Brady Birth Story Final Chapter

 Brady's Birth story parts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 were told throughout the past few weeks, and here is the final chapter of his Birth Story... just in time for his first birthday next week.

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The next contraction, with Chris beside me, positioned half in/half out of the bathtub (remember, on my knees in the tub but leaving my arms over the back ledge of the tub) with no warning to my surrounding people, I began to push the baby out (approximately 3:44am).

When Chris saw what was happening I heard him yell (with a tone of panic I’d never heard from him before) for the doctor. No, he did not use the call button she so nicely pointed out to him. 

Brady took longer than most of my babies to actually enter the world once I started pushing. They teach you in childbirth classes to push through several contractions to push out the baby. Easier said than done when the baby is half-born. Both my twins, Lee Lee, and Hunter, each were born in about 2 pushes or less. 

Because of my position in the tub, and the fact no medical staff was in the room when I started pushing, I actually waited and pushed through several contractions (which was not fun) before he fully entered the world.  I do remember at one point telling the Dr. to pull the baby out, and she told me she couldn’t so that - I had to push.  So, like all birthing Mothers since the Eve from Genesis, I gathered my strength and pushed my final baby into the world.

Once he was born… there were some logistics to handle because of the position I was in – in the bathtub, on all fours, with the baby now delivered… the doctor holding the baby behind my rear end, umbilical cord still attached.  Of course the birth plan (and best practice) dictated that the baby would be placed immediately on my chest for skin-to-skin contact… but first I had to get off my knees and out of the bathtub and somehow get the baby to the front of my body.

As everyone in the room paused and took a breath when the baby emerged, I remember yelling to remind everyone not to tell me the gender yet, “Don’t tell me the gender!  DON’T SAY THE GENDER!!”

As an aside, you may remember that Hubby’s job is to announce the gender of our babies after they are born. Coming in to this birth, I had asked him to wait a moment or so after the baby was born before he told me - and to prepare me before he announced it.  With Hunter, I remember I was still in some shock of having just delivered a baby, standing over a toilet to fully absorb the joy that Hubby was telling me we had a baby boy.  I had talked to Chris about this prior to this birth, and asked him to say to me, “Are you ready?” before he told me the gender - and to expect that it was going to be a minute after the birth before I was ready to hear.

This is a PERFECT example of a situation where I was not ready to hear the gender quite yet. 

I was still in the tub on hands and knees… and my baby was born—behind me. We were still attached by the umbilical cord, and the cord wasn’t supposed to be cut until the baby had come to my chest and the cord blood had flowed into the baby. But getting the baby to my chest wasn’t an option the way we currently were positioned. 

The doctor told me how I was going to get out of the tub (a benefit of no epidural is that I have always been able to freely move around immediately following the births of my babies) — I carefully stepped out of the tub and they brought the baby up in front of me and we awkwardly hobbled from the bathtub to the bed. 

As I was starting to position myself on the bed, I got nervous that I would accidentally feel if the baby was a boy or a girl because by then, I was cradling the baby’s rear as we were trying to get in the bed. 

Based on what I felt, I thought we had had a girl and I wanted Hubby to tell me before I was sure of the gender based on what I was feeling.  So I told Hubby I was ready to hear the gender.

And he told me the news:

“WE GOT OUR BRADY BUNCH!”

To which I responded, “It’s a Boy?!?!”

I couldn’t believe it. 

Brady Christopher Miller 

Born May 19, 2021

3:48am

7 lbs, 15.9oz —Chris makes sure everyone knows he was 8 pounds. I make sure everyone knows he was less than 8 pounds. 

20 inches long

Brady and I settled in bed for a few minutes before the rest of the day began. 

I took a quick shower, Brady and I switched rooms, and Hubby hustled home to get our oldest out the door for school. He told the children that the baby was born, but didn’t tell them the gender yet. 

And with five kids at home, even with my parents there, Hubby did not come back to the hospital except with the kids and my parents for the gender reveal. 

With Brady born at 3:48am, I really wanted them to let us go home that afternoon, but they insisted Brady get a check at 24-hours old and said I could leave first then Thursday morning, which I did. I loaded the car myself after discharge and drove Brady and myself home. 

For as miserable as the labor was, and how long it took to push Brady out, I do feel this was my easiest postpartum recovery following a birth, which was such a blessing given the crew I keep up with at home. 

Also, I’m so glad this was my final birth experience because, like with Lee Lee’s and Hunter’s, I learned how completely miserable it is to labor at the hospital, but how quickly I can go from 5 or 6 cm to birthing the baby.

I truly admire the women who can go to the hospital with false labor on or after their due date and decide to head back home because the labor wasn’t the real thing yet. You ladies are my heros. 

When it’s my due date and I’m at the hospital … the baby is going to be born.

Sometimes I still am in shock that our sixth child is a baby boy.  I was sure we were having a girl – we were going to end with four girls and two boys.  I’m sure much of that comes from that fact that we had three girls so quickly - Tracey, Caroline, Lee Lee in three pregnancies back to back.  Howard was outnumbered for all those years before Hunter arrived, I figured Hubby made more girls then boys.

That said, Hubby and I had a lot of discussions before adding Hunter and Brady to our family.  Hubby would have been very content with a family of six – four children and two parents.  I wanted a larger family – I wanted six children, and Hubby’s love for me led him to agree to and become excited about babies five and six.  I truly believe that God gave my Hubby two more boys as a reward for Hubby giving me two more children.  Hubby is going to have so much fun with those three sons throughout life, and each of our girls have a brother for a pair, and I have three wonderful daughters, and three wonderful sons.

On May 19, 2021, our family was made complete when Brady Christopher entered the world.

Brady Birth Story Part 5

  This post will be continuing on with Brady's birth story.  You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here and Part 3 here and Part 4 here.

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Remember my previous births — they broke my water with the twins, and they were born within an hour. They broke my water with Lee Lee and she was born within about an hour. My water broke naturally with Hunter and he was born in less than a minute. So, I really had delusions that they would break my water, around 9:00pm, and I’d be holding my baby by 9:15 or so. Really, you’d think this was my first labor by how wrong I was. 

My labor went on for hours — very similar to my birth with Lee Lee.  I remember asking the doctor to check my progress around midnight and she said I was dilated to 4cm, and I wanted to kill her.  I had no patience with this labor. I had no position that was bringing relief (even mental relief). 

Our nurse was wonderful and it turned out  that I had met her husband and we teach at the same school (one of my schools) and their last name is Miller and our last name is Miller and we have kids the same age and all our kids go to the same school… that part was great except I didn’t want to make new friends right then. I wanted to have a baby — preferably not in front of a new friend. 

After midnight, I just couldn’t believe every hour that passed. 1:00 am still no baby. 2:00am still no baby — and the doctor checked my progress again and said I was measuring at “4+cm”… that time I really could have killed her. 3:00am still no baby. 

Finally about 3:30, I asked the doctor to check again and she said I might be at 5cm now and I just pleaded with her about what to do. I was exhausted and I was not progressing (at least not as fast as I had come to expect from my body). 

I remember looking at her and saying, “Whatever you tell me to do, I will do. If you tell me to stand on my head, I will stand on my head. If you tell me to get an epidural, I will get an epidural. If you tell me to have a C-Section, I will have a C-Section. Please tell me what to do.“ 

Now, it is worth noting that I did not want a C-Section, and my doctor knew this. Also, I did not want an epidural, and my doctor knew this. 

This physician had been my primary OB for all my pregnancies and so far, all of my babies had been born naturally without an epidural and no C-Sections (INCLUDING my twins) and that was largely due to my rapport and relationship with this OB. 

She suggested I get in the bathtub. 

I had not gotten in the bathtub before this point for several specific reasons — some are valid and some are silly.

First, the hospital tub is a standard bathtub and not particularly comfortable to move around to different labor positions. I labored in the tub during my labors with Tracey, and Lee Lee, both for hours.  I knew that the water felt good, but the dimensions of the tub did not. 

Less important was the fact that I had makeup on and my hair curled and I didn’t want to ruin in appearance in the bathtub. 

I Know. STUPID!

But, in all of my first pictures with my babies, I had looked like I had had a rough day. Makeup running, hair wet, exhausted — I looked like I had a baby. All except Hunter. Hunter’s birth was so quick and no bath tub was involved, and I looked great in those pictures after he was born. I wanted that again so I was avoiding the bathtub. 

But, my OB advised getting in the tub, and I had vowed my allegiance to whatever she said. I got settled in the bathtub as comfortably as possible.  This time, I kneeled in the tub with my back to the spout and shower, facing the back of the tub, which has a little ledge where I could rest my arms.  This allowed me to kneel in the tub in between contractions, and during contractions, I could lean forward and lay my arms on the ledge of the tub which put me in a modified all-fours/hands and knees position kind of half-in/half-out of the tub.

As I got in to the tub, the doctor made sure that Chris knew where the call buttons were in the restroom, and our wonderful nurse told me she was going to use the restroom and grab a sandwich and would be back to check on us in a bit. 

As I said, our nurse was wonderful… and remains a good friend of ours to this day.

But… her telling me that she was going to use the restroom and grab a bite to eat made me so angry.

It infuriated me that my OB was going back to sleep and my nurse was getting dinner because they both thought I was going to be in labor for who knows how many more hours.  They left about 3:40. I had about 3 contractions and I kept telling Chris that I couldn’t do this anymore. I also told him that I was going to push this baby out the moment I had the chance — which he completely supported. As he saw with Hunter, when my body is ready to have the baby, I’m having the baby.  He encouraged me the entire time.

The next contraction, with Chris beside me, positioned half in/half out of the bathtub (remember, on my knees in the tub but leaving my arms over the back ledge of the tub) with no warning to my surrounding people, I began to push the baby out (approximately 3:44am).

When Chris saw what was happening, I heard him yell (with a tone of panic I’d never heard from him before) for the doctor. No, he did not use the call button she so nicely pointed out to him. 

To Be Continued...

Brady's Birth Story Part 3

  This post will be continuing on with Brady's birth story.  You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here.

So we all headed to bed Sunday night with my parents in Vail, the kids and Hubby ready for school the next day, and my labor completely stopped.

That Monday, May 17, I was already on my maternity leave, so I did not need to teach or work, and I really felt like I had one thing on my to-do list — go into labor. My due date was Wednesday, and I was ready!

Tracey had a field day coming up on Thursday of that week that I wanted to attend, and we were less than one month away from our travel plans to Washington state to see my brother. I wanted to have this baby ASAP in order to begin the postpartum process to prepare for that trip.  Maybe these were not things that should have been on my mind at the end of my pregnancy, but they were.

With Tracey Ann, my maternity leave was spent almost entirely at home, getting to know my new baby, learning how to nurse, and adjusting to the new demands of motherhood. Now, expecting number six, I knew firsthand that life was going to go on, like normal (at a fast pace), with the newborn at home. My "maternity leave" for this baby, was only from my job not teaching over the summer months, and my large family still needed as much as I could give them while recovering and supporting my new baby. There is no "maternity leave" from mothering my older five children (ages 7, 5, 5, 3, and 1).

That said, on that Monday, two days prior t my due date, I was hesitant to fully try all ways of inducing labor because my parents were still in Vail. So, by Monday afternoon, I asked my parents to return to Rifle because we were now nearly one day away from my due date, and I wanted to be able to try various home remedies to try to encourage labor knowing they were in-house and ready to help if and when labor began.

With my parents now settled in our guestroom, my Tuesday was spent actively trying to naturally induce labor.  I had an appointment with a midwife, and requested that she strip my membranes (this does not break the water but encourages the body to begin labor if its ready). The midwife said I was about 3cm dilated so I went home ready to increase that number and encourage contractions.  I mowed our grass using our push lawnmower, and then, my parents and the children and I went for a long walk to our nearby park.

When I got home, I was having mild contractions with some consistency.  We also had rain in the forecast, so Chris was concerned about highway closures.

Hubby and I made the decision about 4 o’clock that I should head to the hospital.

To Be Continued...

Brady's Birth Story Part 2

 This post will be continuing on with Brady's birth story.  You can read Part 1 here.

We left off with Hubby and me on our Baby Moon in Grand Junction.

I woke up the next morning having consistent contractions and not wanting to go to breakfast. For our baby moon weekend, it was abnormal for me to pass up a breakfast out. Both Chris and I agreed that we should head home with the thought that we might be going to the hospital soon.

I experienced consistent contractions about 3 to 5 minutes apart our entire drive from Grand Junction to Rifle. When we got to Rifle, I suggested that we not head to the hospital yet, but go catch up with my parents and our children at the local bike rodeo about a mile from our house.  My parents had been watching our five little ones, and they were brave enough to take our crew to the local bike rodeo put on by the local police station.  I knew my parents could use our help.  Also, it was an outdoor event, and I thought walking around with the kids might help my labor progress, and we were now closer to our hospital and could leave whenever we needed to. 

Walking around at the bike rodeo, and spending time with our children, completely stopped my labor.  We all came back home, and I took a bath and a nap, hoping my labor would pick back up.  It did not.  While my contractions had slowed considerably, our whole household was on high alert knowing that things could change at any time… and maybe progress rather quickly.  Adding to the overall tension of anticipation that evening, a mudslide between our house and our hospital closing down the interstate.

This was all happening on Saturday (my due date was not until Wednesday), and so amidst the false labor, and mudslides, my parents were also considering if they could go up to Vail to gather some items from their condo before returning to our home for the duration of their visit.  They did not want to drive up to Vail only to find out Chris had rushed to the hospital and they were not here to help with the children.

The decision was made that afternoon that Chris and I would not go to the hospital, but my parents would not go up to Vail.  Everyone just hunkered down at home with all eyes on me waiting for labor to begin.  Okay, not really, but that’s certainly how it felt.

By Sunday morning, all signs of labor had disappeared, so I sent my parents up to Vail and prepared Hubby and the older kids to go to school on Monday (the younger ones were home last year due to covid and virtual teaching).  So we all headed to bed Sunday night with my parents in Vail, the kids and Hubby ready for school the next day, and my labor completely stopped.

To Be Continued...

Brady's Birthday Story Part 1

 Brady's Birth Story Part 1

 Before I begin telling about Brady‘s birth story, it’s important to understand that every single birth experience I have impacts the next birth experience.  Tracey‘s birth, and the twins births, are kind of their own stand-alone experiences. Tracey‘s birth being the first time I gave birth, and the twins being the only time I’ve given birth to twins. But my experience having Lee Lee, dictated how I handled my labor with Hunter. And, my experience having Hunter dictated how I handled my labor with Brady. I am entirely grateful that Brady is our final baby, because I know my experience birthing Brady would impact the next birth experience... and, frankly, I don't want to have any more.

When Addallee Marigold was born, I went to the hospital shortly after midnight on my due date because I had been timing contractions for a few hours, and things seemed to be picking up. I was still in early labor, but, everyone told me after having twins, my single baby would be born very quickly. They were wrong!  I labored at the hospital for nearly 8 hours before Lee Lee was born.

So with Hunter, I was determined to delay going to the hospital as long as possible because laboring at the hospital is no fun. Laboring away from the hospital is not fun either... but one is better than the other. As a result, when my husband finally insisted on taking me to the hospital after I had been in active labor with Hunter for most of the day, Hunter was born less than 90 minutes after I walked through the hospital doors.  He was actually born within about 5 minutes of my husband arriving at the hospital.

And while laboring at the hospital with Hunter, I went from 6 cm, to delivering him in about 15 minutes.  In many ways, Hunter’s birth was an ideal hospital birth scenario for me. I basically arrived to have the baby.  The downside was, there was of course the fear, what if I hadn’t made it to the hospital.

So with Brady, both of those birth experiences impacted how we handled my labor.

Hubby and I went away for a Babymoon getaway the weekend before my due date. My due date was Wednesday, May 19, so we headed to Grand Junction on Friday, May 14 for an overnight. We planed to return home the next day, on Saturday, May 15. We had pedicures, enjoyed going to dinner, and I started having regular contractions as the night went on. I could talk through them, and we were not panicking, but we thought there was a good chance that I would wake up in active labor.  

We made it through the night without incident, but I woke up the next morning having consistent contractions and not wanting to go to breakfast -- I just wanted to get home. For our baby moon weekend, it was abnormal for me to pass up a breakfast out. Both Chris and I agreed that we should head home with the thought that we might be going to the hospital later that day, if not sooner.

To Be Continued...

Hunter Birth Story -- Part IV

Just recently I realized that I never really finished sharing about Hunter's birth story.  I mean, I did... he was officially born in Part III... but there really is a little more after that.

We left off with my just having delivered Hunter, very quickly after Hubby arrived at the Hospital.  Within ten minutes of Hubby's arrival to the hospital to be exact.

I moved to the hospital bed to regroup a minute and hold him while the midwife made sure everything had gone smoothly... but Hunter (who at this point was just Baby Boy Miller), Hubby and I did not take much time to relax.

When our baby boy was born, nothing really slow down because at 5:15 PM, we realized we could have the children come and meet their new brother that evening if we acted fast.  We made the decision to ask my parents to drive to the hospital since they would be driving right past Glenwood Springs on their way to Rifle, and we asked the Babysitter’s mother to drive our kiddos up from Rifle to meet their new sibling. 

We knew it would be a late night for our kiddos, and we would be forever indebted to our sainted baby-sitter and her mother, but we really wanted our children to be the first ones to meet their sibling and learn if it was a brother or sister.  Also, by the children and my parents coming up Friday night, we could all relax and sleep in on Saturday morning.

Hubby ran to the party store to buy some blue confetti so we could do a gender reveal, and I worked on getting showered, and dressed and moved to a residential room so I would be settled when the kiddos arrived.

My parents and the kids arrived probably shortly after seven and we got to introduce Hunter Miller to his older siblings and my parents.

When we introduced Hunter to his siblings and my parents, we did not yet have a middle name for him.

We had a wonderful time with the little ones and my parents, and our sweet baby-sitter and her mother who brought our children to meet their baby brother.

The baby-sitters even changed the kids into the special outfits I had for them to wear to the hospital, and they fed them dinner, and handled everyone as smoothly as you could imagine -- probably better than Hubby and I do.

We let the kids FaceTime their Miller cousins and announce the arrival of their baby brother, Hunter, and thankfully, they have so much family on that side that all of our children got to announce Hunter's arrival on at least one phone call.

Hunter did not not have middle name until later that night... but that is a story for another post.

Hunter Birth Story Part III

If you missed Hunter's birth story part I, or Part II feel free to catch up before this next part.

This is Part III, picking up where we left off in the afternoon of November 15, 2019.

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Hubby had texted me several times to ask for an update and to let me know he had met the baby-sitter at home and the kids were settled in and they were excited to see her.  I texted Hubby with what the midwife had told me, and is soon as he heard 6 cm, he relaxed, stopped rushing, and asked if I wanted anything from home and if I wanted him to bring me any food.  

 

We both knew we could be in for a long evening and night of labor ahead of us.

 

I texted Hubby a few things I asked him to gather from the house, and I knew he would be making his way back to the hospital in the next little while.

After about 20 minutes on the electronic fetal monitor, which is standard practice, the midwife was pleased with how the baby's heart rate was doing with the contractions, and they let me get off the monitor and out of bed and move around during labor. During this time, I was in and out of the restroom, and also found it comfortable to labor with a big balance ball. I would be on my knees on the floor and I leaned my head and my arms over the balance ball and sort of roll back-and-forth during intense contractions.

Eventually, I found myself alone in my labor and delivery room and found myself mentally preparing for a long intense labor.  In between contactions I liiked up at the progress board they had on the wall.  They had a diagram with 10 circles showing the diameter for dilatation from 1cm-10cm.  I looked at how large 6cm was and how far I had to get to 10 cm.  I calculated if I could increase 2 cm every hour, that would have me delivering around midnight.  That seemed like a really long way off.  I started praying, "Lord, just help me hang in here for the long haul."  Then I would have another contraction, and I prayed, "Lord, could I just have this baby maybe by 7:00pm?"

 

As I was hanging in through each contraction, I was really missing Chris and wishing he was with me.  About 5 o’clock I texted him that I really wished he would kind of forget any of the items I had asked for and to just come and be with me as soon as he could. Chris walked into my room about 5:05 PM.  I was so glad to see him and we talked about logistics for our older kiddos.

 

He and I made the decision to call my parents up in Vail and ask them to come drive back to be with the kiddos because the babysitter could not spend the night and we all agreed by that point, I probably wasn’t leaving the hospital anytime soon. 

Chris called my parents and shared what was going on around 5:08pm.  He was pretty coy on the phone and had fun sort of calmly and casually mentioning that the baby was on the way and we were at the hospital.  While he was on the phone, I had a contraction and I specifically asked him to wrap it up and get off the phone and come over and be with me.

There were two nurses in my room around that point, a nurse and then a nursing student. The nurse overheard me say to Chris that I felt like I needed to use the restroom but it was not at all comfortable to sit on the toilet during these contractions and I know it was too early to try to push so I was just sort of uncomfortable. The nurse, specifically tuned in to my saying that to Hubby and she said you it might be the baby getting lower -- not the need to use the restroom but the baby.

With that, I think Chris asked her a question about that and the nurse said something about since I had had babies before, I might find that with the right contraction, my water could break and the baby could be here pretty soon. I definitely wasn’t getting my hopes up.  I had heard more stories about lucky moms having fast labors and thus far, mine had always gone longer than I expected.  I needed to mentally be prepared for a long, hard labor.

 

I was in the restroom standing over the toilet, with Hubby next to me listening to the nurse and about 10 seconds after the nurse outlined the possible scenario (that with the right contraction my water could break and the baby might soon follow), my water broke, and a second later a contraction began where I had to push, and I pushed out the baby's head.

 

I was standing up, over the toilet, with Hubby holding me up, and a wide eyed nurse lunging toward us to catch the head, while directing the nursing student to alert the medical staff that the baby was coming immediately.

I pushed out the babies head, and within moments, the midwife was there, without gloves, apparently removing the cord from around the babies neck (I found out later), and then telling me to go ahead and push again.

A moment later, the baby had been delivered, there in the restroom of my labor and delivery room, with my standing up, over the toilet. Once the baby was born, I said loudly "Nobody tell me the gender," because I didn’t want a nurse or midwife to tell me the news forgetting our birth plan that Chris was the one who gets to tell me. With the chaos of how quickly the baby was born and in the restroom at that, I wanted to make sure that no one forgot that Chris gets to share that news.  

With that, Chris said in a nice loud voice, “It’s a boy!“ 

I then, went ahead and just sat down on the toilet and the midwife handed me our baby boy, and we all just kind of took a minute to breath.

A few moments later, I delivered the placenta into the toilet, and Chris cut the baby's umbilical cord and then I moved back to the bed where we could all sort of recover from the very quick arrival.

 

One nurse commented that I had the cleanest hospital bed following a birth she had ever seen.

I texted Hubby about 5 o’clock asking him to come and be with me as soon as possible, Hubby got to my room at 5:05, and our baby boy was born at 5:15.

 to be continued...

Hunter Birth Story Part II

 If you missed Hunter's birth story part I, you can find that here.

This is Part II, picking up where we left off in the afternoon of November 15, 2019.

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Since we had to drive right by the hospital on our way to get the kids from school, we decided that we would both go to get the kids from school and if my labor intensified, Hubby could always drop me off at the hospital either on the way to or from getting the kids from school.

As we drove past the hospital going to get the kids from school, Hubby said, “Are you sure you don’t want me to drop you off right now?" 

 

At that point, my contractions were pretty regular, but they were only about 30 seconds in duration. I knew that for real, major active labor, they could get as long as 90 seconds long and I wasn’t feeling contractions on the top of my uterus, so I felt like we had time and I still had a long road ahead.  I was going with Hubby to get the kids.  Decision made.

 

When we were about a block beyond the hospital, I had a contraction that made me groan a little bit and Hubby made it clear in no uncertain terms that he was definitely dropping me off at the hospital on the way home.

I kind of shrugged my shoulders and said that I guess they could always triage me and send me home but they were probably just going to laugh at me because my contractions were so short in duration.  But, I realized it was probably the responsible thing to do to go get checked out but then Hubby would probably be coming back to get me to take me home after he took the kids home until my labor was more intense and the contractions were longer.

So, with a plan in place we began to text our children’s favorite babysitter to find out if she would be available to be at our home to meet the kids after school and stay for a little bit knowing that we were going to the hospital but we weren’t sure what the night would bring.

We picked up the three little kids from their school and I actually had to stop my conversations twice with two different teachers because I was having a contraction that I could not talk through.  I wasn’t making faces or groaning or anything, I just could not continue the conversation during the contraction, so I had to awkwardly hold up the finger and wait about 15 seconds of silence to continue the conversation and then explain, “Sorry about that -- just timing contractions."

We gathered our four children and headed back toward the hospital where Hubby dropped me off about 4 o’clock. Then he headed home with the four kiddos.

The nurses at admitting, did not take me to triage, they took me directly to a room and I specifically commented that I thought I would be going to triage.  I found out later that since I had two or three contractions during the process of walking from the front desk to my room the nurse knew there was no way I was going to triage.  The nurse appeased me by saying that they could always send me home, but she was thinking I didn’t need to go to triage, I should probably just go right to a room.

It took a little time to settle in, but by about 4:20, I had been examined and a midwife explained that I was 6 cm dilated, 80% effaced, with a bulging bag of water, the baby head was engaged at minus two station and they definitely were not sending me home.  Her words to me were, "You're not going anywhere, Sister!" 

 

I explained to the midwife that it was my goal to have (another) natural childbirth, which I had done three times before, but that I expressly did not want them to break my water.  My water broke with Tracey Ann to begin labor, but she was not born until almost 24 hours later.  The OB broke my water during active labor with both twins, and a midwife broke my water when I was in labor with Addallee.  In in the case of both the twins and Lee Lee, we made that decision because it would expedite my labor.  I really wanted to hang in and experience my water breaking on its own during active childbirth.  But, with that as my goal, there was no telling how long my labor would last, and I knew that.

 

Hubby had texted me several times to ask for an update and to let me know he had met the baby-sitter at home and the kids were settled in and they were excited to see her.  I texted Hubby with what the midwife had told me, and is soon as he heard 6 cm, he relaxed, stopped rushing, and asked if I wanted anything from home and if I wanted him to bring me any food.  

 

We both knew we could be in for a long evening and night of labor ahead of us.

 

To be continued...

Hunter Birth Story Part I

I can’t believe Hunter is already one month old. I really don’t know where this month has gone and yet he is so much more grown-up than the new born baby we had a month ago. I would like to start sharing the birth story of how Hunter came into the world before too much time passes.

I had been having contractions for six weeks prior to my due date. With Lee Lee, I began to have regular contractions on my due date in the early morning hours, and everyone had told me that with baby number four -- pregnancy number three -- first pregnancy after having twins, my labor and delivery was going to be fast and to not delay in getting to the hospital. So with Lee Lee, we did go into the hospital when I began having regular contractions and proceeded to hang out there for the next eight hours until she took her sweet time coming into the world.  Addallee‘s active labor and delivery was my longest of any of my kids.

With her  birth story as my most recent, and the details looming in my mind, I had told Hubby that I was having contractions, but I planned to ignore them until my water broke. I did not want to labor for so many hours at the hospital like the last time.

The week leading up to my due date with Hunter, I had more and more regular contractions, and even began timing some in the evenings.  But, I would always go to bed and labor would dissipate, and I would wake up the next morning ready for work with no active labor -- that was, until Thursday night, November 14.

I woke up Friday morning, November 15, and I was still having contractions that morning. Hubby took one look at my body language and demeanor during a few contractions, and he told me I should stay in bed and he was not going into work and he would take the kids to school. I did not like that plan, because every time I went about my usual routine, the contractions would diminish so I didn’t want to just lay in bed waiting on contractions that would have lessened had a gotten up and going.  We eventually made the decision that Hubby would not go into work but he and I would stay together to drop the kids off at school.

 

I did have to time contractions as we drove the kids to school but my active labor  dissipated throughout the morning, which I expected. Hubby and I dropped the kiddos at school, went to breakfast, got some work done, I went to a chiropractor appointment, and then we took a nice long walk.

Eventually, we went back home and I laid down for about 30 minutes before we would have to go get the kids from school. When I lay down, my labor began to pick up again and Hubby and I had to decide if he was going to get the kids from school by himself or if I was going with him. If I stayed home, and my labor intensified, he would be an hour away from me and I would be 30 minutes away from the hospital so my staying home with labor intensifying didn’t seem like the right call.

Since we had to drive right by the hospital on our way to get the kids from school, we decided that we would both go to get the kids from school and if my labor intensified, Hubby could always drop me off at the hospital either on the way to or from getting the kids from school.

 

To Be Continued...

Birth Story Addallee Marigold -- Part 3

7:00am, October 22, 2017: 

We decided to continue with the status quo.

At 8:00am, the midwife and nurses changed shifts and our second midwife seemed a little more down to business in terms of getting the baby born.  The first midwife was very friendly, and the second midwife seemed a little more official.

I went back in the tub for awhile because it was nice to relax and apparently my labor was still progressing even though my contractions were so far apart.  I also tried to squat a lot in the tub.

For the next few hours I went in and out of the tub, and squatted a lot both in and out of the tub.  I had been doing lots of squatting thanks to my Bradley training, so it was very comfortable to just relax and squat for long periods of time.

Eventually I felt like I wanted to push a little at the climax of the contraction.  I told the nurse and midwife, that it was not the uncontrollable "urge to push" that I knew from other labors, but I felt like I was getting there.

They checked my progress again, and I was about nine cm dilated, but the baby was still really high, so we made the decision to break my water.  I really wanted to not have the intervention of their breaking my water this time around (they broke my water with the twins as well), but the midwife felt that the baby was up so high, that she wasn't really putting any pressure on the bag of water, and my contractions were so far apart that the labor could continue a really long time if I didn't let them break the water.

When my water broke, my contractions finally were more regular -- every 4 minutes or so and I started to try to push a little bit with the contractions.

I tried pushing for several contractions, and the midwife was sort of fiddling around, and things were not going well.  I heard someone say something about maybe a shoulder being stuck, I heard something about the head not being in the right position, and then I heard something about there still being a cervical lip.

I had a cervical lip with Tracey and it became a pretty big complication, so I suggested that I take a break from pushing and get in another position (take a knee -- with one knee up, one knee down) to try to get rid of the lip.  The nurses and midwife thought this was a great idea.

From my perspective, I took a knee on the bed, and turned toward Hubby so he was helping me to balance, and I just looked at him and told him I didn't think I could do this.  The times I had tried to push were really painful, and I was scared by the comments I was hearing about maybe the head being in the wrong position or a possible shoulder being stuck.  He told me how great I was doing and how he knew I could do it.

I didn't see this, but Hubby said that when I took the knee, that all the medical staff in the room relaxed and took off their gloves, and were ready to take a few minutes to breathe before I'd go back to pushing.  They recognized that Hubby and I were having a private moment and they just backed off a bit.

As Hubby was talking -- during the 10 seconds that he and I had our private conversation, I had a contraction, during which I had to push... and I pushed the baby's head out.

When I pushed, I used Hubby for support and stood up from my "take a knee" position, and so I was literally standing on the bed, birthing the baby.

Hubby said the medical staff scrambled like crazy to get their gloves back on and get in position to catch the baby -- and since I was in a standing position, I really did need someone to at least guide the baby safely onto the bed so she didn't just fall from so high.

Another push, and she was born, safely on the bed, as I stood over her.

I remember looking down at her, and thinking to myself, 
"what in the world just happened here?"

Birth Story Addallee Marigold -- Part 2

A little after midnight, Hubby and I left for the hospital, on exactly my 40 week due date.

Hubby is friends with several Rifle County Police Officers so sent out a few texts to determine who was on duty at the time, and let them know that we were headed to the hospital.  On the drive, we passed several police cars in the median while going well over the speed limit and no one pulled us over for speeding.  I guess news travels fast.

When we got to the hospital, they heard it was my fourth baby, and that the contractions were less than five minutes apart, and they never took me to a triage room, they just admitted me right away.  But when they checked my progress I was not very far along.  If I were a first time mom, they would have sent me back home -- I don't remember exactly but I was maybe 2 or 3 cm dilated and the baby was still really high.  But, they said that they take laboring moms having their fourth babies very seriously and so they wanted me to stay awhile and see what was going to happen.

Once at the hospital, my labor slowed down.  Significantly.

This was a huge disappointment give that the twins were born less than four hours after we got to the hospital, and my good friend had her fourth baby in the car... I was very prepared for a fast labor.  Baby Number Four had her own agenda.

Hubby and I were both exhausted, and my contractions were every eight or so minutes, so we tried to rest in between, but it was frustrating because I kept thinking, I could be resting at home... I'm here to have a baby.

I got in the bathtub because that really helped when I was in labor with Tracey, but my labor slowed even more.  Now my contractions were 12-15 minutes apart.

About 7:00am in the morning the midwife checked my progress again and we were discussing the different options -- would we go home, sweep the membranes, break my water, or just continue with the status quo.  We were all very surprised to learn that I was now 6 cm dilated despite how infrequent the contractions were.  The baby was still really high, which the midwife speculated might be because my previous pregnancy was twins, and my uterus was allowing this one baby plenty of room.  She wasn't being pressed down into the birth canal the way Tracey Ann was.  

 

We decided to continue with the status quo.