Owen Richard Wilber Joins the Family!
 |
| 1st time kids met baby Owen! |
 |
| What natural labor looks like in the middle stages between contractions. |
 |
| Nurse wrote my goals out for me... |
 |
| 37 weeks! Baby may arrive any time now! |
As soon as I hit 37 weeks, I spent a lot of time sitting or bouncing on an exercise ball. I was not sleeping and so ready to be done! Friday night on November 9th, I started having some cramping. We started timing it and the contractions or cramping were all over the place. They would be consistent then they would suddenly change and be much farther apart. They were definitely not comfortable but, still manageable. However, the contractions never got more intense. Usually, if I stand up and walk around that's when my contractions are almost right on top of each other. The closer it got to midnight the more my contractions started to fizzle out. I decided to finally eat my dinner and go to bed.
 |
| Just breath. |
I decided to wake Greg up and just go to the hospital. Maybe by the time we got there my contractions would be closer and more intense? Maybe they would see how dilated I was, take pity on me since I was already having contractions and they would just keep me? I was so frustrated because this is not my "normal" labor. Usually, we're in such a rush to grab everything and get out the door. But this go around, Greg took his dear sweet time! I had already gotten dressed and collected my things. I was standing there watching Greg brush his teeth and told him that if he took any longer, I was going to change my mind and go back to bed!
About when we were pulling into the hospital parking lot my contractions started getting a little bit more painful and were now 5 minutes apart. I kept thinking, "well this is really going slow!" Greg dropped me off at the door while he parked the car and this is usually when I run up to labor and delivery. I really didn't feel like their was any rush. The contractions were still very manageable so I sat down in the lobby and waited for Greg. He was a little surprised to see me sitting there waiting when he came in.
I was finally in my room in the hospital bed hooked up to the monitors by about 6:30 am. I told the nurse I usually have very fast labors but this seemed to be going much slower then normal for me. I was dilated to a 5 1/2. All things combine and because of my history with fast labor's they obviously kept me. By about 7:15 am we were starting to text people that we were in labor. I was so annoyed because I was still 5 1/2 cm. At this point my contractions were about every 3 minutes and were now PAINFUL but my body was staying at 5 1/2 cm. Every time the nurse checked me and I was the same, I was super bugged and would say, "ARE YOU SERIOUS!?" I was thinking that I'd been at the hospital for almost an hour plus laboring at home....I SHOULD HAVE A BABY BY NOW!!! The nurse must have thought that I was crazy expecting more. This was SO unlike my body though!
Around 8 a.m. I was still at 5 1/2 cm, so I asked Greg if he thought I should get an epidural. I asked him, "what if I'm a 5 1/2 forever with contractions like these?!" I can't handle feeling like I'm going to die ALL day and I felt like this baby was not coming soon. Usually I have a baby by now! He encouraged me and said he thought I could do it and it'd be okay. He knows how much I hate epidurals. I think it makes the recovery so much harder. I also had a terrible epidural for one of my kids that caused headaches for 8 months afterwards. Epidurals are mentally very difficult for me. Usually, by the time I get to the hospital I'm in the end stages and they're trying to give me an epidural while they're holding me down to hold me still. I can't stand to be held down when you're in so much pain....let alone held down at all! Mentally, I just can't handle the epidural anymore! I also think it's hard on the baby. When you have an epidural you are now on the doctor's time frame rather than the baby and your body's time frame.
I decided to keep going without the epidural, but I did need to use the restroom. At the mention of this thought both the nurse and Greg got really concerned! They didn't think I should get up to go to the bathroom because what if I push the baby out on the toilet! Again, I was super annoyed I was still at 5 1/2 cm and now being told not to use the restroom. I argued back and said I know that I have to go to the bathroom and it's not a baby! The nurse checked me again to find I was still at 5 1/2 cm and then she helped me to the bathroom. My mom showed up while I was in the bathroom and seeing me not in the bed she came to the bathroom door and yelled, "don't push the baby out on the toilet!" Great, now I've got 3 people hovering at the door while I try to use the restroom!
As I was walking back to the bed from the bathroom I could tell my body was transitioning. FINALLY!!! The contraction I had was much more intense and hard and longer like the ones I usually have for all my other labors. The nurse and Greg were at my side immediately. I couldn't walk through the contraction. I felt it go through my whole body. I knew this meant the baby would be coming soon and I was glad my body was finally cooperating!
My contractions started coming one right after another. Greg had been doing a great job of putting pressure on my knees, something we learned to help relieve pain during labor. The nurse was a bit concerned about the baby's heart rate because he was not having accelerations during contractions anymore and she wondered if he had fallen asleep. They had me flip on my left side which for some reason made the contractions hurt worse. This is about when I mentally lost it and started crying. I was tired and done. I was so relieved when Dr. Reese arrived in my room at this point. He had just got on shift and he was my preferred doctor! Seeing how fast I was now progressing he didn't leave the room. He was encouraging and funny and I was so grateful he was on call that day!
I was losing my mental control. I never expect to be a quiet person while in labor. I am not a quiet person by nature...ever! But I was losing my confidence that I could do this. All my fears about the health issues we'd been through with Myles and worry that he wouldn't handle a new baby well were taking over my thoughts. I started grasping for anything I thought would pull me through the physical pain and mental worry. I caught a glimpse of my anklet that Wylie had made for me. It was just what I needed to pull me through.
A few days before all this, Wylie made me a bracelet. He tried to give it to me while I was busy doing something. I kept telling him wait, hold on. He was patient but eventually got tired of waiting on me to be available to accept his gift. He quietly slipped it over my foot and onto my ankle and ran off. I looked down and knew that I had made a bad choice in making him wait so long. He had been so excited. Mom fail! I had to make it right. I decided that I would wear the anklet 24/7 so I wouldn't forget it and when I went into labor I'd be wearing Wylie's special anklet. I could tell him I was happy to have it with me in the hospital.
Seeing Wylie's anklet had a very different affect on me. Instead of reminding me about how I was trying to fix my mom fail, it reminded me that Wylie had been praying for me for months. Every time he prayed, he would ask Heavenly Father that when mommy's baby came out it wouldn't hurt mommy. The first time I heard him pray for this, it took me by surprise and Greg and I had a good laugh about it. But he kept including me in his prayers! Just the reminder I needed. Wylie had faith Heavenly Father could help me through this. Now I needed to have faith.
I started to pray in my head for help through the pain. My internal prayer started to come out in the form of mumbling. No one could make out what I was mumbling. The doctor said it sounded nice like singing. It made me laugh inside knowing I was praying and everyone around me had no idea, but apparently it sounded like mumble singing! I knew Heavenly Father could hear my plea though.
I very quickly dilated to 9 3/4 cm. However, this labor continued to surprise me because my body stopped progressing here and wouldn't finish dilating. I didn't have much of a break between contractions at this point and when I was between contractions I was cramping really bad.
Then a new issue came up. During a contraction, I suddenly lost all use of my left leg and it slumped to the side. This made the pain so much worse and I started screaming, "my leg my leg!" Everyone in the room was really confused and just looked at me like, that's not what people normally scream in labor!!! Greg supported my leg. When the contraction ended, I could move my leg again. The only way I could figure out how to explain the pain I was having was to tell everyone it felt like my leg was going to come off and the baby was going to come out through that route!
I knew we were almost to the end but the pain was unbearable. Contractions are painful themselves but every time I contracted my leg would slump over and hurt just as bad as the contractions. Then between contractions I was cramping and could feel pressure going down my leg.
The doctor decided that instead of waiting for more contractions to try and dilate my body to 10 cm, he was going to try and help move my cervix manually while I pushed. Ouch! He explained this to me after the fact which was fine. I started to push. My normal pushing lasts about 1-3 pushes and baby is out...I'm talking like 10 seconds to a minute tops. One of my kids the doctor actually asked me to stop pushing right after I started because the baby was coming so fast!
Again, this labor proved to not be "my normal." Although, I can't really complain because in the video (mostly just sound) that Greg took, pushing only lasted about 3-4 minutes. To me, it felt much longer and I seriously thought the baby was stuck and never going to come out.
 |
| Best labor coach ever. |
 |
| First bath! |
 |
| My mom has been at all but 1 of my labors (that was because she had shoulder surgery the same day). This woman almost beat me to the hospital on my fastest labor. Love my mom. Having her and family around to support me means everything. |
At some point in my hopeless stuck feeling I knew I had to dig deep and find the courage to push as hard as I could and just get through it. I've done this before, I can do it again. I have to. I felt renewed in strength and knew what I needed to do. Baby boy was born and the doctor exclaimed, "look Jean!" I concentrated better closing my eyes. I yelled at him, "I can't!" Everyone thought this was pretty funny! Internally, I was thinking about how I was giving my all at that moment. When I was asked to do anything else I simply couldn't comprehend it. I was giving every ounce of strength in me to deliver this beautiful baby and I had nothing else to give to anyone at that moment. So when he told me to look, I didn't even know how to accomplish that.
The human body is amazing! Within seconds I realize that I'm done and the worst of the pain is over. I watched the doctor clean baby up a bit and lay him on me. He's so beautiful and perfect and here in my arms! The nurse quickly took him from me to get him crying. He wasn't doing much of anything yet. I suddenly start crying and can't stop. No reason why. I've cried after having some of my kids but not a waterfall! This was a non stop waterfall for 30 minutes or so. Haha! I was crying so much that I didn't even realize that the baby wasn't crying and the nurse was very concerned about him. She called for help and 4 nurses were attending to him right away.
Once I realized that something was going on, it made my crying worse. I kept asking Greg if the baby was ok. He ended up being fine but had very low APGAR scores at first. He wasn't breathing well and it was making his heart rate plummet and he wouldn't move much. They did eventually get him breathing good and stabilized. They were originally concerned he might have a hernia higher up making it difficult to breath. They didn't let me nurse him right away in case he needed imaging tests done. After our pediatrician examined him we were so relieved to find that he did NOT have a hernia. Just hard time transitioning after birth. He still never really cried. Even now, he is such a mellow baby.
I'm so grateful for Greg being by my side the whole time and for his support. For my mom's love and being there with us. Also, for Dr. Reese's encouragement and positivity and the nurses constant help. I'm eternally grateful to my Father in Heaven for helping me find my strength to bring another one of His children into this world again and entrusting me with another special spirit to love and teach. He was born at 8:38 am weighing 6 lb 13oz and 18 in. His name is Owen Richard Wilber and he is perfect.
 |
| 7th Heaven |
 |
| I took baby Owen's newborn pictures myself. I think they turned out pretty good! |
 |
| So in love with this baby boy!!! |
Comments
Post a Comment