I still haven’t posted Abel’s birth story, but while it’s fresh I’m gonna post Jonathan’s
I had been told he would be big and that I had a lot of water, no wonder my belly felt ginormous. So I wanted him to come early. My due date finally came around and after talking to a few friends about their experiences with caster oil I decided to take some. The secret recipe to keep you from puking it up: 2 tbsp caster oil, 2 tbsp orange juice and a Tsp of baking soda and then eat a banana right after. (Yes, I did puke after taking it without all that other stuff)
I had mild contractions that day that went away by bedtime. This also repeated itself the next day (Thursday) and the next day (Friday). My midwife said if I wanted to just go to the hospital and break my waters I would probably have him soon. I was leery because I don’t like just having my waters broken.
Friday afternoon I felt like I had been contracting pretty strongly for a few hours so I decided it was time to go to the hospital. Getting in the car my contractions settled down and I started to feel hopeless and that I would probably be in for a long hospital delivery (my worst nightmare because of all the things they do to you at the hospital). I asked my friend Joy to be there for the birth and at that point I felt silly because I had taken her away from her family and I didn’t even feel like I was truly in labor.
When we got there I was at a four. My plan was to get there at an eight. But we make plans and then we ride the wave of labor. We decided to stay and I would take my midwife’s advice and have my waters broken. After all the things they did to me (getting me on remote monitors, heplock IV port, blood draw, Covid test etc) they finally got around to breaking my waters at 5:30 pm. I’ve never experienced that much water coming out of me during labor. It was puddles, multiple times. My midwife wasn’t joking about it might be like a waterfall.
Then contractions intensified majorly! I went from a 4 to a 10 in a little more than an hour. I was moving from standing (hanging on Ben) the ball and the bathroom. I went from being able to talk through contractions to only being able to just focus through them, they were so intense! I went from everything was kind of ok to feeling extremely weak and vulnerable. This is when my body was working so hard. I commented to Joy, “I’m so tired.” She said she knew at that point I was close.
I can’t remember when I had the epiphany. I feel like it was right after my waters were broken because I was still able to talk and think. But I saw Gretchen my midwife, my nurse Heather, Joy and Ben and I thought, “I need all these people around me.” I told them, isn’t it amazing that in this vulnerable time the beautiful thing about labor is that it’s so difficult we couldn’t do it on our own? We need each other. The comfort that each person brought was amazing.
Ok, another rabbit trail but I just have to share this awesome testimony. The same nurse who was there for Jethros birth was Abel’s postpartum nurse and now we had her for Jonathan’s birth. This was a complete chance. We asked Gretchen, my amazing midwife, what the chances are of that and she said probably 1 in 60. Heather was so sweet and gentle and kind. I already knew her. She had watched me birth Jethro in a kind of scary circumstance but had witnessed the peace and calm of the Lord in our room. When she was caring for me with Abel she was like, I remember you! It was so peaceful in your birth even with you bleeding and everything!
Ok, back to the story.
I remember getting off the birthing ball because the pressure was so intense and just lying on my side in the bed and being like, “am I already pushing?” My wonderful friend Joy was holding my hand, rubbing my shoulder and telling me I was going to be ok. At one point I thought: I can’t do this! But instead of verbalizing that I decided to change it and say “I CAN do this!” It was such a victory! Ben said he’s never heard me say that before.
Jonathan came out perfectly, I was coached through pushing and didn’t even tear. It was maybe 5 or 10 minutes. Before I knew it they placed him on the bed next to me, I was amazed! It was so fast and he was just HERE!
Looking back I’m really thankful we went to the hospital when we did. I think because my bag of waters was so big it was keeping his head from engaging and my labor from starting. With all the water that came out of me I’m glad it didn’t happen at home because the car ride would have been pretty brutal and probably messy!
After the birth they said I was bleeding a lot (seventh child, VBAC #6, older uterus) so they gave me a shot and two bags of pitocin. By the end of the night I was in the clear for bleeding. My feet swelled pretty bad for a few days and my hands still have carpel tunnel (hopefully it will go away in a few weeks)
I’m so thankful for this precious little gift! It’s always at great cost that we bring another life into the world, but he is worth it. Thank You Lord.
