A Birth Story

 This is the story of how our little Jase came into this world...the sweetest gift entrusted to us by God. Just as a forewarning I wrote this in detail and I am a Nurse so there are not many things that gross me out about the human body and such. I'm afraid I've completely forgot what does and does not gross out normal people who are not immersed in the medical field. So...be advised ;) Also Derek and I choose to have a homebirth which was a decision we made after much prayer and research. I am  ever grateful to our Bradley Class teacher, our Midwife and assistant for all their help, support, education and friendship. Thank you for empowering us and showing us that birth is beautiful.

On February 23^rd I was 10 days overdue and starting to feel discouraged yet I knew that baby would come when he was ready. I had cramps throughout the day on the 23^rd, but they never seemed to progress into anything. Derek came home from work early hoping that things would get started. He set up our birthing tub and made sure everything worked with it. I felt bad because every time he asked if anything more was happening I’d have to say “no”. We went to Menards for a few things and then to Aldi to stock up on groceries. That evening I still felt fine besides some cramping so we went to our Church group where they prayed for us and our baby and that we would soon be parents. We got home around 9pm and went to bed by 9:30pm knowing that we wanted to be rested in case labor started in the night. Around 1:45am I woke up feeling very crampy. I went to the bathroom a couple of times and noticed blood in the toilet (what they call "bloody show"). I tried to lie down during contractions and apply a heating pad to my back, but I realized that I felt much better when I was walking or standing up. Derek woke up about this time and timed my contractions. They were coming consistently about 7 minutes apart for 60-90 seconds. We went to the kitchen where I tried to eat a banana and drink some Gatorade because I knew how important it would be for me to have energy. Derek got some food to eat too, got our supplies out and filled the birth pool halfway. We moved into the living room where I would kneel in front of the couch for contractions, rock back and forth on my hands and knees, hold onto Derek or sway back and forth. Derek continually applied pressure to my back because it seemed that no matter what I had back pain. We had originally agreed to try to wait till 4am to call our midwife Brande as we were expecting a long labor with this being our first baby. Around 3:40am contractions were coming every 5 minutes and I could no longer talk through them so we decided to call her and give her an update. Derek told her how things had progressed so far and she said to keep her updated. By 4:30am I was most definitely in pain and wondering how far along I was in this whole labor thing. I suddenly had the urge to throw up so Derek ran and got me a bucket. Contractions were about 2-3 minutes apart and I was verbalizing that I didn’t know if I could do it anymore. Derek decided to call Brande again (4:32am) and gave her an update. She suggested I get in the shower for some relief and said that she could come now if we’d like. Neither of us thought she should come quite yet, thinking we could have awhile left to go. I hadn’t wanted to get in the shower initially because I felt like every time I had a contraction I had to drop to my knees and I didn’t want to feel like I was falling over in a wet shower. I was desperate though so I got in the shower and much to my relief it felt amazing with the hot water hitting my back. Derek got in too and would hold me through the contractions. After awhile of being in the shower I started to feel the urge to go the bathroom. I started getting in and out of the shower to sit on the toilet. At this point we both noticed that my contractions seemed to be spacing out. We didn’t correlate it to the fact that this could mean baby was coming soon because we just thought we had awhile left to go. As I sat on the toilet I never could go, but I still felt like I needed to push. When Derek saw that I was attempting to push he called Brande back at 5:29am and she said that she was on her way. She arrived at our house a little after 6am. A little bit before she arrived Derek finished filling the birth pool and I got in it. Although it did not offer complete relief it did feel good to be in the pool. Brande and Mallory brought all their bags and supplies in and I remember them encouraging me that I was doing a great job and working so hard. I asked Brande to check me and she did noting that I was fully dilated and she could feel the baby about a fingers length or two inside me. This was hugely encouraging to me so I continued to push knowing baby was coming. Pushing started to wear me out though; I would rest my head on the side of the pool and close my eyes in between contractions/pushing. I commented that I was tired and that it felt like I’d been pushing forever when it had really only been 45 minutes. I would reach down to try to feel babies head, but I couldn’t feel anything. Derek noted that I would look disappointed whenever I didn’t feel anything. Brande encouraged me to use the bathroom and suggested some different positions to try in the pool. One of the times that I used the bathroom I could really feel baby start to move down and felt like my pushing was becoming more effective. I got back in the pool because it felt better to push in the pool and I didn’t feel as much burning with pushing. That didn’t keep me from repeatedly stating, “this burns sooo much” and vocalizing through each push. Brande felt for baby again and noted that it felt very squishy. She had me step out of the pool to visualize what exactly was coming out, noting that hopefully it was not a “butt”. After looking she noted that baby’s water sack was still intact making its head have a “squishy” feel. At this point gravity was working in my favor as I squatted beside the pool and baby started to make its appearance. I could see the head crowning and I thought that doesn’t look too big. Brande applied vegetable oil to my perineum to support stretching as the baby’s head came out. As baby’s entire head came out I was surprised to see it was much bigger looking than the little bit of head I had saw crowning. Brande lifted baby up and Derek placed him on my chest. Brande got the sack off of his face and he started to cry. Somebody wrapped a warm towel around baby and I. I was so relieved to be done and finally to be meeting our baby boy Jase. He was wide eyed and so alert to his surroundings! A few minutes later a big blood clot came out and then there was blood that seemed to come out in a steady stream for a minute. Brande commented that it was more blood than she liked to see me lose so her assistant gave me a shot of Pitocin in my thigh and Brande gave me zytotec rectally. The bleeding stopped quickly after that and I never felt light headed. I delivered the placenta, which I was a little nervous about but it didn’t hurt at all. They helped me clean up and then get settled into bed with baby. They checked my vitals and then we got to help weigh and measure Jase. Derek made breakfast and we all sat on the bed eating and marveling at the sweet new life in front of us. Something that stuck with me was just how peaceful and quiet the whole experience was. Sure adrenaline was pumping as we worked through each contraction and push, but the atmosphere was quiet and intimate. No bright lights, people sticking me with needles, chatter or people I didn't even know around. Everyone was positive and encouraging. As we sat in bed the sun was coming up and it was snowing lightly outside our bedroom window as we held our new baby and thanked God for the miracle of life.