To tell the birth story of little man, I guess I had better go back to the beginning. Hubby and I got married in 2007. We wanted to expand our family, so we decided to allow things to happen when they happened. There was heart ache along the way and eventually we did seek medical help. I even had surgery in 2008 that we hoped would fix everything. In 2009, we took a break from medical intervention as it was too much of an emotional roller coaster. When I was a few days late after some spotting in June 2010, I just thought my cycle was playing its normal tricks. On Monday, June 14, 2010, I decided to take a pregnancy test as my cycle still had not arrived. To our delight, the test was positive! After 3 years of trying to give our first son (from my first marriage) a sibling, we were on our way to becoming a family of 4. We set up an appointment to fill our paperwork with the local OBGYN clinic and they had me take another pregnancy test which was positive. Then we told our families the big news.
On October 6, 2010, we found out that we were expecting a little boy. This became perfectly clear on December 8, 2010, at our 3D ultrasound. I had learned that our local hospital would not allow me to have a natural delivery as I had a C-section with my first child. This was a huge disappointment to me as I did not want to have surgery if it wasn’t needed. I really wanted a VBAC (vaginal birth after C-section), so I researched every possible option and worked to get my current (and prior) medical records released. We met with our midwife B the first part of January. She carefully reviewed my records from my first pregnancy. After discussion, we decided that it would be safe to go ahead with a natural delivery. Everything progressed in a normal fashion with my second pregnancy, aside from a few borderline blood pressure readings. Both my husband and I felt peace from God about our decision to work with B.
There were a few false starts to baby’s arrival. February 12th brought some unusual pains and I went to see my midwife. All was fine though. A couple of other times I contacted my midwife for contractions, but labor still did not arrive. On Wednesday, February 23, 2011, I had several hours of contractions and we began to prepare things for our second child’s delivery. The contractions stopped and I went to bed around 1 AM early Thursday morning.
Later that day, I was beginning to feel like labor would never start as I was already 6 days past my estimated due date. Some friends suggested that my husband and I “declare” all of the things that we wanted our son’s birth to be. They urged us to talk to him and tell him how it was safe for him to come. We were ready and waiting for his arrival, so we all talked to our baby boy, even big brother J. I took care of some pressing financial matters and everything seemed to be falling into place. Our pastor stopped by that evening. She had the same question that everyone had been asking all week, “Where’s that baby?” Anyway, she decided to pray over us and offered more reassurances to baby boy that it was okay for him to come meet us. It was a very neat experience to be blessed in such a special way. She left and I went to the restroom. (Every woman who has been pregnant knows that this is something that must be done about a hundred times a day throughout various parts of pregnancy). As I prepared to leave the bathroom, my water broke. I instinctively knew that it was my water because I had *just* used the restroom. It was 6 PM on Thursday, February 24, 2011.
I called my midwife to ask her what she wanted me to do. She had given me an amnio dip stick at a previous appointment and she wanted to see the results from it before we made any decisions. I wasn’t actively contracting at the moment, but she knew that labor could go quickly. After viewing a picture of the stick, she agreed that it looked strongly suspicious, especially since I had just used the restroom. There was a winter storm preparing to enter our area, so we made the call that we would go ahead and go to a third location where we had decided we would deliver. (We had made this decision earlier in the pregnancy because my midwife B had several women due around the same time. Under the circumstances, it ended up being a very good decision as B delivered or assisted with 3 births in approximately 48 hours. It was much better for our midwives to have us an hour away instead of the 3 hours away at our home. I had secretly [or not so secretly] hoped that the other women would deliver before me, so that B and H could come to my house. God had other plans though).
Hubby and I called our pastor to ask if she was ready for our older child J and our dog to stay with her family. We dropped off “the boys” and grabbed a bite to eat at Sonic. Then we drove a couple of hours to the location where we would deliver our new baby. We tried to settle in to sleep because I knew I would need my energy later when it was time to push. Around 3 AM, I couldn’t sleep any more. Every time I turned around, I was contracting or using the bathroom, so I called my midwife for some support. She and H (another midwife who would be assisting B with the delivery) arrived around 4:30 AM. They checked on baby and I. We were both doing fine. There wasn’t a lot happening though. We rested until around 8 or so when we decided we needed to go walk at Walmart. Hubby and I went to walk. Contractions were still mild and irregular. We got back to the delivery location around 10. I asked B to check me. (It was a good thing I had purchased hibiclens as this gave her an antiseptic for the cervical checks). She could stretch me to 4.5 cm and she stripped my membranes to help labor move along. I was NOT happy with this news as I felt like I had already done a lot of work.
B and H decided to leave to run some errands and they would check on me after a bit. There wasn’t much change when they returned, so they decided to go home to wait until my labor pattern became more regular. B showed my husband a contraction monitor website where he could time the duration of the contractions and the length between them. We began timing contractions around 1 PM. I walked some more stairs and I took some showers to help me relax. Bravely, I even tried my exercise ball, but it didn’t seem to help much.
I shut my phone off because I needed to focus on delivering our baby. It was too distracting for me to keep up with Facebook and phone calls from my family and friends. Various people had been getting worried (myself included, if I am honest) as I was approaching 24 hours of my water being broken. I went back to my scriptures and words of affirmation. God had brought me to the point of delivery and He wasn’t going to leave me now. The baby was going to come! “Do I bring to the moment of birth and not give delivery?” says the LORD (Isaiah 66:9).
By 4:30 PM, my contractions had picked up quite a bit. Some were coming only 4 to 5 minutes apart and we decided that we needed B to return. She arrived around 6:30 PM on Friday (February 25th) ready to go. B was excited to see the regular contraction pattern. I was around 5.5 cm dilated at this time.
We continued in this pattern. At one point, I had to tell B that I was just too tired. I couldn’t keep going the way I was, so I laid down and rested for about 30 minutes to an hour. The contractions kept coming, but the break refreshed me to where I was ready to finish the race. I was a 6.
Around 11 PM, H arrived. She sat with me in the bathroom and encouraged me to walk. It was really hard for me to get away from the toilet though. I would get up and make it to the sink, but then I would need to sit back down again. The contractions were very intense and there wasn’t much relief in between contractions by this time. B napped some during this time and my husband caught a quick cat nap, so it was just H and I. She sat on the edge of the tub and breathed with me through the contractions. I ventured out of the bathroom once or twice during that time where I saw my dear husband sleeping, but I wasn’t upset as he had been awake just as long as I had. And I was exhausted! H never let me down though. She kept encouraging me to relax and to breathe deep and low. B took over at some point in time and H went to go get a bit of rest before it was pushing time. Awhile later, I felt a lot of pressure very low and I told B that I felt pushy. She checked and declared me complete around 2:30 AM on February 26, 2011.
Boy, was that music to my ears! I knew the marathon wasn’t finished yet, but I was entering the home stretch. B called H to have her return from her rest. We moved to the birthing area and I began to push with each contraction. B and H encouraged position changes as they could see that little man was not going to be very little. His head was good-sized and he had LOTS of hair! (B had thought she felt hair during one of the earlier checks, but she wasn’t certain). I sat on the couch for awhile, then I moved to the birthing stool. Then B and H asked me to move back to the couch to lay on my left side when baby arrived. The cord was wrapped around his neck and it stopped pulsating immediately upon delivery. At first, this deeply concerned B (as she couldn’t detect a pulse through the umbilical cord). She urged my husband to call 911. I felt like my heart stopped, but then H said baby was okay. B told us that we didn’t need to call 911 as things were okay after checking his vitals. Thank God! Baby boy arrived at approximately 3:34 AM. His one minute APGAR score was a 7.
B placed S on my abdomen and I held on to him in disbelief that he was finally here! He let out his life’s first cry and I was so relieved. Hubby and I admired our new son as B and H checked on a few other things before Hubby cut the cord. S happily latched and nursed for several minutes. Hubby began to call our family to let them know that baby had finally arrived. Both mom and baby were doing well. Baby’s next APGAR score was a perfect 10!
After baby seemed satisfied, I asked my husband if he would like to hold his son. He held him for a few minutes and then took him to the bed where B & H further assessed him through measurements and more photographs. Thanks be to God and welcome baby boy...9 lbs 2 oz, 20 ¾ inches long, 14 ¾ inch head circumference. With God’s help, an awesome husband, and two wonderful midwives, I had achieved my VBAC. A dream 20+ years in the making, my husband had become a father for the first time (although he is Daddy to 4 other childen, including J). God is gracious and He has greatly blessed us.
