Friday, September 13, 2013
I woke up around 5:45am after having a
good night's sleep. I went to birth
group the night before and I had one of the ladies give me a few tips for going
into labor. She said she expressed some
milk and did some hip rotations on an exercise ball. I thought my exercise ball might still be out
in the garage, but since I was the only one awake I thought I would try
expressing milk first. She said she had
her baby within ten hours, so I thought it would be good to get an early
start.
It was a Friday morning, which is what I
had been hoping for all along. Bryce
recently started a new job which meant he didn't have any sick time or vacation
time, so having our baby at the beginning of the weekend would be perfect for
him to be home with us for the next few days.
My mom also had Fridays off and we were planning to have her come watch
the kids when I went into labor. The
last few Fridays I was hopeful as well, but our little girl just wasn't ready
yet.
So I sat on the couch trying to express
some colostrum. I wasn't sure if I was doing it right, nothing
was coming out. But after about five
minutes on each side I felt a few small contractions. I gave up and went back to bed to snuggle
with Bryce. I had been having regular
contractions on and off for the last month, so I definitely wasn't getting
excited.
After laying down with Bryce for a few
minutes I felt uncomfortable. I figured
my body did not want to lay down any longer.
I sat up while Bryce and I talked about plans for the day. I said, "I will call you if I go into
labor, but don't get your hopes up."
I had said that many days, this was my longest pregnancy. My contractions were really starting to get
my attention at this point. I told Bryce
we should probably get ready and finish packing the birth bag. I texted my Doula, Twyla, to let her know I
was having contractions, just giving her a heads up. I also texted Chris, the midwife, to let her
know things were starting up. Bryce
decided he would shower, that panicked me a bit to be left alone. My next
contraction was really painful and I didn't want him to leave me even for a
minute. While he was in the shower it
went from exciting to scary for me. I
had never felt contractions like this before.
I was leaning over the side of my bed and focusing on groaning and
breathing. The contractions were about
every 2 minutes apart and really intense.
In the next few minutes I told Twyla I was ready for her help and let my
mom know to head over. My mom lives an
hour away and I didn't want to wait too long.
Within just a few more minutes I changed
plans. We needed everyone to meet us at
the birth center. There wasn't going to
be time to labor at home. The
contractions were so painful that I couldn't do anything. In the short time
between contractions I managed to throw some clothes on. Bryce was grabbing all of his things and woke
the kids up to get ready to leave. They
were amazing and completely ready to go in about 5 minutes - in their school
clothes. They helped grab snacks and the
food we had planned for our birth breakfast.
Maddie grabbed me a towel and a bucket - at this point I thought I was
going to throw up.
I remember standing at the counter, I
was going to attempt to help gather things.
Instead I ended up leaning over the counter trying to cry through a
contraction. Jonathon was standing in
the hallway watching me with concern.
After the contraction was over I reassured him that I was ok, this is
how it is supposed to happen. I heard
him tell Luke that he thought I was crying.
Maddie was so helpful to remind them that I was ok, and helped get them
excited about the baby coming.
Everyone went out to the car and I
started having another contraction by the small couch. I remember leaning over the couch and just
burying my face into the big cushion. I
felt like I couldn't handle the pain anymore and I was really scared. It was at that point that I remembered I
wanted to do this. I knew I could do it
if I relied on Heavenly Father to help me.
I said a quick prayer right there that He would be with me and help
me. I knew I needed to relax more and
trust Him. Bryce helped me get up and
started walking me to the car. I told
him I wasn't going to make it to the birth center. I knew the baby was coming fast. I was really worried about spending 20
minutes in the car with how much pain I was already in.
Bryce gave me a blessing in the driveway
right before I sat down in the car. He
mentioned in the blessing that everything was going to be ok. I remember the part that stood out to me was
he said I was going through transition.
I hadn't realized that for some reason, and that made me happy to know
that Heavenly Father knew what my body was doing. I was also nervous because I know birth isn't
far behind transition. As we started
driving I tried to find a comfortable position that I could hopefully relax
in. Bryce suggested the kids sing a
primary song to me. All four of them
sang their best and I loved it. I could
definitely feel the Spirit, and although I was still in pain I was able to
relax much more than I had been. After a
few primary songs they switched to singing a song they had learned at
school. I could immediately feel a
difference in the Spirit and I wasn't as relaxed. I asked them to sing more primary songs and
attempted to sing with them between contractions. I was feeling the need to push during the
contractions, but I just tried to breathe and relax as much as I could. It was comforting to me when Bryce said that
Twyla was right behind us, following us to the Birth Center. I hoped Chris wasn't far behind.
We arrived at the Birth Center and
everyone got out of the car. I had been
leaning back and to the side and started to get up. Twyla and Bryce came to the passenger door to
help me and told me that Chris wasn't there yet. I knew I couldn't get out of the car until I
absolutely had too. I rested my head
back by the top of the seat belt and tried to breathe slowly. I told Twyla that I felt like I needed to
push and she reminded me to relax and breathe.
She did really good talking to me and trying to keep me calm. It was only a few minutes before Chris
arrived and told us to hurry and come in.
Bryce and Twyla helped me walk to the stairs, but I had to stop for a
contraction before going up. Twyla held
onto me from behind and Bryce was holding my arms in front. It was then that my water broke. I could feel it going down my legs and I told
them the baby was coming. I heard a
little panic in Twyla's voice when she called for Chris. I can't remember who said it, but they said
to hurry and get me upstairs. I remember
having a lot of help getting up the two sets of stairs, although Bryce and
Twyla said I did it by myself. The kids
followed behind us and I directed them to go play in the toy room for a
minute.
We walked into the birthing room and I
kind of froze by the side of the bed because I didn't know what to do. Bryce and Twyla got my sandals and pants off
and helped me climb up on the bed. They
stacked a bunch of pillows in front of me and I leaned over and buried my face
in them. They said the baby was ready,
and they could already see her head. It
hurt so bad, I was too scared to push.
They were encouraging me and letting me know I could do it. I knew it would be over faster if I did my
best to push her out. I took a breath
and waited for the next urge and I pushed as hard as I dared. It was so much more painful than I had
imagined. I was screaming, saying it
hurts, saying I was going to die. Bryce
was getting ready to catch and I pushed again, screaming at the same time. It was so incredible to feel her body slide
out, and I knew Bryce caught her. I was
in shock about everything that was happening, the memories seem blurry like a
dream. Bryce slid her on the bed
underneath me so I could see her. I
stayed in my position because I didn't think I could move. I think the first thing I asked was, "Is
it really a girl?" Bryce assured me
that he had checked and Yes, it was a girl.
I listened to her grunt and fuss and had memories of when Jonathon was
born. He wasn't breathing right and they
took him to the NICU for the next two weeks - I didn't want that to happen
again. I kept asking if she was ok and
everyone answered that she was perfect.
Healthy, pink, big and perfect.
The kids got to come in and see her
while I was still on my hands and knees.
They had put some covers over me so that I wasn't exposed. It was so neat that they got to see her while
she was so brand new, even before I had delivered the placenta. I think my mom got there around that time and
was surprised to find that I had already delivered the baby. We had her put on a movie for the kids while
I tried to get more comfortable and get ready for the after birth. I was surprised when I felt painful contractions
again, I thought after the baby was out I was done. I was
not happy about delivering the placenta, and I was in a lot of pain. I think I may have been slightly cranky at
that point.
I was so happy to get to hold my new
baby, we still hadn't decided on her name yet.
She latched right on when I went to nurse her, it was great. We were both pretty messy at this point
still. The kids and my mom came back in
and Chris showed them the placenta. The
kids put gloves on and got to touch it and Chris showed them how it worked and what
it did. It was really fun to see their
different reactions. Maddie got to cut the umbilical cord and was pretty
excited about that. I was incredibly
happy that my kids were there with us, it made everything sweeter for me. Not long after that I was able to take a
shower while they cleaned up the baby.
Maddie got to help with the baby's first bath.
It felt so good to be clean and to hold
a clean baby. I was still having a lot
of cramping and pain from the birth, but I was happy. Bryce went to work making us all a nice
breakfast. We had hash browns, omelets,
bacon, orange juice, chocolate milk and krispy kreme doughnuts. It was perfect. After filling my belly I felt really worn out
and wanted to rest for a little bit.
Bryce took the kids home to get their back packs and go to school, and
also stopped to get the car seat that we hadn't forgotten in the rush that
morning. While my mom held Gabby I
thought I would try to sleep. I was
apparently still too traumatized from the whole experience to rest my
mind. I kept replaying the events in my
head and feeling the fear and stress I had felt earlier. I finally decided to give up on sleeping and
started packing up and getting ready to go instead.
I was so relieved that I hadn't torn
during the delivery. I had always had
episiotomies before. This was the best
recovery I have ever had. I was so happy
to get to bring my baby home and finish recovering there. It took us till the next day to settle on her
name: Gabriella AnnaMarie Sherwood. We
have both loved the name Gabriella, and AnnaMarie is Ilse's middle name. (Bryce's grandma) She
was 9lbs 9oz and 20 1/2 inches long, born at 7:38 am. She is perfect! We have bonded to her so quickly and have
been much happier about losing sleep than we have been in the past. I wouldn't change a thing about how she was
born, the Spirit was so strong. I found
out other things later that added to the strong Spirit we felt. We were very blessed and I know we had
Heavenly help through the whole process.
