Mom's Birthing Story
Birthing Experience
Powerful! That’s what I would describe my birth experience as. Lil man’s due date was June 14 but he decided to join us early. Jeremy and I visited our OB, Dr. Buettner on Wednesday, May 23, she told us everything looked good, he had dropped and she suspected he would come before the 40 week mark. Jeremy then cautiously asked what that meant, she said not in the next week, but probably early. We left the appointment and went back to work for the day. That evening I ran home to eat something quick and had spinach, carrots and barbeque potatoes chips before heading to yoga class at Glenmore.
I took yoga through the whole pregnancy and really enjoyed being in a room of other pregnant women and became friends with a few! It was a nice escape and way to relax once a week. I always enjoyed yoga at the gym as a good work out, prenatal yoga was more about relaxing and stretching. At the beginning I didn’t think it was a work out but as the weeks went on it got harder and I felt it more! After yoga on Wednesday 5/23 I stopped at Chickfila to treat myself to a strawberry milkshake. This isn’t something I’ve ever done before but thought it would be a nice treat!
I wasn’t really feeling right when we went to bed and kept waking up with more cramps. I kept getting up and going to the bathroom and finally gave in and went to our guest bedroom to not wake Jeremy up through out the night. With every birthing wave I would get up and walk to the office or bathroom which would really help. I decided I should start writing down the times each one started to be able to track them. Jeremy woke up around 5am and came in to see what was going on. I told him if this isn’t labor I don’t know what is. His face was priceless, he was overly excited! I continued to sleep and told him he should go back to sleep too. Come to find out he couldn’t sleep! He packed his bag and got everything together. I finally got up and we talked about what we still needed to do. Jeremy went to both of our works to pick up our lap tops and stopped and got us bagels since I knew I had to eat something before we went to the hospital. We called the OB to see if we could come in and get checked to see if this was really labor and how far along I was. They asked how soon we could be there and we said an hour. Jeremy told our parents that we thought I was in labor but not to go to the hospital or do anything at this point I wanted to walk around the neighborhood before we left for the hospital as well as take a shower. We leisurely got our things together and headed to the doctors. On the way to the hospital we agreed that if I was 4 cm or less then we would walk around near the hospital and wait. At this point we didn’t think we were that far along since I could still walk and talk through contractions. Once examined by the doctor they told us I was dilated 6cm and was going to be admitted to the hospital to have our baby boy! They walked us over around 12pm through the stairwell and down a flight of stairs. As we were walking over the nurse asked if we knew someone in L&D. As we opened the door to the nurses station I saw a RN that I went to a Longwood Career event with which made me feel a lot more comfortable. Laura checked us in and got our room set up. We were in L&D room 1, the last room of 14 they had available. Come to find out they were very busy that day!
Jeremy ran back to the car to get our bags and I called Beth to get some last minute advice! The nurses asked if I wanted an epidural, I figured at that point I’d already made it to 6cm and thought it was manageable; I can do this at this point. I changed into my own night gown which I’m glad I brought because it was much more comfortable than the hospital gowns. J set up the computer to the Jack Johnson Pandora station which helped get me through the day. I quickly found out that I enjoyed looking out the window and leaning over to help get through the birthing waves. They hooked me up for 20 minutes to the fetal monitor to make sure everything looked ok. They allowed me to still stand and sit on the birthing ball but had to stay next to the machine. It was pretty cool to be able to watch the monitors and measure his heart beat in comparison to the birthing wave. We decided to walk the halls for a while to help get things going. I was hoping to walk more but after taking a quick tour of the short L&D halls we decided to bust out and walk the 3rd floor. We stopped at the nursery to check out the other babies and had a few birthing waves in the hall way. I was able to get through by leaning on Jeremy and breathing through them. After finding not much else to look at we decided we would head back to the room to see what was going on there. Soon after my mom came and hung out with us in the room, I’d say around 2pmish. Dr. Buettner stopped in to see how I was doing, she was in surgery that day. She came in and said “I guess I was wrong, you’re ready to have this baby”. She informed us that she had to leave at 5pm but that Dr. Tyson was on deck to deliver. Back to focusing on the birthing waves. Breathe, relax, open, relax, relax, relax. Dr. Tyson stopped in and checked me around 4pm and told me we were 7-8cm. She asked if I wanted to have my water broken but we decided not to. Back to focusing on the birthing waves. Breathe, relax, open, relax, oh wow, relax, relax. Back and forth the window, admiring the rocks outside on the roof. Back on the birthing ball. Nipple stimulation, squatting using Jeremy’s legs as support. Breath, relax, relax, oh god, relax. They started getting stronger, a few choice words every once in a while. Janet the nurse stood by and watched along with Jeremy and mom. No one really said much which is the way I liked it. J would speak up and tell me how great I was doing or remind me to breath or while on the monitor that it looked like it was coming down now. I decided that things were getting real and wanted to change into the hospital gown to allow for easier skin to skin time after birth and not ruining my gown as well. After receiving a text from Beth that her water broke when she was on all 4s I tried that. Wow, that was painful! Janet asked that I get back in bed so that she could check me again. That was the most painful. I don’t know how people can sit in bed the entire time, I much rather preferred standing or squatting on the ball.
Dr. Tyson left and Dr. Selman came in around 5pm to check me and said I was 8-9cm dilated. He asked me then if I wanted to pop my water and I said yes after he said it would help speed things up. It was around 5pm and Dr. Selman broke my water, he left the room and Janet asked if we could push if we needed to. My first feeling of needing to push, wow, I always wondered what that was. When they say you know when you need to push, you sure do. Not knowing what to do I asked Janet, do I push, yes, push. Two pushes in she calls for Dr. Selman to come back in. So quick, that was weird to me. Jeremy and Janet held my legs up through another birthing wave. J, hold my foot, look at how Janet is holding it. Next thing I know Janet is pulling the bed apart, put your legs in here, grab behind your legs next time you have to push. I need to push, do I keep pushing, how long do I push for? No one was counting, I thought you were supposed to count to 10…no direction, just push. Lorin, do you want to feel him crowning, no thanks. Dr. Selman informs me he’ll need to do an episiotomy. I don’t know how I was in the right mind to ask him why and question him. The babies heart rate had dropped to 60 for about 5 minutes, then some how it came back up to 90-100, no cutting for this lady! Pushing through the ring of fire. Push, push, push. Next thing I know there he is, our little miracle. It happened so fast, I opened my eyes to the bright lights and lil guy in Dr. Selman’s hands. How amazing that he’s here, right here. We requested delayed clamping so he hung out with Dr. Selman for a few minutes but I was able to reach down and touch him. It gave me a few minutes to catch myself and see what was going on. J took the scissors and proudly cut the ambilical cord, wow. Straight to my chest he came as I gazed into his loving eyes. He’s so bright eyed and admiring of us. Look J, he’s perfect. At that moment, one family as we were joined together forever. We admired him as he admired us. Ryan Joseph I stated, that is your name. I didn’t really ask J if he was ok with it, just seemed right at that moment.
They took him aside to check him out, they said his lungs sounded a little off. Jeremy went over with him as Selman finished taking care of me and the aide cleaned things up. The bed was reassembled and Ryan was brought back over for us to enjoy him. Daddy held him for the first time, what an amazing sight, the joy on his face was priceless. Around 630pm the door opens and in comes mom, expecting that we were still in labor, not expecting lil Ryan had joined the world. The Kain’s soon joined to welcome their grandson to the world.
Ryan came back over and we tried to feed but he wouldn’t take it. Janet tried to help but I guess he had been through enough in the last while that he wasn’t worried about feeding! We still hadn’t heard his stats and wondered how long we would be in there for. By 830 or 9 they finally got us all ready to head over to MIU to settle in for the night. They had a meal waiting for me and Jeremy ordered in Pizza. All the nurses were amazing and very helpful! Ryan stayed in the room with us, at one point in the middle of the night we came out of his swaddle and J and I both looked at each other and didn’t know what to do! We googled how to swaddle rather than calling the nurse in to do it for it! I didn’t want them to think we didn’t know what we were doing, but I guess they could probably tell.
At the end of this amazing process I come away with a few points.
Powerful! That’s what I would describe my birth experience as. Lil man’s due date was June 14 but he decided to join us early. Jeremy and I visited our OB, Dr. Buettner on Wednesday, May 23, she told us everything looked good, he had dropped and she suspected he would come before the 40 week mark. Jeremy then cautiously asked what that meant, she said not in the next week, but probably early. We left the appointment and went back to work for the day. That evening I ran home to eat something quick and had spinach, carrots and barbeque potatoes chips before heading to yoga class at Glenmore.
I took yoga through the whole pregnancy and really enjoyed being in a room of other pregnant women and became friends with a few! It was a nice escape and way to relax once a week. I always enjoyed yoga at the gym as a good work out, prenatal yoga was more about relaxing and stretching. At the beginning I didn’t think it was a work out but as the weeks went on it got harder and I felt it more! After yoga on Wednesday 5/23 I stopped at Chickfila to treat myself to a strawberry milkshake. This isn’t something I’ve ever done before but thought it would be a nice treat!
I wasn’t really feeling right when we went to bed and kept waking up with more cramps. I kept getting up and going to the bathroom and finally gave in and went to our guest bedroom to not wake Jeremy up through out the night. With every birthing wave I would get up and walk to the office or bathroom which would really help. I decided I should start writing down the times each one started to be able to track them. Jeremy woke up around 5am and came in to see what was going on. I told him if this isn’t labor I don’t know what is. His face was priceless, he was overly excited! I continued to sleep and told him he should go back to sleep too. Come to find out he couldn’t sleep! He packed his bag and got everything together. I finally got up and we talked about what we still needed to do. Jeremy went to both of our works to pick up our lap tops and stopped and got us bagels since I knew I had to eat something before we went to the hospital. We called the OB to see if we could come in and get checked to see if this was really labor and how far along I was. They asked how soon we could be there and we said an hour. Jeremy told our parents that we thought I was in labor but not to go to the hospital or do anything at this point I wanted to walk around the neighborhood before we left for the hospital as well as take a shower. We leisurely got our things together and headed to the doctors. On the way to the hospital we agreed that if I was 4 cm or less then we would walk around near the hospital and wait. At this point we didn’t think we were that far along since I could still walk and talk through contractions. Once examined by the doctor they told us I was dilated 6cm and was going to be admitted to the hospital to have our baby boy! They walked us over around 12pm through the stairwell and down a flight of stairs. As we were walking over the nurse asked if we knew someone in L&D. As we opened the door to the nurses station I saw a RN that I went to a Longwood Career event with which made me feel a lot more comfortable. Laura checked us in and got our room set up. We were in L&D room 1, the last room of 14 they had available. Come to find out they were very busy that day!
Jeremy ran back to the car to get our bags and I called Beth to get some last minute advice! The nurses asked if I wanted an epidural, I figured at that point I’d already made it to 6cm and thought it was manageable; I can do this at this point. I changed into my own night gown which I’m glad I brought because it was much more comfortable than the hospital gowns. J set up the computer to the Jack Johnson Pandora station which helped get me through the day. I quickly found out that I enjoyed looking out the window and leaning over to help get through the birthing waves. They hooked me up for 20 minutes to the fetal monitor to make sure everything looked ok. They allowed me to still stand and sit on the birthing ball but had to stay next to the machine. It was pretty cool to be able to watch the monitors and measure his heart beat in comparison to the birthing wave. We decided to walk the halls for a while to help get things going. I was hoping to walk more but after taking a quick tour of the short L&D halls we decided to bust out and walk the 3rd floor. We stopped at the nursery to check out the other babies and had a few birthing waves in the hall way. I was able to get through by leaning on Jeremy and breathing through them. After finding not much else to look at we decided we would head back to the room to see what was going on there. Soon after my mom came and hung out with us in the room, I’d say around 2pmish. Dr. Buettner stopped in to see how I was doing, she was in surgery that day. She came in and said “I guess I was wrong, you’re ready to have this baby”. She informed us that she had to leave at 5pm but that Dr. Tyson was on deck to deliver. Back to focusing on the birthing waves. Breathe, relax, open, relax, relax, relax. Dr. Tyson stopped in and checked me around 4pm and told me we were 7-8cm. She asked if I wanted to have my water broken but we decided not to. Back to focusing on the birthing waves. Breathe, relax, open, relax, oh wow, relax, relax. Back and forth the window, admiring the rocks outside on the roof. Back on the birthing ball. Nipple stimulation, squatting using Jeremy’s legs as support. Breath, relax, relax, oh god, relax. They started getting stronger, a few choice words every once in a while. Janet the nurse stood by and watched along with Jeremy and mom. No one really said much which is the way I liked it. J would speak up and tell me how great I was doing or remind me to breath or while on the monitor that it looked like it was coming down now. I decided that things were getting real and wanted to change into the hospital gown to allow for easier skin to skin time after birth and not ruining my gown as well. After receiving a text from Beth that her water broke when she was on all 4s I tried that. Wow, that was painful! Janet asked that I get back in bed so that she could check me again. That was the most painful. I don’t know how people can sit in bed the entire time, I much rather preferred standing or squatting on the ball.
Dr. Tyson left and Dr. Selman came in around 5pm to check me and said I was 8-9cm dilated. He asked me then if I wanted to pop my water and I said yes after he said it would help speed things up. It was around 5pm and Dr. Selman broke my water, he left the room and Janet asked if we could push if we needed to. My first feeling of needing to push, wow, I always wondered what that was. When they say you know when you need to push, you sure do. Not knowing what to do I asked Janet, do I push, yes, push. Two pushes in she calls for Dr. Selman to come back in. So quick, that was weird to me. Jeremy and Janet held my legs up through another birthing wave. J, hold my foot, look at how Janet is holding it. Next thing I know Janet is pulling the bed apart, put your legs in here, grab behind your legs next time you have to push. I need to push, do I keep pushing, how long do I push for? No one was counting, I thought you were supposed to count to 10…no direction, just push. Lorin, do you want to feel him crowning, no thanks. Dr. Selman informs me he’ll need to do an episiotomy. I don’t know how I was in the right mind to ask him why and question him. The babies heart rate had dropped to 60 for about 5 minutes, then some how it came back up to 90-100, no cutting for this lady! Pushing through the ring of fire. Push, push, push. Next thing I know there he is, our little miracle. It happened so fast, I opened my eyes to the bright lights and lil guy in Dr. Selman’s hands. How amazing that he’s here, right here. We requested delayed clamping so he hung out with Dr. Selman for a few minutes but I was able to reach down and touch him. It gave me a few minutes to catch myself and see what was going on. J took the scissors and proudly cut the ambilical cord, wow. Straight to my chest he came as I gazed into his loving eyes. He’s so bright eyed and admiring of us. Look J, he’s perfect. At that moment, one family as we were joined together forever. We admired him as he admired us. Ryan Joseph I stated, that is your name. I didn’t really ask J if he was ok with it, just seemed right at that moment.
They took him aside to check him out, they said his lungs sounded a little off. Jeremy went over with him as Selman finished taking care of me and the aide cleaned things up. The bed was reassembled and Ryan was brought back over for us to enjoy him. Daddy held him for the first time, what an amazing sight, the joy on his face was priceless. Around 630pm the door opens and in comes mom, expecting that we were still in labor, not expecting lil Ryan had joined the world. The Kain’s soon joined to welcome their grandson to the world.
Ryan came back over and we tried to feed but he wouldn’t take it. Janet tried to help but I guess he had been through enough in the last while that he wasn’t worried about feeding! We still hadn’t heard his stats and wondered how long we would be in there for. By 830 or 9 they finally got us all ready to head over to MIU to settle in for the night. They had a meal waiting for me and Jeremy ordered in Pizza. All the nurses were amazing and very helpful! Ryan stayed in the room with us, at one point in the middle of the night we came out of his swaddle and J and I both looked at each other and didn’t know what to do! We googled how to swaddle rather than calling the nurse in to do it for it! I didn’t want them to think we didn’t know what we were doing, but I guess they could probably tell.
At the end of this amazing process I come away with a few points.
- Natural child birth is amazing and I’m so glad that I was able to conquer it. Yes, it’s painful but power of suggestion and mind over matter really helps you get through it. Each birthing wave is short and you know there is an end in sight. I hope it was less traumatic for Ryan and allowed him a healthy entrance into this world.
- I really expected more direction and guidance through the birthing and pushing. When Janet got us settled in our new room she told me that I was doing everything she would’ve told me to do any ways so she didn’t have to. I really expected a loud delivery of lots of people around counting to 10. J did inform me that I was screaming even though I don’t recall!
- And lastly, I wish we would’ve read more about how to care for a child once they are home. You read and prepare so much for the pregnancy and birth you don’t think about what you’ll need to do for and with the baby afterwards!
