Hello Everyone!
This is the story of labor, birth, and after birth of my son. Read at your own risk of TMI. ;)
My Birth Story
I was 41 weeks pregnant and starting to wonder if my son would ever come! But of course I also knew that was impossible for him to NOT come and he was going to in God’s perfect timing. Sure enough on the early morning of August 1st 2015 I started having some bad cramps around 12:00am. At first I didn’t think anything of them and went to the bathroom for the 3rd time that night and found some blood in my underwear which made me wonder if tonight was the night... Still I didn’t think it was time for labor yet cause my water was supposed to break first, right? lol ;) After getting back into bed I couldn’t fall asleep. Finally around 12:30ish I started timing the cramps to see if there was a pattern or if they were just random. As I timed them I realized they were coming close to 2 minutes apart and lasting for almost 50 seconds. I woke Justin up at 1:00am saying I was having bad cramps and they weren’t going away. He was so cute and thought it was morning and he had over slept and I was waking him up. lol When he realized what was going on he told me I should get in warm water so he ran me bath. We were both still pretty tired and still were not sure if we should start calling the midwife, doula, or our Mom’s so we decided to wait a little while longer. Around 2:00am we ended up calling the midwife (Brande) who told us to time the contractions and when they were lasting more than a minute to let her back up midwife know because Brande was going on vacation that day. Around that time we came to realize this was the real deal and Justin started to fill up the birth pool since warm water was the only thing keeping the contractions from coming too close together. At 2:30am we called the backup midwife, Bernice and Doula, Malory telling them the contractions were becoming longer and staying about 4-5 minutes apart. They started to make their way to us. Around 3:30 we texted our Mom’s and told them today was the day and that they could come on over. Once people started arriving at the house both Justin and I relaxed and were able to just focus on keeping me comfortable. I tried different positions to labor in even though all I really wanted was to sit in my warm water... Justin and Malory made me move around. Looking back I’m so glad they did because it helped get Jaxon in the right position for birth much faster than if I had stayed on my bum like I wanted to. lol ;) Around 7:00ish I started to have the gentle urge to push. I just went with it and pushed when I felt like it. At 8:00ish I went to lay down in bed and my water broke! After that the urge to push came with each contraction and in a weird way it felt good to have something to do while the contractions came and went. I got back in the water and was pretty thirsty most of the time. In between each contraction I was able to close my eyes and almost fall asleep. My Mom’s told me later I would fall asleep and then jerk awake cause my head kept bobbing up and down.
(Justin holds me while I'm standing during a contraction)
Let me just take a minute to try to put into words how absolutely and utterly amazing my husband was throughout this whole entire process. He was absolutely wonderful and never left my side! (except for bathroom breaks) Always holding my hand while being calm and confident while telling me I was doing so so great and to relax. One of the phrases he said throughout was, "you got this, babe! You can do it. Just relax." He probably said this about 100 times and yet each time it helped me so much more than he'll ever know. <3 I seriously could not have done any of this without him. Pregnancy, labor, or birth! He was my rock throughout the entire process. I was able to lean on him and squeeze his hands when a particularly bad contraction came. Having his arms around me was so comforting and exactly what I needed.
I don’t know what time it was exactly when I started to feel Jaxon’s head crowning. But when I did I told everyone that it was burning down there and the whole room moved into action knowing that the baby was coming really soon now. Malory was an angel and helped me through each burning push while I sat in between Justin’s legs, he supported me from behind with his arms around me. Malory was positioned to catch Jaxon as he came out. We were all getting super excited at this time and even though it hurt like crazy I felt like I got a second wind and I was just calmly saying “I just want him to come out already!” To which everyone kept saying, "He's almost here!!" When Jaxon’s head came out Justin started crying behind me and I kept wondering if he was okay. Finally after two more whole contractions, one for his shoulders and one for his hips, he was out and in my arms!!! I remember seeing that full head of dark hair and thinking, “Is this really my child?” lol Justin and I just kept saying “hello” to him and telling him we loved him and it was okay to cry to get his lungs clear. I’ll never forget that moment. We sat there, me in Justin’s arms and Jaxon in mine, for the first time a true little family of 3. All the years of waiting for a child, crying out to the Lord, and having the dark cloud of infertility over us seemed to disappear because we had our first born son in our arms. The Lord has truly been gracious to us.
After a couple minutes of just soaking up our son, I will also never forget the urge I had to stand up. It’s all I could think about! Once I did, blood just started to pour out of me. At first I didn’t think anything of it... but then I noticed how worried everyone looked around me. I birthed the placenta and Bernice (my wonderful midwife) started to push on my uterus getting it to clamp. Justin was really scared for me and didn’t even want to cut Jaxon’s cord because he couldn’t stand the sight of all the blood that I was loosing. But I told him to just do it cause he would always regret it if he didn't. So he did. After this I went to the bathroom and then got in bed. I was worn out from labor and from the loss of blood. Bernice gave me a shot of pitocin in my thigh which helped my uterus contract even faster. Bernice and Malory continued to take my blood pressure and thank the Lord it started to rise after a little while. I was also starving and thirsty for juice so I think that really helped my situation out.
After that scare was dissipating Justin, Jaxon, and I laid in our bed and just snuggled. Justin and I kept saying to each other that we have a baby now. It was amazing.
Labor was nothing like what I expected and yet it was everything I anticipated. I don’t know if that makes any sense or not but it’s how I feel. I’ve read tons of books, have heard lots of birth stories, and was even blessed to attend 2 births before my own son’s birth. But everyone is different and handles pain differently so I wasn’t completely sure how I would react. I thank the Lord that I never felt like I couldn’t do it. In fact it never even crossed my mind until the very last few minutes when he was just a few moments from being in my arms. That was the only time I really felt like I had nothing left in me. But the Lord gave me the strength to do it!! And now that it’s been a month I could totally do it all over again! Especially if it means I will get half as cute, sweet, and cuddly a baby as Jaxon is. :) Now the not sleeping part that follows is something I’m more hesitant about doing again with a newborn. ;D
Thanks for reading my very first labor story! I hope it all made sense. If you have any questions for me feel free to ask! I’ll answer as soon as I can with a 1 month old in the house. :)
Until next time,
~A proud new mommy <3
