I've done this 3 times before, and even still, I always have a hard time knowing where to start. Things were crazy with packing for the move, renovations at the new house, showings at the rental, and caring for 3 little kids. (We had closed on the house a few days prior and were planning on moving in at the end of the month. Meanwhile tons of work (plumbing, electrical, etc.) was being done at the house. Since we had a year lease and were getting out early, we were responsible for showing the rental house and taking care of it until it sold or got new tenants.) A couple days before David's arrival, I started having the feeling that the baby would be ready soon. No real signs, I just had a feeling. Braxton-Hicks contractions were starting to mimic labor contractions and I could barely shift positions without having one. I had a midwife appointment on Friday. I joked about how all my babies were born within a day of an appointment so maybe I would see here again soon! We also joked that Sunday sounded like the perfect day to have a baby. My "due date" was April 13th, which would be Sunday. Donny was born on his due date, so why not his little brother as well?!
Saturday came and we had 3 showings at the house. Showings are always a bit of a pain, but at least our house is always spotless! (Btw, that whole week we had showings every single day!) So, after once again leaving the house spotless (no easy task), we headed out to the new house. It was basement demolition day there and most of the basement (walls and floor, at least) were being ripped out.
I didn't do much but sit around and watch. The kids played out back. The whole day I felt very serious. Maybe focused is a better word. I really didn't feel like messing around. I didn't necessarily think labor was eminent, but I just felt very interior and quiet that day. Sometime during the day, my midwife called to check in. Given by quick labors in the past, she wanted to make sure she was ok traveling an hour away to a reunion during the day. I told her to go. I wasn't in labor.
A friend of ours (he's Brad Paisley's drummer, actually) invited us to dinner and Kevin thought it would be nice to have what might be our last date before baby. I really didn't feel like going out and told him so. I just felt the need to stay close to home, relax, and go to bed early. So instead, we took the kids to Chick-fil-a for dinner, put them to bed and stayed home. The house was already clean, birth supplies were ready, and pantry and fridge were full, so I just sat around and relaxed. Around 7:30 or 8, I was having some real-like contractions, but they were not consistent and not in any sort of pattern. Still didn't feel like I was in labor, but it seemed things could turn in the next day or so. I decided to text my midwife and birth team to let them know that labor *might* start in the next 24 hours or so, but I wasn't sure. Kevin had to go run some errands including driving down to Murfreesboro to buy a fridge for the new house. At one point while he was down there, he called. I didn't tell him much yet, but said I thought he should come right home instead of finishing his errands. I tried not to freak him out, but I'm sure he could hear the seriousness in my voice. I'm not sure what time he arrived home, but it was probably 10ish. Contractions were all over the map. They were somewhat painful, but I didn't really need to breath through them and they didn't even make me grimace so I had a hard time thinking of them as real. I'd have them constantly for an hour or so, then they would stop for 30 mins and start up again. No pattern. Then finally, around midnight, there started to be some consistency. They were definitely getting stronger and could be timed at around 5-7 mins apart. Because I am crazy and in denial during early labor, I decided since things were still manageable and slow, I would try and get some sleep till things pick up. Laid down just after midnight and tried to sleep. Kevin was already out cold. The moment I laid down, I had a contraction. A strong one. Still in denial, I decided I'd wait to see what the next one was like. 5 mins. Another really strong one. Ok, lets try one more...... (repeat 2-3x) I finally decide I just cant handle these contractions laying down and it's way more comfortable to stand/walk through them. I still didn't feel like calling anyone, but the logical side of me knew that this was definitely a sign that I should call everyone. So, at about 12:30, I woke up Kevin and called the birth team. In the back of my mind, I still had this thought that I would feel so silly if this was just a false alarm and I felt bad about calling everyone over in the middle of the night. My friend, Christy, was the first to arrive just after 1 am. She is a friend from church and also a fabulous photographer. She had offered to help out and take some pictures. Awesome, since in the past, our pictures were always taken by whoever was sitting by the camera at the time, lol! She quietly let herself in and we chatted in between moderate contractions. They were still a bit sporadic and about 4-5 mins apart. It felt good to breath and sway during them while Kevin rubbed my lower back.
Next to arrive was my midwife's assistant, Katherine. I decided I wanted to sit in the tub for a bit, so we filled it up. I leaned over the side of our bathroom whirlpool tub and continued to breath/moan through contractions.
Soon my friend Lori arrived. She is a nurse who worked at Vanderbilt in the NICU and was used to taking care of little babies straight from the womb. She was going into home health care so this was right up her alley. It was nice having friends there, especially when they are experienced nurses! Finally, my midwife, Bobbi, arrived. She was caught up by a slow train and was quite flustered at being the last to arrive. Contractions were pretty consistent, but seemed to be slowly building. I got out of the tub and she checked my progress. About 4-5 cm. Yep, that seemed right. My past 2 labors, 4-5 cm is the point where I'm still a bit in denial since I can still be jovial and fairly normal between contractions. With Donny's labor, I was 5 cm and still walking around like normal, not in labor! So, I wasn't surprised, but I was a bit nervous that this was going to take longer than what I was used to (my last 2 labors were only about 2 hours long) I decided to try some walking to get things moving and headed downstairs to the kitchen. The house was dark and Kevin was the only one who came with me. There in the dark, I leaned on him or the counter during contractions while he continued to rub my lower back. His hands must have been getting so tired, lol! I think I looked at the clock at one point in the kitchen and it was around 2 or 2:30 am. Someone came downstairs and encouraged me to drink something. At some point, someone said they thought the baby could be here by 3. I laughed. Ridiculous! I was thinking maybe by sunrise, if we were lucky. That was the last time I thought about or had any concept of time. As I returned to our bedroom and tried to converse with everyone, it was clear that things were moving ahead. My vocalizing during contractions was getting louder and there was no more quiet breathing. It didn't feel like there was much downtime from one contraction to another, and I was definitely not jovial in between. I became pretty quiet and was deep in "labor land"at this point. I started getting mildly bugged by the light conversation in the room and wanted a little more quiet. I got back into the tub, this time with Kevin. Everyone mostly just left us alone and that was fine. Christy quietly took some pictures, Lori and Katherine offered me water intermittently and Bobbi, my midwife, checked heart tones. I knew this part well. I was definitely in transition. I always start to feel a bit frantic and start to doubt my sanity in once again choosing to go without pain relief. Bobbi checked the heartbeat. I was tough to get a good reading that time, and for a few seconds, it sounded slow (I'm no expert, but I really think she might have caught my heartbeat for a second instead?) Anyway, I was ordered out of the tub and onto the bed (onto my left side for better blood flow) to get a better reading. I remember thinking for a split second that I thought I might die if I had to travel to a hospital. Of course I would do anything for my baby, but riding in a vehicle sounded utterly horrible at the moment.
I cropped this one a bit for modesty's sake, but I love how you can see my stomach contracting. It looks rock solid and I can just imagine what I was feeling at that moment.
Fortunately, it was a fluke and the heartbeat was strong and not the least bit slow. I hated laying on that bed, but as I was laying there, I knew I was going to start pushing soon. Still no overwhelming pressure, but I could tell by my contraction pattern that it wasn't far off. I hadn't planned on delivering on the bed, but moving again sounded too hard. I started having the urge to push. Just as everyone was beginning to prep the bed, I changed my mind and decided I wanted the water after all. I jumped back in the warm water with Kevin behind me, ever whispering sweet words of affirmation, ever rubbing my back. Oh, that man. He is the greatest labor coach ever. If I knew nothing would go wrong, I would have a baby with just him by my side. He is so soothing to have around and so involved in the process. I think I remember him shushing people a couple times during a contraction and feeling so grateful that he was looking out for me and knew what to do.
One of the ugliest pictures ever of me, but its perfectly describes the moment. That man carried me through.
I hate pushing. I HATE this part. The first few pushes always feel so strange and frustrating to me. I feel like I have to push but they don't seem to do anything at first. Then at some point, BAM! They get all crazy and the baby starts barreling out and I can't slow it down or stop it. The only semi cool part was after the first couple pushes, I reached down to see how far back the head was. It was right there. I touched the top of his head and felt a little excited to know that he was only a half and inch away from making his way out! On the next push, my water broke and his head moved down even more. An interesting observation- with both Donny and Davy, my water broke right at the end as they were coming out. With Both Josie and Rori, my labor began with my water breaking. An interesting coincidence? After a couple more pushes, things got serious. I was pushing like crazy and couldn't stop. I could feel his head start to crown. I tried to remind myself that it's better to let things happen slowly so I wouldn't have tears like I have EVERY time. No good. I give a sad attempt to breath through the contraction, relax and let things happen on their own, but I pretty much just barreled through and pushed until I was blue. The baby is so close, how could I not?! It would be over soon! The head took waaaay too long to come out. At least that's what it seemed like. It felt like it took forever and at one point I said "Why isn't it coming out?!?" I had planned on doing all the "delivering" myself, guiding the baby out and bringing him up. When it came down to it, I was too wrapped up the the pushing and gripping the tub too hard to reach down. Then it happened. Bobbi told me to "reach down and grab your baby" and I pulled him out of the water onto my chest. Ah, felt so good!
Again, super ugly picture of me, but look at that baby bum!!
Time was 3:32 am. Only 3-4 hours of labor, but seemed like much longer!! My babies are not screamers and are always pretty quiet upon arrival. He had his eyes open and was moving around in my arms, so he seemed fine to me. Bobbi ordered everyone to be quiet so she could get a good heart tone since he wasn't crying yet. All was well. Good strong heart and with a bit of stimulation, he let out a hearty cry. As everyone was celebrating and as Bobbi was taking heart tones, I reached down and felt something between his legs. A boy!! I exclaimed, "It's a boy!!!" and Kevin was so excited he was almost laughing. That was a great moment.
Kevin cut the cord and we dried off and moved to the bed. Another totally crazy coincidence. Remember how Rori had this crazy placenta with marginal, velamentous insertion? What are the chances of it happening twice in a row?!! This time, Davy's placenta was also marginal, velamentous insertion, but was a little more crazy. There wasn't a real big danger since the placenta was pretty high, but it was awesome to look at. I tried to look it up and couldn't find anyone who has had it twice in a row. It's pretty rare to begin with (0.5%) Anyway, interesting coincidence. I'll spare you the hi-def pictures : )
He was doing really well and was wanting to nurse immediately upon exiting the womb. That boy knew exactly what he was doing and got down to business. He has been a little piggy eater ever since! I wont get into the details of my injuries, but it wasn't as bad as I thought. Even still, I was in quite a bit of pain for several days. Pretty sure a lot of that has to do with going through this 3 times before in 5 years and the fact that he was over a pound bigger than any of my others.
Time to weigh this big boy! I knew he seemed bigger than my others and I guessed him at maybe 7.5 pounds. Our jaws all dropped when the scale said 8.2! How the heck did I make an 8 pound baby?!? He wasn't even overdue!! No wonder his head took forever to get out! (ok, really it was only like 5 minutes, but still) Lori and Bobbi performed his checkup while everyone else cleaned up. Since people always ask, really it's not that messy, especially when it's a waterbirth. You drain the tub and throw everything in the wash. Within an hour, it's like it never happened. Midwives and assistants are good that way.
By 6ish, the kids started waking up. Rori was first and she was pretty excited to have visitors. Josie and Donny both were up not long after. As Lori brought her in, I heard Josie say "Oh! I didn't know the baby was coming today!! I thought you were kidding when you said it was coming soon!" She was so excited. Then Donny saw his new brother and fell in love. There was immediate kinship between these two. Christy headed home to get a bit of sleep and freshen up and was going to come back to take the kids to church with her. Bless her sweet heart. Everyone else left over the next couple hours and we were soon left to rest with our new sweet baby!! The day was spent sleeping, skyping with family, snuggling, and getting to know our new family member.
I don't want to ruin this story with negativity, but I'll just say that the immediate postpartum period sucked this time. I cried a lot. Everything hurt and I was so tired of feeling pain. This time around the labor pain seemed more intense and it caused more distraction to me than in the past. Must have been that big ol' head! I'm sure a huge part of it was everything else going on. Moving, renovations, showings, 3 other littles, etc. I felt pretty overwhelmed and feeling super sucky made it worse. Now, 5 weeks later, the pain seems like a distant memory. At the time though, it was enough to make me seriously rethink ever wanting to go through that again. I clearly remember stating "Ugh, that was awful! I never want to do that again...." a few minutes after he was born. Oh, how quickly we forget. If you asked me today I'd say it wasn't that bad and I'd do it again. Those babies are just too stinkin' cute!!
So far, this guy is super chill and by far my best sleeper yet! He is such an easy baby!! Truly a huge blessing from the Lord : )
