Drew's Birth Story

I don’t love being pregnant.  There are some women who do, I am not one of them.  I was huge, so very uncomfortable, sleeping in 30 minute segments, contracting all the time, but I know that it brings very sweet things.  I also know that sometimes it’s all you get to experience with your child, so I've tried not to complain and try to enjoy the miracle that it is.

This by far was our smoothest pregnancy.  I almost felt like it was going too well and had this fear something was going to happen, because this is not how my other 4 pregnancies have ever been. What a gift the Lord gave us this time around.

I saw my doctor on Friday, she thought he’d be here soon, but promised to induce the following Friday if he wasn’t here, but didn't think she'd need to do that.  I was pleased to hear it would be soon and max a week.  She swept my membranes, I went on my way, had some bigger contractions but nothing consistent.  

 We did lots of walking on Saturday, took a day of rest on Sunday, then walked 4 miles on Monday to a park with the boys.  I was convinced he was going to stay snug in place until Friday and that I was going to have to deliver a 9# baby.  Monday I prayed my water would break, so I'd know I was in labor.

Tuesday morning, the 16th, I woke up at 1:30, switched the laundry, folded up the dry stuff and put the last load in the dryer to dry.  (Since sleep has been very incremental, I've been doing laundry at night since it's cooler.)  30 minutes later, as I started to climb into bed my water broke.  Marvin stirred and I calming told him, “Hey babe, my water just broke.”  I’ve never seen him jump out of bed so quickly.  He was so sweet.

We called the doctor, she said to come in, at that point my contractions hadn’t changed from what I had been having, so she told me that first thing in the morning if labor wasn't progressing we’d add some Pitocin to get it going, but to see what my body would do first.  So we called a friend down the street to stay with the boys, woke the bigger two up to tell them we were leaving and arrived at the hospital at 3:00 a.m.  Our doctor had called to tell them we were coming.  In the taxi the contractions picked up intensity and had to start breathing through them.  I was thankful to see that they were changing.

When we got to the delivery room, they checked me and I was dilated 3 cm.  I decided to try to rest up as much as possible during the early phase just in case it took all day.  So between contractions I just relaxed in bed.  It was so quiet, we were the only ones in labor and delivery, it was nice to enjoy silence for a while.  I actually almost fell asleep a couple of times, Marvin said he didn’t know how that was possible because I was having contractions every 3 minutes.  I even told Marvin he could sit down and rest too, he's always such a champ in the delivery room always ready to help me as he can.

After resting for a while I decided that at 6:00 I’d get up and try to walk around, they had me on the monitor for a 20 minutes and when they came back they checked and I was 5 cm.  So I went to the bathroom and oh my did the contractions pick up in there.  I had a thought at one point, I needed to get out of the bathroom back to the bed or else he was going to be born right there and questioned why I thought not having an epidural was a good idea.  I imagined I was in for a couple more hours of pain.

When I finally got up the energy to move back to bed.  They checked me, and called the doctor, they didn't tell me a thing just rushed out of the room.  Then I started feeling like pushing, but who can talk during that phase?  Not me. After 2 really strong contractions where I felt like pushing I told Marvin he was coming and that I wanted to push.  He said he needed to get the nurse, but I begged him not to leave me.   

Poor guy was sort of stuck.  I was clinging to his hands squeezing with all my might, so we yelled, mine was sort of a groaning, and the nurses came running.  The nurse checked me, saw the head and said, “Don’t push.”  And raced around to get all the supplies in place.

How is that possible?  I have no idea.  Two nurses were rushing around getting everything set up trying to get the stir ups in and wanted me to lift my leg and I just said, “He’s coming, now.”  Again they said wait and I shook my head and said "now".  With that last contraction he was out at 6:38 a.m.  Our 2 sweet nurses delivered him and did such a great job, Lydia was the one who actually delivered him (she's smiling in the background).  Marvin was thankful they were there.  Dr. Deniz arrived 5 minutes later.

Drew did great, cried right away, and instantly settled down when they placed him in my arms.

It’s amazing how quickly these little ones feel like they fit right into your family.  Instantaneously.  We were thankful the hard part of delivering him was over and just enjoyed our sweet newborn snuggles the rest of the day.