Just six weeks after losing our sweet Baby in July of 2013, I found myself expecting again. I am so grateful for the faithfulness of The Lord. How He sustains us and keeps us, I will never understand.
During this pregnancy, I did more research on pregnancy and childbirth that I ever have in the past. In February of 2013, I had the incredible opportunity to be a part of my best friend's home birth experience. My world was completely changed, and I am so grateful! Because of that, I began to seek out information about natural childbirth. The more I learned, the more I was convinced that this was the road we should travel. I would have loved to experience a home birth, but that wasn't in the cards for us this time around. We planned and prayed. We prepared and practiced. And The Lord was so gracious to grant us the strength to accomplish an unmedicated hospital birth!
Contractions began for me about two weeks before delivery. In fact, we were convinced that there was no way I would make it to the end of April, much less May! I later learned that this is called prodronal labor, and while it can be frustrating because it doesn't seem to be going anywhere, it really is doing good and preparing the body for birth. As days progressed and nothing steady occurred, I became increasingly sure that I would, in fact, see my "due date" come and go before Canyon would arrive.
On Saturday, April 26, I had more intense, sporadic contractions throughout the day, but everything was still very inconsistent. After dinner and garden work at Nanny and Pappy's, the kids begged to spend the night. We gave in of course, made a quick trip
to Wal-mart (where I found myself actually having to breathe through contractions), and headed home. Around midnight, the real party started!
For the first two hours of labor, I did my very best to sleep between waves, but I was already finding the intensity and frequency to be enough to keep me awake. Around 2:00, I decided to get out of bed, in hopes of letting Jeremy rest, and so I could actively time the contractions. I paced the hallway, did some exercises on the birthing ball, and rested some on the couch. Around 3:30 I sent Heather a text informing her that this was, in fact, the real deal. I attempted once again to rest, but sleep was very hard to come by, and by 4:45, I had had enough! A shower was a welcome relief. I had always imagined that I would want to labor in the tub for a while, but in that moment, I could not even imagine sitting in a hard tub!
Heather arrived around 6:00, and Jeremy got up and ready for our day. I had really enjoyed laboring on my own throughout the night, but I was glad to have them with me once the sun came up. We never timed contractions, but by now they were coming much harder and faster. By 8:00, I was no longer able to talk through them, although Jeremy still managed to make me laugh through several of them! From reading and learning, I expected that I would know to go to the hospital when I could no longer talk between contractions either. But honestly, this time never came for me. I was still able to talk and laugh right up until the pushing phase. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.
At this point, time didn't really matter too much. There is so much freedom in being able to labor without interruption and without time restraints! By now, I found myself in the bathroom a lot, where I would always have several back to back contractions. When I wasn't in the bathroom, I managed through the waves by rocking on all fours or sitting in a very deep squatting position. But no matter how intense they got, I was still able to maintain conversation and humor between them. Quite honestly, I didn't understand why they weren't excruciating yet.
By 10:00, I was bored and needed a change of scenery. But really, I think I was just ready to get to the place where I knew he would he born. I debated with myself for nearly 30 minutes.
Should I stay home a little while longer? Surely I'm not progressed very far because everything is still so manageable. Should we just go ahead and go? Everyone is waiting for us. And I really would like to know how far we've come!
Finally, around 10:30, I made the call, and we all loaded up to head to the hospital. We drove to Grandma Eva's to drop off clothes and things for the kids, came back by the house for Jeremy's snacks, and then headed to the hospital. Through all of this, my contractions completely stopped! I had read a lot about mental blocks for women when they change environments, and I was furious that this seemed to be happening to me!
When I opened the car door at the hospital and my feet touched the parking lot, I had a really strong contraction! Thank you, Jesus! After a few stops while walking through the hospital, and refusing a wheelchair and elevator ride (I am walking this kid out, here!), I got all settled and ready to roll. When I saw who was on duty for the day, I was thrilled! I could not have asked for better nurses! Once I got checked in, we discovered that I was significantly progressed, far past the point of an epidural (hallelujah!) and on the "quick side" of labor for me. Just another blessing from The Lord, and the promise that I COULD do this, and I would do this!
Shortly after our arrival, the rest of our support team arrived, and I was ready to go! I was able to labor out of the bed without being hooked up to any monitors or fluids. I am absolutely convinced that this played a huge roll in our success. The Labor and Delivery staff at our hospital were ridiculously helpful and accommodating! Things moved very quickly from there, and in less than three hours, Canyon was born!
I hit transition while I was hooked up to the monitors (I was required to have his heart rate checked for 15 minutes, every hour). Because pushing happens so quickly for me after transition, there was no moving from that position! I hadn't imagined giving birth in the "conventional" position on my back, but everything worked out perfectly. With lots of help from Jeremy and Nanny (at the expense of her back...sorry Nanny!) sweet Canyon Blaze joined us at 1:22 PM, after just over 12 hours of labor and three quick pushes! He. Was. Perfect!
We enjoyed extended skin to skin time before he was weighed and measured. Seven pounds of pure awesomeness. (Yeah, I said it!) He nursed beautifully and was just so wonderful. I am always in awe of birth and life. When I looked into his eyes for the first time, this precious gift after such heartache and loss, I was in love. Forever.
There isn't much I would change about Sunday, April 27, 2014. I am so thankful for our healthy, happy, chubby, social, friendly baby boy! God has been good to us, and we are hopeful and excited about what the future holds for our family!
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