Thursday Birth Day: Trooper's Birth

Welcome to Thursday Birth Day!  My hope is that this series will help to encourage women who may be expecting their first baby or their second/third/fourth/etc.  These posts will provide some real life experiences that we can all appreciate and maybe even learn from.  I also hope for this to be a place where women who have gone through birth can have a place to share their beautiful stories.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 
Baby Tooper's Birth Story
 

I had a great day with my stepson, Stayde. We had enjoyed some sunshine outside as he caught bugs in his new bug catcher and I decided to get out the skill saw and work on a little Pinterest project. It was around 11pm when I first felt a cramping feeling and Stayde was long in bed. My gut told me it was a contraction, but I was almost a week away from my due date and from all of the reading I had done, I figured being a first time Mom I'd go past my due date. I waited to tell my husband, who was working late, because I had had a "false alarm" the night before and didn't want him to rush home for nothing. 

Looking back, maybe that wasn't actually a false alarm, but in fact early signs of labor. I found my sister in law on Facebook and chatted with her about what I was feeling. I was feeling this "menstrual cramp" feeling about every 2 minutes and it would last for about 30 seconds. My sister in law said it seemed strange to be happening so quick and encouraged me to try to relax and rest. I finally called my husband around 1am and let him know what I was feeling, just in case. He finished up at work and came home. I had decided to take a shower and try to relax. While I was in the shower, I found myself leaning against the shower wall in between contractions. I was still unsure what my body was experiencing. David, my husband, arrived just as I had gotten out of the shower and together we sat at the kitchen table as he documented each contraction onto a notepad. We decided around 2am, that we would call our midwife, as it would be a 2 hour drive for her to get to us. I explained what I was feeling and she asked if I had drank enough water and said she felt like "it wasn't real." I thought to myself "oh geez! If this isn't real, I don't want the real stuff!!" She told me to drink 2 big glasses of water and go to bed. So, we did just that. 

Neither of us could sleep. With contractions happening every 2 minutes and lasting 30 seconds, we only had a minute and a half in between for any rest! My husband rubbed my lower back for the next half hour during each contraction. Carol, our midwife, called back about 45 min later and checked in. The contractions had gotten a little closer together and she decided she would go ahead and come. We remained in bed throughout the early hours of the morning trying to rest in between each contraction. Carol arrived around 5am and found me in bed. I was most comfortable laying down. I had attempted to sit on a birthing ball and to walk around earlier. A sharp pain would shoot through my lower back each contraction making it uncomfortable to sit or stand. 

Carol checked me when she arrived and I was dilated to 4 cm! I knew it was REAL! She told me to stay in bed and rest for as long as I could and she took a spot on the couch to get some rest herself. My sweet mother in law arrived around 7:30am to take my stepson to school, however when she arrived we decided it was a big day for him and instead of school he went to have some fun with Nana before his little brother arrived! She also brought breakfast tacos from my favorite Mexican food place and unfortunately I was unable to eat it! Throughout my pregnancy I had a few fears about labor. One-I am hypoglycemic and was afraid that I would get "the weakies" as I like to call them (low blood sugar) and be unable to have the strength to push my baby out. Two-I broke my tailbone playing basketball in high school. It has given me problems since. I was worried it would be too painful during child birth. 

I continued to labor in bed with my sweet husband next to me rubbing my back during each contraction until 9am. Carol came into our bedroom about that time and suggested that David start getting the birthing pool ready and get out the birthing supplies. As he was about to leave the room, Carol checked me again and then told us "we won't have time to get the birthing pool up. We're about to have a baby!" She told me I needed to decide where I would like to have him and we decided that we'd have him in the bedroom since a nice warm birthing pool was out of the question. Rats!! They prepared the room in minutes flat. I decided I would kneel on the floor and lean over the side of the bed. David knelt beside me and put warm wash cloths on my lower back from a crock pot. That. Was. Heavenly. I began to feel like I needed to poop. I had dreaded this moment. So, I decided I'd just get it out in the open and announced I felt like I needed to poop. Ladies, poop happens. Keep calm and birth on! Apparently, that pushy feeling you get feels an awful lot like the urge to poop. Ladies, if you can poop, you can birth a baby. Carol explained that feeling to me and then checked to see if I was ready to push. Unfortunately, I had a lip on my cervix and couldn't push just yet. So, for the next hour each contraction Carol would attempt to move my cervix with her fingers. Sweet baby Jesus, that was painful!!! About an hour later I was ready. I was still on my knees leaning over the bed pushing my little heart out. Carol told me that if I wanted to speed up the process I needed to change positions so that gravity could help me out. So, I squatted with David behind me. 

Carol still had the warm wash cloths rotating in and out of the crock pot to my lower back. Seriously, get a crock pot and some towels. It. Was. Amazing. I had a floor length mirror set up to see. It was so encouraging to see my progress and to see my husband 's face behind me. David was such great support for me. He was encouraging and literally holding me up at one point. We were an amazing team. I struggled to push my baby boy out and keep the progress. His little head would start to peak out and then go back in. I changed positions from squatting (my legs were so tired!) to squatting on the edge of the bed while David sat on the edge of the bed and wrapped his arms around me to help hold me up. We finally were able to get his perfect little head out and I was able to transition back to my knees. A few pushes later I felt the infamous ring of fire. They ain't lying! Another push and my baby was here! Carol laid him on some towels below me and I picked him up and held him. He was perfect. My placenta came out immediately following The baby, so Carol had to juggle baby and placenta all at once. Following that was a lot of blood. I think Carol was a little concerned with the amount of blood and the fact that my placenta decided to just come on out too. She checked me out, got the bleeding to stop and then I was able to lay in bed with David and our baby boy. 

Trooper Jackson Long, 8lbs 2 oz 19 1/2 inches long. My greatest accomplishment.