Easton's Birth Story

Friday morning I woke up feeling different, I was still having contractions like I had been before but they weren't the same.  I started wondering if the acupuncture did the trick.

So I cleaned house all morning, I cooked carnitas, I did laundry. I swept the floors. I took a shower, and then cuddled up with Gabriela to watch a movie.  I made sure I ate every few hours and stayed hydrated, just in case.  I tried to lay down with Gabriela for a rest, but she didn't sleep and my contractions totally stopped when I laid down.

While I felt I may have been a little ahead of myself, I suggested that Gabriela have a sleep over at Auntie Liss' house. I wasn't in labor yet, but I thought it would be easier for her to go there around 6pm than in the middle of the night.  And if nothing happened, well she'd still have a fun sleepover at her cousins' house.

Lane and I ate dinner, and my contractions started coming more frequently. I had to start breathing through them, and pretty soon they were coming 5 minutes apart, sometimes even more frequently than that. We decided we should go to the hospital just to see what they'd say. Having talked to a lot of moms with two kiddos, I was nervous that things might move faster than I was ready for.

Of course, as soon as we headed to the hospital, my contractions seemed to slow down. And I was perfectly normal looking and feeling in between them.  I felt like a total faker when I told the front desk I was in labor.  I got set up in triage where they monitored the baby's heart rate and my contractions for about an hour.  Around 11 pm they said that I was only 2 or 3 cm, and they normally wouldn't admit me, but since my blood pressure was elevated, they decided to keep me there.  My blood pressure hasn't been elevated the entire pregnancy. I think I was just really nervous they'd send me home.

So around 11:15, we were set up in our birthing room. Thank goodness, because the contractions started up again right away, and very close together.  Because my blood pressure was elevated, they had to take extra precautions, run some labs on some of my blood and I couldn't get into the tub until after the labs came back. This was really a bummer for me, because I was really anxious to get in the water.  They also had to start the constant fetal monitoring. Thank goodness, they were able to do this with some wireless devices, so I could still move around freely.

Shortly after they started monitoring me, they said that they were a little concerned about the baby's heart rate. It wasn't changing too much.  They said it could be because of a normal sleep cycle for the baby, but in case it wasn't, they had me lay on my side and gave me oxygen.  I was starting to get a little nervous that things were not at all going the way I'd hoped they would.  But soon after this, they got the labs back that everything was normal for me, the baby's heart rate improved, and I was given the okay for the tub.

By this time, we had probably been in our room at least an hour.  The nurse checked me and said I was 4 cm.  She got the tub ready for me, and I stayed in there for probably 2 hours. My contractions started coming one after the other, with practically no relief in between them.  I almost started crying and admitted to Lane that I didn't think I could do it anymore. And I was so, so, SO close to asking for pain medication.  It was just too intense.  I spent a lot of time on my hands and knees in the tub, with my belly totally submerged in the water, but even then I felt like I had do something to get in a better position, but I didn't know what, there was no relief and I didn't think I could take it anymore. Just when I'd thought that though, I was able to start breathing through the contractions again.

The nurse was about to take her lunch break and offered to check me before she did. She explained that there was no need to check me, not to feel any pressure, the only reason they might do it was for my own knowledge of how I was progressing.  Even though I was scared to know, I wanted her to check me. I was telling myself not to be too discouraged if I was only 6 or 7 cm.  But let me tell you, I was not at all expecting her to tell me that I was fully dilated and ready to push. Before I knew it, they were setting up all the supplies for the birth and calling the midwife to our room.

It was all kind of surreal. I realized then that I really was going to have the natural childbirth I was hoping for (and that there was no turning back now).  I laid on my side to push and they just told me to push when I felt like I needed to. It was amazing that my contractions really slowed down.  My body knew it needed the rest in between to give me the strength for that pushing.  I could feel the baby descending down and knew when I needed to push him out. Lane and I think I pushed for about 30 minutes, max but really, neither of us had our eyes on the clock.

The midwife coached me through some gentle pushing to get the baby's head out without tearing and then I pushed out his shoulders.  They told me to grab him, and I reached down to place him on my belly.  What I didn't know was that he was still inside of me when I did that!

All of a sudden our precious baby was in my arms, I couldn't believe he was finally here, or that I actually had it in me to birth him the way that I did.  Little Easton Michael came out and hardly even cried.  He just laid there, alert and stared at us. Because he didn't cry much, his breathing was really noisy.  The nurse was really awesome to let us have our bonding time, even though they were a little concerned about Easton.  Sure enough, he coughed and sneezed a few times and then let out a big cry when they weighed him on the scale.  That cleared everything up.

Since I had some postpartum hemorrhaging with Gabriela, they gave me pitocin after Easton was born to help my uterus contract back up and prevent it from happening again. They were really careful to monitor me and made sure that Easton didn't leave our side at all.

Easton weighed in at 8 lbs 10 oz (!!!) and measured 20 inches long.  He fell asleep around 5am and didn't wake up again until 11:30, giving us all some much needed rest.

We are just smitten by him and how precious he is and adjusting to our new life as a family of four.