's appointment. Dr Barney asked if I wanted to be induced this coming Monday (the 13th). I explained that I had originally planned on going into labor on my own, which he completely respected, but reminded me that he was going out of town. I decided I was done being pregnant, so I agreed. Unfortunately- well, no- FORTUNATELY, the hospital was BOOKED solid on that Monday with inductions. Barney suggested coming in on Sunday instead. We agreed and made sure both doulas and my parents were ok with that.
All week, I had LOTS of contractions. I tried everything I could think of (except canola oil, ew) to start labor during the week. I even jumped on a trampoline. However, nothing worked. It made for a very long and boring Saturday.
Eventually, however, Sunday, October 12th came!!! We were told to be at the hospital at 11:00 AM, so we were. Dani, my sweet friend who is deciding whether or not to be a doula, came right away and stayed with us. (READ HER ACCOUNT OF THE BIRTH HERE: http://dreambirthblog.wordpress.com/2014/10/14/beautiful-chaotic-birth/) We had decided that I wanted to do as much as possible of this birth as naturally as possible. That meant not using pitocin unless we felt we really needed.
Ok, here is where our story gets interesting (already, right?!). Roger recognized our nurse, Michelle, as the same nurse who had helped us with Vaughn's birth. At that birth, she and I had NOT clicked, at all, and I was a bit apprehensive. I decided to see how things would go this time, and I'm SO glad I did. This lady was one of the best L&D nurses I've had ever. You know, maybe THE best. But anyway, back to our story.
We started the antibiotics for Strep B and waited for word from the Dr. We were told he probably wouldn't be there til around 2:30. Roger and I watched part of Star Trek while we waited. Dani left for a while to go to church since we knew that things wouldn't be happening for a bit. Kristy, my main doula, got there about 2:00 and we were so excited to see her. I love this lady so much and it means the world to me that she has been there for so many of my babies entrances into this world!! At 2:30, Dr Barney had another Dr come in and break my water. We were chuckling a little bit because it was NOT breaking easily. Finally, however, it did.
Now, up until this baby, the longest I had EVER gone between water break and giving birth was 1 hour 10 minutes. So, me being me, assumed this would be the same. Yeah, not so. Now, the beauty of not having pitocin is that you don't have to be stuck in bed hooked to monitors. I was allowed to go potty, get on the birthing ball, whatever. I took advantage of that and it helped pass the time. At 3:45, over an HOUR since my water had broken, Michelle checked me and I was only dilated to a 6. I was pretty disheartened.
Kristy had Roger put music on- a very inspired decision I think. We put the Mormon Tabernacle Choir channel on Pandora and it really did calm me. The contractions started to be long, hard and miserable. I tried every position- leaning on the back of the bed, standing next to the bed, sitting on the birthing ball, laying down and having the doulas do leg counter pressures... I finally got up and went potty, then came and sat on the birthing ball. Roger was such a great support letting me squeeze his hands when I felt things were getting overwhelming. Kristy talked me through my breathing while massaging my back. I was to the point where I was just done. I decided to ask for an epidural. I felt like such a failure, but I just couldn't handle the pain of those contractions anymore. Kristy suggested that I have Michelle check me first, but one- I didn't know if I could get onto the bed to BE checked and two- I didn't want to wait ANY more.
Michelle went to ask the anesthesiologist to come in, then ran an errant for another patient. We were notified that the anesthesiologist had just gone into another room to help another patient. Something happened while she was gone, though. I had a particularly hard contraction and just couldn't sit anymore, so I stood up, but I hurt too badly to just sand there, so I crawled up onto the bed with every intention of laying down, but before I could, I just felt like I was going to completely explode, so I yelled really loudly and guess what happened?!?! There was Abraham's head. Kristy was supporting it and directing Roger and Dani to go get the nurses. One more yell/push and I had a brand new baby boy. Apparently we like to create chaos on the delivery floor. :D Abraham was born at 4:14 PM. I went from being dilated to a 6 to baby in 30 minutes. It was insane.
This was also the first time I was aware of delivering the placenta. I had to push more times for that than the baby. This was also the first time that I got to SEE the placenta. Very interesting, but that sucker was HUGE.
They whisked Abe away because he was not turning as pink as fast they wanted him to. There was fluid in his lungs. Kristy told me that actually, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck once, but it was very loose and not a big deal.
Once they got him breathing ok, and after my strong boy kicked part of the rolling crib off, they announced that he weighed 8 lbs 15.7oz (and we had permission to call it 9 lbs). At 19.5" long, he's a BIG kid!!! They finally brought him to me and we got to do some skin to skin. The kid latched on like a champion. We are so grateful he is here and that he is safe and healthy.
