I love reading birth stories. When we first got the internet in our home back when we had to do it through dial-up I mostly used it for finding birth stories to read. I thought that I would start sharing mine. I know there must be others out there who love to read birth stories, and I have eight to share.

Today my oldest son is 15. It hardly seems possible that he’s 15 already. He’s just finishing up his freshman year of high school, has a deep voice, is considerably taller than me and has his own blog “To Put Together” where he tells all about his legos creations – how did this happen?!

May 15th fifteen years ago was the Monday after Mother’s Day. I still had another week to go for my due date, and since I had been six days over with my first I wasn’t expecting labour anytime soon. We had spent the night before at my parent’s house – not sure about our exact reasoning behind that. Anyway, I woke up that morning and just knew I was in labour. 

My dad hadn’t left for work yet, and I decided not to tell anyone until he left because I didn’t want him to worry all day. Once he left though I told my husband, mom and sister and called my midwife. We decided to go back home with my sister coming along and leave our toddler with her grandma.

Once we arrived home, my husband blew up the kiddie pool we had bought so that I could labour and hopefully birth in water. Labour was going slow though so after a while my husband and I decided to go for a walk to see if it would help things along.

On the way home we stopped at the Italian pizza shop that was under our apartment. We had some lunch and got some pizza to take back to my sister. I was so discouraged that things were going slowly. I was getting worried that I’d end up with another cesarean like my first baby. I was also getting tired. The contractions were far between and didn’t seem very strong.

I called my midwife, and she suggested I take some gravol to help me get some sleep. It was great because I was able to nap, but later when I needed to be awake I felt groggy and spaced out so I never did that again in labour. 

My midwife arrived around 4, and I was so discouraged to hear that I was only about four centimeters dilated. I continued to drift between contractions and drink juice when it was offered. The contractions were getting closer and stronger, and I was starting to get shaky. I shake A LOT when labour starts getting intense. It’s a miserable feeling that I hate, but there’s no fighting it.

Finally around 6:45 my midwife said that I was six centimeters and could get in the pool. It felt glorious. I wish I could have been happier, but a) I was having strong contractions that nobody’s really happy about and b) This was the point at which I stopped progressing in my first labour. It was a little scary to me.

My contractions were starting to double and even triple peak sometimes. By 8:30 I was done with everything. I just wanted the pain to go away so when we started to discuss going to the hospital for an epidural that’s all I could think about. 

In hindsight, I wish I had held on a little longer. My midwife had checked me again, and I was up to seven centimeters. This is where the gravol was not helping. I should have been happy to hear that I had made it past where I’d been in my first labour, but the gravol was making my thinking foggy. So off to the hospital we went.

We made it there about 9:30, but it still took another hour before I was given the epidural. Again, in hindsight knowing what I know now, transferring to the hospital always slows a labour down temporarily. As well, my focus on getting the epidural once we got there instead of working with my body to help it do the job it was designed for.

The frustrating thing is that once I had the epidural it never worked properly so I ended up feeling most of the rest of the labour and delivery. About an hour after the epi was administered I felt the need to push. I remembering saying, “I don’t know how to push”, and my midwife talking me through it. Five minutes later Noah was born.

I had wanted another girl and for a millisecond I was disappointed when I heard someone say it was a boy. When they handed him to me though I wouldn’t have traded him for the world. He was a whopping nine pounds two ounces, and my first VBAC!

I had a second degree tear. The midwives told me that they could stitch it up but that the OB could do it faster and neater so I opted to let the OB do it. The epi still wasn’t working. They injected me with a local anesthetic which also didn’t work so the stitching up wasn’t much fun. My body just doesn’t react well to anesthetics. I have the same problem when I go to the dentist’s.

My dad and mom brought our toddler over. She was interested but confused. They finally settled me into a room. Since it was so late at night I was allowed to stay that night and the next. I remember the next morning at six being on the birth “high” still and wanting to call someone anyone to talk about my beautiful baby but knowing I couldn’t because it was too early.

I still didn’t get the home birth I had dreamed of for so long, but I had a baby so I didn’t care. 

Noah was an easy baby – laid back and happy all the time. He’s still a fairly laid back person except for if his little brothers touch his legos creations. He’s been a delight to watch grow up. I can’t thank the Lord enough for blessing our home with him.