Our Birth Story

Wednesday, May 16^th, 2012 started off as any other typical day. Ben got up for work and started his normal routine, showered and came in to lay with me, wake me up and rest his hand on my belly to feel for any kicks or movements. I remember telling him that I felt more pressure over night in my pelvis and was thinking maybe the baby had turned head down, finally.

Eventually, Ben left for work and I got up to start the day. I showered, ate breakfast and headed out the door to run some errands. As I was walking down the stairs to my car, a Hispanic guy was walking to his car… saw me and said, “Good Morning”… then looked at me again as he patted his stomach and said, “God Bless your baby!” It was so sweet and unexpected; it almost choked me up and totally made my morning! Once in the car, I headed to Salvation Army to see if I could find any newborn clothes in good condition. Everything looked picked over and very worn so I left and went to Target to pick up a few things for my birth center bag. I got a nursing bra, hand sanitizer, baby wipes etc. I felt good knowing I was getting things packed four weeks ahead of schedule (or so I thought).

Around 1:00 in the afternoon I got back home, ate lunch and decided I would lie down before picking up the kids that I take care of from school. I wasn’t exactly tired; I just felt it wouldn’t hurt to let my body rest a bit. As soon as I got comfortable, I felt a trickle and then a gush of liquid. I soaked through my bottom layers and onto the sheet. I was in total shock, ran to the bathroom to sit on the toilet and called the birthing center immediately. They told me to come in as soon as possible and if it was my water that broke… then it would be too early to deliver at the birthing center. I would need to be transferred to the hospital.

I called Ben right away and told him what had happened. I asked him to meet me at the birth center if at all possible. I called my mom, Ben’s mom and my Aunt Kim as well to let them know what was going on. I then called my friend Jan who lives close by and asked if she could come pick me up and get me over there. Thankfully she was available and rushed over to our apartment to get me. Once we got to the birth center, Ben showed up and Leslie, one of the midwives checked for amniotic fluid and felt my cervix. It was definitely amniotic fluid but my cervix was still closed. She called Dr. Pierce at Allen Presbyterian Hospital and informed him of what was going on. He told her to send us to the ER and have them bring us up to Labor and Delivery. While all this was going on, I felt fine… no contractions or anything… just leaking, feeling as though I was peeing myself constantly!! We hung out in triage for a little bit waiting for them to admit me and to check on things. Ben’s mom showed up while we were in triage which made us feel better. I was so nervous because Leslie had felt my stomach and said she was certain our baby was still in a transverse position. I was mentally preparing myself for a c-section and thinking all of my preparation through the Bradley classes, chiropractor etc. was out the window. The anesthesiologist even came in to speak with me…which really made me un-easy. I remember feeling as though I should have better prepared myself for the possibility of a c-section. I knew from day one that it could very well be a possibility due to any kind of emergency etc. However, at the same time, I knew that whatever was necessary to get our baby here happy and healthy was what would have to happen. Dr. Pierce came in to feel my stomach to see if he could tell the babies position. He too said he feels transverse but ordered an x-ray to confirm. The x-ray technicians came in, did a quick x-ray and went to see the results. The Dr. came back in and said, “Well, it turns out your baby is head down.” “What?!”… I started crying. Needless to say we were shocked, excited, and all the thoughts of c-section left my mind and I was back to thinking about our original plan, to have a non medicated, vaginal birth. Leslie was shocked too, there was never really a point in my pregnancy where we thought he was head down so hearing the news made us wonder when he decided to make his move! I remember Leslie saying, “Not that I don’t believe them, but I am going to go have a look at that x-ray and see what they are seeing.” She came back and once again confirmed that our baby boy was in the proper position!

The Dr. checked my cervix (that hurt like heck!!) and it was at a one, so he put a probe on the baby’s head to keep track of his heartbeat and they strapped a contraction monitor on my stomach. Once my room was ready they allowed me to walk to my room and get situated. Dr. Pierce said that he would give my body 12 hours to start labor on its own. If it didn’t start after 12 hours I would have to be induced. My contractions kicked in around 4:00pm or so. They weren’t bad at all… just tight cramps. I was still able to talk to those who were in the room with me and they weren’t very distracting. Once we noticed the contractions coming every 3-4 minutes, we called Amy (the other midwife who would be in charge of my delivery) and Shelly (our Bradley class instructor and Doula). They showed up within the hour and it was SO good to have them there! I immediately felt more comfortable! Around 5:00pm I was encouraged to get up and walk around through my contractions. I remember feeling like walking was the last thing I wanted to do but I got up anyways and walked around in my room and I would stop and lean over the counter when a contraction came to get through it. I then tried rocking on a birthing ball for a little bit and eventually ended up back in the bed.

As my contractions continued to get more serious, I began to focus more than ever. The side rails of the bed were my friend as it was all I could do to pull down on them through the contractions as I breathed. They were so intense and even though I never demanded drugs, I did say, “I know this sounds crazy but an epidural and c-section sound awfully good right now!!” Everyone just laughed at me, but that’s okay… I wasn’t 100% serious. By this time I had been laboring for a good 5-6hrs. They kept getting me to move from side to side as the baby started getting a little stressed. It was so hard to move, I felt like they were flipping me like a pancake! I ended up having an oxygen mask so that I could breathe a little better but I hated that thing!! Every time I breathed into it, I’d breathe in the hot air that I just breathed out! Not to mention my breath was stinky, I definitely needed a mint! I remember pulling it away from my face through the contractions because I felt like I could breathe better on my own. Shelly, our doula kept putting it back on my face to ensure the baby and I was getting enough oxygen. Needless to say I was so glad to get that thing off my face.

Eventually I began to feel “pushy”. Feeling pushy is something so hard to explain and I don’t think anyone can truly understand it until they have felt it themselves.  Your body seriously begins to push on its own and you can’t exactly stop it! How amazing that you get to a point in your labor and your body does all the work on its own whether you like it or not! Once the pushy phase began to get more intense and once they could tell the baby was descending they had me start pushing on demand. At first I was on my left side pushing, then my right, on all fours, squatting and eventually on my back, legs in stirrups and hands on the handle bars. The baby kept stressing out and was not happy so once I was on my back I gave it all I got. Ben said he has never seen my face, neck and chest so red! After 35minutes of pushing in 5 different positions our William was born. Ben got to catch him and place him on my chest. He also got to cut the cord and stayed with him as they cleaned him up. They placed William on my chest all swaddled up for a few minutes before they took him to the NICU to do a CPAP and check him over. Ben got to go with the nurses to the NICU while I was getting stitched up. Thankfully I only had a 1^st degree tear so it wasn’t really a big deal. To this day, I still don’t know exactly where the tear was because I never felt it! As far as I know, I didn’t tear at all!

I wanted to get up soon after the delivery. Once the adrenaline calmed down a little bit, I was ready to get up and shower and walk around etc. I felt so good! The nurses wanted me to take it easy and stay in bed for at least an hour while I received more fluids from the IV. As soon as that hour was up, I paged them to come to the room and let me up out of bed. They thought I was crazy to want to get up so soon but I was ready; besides, I needed to go to the bathroom anyways. They took the IV out and let me get up. I was a little stiff but was able to make it to the bathroom on my own and showered with a little help from my mother in law who stood on the other side of the curtain just in case I needed anything. It felt SO good to be up and showering an hour later after a non medicated, natural vaginal birth. Walking was a little uncomfortable because my tail bone was pretty sore after bearing down so hard but I was still able to get down the hall to see our sweet baby boy.

William Benjamin Ivy was born exactly 4 weeks early on Thursday, May 17, 2012 at 12:46am. He weighed 4lbs. 12.4oz. and was 17.5 inches long. He had to have a CPAP for 4 minutes after birth in order to stabilize his breathing pattern but was weaned to room air right after. He never needed an IV or antibiotics while he was in the NICU. He was hooked up to a heart and lung monitor just so they could keep an eye on him. They put a gavage feeding tube through his nose to ensure he was able to eat properly. They used formula at first until I was able to get down there and begin breastfeeding. Ever since I introduced him to the breast he was interested and latched on well for his first few times. As my milk was still coming in… he received food from the gavage tube but was at my breast during the feeding so he could associate that with his tummy getting filled.  Once my milk officially came in we were able to get rid of all formula and use 100% breast milk. I was so glad to get rid of the formula knowing that my breast milk is custom made for our little guy and being a preemie (especially) was just what he needed. William was in the NICU for a week and a day. Thankfully they offer a boarding room for parents whose babies are in the NICU so we stayed at the hospital. We thought about going home to our own bed but since I was feeding around the clock we figured it would be far too stressful to be away from him. It was a long and emotionally exhausting week. We never expected to go into labor so early and never expected our baby to have to stay in the NICU. When we got the news that he would be going home it was much sooner than we were expecting. We were at the point of just taking it one day at a time and not focusing on a discharge date.  As soon as the nurse practitioner said he would be going home I started crying. I was so, so happy to hear that we would finally be able to take our sweet baby home. He roomed in with us that night and we took him home the next day.

Some people have said they are sorry that I wasn't able to have the birth that I wanted. I would like to say that despite not giving birth at the birthing center as planned, I understand that it wasn't right for me or the baby at the time and my birth turned out perfectly! Given the circumstances that arose, I was still able to have a natural, vaginal birth without the use of medication, pitocin, epidural, episiotomy etc. I was still under the care of my midwife and she had complete say so over the birth. So yes, I may have had a hospital birth with a sugar water IV and an oxygen mask but that's it. I am grateful my body went into labor on its own so that we could have the birth that we had desired since the beginning.

We are absolutely in love with our William and although it was a complete shock for him to come so early, we couldn’t be happier that he is here in our family. He has been such a great baby and we just love to cuddle and kiss him all we want. We are so grateful to our Father in Heaven for blessing us with such a strong, healthy baby.