Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Brayden's Birth Story

In honor of the journey we went through 3 years ago, here is his birth story with all the wonderful details =)


This is a real birth story with ooey gooey details and all just so ya know =)

On Halloween 2008, I had taken Hayden trick-or-treating and we did maybe 3 or 4 streets up and back, so a pretty good amount of walking. When we were almost done I felt warm fluid coming out and when I checked at home I had about a 4X1 in liquid spot in my undies, but I still don't know if that was amniotic fluid lol. We then went over a friends house to hang out for a few hours and I was completely exhausted, I changed out of my costume and just sat on the couch trying not to fall asleep, and that's really abnormal for me, I'm never a party pooper haha, but looking back I think that was my body telling me to slow down before the big event! At about 2 am we got home and got our son into bed and got ourselves settled in. I used the bathroom, walked back into my room, walked to the hallway bathroom to put something away and all of a sudden felt something really warm coming down and quickly ran back to my bedroom bathroom, pulled down my undies and put my hands between my legs and caught my mucous plug haha. It was almost as if someone had cracked a large egg into my hand except without the yellow yolk. It was thick, gooey, white, and clear. I showed my husband and he got grossed out and all I could think was if he thinks that's bad, just wait! haha. I laid down in the bed next to my husband and watched him play on his new Mac and just talked. About an hour later I felt more warmth and was smart enough to have put on a pad, so I went to check it and there was a tinge of pink, so I'm guessing that was my bloody show. After that I went to bed for the night. Probably around 7 in the morning I started getting up continuously to go pee and I was getting these cramps which I just thought were cramps. I kept getting up to pee because I thought that was the only way to stop the cramps. (Between staying up late and having to get up so much to pee, and not to mention tossing and turning all night, I was pretty out of it.) At about 10 I ended up going up to Walmart for a few groceries and was having what I then knew were definitely contractions about 10 minutes apart. I was able to get through them pretty easily. After Walmart I had to stop at a friends house to pick up something, and by then they were about 8 minutes apart and I'd have to concentrate a bit more on them. By about 11 when I got home and settled in they were 6-8 minutes apart and I was definitely having to concentrate but still able to do normal things in between. By noon I knew I was in for the day which sucked because we had planned on taking our son to our church's Fall Festival that afternoon, but there would've been no way I could comfortably get through contractions there. Between 1 and 2, my contractions were steadily about 5-6 minutes apart. After this I pretty much lost all track of time. Nothing mattered anymore. All I could think about was trying my hardest to get comfortable and get through the contractions. Everything I had taught myself about getting through labor "properly" went out the window. I felt so defeated because all I could do during contractions was tense up and damn near hold my breath, and in between contractions all I could do was dread the next contraction, all of which is exactly what I had taught myself NOT to do because of all I had read about fear-tension-pain syndrome, but I just could NOT help it. A ways into it during some contractions I ended up doing pretty well at relaxing physically, but I could do nothing to control the disaster in my mind. All I could think about was the pain. I went back and forth among laying on my side on the bed, hands and knees on the floor, and in my rinky dink tub (next time, I WILL pay a million dollars for a birth tub with a heater! haha) At some point our 2 friends came over to help out with our son. I had originally wanted to do it with just myself, my husband, and our son, but I am SO glad I said they could come over because it was such a huge help. I couldn't tell you how far apart my contractions were because my husband stopped timing them and the only time I worried about was how long the darn contraction was gonna last! I tried everything from reading all the labels on stuff in my bathroom, watching the screensaver on the TV, mantras like "my body is doing what it needs to do to get my baby out", and even singing my ABC's, but the only things that would work is holding my husband, locking eyes with him, and praying to God for strength. My husband checked me to see if he could feel the baby, and he said he could and said he thought I was fully dilated and told me to start pushing (granted this was about 4 or 5 pm) and I just knew I wasn't and knew I shouldn't start pushing, but then I remembered the Rule of 10 or whatever that article is called and tried to give myself some sort of hope and started pushing a little. I'd do that during each contraction and eventually ended up checking myself and realized I had a swollen lip. This was devastating because I knew this was definitely going to slow things down. I started feeling like I could not go on, that I just wanted to give up, and I just wanted this to be over with! At that point I ended up on my hands and knees posting on BU (a forum I loved) for HELP!! Luckily, Christy (a midwife) was on and we were able to talk on the phone and she gave me the advice and encouragement I needed to continue on. Without her, my chances of ending up in the hospital would've been much higher, but I honestly don't think I would've resorted to that. It would still be a few hours before we met our little one though. I took her advice and went and stood in the shower and probably stayed in at least half an hour. All I wanted to do was sleep, so my husband decided I should lay down for a while, so he and I laid down holding each other for at least a good half hour. It was nice but I was hot and miserable. After that he suggested I go outside a little while to cool down and walk around so gravity could help things along. I put on my little island wrap and went outside and leaned over our porch rail and squatted during contractions and ended up starting out pushing a little on my own and then my body would take over and push really hard. I came back inside so I could go back to my room and another contraction came and I had to run to the kitchen so I could lean over the counter. I continued the same pushing. I quickly got back to my bedroom and got on my bed and got on my knees and leaned onto a stack of pillows. I started feeling what felt like an inflated balloon come down so I screamed for my husband and my friend was at the room at the time and she quickly retrieved him. He checked me and could feel the baby closer so he quickly set up some towels and a plastic table cover in front of the crib and with all my might I got out of bed and walked to the crib and squatted and clenched the crib during contractions and pushed and then ended up on my knees holding onto the crib. I pushed 3 times each contraction until I felt the ring of fire! After that I think I somehow psychologically skipped 1 or 2 contractions because I was so scared to continue pushing even though the baby was right there because it hurt so bad! I screamed out loud once, yelled to just get him out of me, and then prayed to God. After that I womaned up and just pushed with the set goal of getting him out. The first thing to come out was my bag partially filled with fluid. I still am not sure whether the bag was intact or broken when my baby came out, but my husband said it was intact and finally broke when he came out. My husband was behind me and our friend was next to me ready to take pictures. He ended up coming out in just one push instead of head, relax, body. He somersaulted into my husband's hands. He immediately took his first breath and a few seconds later started to cry. He pinked up quite quickly. His cord was loosely around his neck once which my husband easily unwrapped. I was so relieved to have him out and just wanted to see him. With a little help I turned around and got onto the bed and my husband wiped him off a little and handed him to me and I held him at a downwards angle and all the ucky fluids easily drained out. The cord was luckily pretty long so holding him and maneuvering was no problem.My husband and I just sat there checking him out and we made sure it was a boy with 10 fingers and toes haha. I just wrapped him up and held him. Our son met his new brother and was so excited. My husband started clean up and I just enjoyed my new baby but so wanted to get cleaned up. After about a half an hour I remember the placenta and started trying to push with each contraction but nothing was happening, so 45 minutes after our son was born we decided to go ahead and cut the cord so I could work on passing the placenta. I tried nursing but he wasn't ready yet, so I had my husband take him and I called Christy to get some advice. I was doing a lot of bleeding and started getting worried. I tried pushing, pushing on my stomach, squatting, walking, and nothing, so she then suggested I just rest and let my body get enough energy stored up to help pass the placenta. My husband also got me some cinnamon toast to help with the bleeding. I started getting worried because my husband was telling me he was going to take me to the hospital because he didn't like how long it was taking and how much I was bleeding, and that was the last thing I wanted to do! So I went to the tub, squatted, and just prayed to God to help me pass the placenta so I would not have to go the hospital and I could finally get cleaned up so I could relax and enjoy my new baby. Finally, 3 hours after I had my baby, The placenta came out and I was SOOOO relieved. I cleaned myself up, cleaned up the blood in the bathroom, and finally relaxed with my new baby and he started nursing and ate so well! He proved to be a pretty good sleeper too!

Brayden Eugene was born Saturday, November 1, 2008 at 9:00 pm cst and had the exact same measurements as his big brother- 7lbs 12 ozs 20 inches long.

Looking back, I am so happy I toughed it out and got through it. I would've hated myself so much if I had given up and gone to the hospital. This homebirth was the most amazing experience I have ever had in my life, and after experiencing a hospital birth with my first and then this, I would never choose to hospital birth again unless there was a true medical reason of course. It was a learning experience, but it was truly all worth it.

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