Birth Story, part 1 - The Night Before

Here is the beginning of the long-delayed story of Owen's birth. Between normal adjustment to life after a new baby's arrival, a scary uterine infection that knocked me in the bed for a week, and now James' recovery from wisdom tooth removal, I just haven't had much time to work on this. I'm going to try to finish it up this weekend, and am writing it here in installments, since I'm so detailed and wordy. Hopefully it'll encourage those of you who are considering a natural childbirth, and want to hear a great experience!

Friday, February 12

What a happy day! Though the week had been tiring, with a lot of signs labor was slowly starting, we were so thankful to have the distraction of some beautiful snow. James was off and able to enjoy it with us, so in the afternoon, our family loaded up and went to the nearby park to sled down the hills. Elijah and I watched and cheered, but with the snow very wet and slushy, he quickly got tired and too cold, so we finished watching from the van.

I was feeling some random contractions, and generally uncomfortable, but no major consistent signs. That evening we settled down to watch some of the Olympics Opening Ceremony with the kids, who loved it and thought it was really neat to see all the countries represented. We got them to bed at a decent time, and I spent some time emailing Rachel, our doula, with questions. After Owen surprised us again by not arriving by the end of the work week like Dr. McKenzie had thought, I was a little nervous feeling. Because I knew I was overdue, and also trying for a VBAC, I wondered at what point his size really be a factor against doing a vaginal birth. I asked Rachel to consult a midwife to just get another opinion, to ease our minds, and encourage us to just wait patiently. I’d lost my mucous plug Thursday, and was at 3 cm, and 80% at the appt. Wednesday, so knew something was happening, just not sure how much longer things might go on. I was fine waiting for days longer, but concerned that I didn’t even have another appointment scheduled with the doctor, and didn’t want to be foolish if uterine rupture really was a risk like some statistics show. I didn’t think it was a big risk, but knew the doctors may differ and want to insist on a c-section if I hadn’t delivered by some point soon. Her advice was wise and what I needed to hear:

“You and Owen are doing great right now. So let’s just give these next few days to the Lord with some great petitions for labor to start on its own and then we can see what happens. I am super proud of you and James. A natural birth is still the plan and, in my opinion, we focus on that until we have a dead end decision to make.”

So, we went to bed that night, peaceful and content, deciding to just wait and see what God planned. James joked that tonight would be the most inopportune time for Owen to come because the roads were iced over all around us, and so we could hope maybe he’d go ahead and come when we actually did NOT want to get out and go to the hospital. Little did we know….