Porter's Birth Story

Since I went early with Eden, part of me was expecting (and kind of hoping) to go early with Porter as well.  Dr. Gass wanted to wait to start my cervical checks until 35 weeks, but after hearing some of my symptoms, he decided to check me right before 34.  I was dilated to 2cm and 50% effaced, so I was put on “couch potato” rest.  That was about as fun as it sounds with a 21 month old to take care of and a house to nest in, but I tried.  At our 35 weeks check up, I was 2.5cm dilated and 80-90% effaced, but Dr. Gass didn’t seem concerned.  In fact, he seemed to think we’d make it to at least 37 weeks!  I had my doubts, but who am I to question the doc!?

On Thursday, July 21^st, we had our 36 week check up with Dr. Gass around 4:30.  I was 3cm dilated and 90% effaced.  He said that we could go weeks like this, or he might see us over the weekend.  He mentioned that he was going out of town at the end of the following week, so I politely asked Porter to come before his vacation, so that he would be the one to deliver her!  She sort of listened to those instructions…

I cramped on and off that evening through a yummy dinner at Red Lobster and putting Eden to sleep for the night.  Some cramping following checks is normal, so I wasn’t too concerned because they didn’t seem to be getting too close or too regular.  Around 11:00, I decided that maybe I should begin to time these “cramps” (otherwise known as contractions) to see just what we were dealing with.  They were around 4-5 minutes apart and lasting up to 30 seconds.  They didn’t hurt that much, but I didn’t think I could sleep through it, so I went to my happy place, the bathtub.  I woke Jeremy just in case he woke in the night wondering where I was and started to get in the tub.  As soon as I stuck my big toe in, Eden woke up! Of course.  I got her from her room and laid her down in our bed, so that she’d be close to Jeremy in case she woke up again.  I relaxed in the bathtub timing my contractions until around 1:30 or so when I decided I probably needed to wake Jeremy up.  They were every 2.5 minutes apart at this point.  Truth be known, I was kinda hoping that my water would break in the bathtub!  I thought there would be less clean up that way! J  It had not broken when I woke Jeremy up, so I was on the fence about even going to the hospital yet!  Jeremy would want me to make sure you knew that when I woke him up, I was blow-drying and straightening my hair!  I told him if we were going to the hospital, I wanted to be clean and for my hair to look good!

He convinced me that standing up to make myself look pretty was probably making my contractions worse, so he “highly encouraged” me to go sit in the recliner to see if they slacked off.  I begrudgingly appeased him, and they did lengthen back out to about 4 minutes between them.  Once we decided that we were for sure going to the hospital, I began to stress about what we were going to do with Eden!  The Buntons had graciously offered to manage Eden no matter when I went into labor, but I didn’t want to bother them on a possible false alarm!  We decided that we would take Eden, and let family tend to her while she slept in the van.  Jeremy called his parents to let them know we were on our way to Labor and Delivery, and I called my mom.  Since we had had dinner together, she knew I had been having cramps.  In a wonderful effort to not have history repeat itself, she had gone to bed fully dressed with her phone in a glass measuring cup to increase the volume.  It worked because she woke up and answered on the first call!  In fact, she and Mammaw beat us to the hospital this time.  Eden stayed asleep about ten minutes after we traded her off, and then entertained everyone in the waiting room while waiting on baby sister!

We pulled in to the hospital around 2:45 or so and made our way upstairs.  Since I had not been to L&D for my non-stress test yet this pregnancy, I had to answer a blue million questions about all sorts of random information.  This was particularly not fun while dealing with moderately painful contractions and still trying to remain polite.  I rated my pain scale at about a four.  I was finally allowed in the hospital bed following a urine sample sometime around 3:00.  The nurse, Morgan, checked me and determined that I was only 4cm dilated and 90% effaced.  I was pretty disappointed in those numbers because I was not enjoying those contractions one little bit.  She left the room to let Dr. Gass know I was there and to see how he wanted to proceed.  She came back in a few minutes later to let me know that we would have a birthday party at some point that day, but that Dr. Gass did not want to give me any medication to help me along, and he wouldn’t break my water for me until 8cm.  After that another nurse came in to take a blood sample and start my fluids.  She took (what seemed like) forever!  She did say that after the lab got my blood sample, they would be able to give me the epidural in about an hour.  With each contraction, I kept telling myself that I could make it until they brought the meds!  I signed all the forms for everything, and the waiting game began.

Jeremy was great during this time.  He got me a cold washcloth and prayed with me because he knew I was nervous about the earliness again.  We had both said that whenever she was healthy, she could come on out, but when that’s reality, you start to get worried!  I couldn’t talk through the contractions, so I was awesome company!  Jeremy texted our moms to let them know that they could come visit, if they wanted to.  I really felt like I needed to pee throughout this whole time, but they had me hooked up to so much that I decided to wait until I couldn’t wait anymore.  I also felt like my water might break if I jostled it too much too!  Sometime after 4:00, I decided I couldn’t wait to pee any longer.  I tried to time it between contractions, but that was almost impossible.  The bathroom was super hot and stuffy (at least to me), and I ended up feeling extremely nauseous.  I told the nurses that I thought I might throw up, and I was rewarded with a lovely barf bag and some liquid medicine in an oversized coffee creamer container.  I think she also gave me some Zoforan in my IV.  As I was attempting to not puke (if you know me at all, you know the lengths I will go to to NOT puke!), I had another contraction that caused me to have to sit down and then there was an explosion. Yes, an explosion!  I do not use that term lightly, y’all.  It sounded like a t-shirt cannon went off, and it felt like I shot a tennis ball from my body!  Jeremy came back around the corner to see what had happened, and he says my eyes were as big as saucers!  I asked them if I had just had my baby in the toilet.  They laughed and said no, but I was dead serious.

This is where the whole tone of the room changed.  They wouldn’t let our poor moms in, so they had to hear all of this commotion from outside the door.  Morgan instructed that I had to get to the bed now!  I protested the fact that I didn’t think I could move, but she reiterated that I had to move now.  There were words thrown out like “ruptured” and “anterior lip” (which sounded like rip in the heat of things!).  I was scared for myself and the baby.  They tried to get her back on the fetal monitor, but they weren’t having any luck, so they threw that thing to the side.  Morgan checked me and shouted that I was 9.5cm.  She said “we’re going to have a baby,” and then kept shouting to call Dr. Gass and to call nursery.  I didn’t ask, but I knew that there was going to be no epidural at this point! L Our room filled up with about 7 different nurses all doing who knows what tasks!  Jeremy had told mom that if she wanted to see me to do it now.  I, however, did not want to see her when she came to the foot of my bed!  I thought my placenta had ruptured or tore or something, so I thought the fluids I was covered in was blood.  I did not want my momma to see me like that, so I (definitely not) kindly told her to go away!  I was laying on my side at this point, squeezing my legs together, and trying to make it through the pain.  I was embarrassed, but I stated that I felt like I had to poop!  Morgan yelled at me that that was pressure from the baby, and I could absolutely NOT push!  I didn’t know how not to push…at that point, it was like telling myself not to breathe.  She tried to coach me through deep breaths on the contractions, and I did okay.  Throughout the next contraction, I focused on breathing deep and no pushing.  I thought I did pretty good on that one!  However, on the next contraction, I couldn’t contain the pushing sensation!  She tried to get me to breathe like I was blowing a feather in front of my face, but it was not happening!  She yelled that I had to be on my back while grabbing my legs and throwing them in the stirrups!  At this point, I felt pain relief when Porter’s head came through and then her body in the next wave.  She began to cry out in the same little billy goat cry her sister had, and I immediately felt emotional relief as the worries for her safety eased!  I had made it with no epidural and no true pushing!

All of this craziness happened in four minutes.  Four. Minutes. That’s all it took from my water exploding in the bathroom to having a sweet, baby girl!  The nurses clamped the cord, and Jeremy cut it, even though he thought they were going to forget to ask him!  They began to ask each other what Dr. Gass did as they were collecting all the appropriate samples and such.  We delivered the placenta, and then Dr. Gass walked in!  He looked at me and said, “that was fast!”  He had made it to the hospital in less than ten minutes from their phone call, but he still didn’t make it in time for the action.  He said I had a tiny tear and put in a couple stitches while they completed all of Porter’s measurements.

She was perfect! Born at 4:21am. Weighing 5 pounds and 12 ounces. Measuring 18 and ¾ inches long.  We had some skin-to-skin time, and she latched on right away!  The nurse said she had a little fluid in her lungs, but at the 30-minute check that was sounding much better! Our family came up to visit two-by-two while we were waiting for a room.

We are so blessed to have had two early births and no NICU time!  Thank you Jesus!  Now to get the hang of this family of four thing!!

*Side note – this story is much more exciting and entertaining when told in person by Jeremy!  Just ask him! J

So...major life catch-up!

So, we found out we were expecting our second baby girl on December 9th, 2015!  We kept it a secret until Christmas Day when we told our families!  They were pretty darn surprised!

I did a terrible job documenting this pregnancy, but we were still so so SO excited!!

 

   

Eden's Birth Story

On Thursday, October 9^th, I went to my regular 36 week checkup.  My blood pressure was great, no protein in my urine, and my weight was in a good spot.  This was the first pelvic exam visit as well.  When Dr. Davis checked me, she stated that I was dilated 1 centimeter and 80% effaced.  She even chuckled that I might go early.  She also recommended that I have an ultrasound that afternoon to determine an estimated fetal weight, and that I stay away from sugar to ensure that we didn’t have a “too big for my body” baby.  Our ultrasound tech said that Eden was approximately 5 pounds and 6 ounces.  I was excited to have new pictures of her cute little features!

After the exam, I noticed that I was having menstrual-like cramps.  Everything that I googled stated that these cramps were normal for a little while after an exam.  That night we had our first band practice for Redeemer, and I continued to cramp throughout set-up and practice.  I even mentioned to Sabrina that I had been having cramps ever since my exam, and she said that she cramped for about 3-4 hours after her exam.  I had been cramping for at least 6 hours at that point, but I just thought it was the norm for me!

I continued to cramp throughout the day on Friday, October 10^th.  Mammaw came over to the house, and I didn’t overdo it.  In fact, I sat in the recliner on a heating pad for most of the day!  I started to time the cramps using an app Friday evening.  We had friends over for pizza and scary movies, and my cramps were getting longer and more frequent.  When we laid down for bed, they were 7-8 minutes apart and 40-45 seconds long.  Jeremy and I talked about going into Labor & Delivery or calling Dr. Davis, but I wanted to wait to see if the cramping continued Saturday morning.  It wasn’t too painful, and I didn’t really think the cramps were contractions.

We slept wonderfully that night.  At about 5:30 in the morning on October 11^th, I woke up and thought I had heard a pop.  I also felt like Jeremy had flicked me in the stomach (like when you test a watermelon for ripeness)!!  I even rolled over to hit him for flicking me when I realized he was asleep, and I was wet!  I woke Jeremy up to use his flashlight to try to figure out if my water had broke or I had just peed on myself!  He said he didn’t see anything strange, so he thought I had just peed.  Well, I couldn’t contain the fluid as I was trying to get to the bathroom.  As I was sitting there “peeing and peeing,” I realized that I had lost my mucus plug.  That’s when I started to freak out!!  I looked at Jeremy and said, “I’m not ready!”  He laughed at me and said that we were going to the hospital.  We did decide not to call our parents at that moment, just in case it was a false alarm.

On the way to the hospital, I was starving!  I wanted to go through Hardee’s because I knew that if L&D kept me that they wouldn’t feed me until either Eden came or they sent us back home.  We were second in line at Hardee’s when a more painful cramp hit me.  I quickly decided that we should hop out of line and head straight to the hospital.  We also decided to go ahead and give our parents a heads up.  However, my parents would not answer their phone!  By the time we made it to the hospital, we had probably called them 25 times apiece to no avail.  I finally decided to call Mammaw, and let her worry about getting in touch with my parents!  After Mammaw and Pappaw got to the hospital and realized they were still not there, and we still hadn’t been able to get in touch with them, Pappaw went all the way to Smiths Grove to get them.  Hearing my mom and dad tell the story of Pappaw driving around the house, honking the horn to wake them up, and then banging on the front door hard enough to knock the deadbolt off is pretty hilarious.  Mom, of course, called me crying hysterically and apologizing profusely, but it wasn’t a huge deal.  They made it in time to love on me before Eden arrived, and it does make a pretty great story.

So, at the hospital, they made me change into a gown and collect a urine sample, even though it would have been unusable if my water was actually broken, which it had!!  I clearly remember the nurse looking at me and stating, “Looks like you’re staying to have a baby.”  No, no, no.  Not on the agenda for that day!  I didn’t truly have time to freak out and go into full time worry mode about her coming early and all the complications she could have.  Jeremy told me that if she was coming naturally then this was God’s timing.  The nurse gave me a pelvic exam and determined that I was 3-4 centimeters dilated and 90% effaced.  She also told me that they had paged Dr. Davis who had just left from an emergency c-section that went all night long.  They hooked me up to the IVs and asked me to sit in the rocking chair while we waited for her to return.  Luckily, she was there within 15-20 minutes or so because the rocking chair was extremely uncomfortable.  Dr. Davis gave me another pelvic exam, and she claimed I was 5 centimeters and 100% effaced.  She also attached a fetal monitor to Eden’s head to keep a close eye on her.  She asked the nurse, Beth, to turn the Pitocin “wide open.”  She then stated that she was going to the lounge to sleep, and she would not be watching the monitors, so they would have to wake her when it was time.  Dr. Davis didn’t tell me that she was attaching a fetal monitor to Eden, so when she left the room, I asked the nurse if she had left something inside of me because it felt weird!  She laughed and explained what was going on down there.

My contractions started to get stronger, and Beth kept encouraging me to breathe through them.  I also became a hot box, so Jeremy got me a cool, wet cloth to lay on my forehead and the back of my neck.  I wasn’t really in the mood for encouraging touches or words at that point.  In fact, I bit my Mammaw’s head off for touching me on the side and telling me that I could do it!  I did, however, say get off me, please! J  In order to get through the contractions, I laid on my side, rocked back and forth, and sang “Our God Is An Awesome God” in my head (for some reason, it went to the tempo of Eden’s heartbeat on the monitor!).  They asked me if I wanted an epidural, and I said sure.  The contractions weren’t too bad, but I was a little nervous as to what it would feel like when they got worse!  After the anesthesiologist inserted the epidural, I was a much more pleasant person!  I was able to tolerate hugs, kisses, and words of encouragement.  I was also able to control my legs and things despite the epidural, I just didn’t feel pain…only some pressure.  They checked my progress soon after the epidural was placed, and I was at 7 cm!

I began to feel even more pressure and gushing of amniotic fluid when I moved.  When I let the nurse know that, she decided she needed to check me again, and I was at 8 cm.  Jeremy ran down to the waiting room to see our visitors and grab a biscuit for breakfast.  I had progressed very quickly.  She came back to check me again in about 10 minutes because I asked her to wait until Jeremy returned, and she happily said “let’s push!”  She gave me the instructions on how to push during each contraction, but they went in one ear and out the other!  I had to politely ask her to repeat them, so I could make sure to do it right!  Dr. Davis came in, and it was baby time!  We pushed three sets for each contraction.  On the third one, I was doubting my effectiveness, so I asked my nurse Beth if I was even being productive!  On the fourth contraction, Dr. Davis looked at Jeremy and said “are you going to take pictures of this baby?”  Then there she was!  I couldn’t even believe it.  We had survived labor! She was here at 10:09am!!

They laid her on my chest while Dr. Davis sewed me up, and we were in awe.  At times, I’m still amazed that God used me and Jeremy to create a tiny human being!  She had a little knothead action going on from being so low in my pelvis for so long.  The nurses assured us that it would go down quickly, and they were right!  The knot was much better even by that evening.  The nurse took Eden for her apgar scores and vitamin K shot, which she did not enjoy.  Her tiny cry sounded just like a billy goat!!  When she was cleaned off, they brought her to me for skin-to-skin and our first attempt at breastfeeding.  With the nursery nurse’s help, we were able to successfully latch on!  We stayed together skin-to-skin for at least an hour.  Then they gave me the choice of letting them take her to the nursery for a bath or taking her to the room with me for a while.  We decided to take her with us, so she could see her grandparents and great-grandparents, and then they could come get her when they were ready!

The nurses loaded me into a wheelchair, and my legs were surprisingly stable!  The epidural must have been perfect because I felt great!  We wheeled down the hallway towards Eden’s adoring fans where we paused for pictures before heading to our room.  The nurses helped me to the bathroom and showed me that lovely routine!  Then I settled into the hospital bed and learned how to use a breast pump.  Hillary, the nursery nurse, told us to try to get her to latch at each feeding, but to then pump and give her that colostrum/milk as a supplement through a syringe.  This seemed to work for us!

Eden had tons of visitors in the hospital!  We are so thankful for each and every visit and text.  We are especially grateful to our friends who ran to our house, took care of Cam, washed clothes and sheets, bought us essentials, and brought us food.  God has richly blessed us with great family and “framily!” 

P.S. Happy 2 week birthday, sweet girl!