Labor and Delivery

Here's the birth story - it's kind of long though! I just want to remember everything, so it's hard to cut stuff out!

Let me start by saying that a four hour labor sounds nice, in theory. And there are some perks, for sure. Like the fact that I got to see my boy pretty quickly. But those four hours were seriously intense.

And I was so not prepared. All last week I kept telling myself not to get too excited, that we still had at least a week to go before the due date, you know, all the stuff you tell yourself to hold on to any shred of patience you can - even though all I really wanted was to hold my baby.

Which meant that I had no bag packed or anything. (I think that's what they call "denial.") And I had planned on taking an evening by myself to go pray and prepare mentally for the birth - which turned into praying in the shower.

Well, the Lord has a plan, so we know that our little buddy was born at just the perfect time and in just the perfect way for him. Chet's Spring Break is this week (so you'd think we'd planned this baby's arrival to a T.) When really, you all know that planning is (clearly) not our forte. But God is good to us. And since it was the weekend, my parents were able to keep the boys so that Chet could stay at the hospital with me.

So without further ado, here is more info about the labor and delivery than you probably want to know.

3:45am, woke up with contractions and after I couldn't fall back asleep, I decided to get a shower. Contractions coming every 2-3 minutes. The same thing happened with Deedo's labor - really intense beginning, but then the contractions tapered out to every 5-7 minutes, so I was expecting the same thing. And that did happen.

4:45, After I dried my hair, I was pretty convinced that I was in real labor, so I called my mom to come over to stay with the boys, and I went to wake up Chet.

Based on previous experience, I knew I had to be rather, um, forceful, or he would just go back to sleep. None of this, "I think this might be it" stuff. So I just said, I'm in labor, get out of bed. Now. Of course, Chet still wanted to get a shower. No sense of urgency. Which I guess is a good thing, since it helps me relax too.

5, Mom arrived to stay with the boys. I think she was more stressed out than I was, cause the contractions were back to every 2-3 minutes and there I was, sitting on the exercise ball on the computer trying to preregister for the hospital. (Like I said, totally unprepared.) I knew we still had some time though cause I could still think, even though I did have to work really hard to relax and breathe through the contractions.

6, We left for the hospital. I was already feeling a lot of pressure down there which worried me a bit since I hadn't ever felt that til right before the boys were born. So the ride to the hospital was pretty uncomfortable. We made it to the Women's Eval unit, and it seemed like it was taking forever to get into a room, so I just told them that I didn't think it would be long, I was feeling pressure so could they please just call my doctor and get me into a room? They did.

6:30, Made it into a room. Still no doctor. It all becomes a blur at this point. I was at 9cm when they checked me. And I just sat on the ball some more, stood with my arms around Chet's neck, did a lot of swaying. My goal was to stay standing or sitting until the time came to push. I really wanted the baby to descend as much as possible all by himself, and I wanted to work with my body to relax and enable that to happen.

Finally there was so much pressure that I had to push, which is when my water broke. Everywhere. At that point, everything seemed to stop. Even though they were still coming regularly, I got some relief from contractions, and kept saying I just wanted to rest. Which I was able to do.

I know that sometimes can happen, I had just never experienced it before. I remember feeling like I was sitting in a cloud. How weird is that. I know I was in pain, but it was almost like I couldn't feel it as intensely for awhile.

That is when I realized that I just did not want to push at all. I wanted to sit there and let the baby come out all by himself. It was a real mental struggle to tell myself that I would actually have to do some work to get this kid out.

As I "rested," I could feel him descend, also something I was never aware of with the other two. Finally, I felt that "ring of fire" (and let's just say that Johnny Cash will never sound the same again.) Four contractions later, and out he came. (Like it was that easy. Yeah, not so much.) My doctor let me deliver in a squatting position, which was new for me. Gravity is the best.

It was definitely the hardest I have ever had to work in labor, both to fully relax and to push. I assume that's because my body was doing the same amount of work in less time to give birth, hence a higher pain intensity.

I really felt like he was stuck and I kept saying, "I can't do this, he's not coming out." But apparently by then his head was already out. Thanks for the heads up, doc. Ha. I did not want to tear this time, and somehow, I didn't. I don't know if it's because this little guy was my third, or what, but I am very thankful that the Lord protected that um, area.

Fin was born at 7:41, so we were only in a room at the hospital for about an hour. And the nurses were great and let me do whatever I needed to do. They even said that they could deliver the baby if the doctor didn't make it, but thankfully he did.

All in all, it was four hours of serious pain, but it was only four hours. In some ways, I'd way rather have a longer, less intense labor, but I'm pretty sure we don't get to choose things like that.

And now we are home. Sharks came down with croup while we were still in the hospital, so Chet was up all night with him. Needless to say, we are exhausted. And really praying for the baby to stay healthy.