A Beautiful Surprise!

Not long after I wrote the last post announcing my pregnancy, we had a big surprise!

Benjamin Thomas was born on September 24th, 2016 at 11:41 am. He decided 36 weeks was a long enough wait and he just had to come meet us! His birth weight was 6#1oz and he 19 1/4 inches long.

He is a sweet and healthy rock star and has been from the start.

Labor and delivery was just like with Bode’s in a sense: quick. I woke up with back pain from what I thought was just a bad sleep position but then started noticing contractions fairly frequently. I was thinking these were Braxton Hicks contractions and began to time them out; about 10 minutes apart. I called the midwife and gave her the low-down. My options were to go into the hospital and have baby monitored for a couple of hours to see what was going on, or to first try to sit down and relax with a cup of water to see if the contractions and back pain would subside. Since I hadn’t had anything to eat that morning and had been on my feet since I woke up, I wanted to try to relax with a big cup of water first, and see if I was just dehydrated. As some time passed, the back pain was progressively getting worse and the brunt of it was coinciding with the contractions. Dana and I decided that it was time to go in to the hospital.

Backing it up a bit…

My plan was to deliver at a small birth center with two beautiful suites, and my hope was to try for a water birth again. Because I was potentially going in to labor at 36 weeks, which is considered premature, I was not going to be able to deliver at the birth center. The good news was, my midwives could still deliver the baby at two local hospitals. I chose one of the two (one that we hadn’t toured) and that was that. It wasn’t what I had planned but such is life.

Again with our “plan,” the plan was to pack for the birth center/hospital that particular weekend. As a couple who likes to be prepared, this whole surprise threw us off our rockers a bit!

Okay back to the story…

We tossed a suitcase together. We hustled and rounded up my neighbor and then my parents to take care of Bode so we could head to the hospital. The drive there wasn’t so bad. I made a couple of phone calls and had a snack since I hadn’t eaten breakfast.

When we got to the hospital, we spent a good 10-15 minutes just trying to figure out where to park and where their labor and delivery floor was. By the time we got there and got into triage, I was having contractions 3-4 minutes apart and I was 3-4 centimeters dilated. At that point, the nurse told me I wasn’t going anywhere. The flood gates opened and my emotions drowned me. I was ready, I wasn’t ready, is Bode going to be okay?, am I going to be a good mom to two kids?, am I mentally prepared?. It didn’t matter if I was ready or not, because this baby had an entrance to make! I pulled myself together and started getting into my “place” so that I could mentally prepare myself to get this baby into our arms.

After the midwife arrived, I walked myself to the labor and delivery room. Just as with Bode, Benjamin was in the “sunny-side-up” position which equals terrible back labor. And just like his brother, he turned himself just enough before making his way down the birth canal. To speed things up a bit with the story, I transitioned very quickly and had that baby about an hour and a half after arriving into that room. People were serious when they said the second time pushing baby out tends to be easier! The pushing part lasted all of about five minutes. Not complaining about that.

When baby was placed on my belly, I looked down and saw a head of thick dark hair! Dana got his mini me! All of his screenings came back perfect. We got to go home 48 hours later.

I am so blessed to have two beautiful and healthy boys. Bode is adjusting and we are beginning to notice some behavioral changes with him. I know this is all normal and we are all learning how to be a family of four.

That is the birth story in a nutshell! Life is so good.

And just for fun, a couple of my last pregnancy pics:

Continue Reading A Beautiful Surprise!

Bode’s Birth Story

Being a parent is the most exhausting yet rewarding job in the world.

Bode is now three weeks and we are all getting pretty used to each other. I think he’s going through a bit of a growth spurt over the last couple of days though because he has been extra hungry and fussy. Those poor little joints are probably achy!

Anyway…lots to catch you up on. First, I want to tell you that I plan on keeping the little guy pretty private for now, so I won’t be posting photos or talking baby too often on the blog. This isn’t to say that this won’t change over time, but for now that is what I have decided to do.

I do however, want to share his birth story because I know personally I love to read other’s birth stories and I really enjoy sharing it.

First of all, a photo that was taken at our annual Halloween party the day before I went into labor…

And my final pregnancy photo…

 

Bode’s Birth Story

Water breaks…

Very early Monday morning (October 27th) at 12:40 I woke up with a contraction. I had been having Braxton Hicks contractions for months but this one felt a bit stronger. I tried falling back asleep but kept thinking to myself, “could this be it?” and then talking myself down from that possibility. As I lay in bed with my brain in a whirl, I felt a little trickle. I ran to the bathroom and sure enough my water broke. This was 1:00 am.

Contractions…

Immediately we called the midwife on call as well as our doula. We started timing contractions and at this point they were about 11-12 minutes apart and mild but my back was really starting to hurt. They both told me to rest if possible and even try to go back to bed but because my back was hurting so much, I couldn’t get comfortable enough to go back to sleep. So, I got up and showered as we continued to time contractions.

The only way to get through the contractions and the back labor was for me to be on my hands and knees. When my contractions were about 6 minutes apart, we called the midwife again. She talked to me and told me to try to stay at home and labor at home as long as safely possible (this is what I had wanted too) but at this point my body was telling me I had to go to the hospital. I had such excruciating back pain and needed to go in. So, Dana (bless his heart) packed up our stuff into the car, let the dog out, managed to comfort me through contractions and drove me to the hospital. The car ride was one of the worst parts as I was going through the transition phase of labor. He got us there fairly quickly (one of the benefits of going into labor in the middle of the night is no traffic) and our doula met us at the hospital.

Immediately I ran out of the car and hit my hands and knees in the grass to get through a contraction. Eventually we made it through the ER doors and lo and behold another family walked in right next to us and so kindly went in front of us to check in. How sweet right? So, I got down on my hands and knees right inside the ER doors and really stirred up the security guards. Haha! They got me a wheel chair to wheel me to labor and delivery but I couldn’t sit because of my back. So we ran down two long hallways, stopping frequently for contractions.

Dilated…

By the time we got into triage, and they checked my dilation, I was completely dilated! I couldn’t believe it.

Push…

I finally got into the water birth room about 20 minutes later. They hooked me up to the heart monitor and told me they had to get a good reading and listen for 20 minutes before I was allowed to deliver in the tub.

I tried pushing in the tub for over an hour with little progress, and was wearing out so dramatically that the midwife told me it was time to get out and change positions. So, we moved to the bed.

Mind you, my back is still screaming through this whole thing.

On to the bed I went. I’ll spare you all of the details but I pushed for another hour or so and Dana caught our little baby boy. He was put on my tummy immediately and stayed there for the next two hours. He screamed after about 20 seconds and it was the best sound ever.

Bode Gregory

Our little Bode was born at 6:13 am on October 27th (2 weeks early), weighing 7 lbs 8 ounces and 20 1/4 inches.

We texted our parents who didn’t even know I was in labor, “happy birthday, Bode.” It was the best Monday treat they could have asked for and they were totally shocked.

He is everything we dreamt about and more. I still look at him in awe as I realize he is ours. Everyone tells you that the love that you have for your children is completely indescribable and they are so right. He is our sunshine and our bundle of love and my heart explodes with love for him.

Continue Reading Bode’s Birth Story