My Son's Birth Story

I woke up this morning and realized that today was my due date with the baby that was lost. At our first ob apt back in September (10 weeks along) we found out that the baby had stopped developing at 5 and a half weeks along. I miscarried two days later.

It's been a long, hard, wonderful road since then. There have been many wonderful things that have happened to us, being more than half way through a healthy pregnancy tops the list! Knowing that God has plans for this child is great. As He has plans for all His children - but knowing that had our previous pregnancy gone to term this specific little girl coming in August would not have been created. She's quite a fiery little kicking kiddo already!

I've been meaning to share my birth experience with my son for some time know so I'm finally getting around to it!! Mostly it's excerpts from my journal.

One Sunday in August 2004 I woke up without much of an appetite - it was my due date, when was my baby going to come?!?! I had thought I was in labor four days before on Thursday but as soon as we got to the birthing center the contractions totally stopped. (Now having been through it I know that these were NOT the real thing LOL!) They did continue irregularly until Sunday.

That Sunday morning I went on with my plans, mending a frame with seashells on it that an Aunt gave us for our wedding and watching the women's marathon on the Olympics (Athens). As the morning went on the contractions got closer and stronger so I went upstairs to relax, I took a bath and shower to see if the contractions would stick around through that.

Adam started timing the contractions at about 2:30pm and by 4pm they were about 4-5 minutes apart. We spoke to a nurse from the birthing center and she said to call her again in an hour, that first baby's usually take awhile and I'd be most comfortable progressing at home a bit more. But by 5pm my nervous and anxious hubby was wanting to get there since some contractions had been 3 minutes apart. Having one of those big green exercise balls at home really helped relax me during this part of the labor and my "coach" made me walk up and down the stairs in between contractions a few times because I had read somewhere to stay active during labor...easier reading about it than doing it!!!

The tub at the birthing center was very relaxing and one nurse met us there but another was just coming on shift soon took over. Adam called nurse Hazel and Dr. Julie the "Dream Team" - remember the Olympics were going on and he's a basketball fan. They were also amazing and much of what made our birth experience wonderful. It was Dr. Julie's son's birthday so she brought us one of his balloons - so sweet! But I still felt bad taking her away from party and cake.

I spent most of the time after 6:30pm in the birthing tub. I just felt WAY more comfy in there than anywhere else. Adam sat right next to the tub and would rub me and tell me to relax and that I was doing great! Only once did I get a little feisty, my hubby can be a bit chatty and he started talking with the nurse and Dr about something non birth related and I told them all to SHHHH. I'm not exactly sure of the words I used but I'm sure I wasn't too pleasant ;)!!!!

Our birth plan was to have a water birth and it did work out that we were able to do that. *Here's where time gets fuzzy even in my journal entry from a couple days later* Somewhere around 8pm nurse Hazel checked me and I was fully dilated. She said I could push since I was feeling like it with the contractions while she went to get Dr. Julie. When she left Adam was begging me not to push during the contractions which was really hard because I was really feeling like itI needed to. I guess he didn't want to be the only one there to deliver him!

Then at 8:19pm in one giant push out came our beautiful boy all at once. It sort of shocked me because I'd only ever seen or heard of the head coming out first and then the body but apparently that's not always the case!

Dr. Julie picked up our little son and placed him on my belly and after a little cry he reached over and grabbed on to Adam's finger which we thought was the cutest thing ever. Love at first sight! He weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces and was 21 inches long.

I loved the whole birthing center experience, nurse Hazel was there to help me with nursing pretty much right away after he was born and she even gave us yummy muffins to eat and juice! We went home a little after 2am about 6 hours after he was born and it was so nice to eat some food and settle into our own bed. With our wee one in between us!