Jack's Birth Story

By Natalie

 
On Saturday, April 28th around 2 AM I started timing contractions. We called Amy, my midwife around 7:00 AM and told her that the contractions were coming 5 minutes apart and were fairly strong. We decided to meet at Allen Birthing Center at 8:00 AM. We arrive at the birthing center and I'm only dilated to a 3.  We had called my parents to meet us up there, and called Micah's parents to start heading to Dallas.  Amy sends us back home.

I continue to labor at home, and am in quite a bit of pain because of my hips. The contractions aren't miserable it was the continuous pain of my hips. I never got relief between contractions. Micah and I would rest every 2-5 minutes and then when a contraction would hit Micah would come and sit on my hips while I'm laying on my side. We did this for hours. The contractions get pretty regular again and we meet Amy up at the birthing center at 8:00 PM. I was only dilated to 3 and half. I could've cried. Amy gave me a shot for the hip pain and told me to get some rest.

I go home and get some relief from the shot. Praise Jesus. I'm able to take a 3 hour nap with some pain relief. Then I wake up around 11:45 PM on Saturday night and it's back to painful contractions because of my hips. At 1:45 AM on Sunday, April 29th my water breaks. I continue to labor at home. We meet Amy at the birthing center at 4:00 AM and I'm dilated to a 7. Time to go into real labor! Yay, we can stay at the birthing center. Amy gives me another 1/2 dose of pain medicine for my hips. I get in the pool and feel awesome. I don't have anymore pain during the contractions in the water. I am able to rest in between each contractions and breathe through the contractions.

Around 10:25 AM I feel the urge to push. Amy examines me and I'm dilated to a 10. It's time to push. I push in the water for awhile, and am not making much progress. I still feel great. Then we decide to push while squatting for awhile. My hip pain returns. After an hour or two nothing happens. We send everyone home and I take a nap.  I have about 7 contractions during my nap. When I wake up the contractions have pretty much left me. I have reverse dilated to a 6! We start doing EVERYTHING you can think of to jump start labor again. We went on a walk. Nothing. Use a hand pump to express breast milk. Nothing.

We make the decision to transfer to Allen Presby to get pitosin to jump start labor again. Amy, my midwife transfers with us. She is wonderful, and encourages me the entire time. As I knew they would be it is terrible, awful contractions with no relief on pitosin.  Since I've been now laboring for 2 days straight I get an epidural. I dilate to a 10 around 11 PM on Sunday night, and it's time to push. My mom is holding one leg, and Micah holds the other leg. They push on my back to help my curl into the contraction. My mom said it was the most heartbreaking thing to watch. She said I pushed for 2 hours every 2 minutes. At 1:00 AM on Monday morning I ask to take a break from pushing and pull myself together. The doctor comes back and says it's time for c-section. At this point my water has almost been broken for 24 hours.  I ask for 15 more minutes to push, and get no where. Amy gives me a hug with tears in her eyes and they wheel me to the OR. Amy is present during the surgery and takes pictures for us.

Jack is born on Monday, April 30th 1:34 AM weighing 8 lbs 0 oz and 20 inches via c-section. I was 41 weeks and 5 days at this point!

This is obviously not my labor plan. Who wants to endure 48 hours of labor? Nothing worked out how I thought it would. I felt pretty sad about the way it turned out especially after having a version to turn him. During the c-section, the doctor said there was a band around my uterus. This band could've prevented Jack from coming down the birth canal. The band could've been there the entire time or was created during the very stressful labor. I'm so thankful to my midwife, Amy. I couldn't done it without her.

The silver lining, this face......