Our Second Unmedicated Birth (Jo's Birth Story)

How about a visual to start this story off?

I totally give myself props for being so positive and aspiring, but I'm glad to know I'm realistic about this whole record-the-birth-story trend I've started for myself.

So Jonah. Obviously.

check mah Pinterest, yo.

Um so when you name your son for Jonah and joke that he will come flying forth from the belly of the whale, I guess you shouldn't be surprised when you deliver, unassisted, on the ER stretch? Right.

Because yes that is my firstborn son's birth story in a nutshell. Wam-Bam-Thank-You-Ma'am!

Happy Birthday Jonah! My life is so blessed by your presence. You bring a peace, recollection, observation and laughter that all make me stop and consider the wonderment of God.

Day Two in this world.

Following Rita's entirely too painful and too long birth I was totally surprised the second time around. I kept waiting for it to get more painful. Crazy? Crazy.

Here is the timeline, same idea as Sassy Pant's birth story.

1:00am awake with contractions, waddle to bathroom 

spend next few hours with lots of bowel movements, contractions and doing cat-cows times infinity

3:00am I'm working hard, getting antsy but still don't want to get Tyler's (or my) hopes up. I had lots of practice labor for Rita and Jonah. SO I decided to call my cousin in North Carolina, who happens to be a midwife and is LOVING and SO GENEROUS to accept calls at any hour when I'm expecting. God bless her!

We were able to confirm that I was in fact dilating - maybe 3 cm?

I kept-up the work but around 

4:00am the contractions started dwindling. I was so so glad I let everyone (other than my cousin) sleep. I imagined Tyler would be at work for the day and I clearly remembered how my keeping him awake through everything with Rita was so so hard on him.

5:30 Waddled back to bed, contraction free

6:40 Tyler left for work. I was in semi-sleep-dream-land but clearly remember thinking "I should tell him I'm in labor...He's leaving and he doesn't know I'm in labor."

7:30 I called Tyler at work to tell him I thought I might be in labor. When he heard that I was cat-cowing for 4.5 hours he was quite convinced that my labor was true. I, on the other hand, thanks to the previous 30 hour labor, was not quite convinced.

9:00 Rita pooped and as I was trying to change her, well hello serious contractions. I surrendered and immediately called my mom because I had told myself that this time around, with two babies in under two years, I was not going to be supermom. So along came my mom. I don't remember too much about these couple of hours. I remember that around

10:30am my mom took Rita home with her so that I could rest/nap/sleep. I was terrified to be alone. I don't think I ever want that again during labor. I felt very helpless. But, being the people-pleaser I am, I attempted to sleep.

Birthday snuggles

11:45am I called Tyler at work. I was in tears, pain and it was all getting very intense very quickly and I just needed my man. And my baby girl.

12:30pm Tyler arrived and we labored together. My dad kept Rita and mom stayed with us, helping out, I'm sure she cleaned and washed and did all those wonderful tasks mommas do so well. I was just busy at work.

5:21pm (thanks to photo info)

Laboring on the yoga mat and receiving kisses for Jonah between contractions.
Rita, you are just the sweetest girl.

Sometime after Rita left...Called aforementioned cousin. Not sure if it was time to leave for the hospital. Contractions were still 6-9 minutes apart and I was talking and joking between contractions. But when my cousin asked Tyler if I could talk and he said, "Well she is crying and groaning through a contraction right now," well she assured him it was time to make our way to the hospital.

So my time stamps mostly end here. My labor is more of a stream of consciousness from here on out.

Mom arrived - in-between double-peaking contractions, for which she or Tyler had to support me, and I whispered "I think we waited too long," and she reassured me we were just fine (of course mentally and post-birth, she assured me that it was OBVIOUS it was time to go - from a lady who had four C-sections!!!!)

First picture with Dada!

We made our way slow slow slooooowly to my mom's vehicle. My neighbor ran outside and looked terrified. I think she was crying...and saying "poor baby!" about me. 

As we drove through lingering 5:00pm traffic, on the HORRID (yes they really are that bad - ask someone) Louisiana roads, well I was silently pushing the smallest bit for each contraction, but kept in mind that with Rita I had to wait a bit even though I felt like I was ready to push (Tyler and Mom apparently had no idea as to what I was doing). I kept requesting Tyler and Mom to lead me in prayers and have a vivid memory of saying (as we launched ourselves onto a main thoroughfare) "Tyler, I really want medicine now, but I know I can't even have any because we are in a car, but can you please just tell me I am ok and I don't need medicine and it will all be over before the medicine would help?" And he did. And He is wonderful - the best husband ever! As we drove I felt my mucus plug coming, warned Tyler and he said it really hadn't passed and then the verdict was changed as evidence came forth and I vaguely remember Mom swerving into traffic and Tyler assuring her she was doing a great job. Once that happened with every.single.bump I felt Jonah descending. He would also burrow his head down, in between contractions. Once we finally finally made it to the hospital, the ER nurses tried to get me to ride in a wheelchair after calmly explaining (where did I find patience and rational thought?!) four times that it was not anatomically possible to close my legs to sit in a chair, they rolled out a stretcher. I was so so relieved that no one was touching me or talking to me - the parking lot arguing was horrid. I tried to convince them to let me have the baby in my mom's car and then I would be able to ride in their (beloved?) wheelchair, but no deal there- so I just kept up my silent, but much more intentional pushes as we wheeled through the halls, up into the elevator, and out into the hall and just as the ER nurses were pushing me through the door frame of the L&D room, I announced in a non-annoucning sorta quiet voice, "Here he comes!" (In the background I remember hearing voices "What?" "What did she say?"And plop, into the boxer shorts I had borrowed from Tyler, fell my baby boy. ER peeps scattered like cockroaches and it was utter chaos. Suddenly I realized he was trapped and that trying to take your first breaths of air with wet cloth over your face could be a bad recipe, I wiggled my hips and Jonah, just as his namesake, fell into the world which God has called him (safely onto the padded stretcher, but if the kid has fears of heights at some point, we can all blame childbirth ;) )

And so I've been instructed to call my OBGYN promptly upon my contractions being real for over two hours. Can't imagine why, can you?

Jonah's birth certificate reads 

6:50pm...but only the good Lord really truly knows what time this boy was born (and I totally think it could have EASILY been 6:15pm)!

Meeting!

Rough patch: I LOVED the solo pushing. Loved loved loved it. I DID NOT like being deprived of immediate skin-to-skin with Jonah. It was nearing an hour before I held him. Granted, he had lots of fluid (I'm told) and he was suctioned a long time but he cried and cried that entire time and I just thought my heart could endure no more. Tyler and mom stayed with him and held his little feet and sang and talked to him. Nursing the first few times were WAY harder than with Rita, and I attribute that to the lack of immediate skin-to-skin, BUT I am glad he didn't aspirate on mucus, because, hello, way way WAY worse than a few tricky nursing sessions.

There you have it.

And God-willing we will have another story to tell before May 1st rolls around. April, here we come!

This is my Saturday post. Started it around 2pm and finished on Sunday early, but let's just stick with the Saturday aspect! 7 in 7...whew! Is there still one more? I think so.

Our First Unmedicated Birth (Rita's Birth Story)

When Tyler and I were first married I was scared. to. death. of labor and delivery or "having a baby."  It didn't help that my own birth was a near horror story for my young parents who went in for a Lamaze birth and had an emergency C-section in which the anesthesia kicked in after the section...eesh I can't even imagine!

One evening when discussing babies at my grandfather's my aunt planted a small seed in my mind when she described labor as "awesome," "amazing," and "beautiful."  Surely she MUST be joking.  I just couldn't even imagine...and unmedicated??? Whoa!  Hold the phone!  Bradley?  Birthing like animals in nature?  Envisioning your energy working to open a way for your baby to enter the world...all of this sounded so earthy and crazy!  I mean...organic food?  Check!  Natural remedies? Check!  Unmedicated childbirth?  Um...maybe tomorrow...

Needless to say, after a few months of research, reading, meeting people and prayer it became clear that unmedicated childbirth was what I wanted as a wife and mother, and my amazing husband was willing to embrace and stand behind this desire.  Even if it ended in an emergency C-section just as my mom's own birth experience with me, at least my intention was to bring my baby into this world without subjecting him/her to modern medicine for the sake of my comfort.  I know that some women really can't bear the pain for millions of reasons, but I had to believe that I could do without the pain meds.

And?

Sweet Rita on her birthday!

We did it!

That little seed blossomed and bore forth our first child unmedicated in January of 2011.

So to avoid an unnecessarily long rambling on this achievement for our entire family (it was a group effort for sure!), I'm going to try and keep this simple.  
Friday
10:30pm membranes ruptured (water broke) and NO contractions followed
took a small nap (about 90 minutes)
Saturday
2:30 AM contractions FINALLY started
Throughout the day we went for a few walks, I packed-up all of my mom's Christmas decorations, did laundry, watched a movie and just waited for labor to pick-up
Looking back, I was so exhausted and didn't feel like I should walk but so many people told me I should walk to get labor to pick-up so we tried.  From now on in labor...follow what my body feels like doing!
5:00pm After talking with two midwives (one being my own cousin!) we decided that we needed labor to get more serious since my 24 hrs of having ruptured membranes would soon be coming to an end.  We didn't want the hospital meds to speed labor until we tried natural methods.  So Tyler ran to the store and got a couple of herbs for us to use (under one of the midwives recommendation) to regulate and intensify contractions, which were sporadically coming at all intervals: two, twelve, four, five, eight, ten minutes apart. 
6:30pm Labor began to get intense and we called our friend to begin videoing our birth 
9:30pm We left for the hospital
9:50pm We arrived at the hospital
At this point I don't remember too much
Sunday
Contractions were intense, laboring in the shower and on the toilet (sitting backwards, thank you) were the best positions, although the birthing ball was a nice place at times.  
Rita turned sunny side up during a contraction (ouch!) but eventually turned back down.
I remember that labor was most intense around 5:00 am with contractions double peaking and lasting minutes at a time.  
There was a point when I was quite sure that a) the hospital would make me have a C-section because I felt that this was taking ENTIRELY too long and b) I was not going to have the baby at all and that I might as well leave.
5:30/6:00am Time to push!  I was so exhausted at the end and when I heard the doctor mention that I wasn't going to have this baby by 7:00am - I nearly gave-up (not that my body would have allowed that at this point!).  At this point I was nearly ready to ask for something to take the edge of the pain off, but it was time to push and I knew from our classes that this was the final lap.  I'm glad I allowed my will to be resolved to an unmedicated birth and SO grateful for my husband, mom and friend who supported me the entire time.  We also had an AMAZING nurse who was originally trained as a midwife in England - what a gift from God!
8:03 am Rita entered the world!  Thank you Lord for her birth!
8:10 am The afterbirth (placenta) was born and what a beautiful organ that was to see!  Amazing!

Rita breastfed immediately and had a beautiful latch!  We were so blessed with her being a pro nurser from the start.  We would have never believed that we would sleep with our baby, but at the hospital we couldn't imagine putting her in that plastic box that they called a bassinet!  So cosleeping was the natural choice that started the day Rita was born and continued through 11 months.  At 18 months she still climbs into bed with us some nights, but it usually isn't until around 3am and we are really ok having snuggle time with her for a few hours before Tyler leaves for work.

We are so glad that we chose to take Bradley birth classes, which empowered us to believe in our ability to birth naturally and unmedicated.  

Our prayer is that all of our children will enter the world naturally and unmedicated!

What's your story?

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Resting Postpartum

So this posting is a bit delayed...

Having an unmedicated birth was most important to me. That having been accomplished, praise be to God, three days of mostly partial doses of prescription pain medicine and then a swift transition on day four postpartum to Tylenol has helped to ease my amazing body! My recovery this second time around has been much better! Playing super mom the first time around by refusing pain relief postpartum had me healing painfully slow. Modern medicine is beginning to find a place in my life. My prayer is that I can keep a healthy balance.

Now 10 days after his birth I rarely have a need for any pain relief!  Even still, I'm learning the healing power of sleep, rest and pacing myself.

Ok, really, now over three weeks after Jonah's birth I am feeling amazing and I think over-doing it just a bit.  I have to admit we have entered into the "daily grind" and having a nursing infant takes so much out of me.  I feel bad for the lack of patience I have with Rita and my inability to cuddle and hold her at any given time.  This is just a challenge of motherhood, no road block but I'm not pretending it is a perfect transition.

Tyler has been AMAZING!  I tell you, this man is paving his way to Heaven.  He allows me to have "me" time, does house work after an 11 hour day spent on his feet doing manual labor, helps me to spend special time with Rita, goes grocery shopping with me, and manages to find cuddle time with Jonah!  Please Lord, bless Him abundantly!

Anyway, we had a wondrous celebration in the way of my sister's upcoming marriage - bridal shower weekend!  We enjoyed friends and family and celebrating with my sister.  Rita had a ball playing with her cousins and exploring GI Joes.  She had lots of love and attention from her big cousin who was a total blessing for the shower!  But in light of all of our family being in over the weekend, I need to continue to rest.  Rest rest rest!

Have a beautiful week!

Playing "chocolate milk" with her sweet and so patient cousin!

Swinging with her same sweet cousin and holding her "guitar,"  which she rocked-out on during a family jam session. Gotta love that Rita girl!