Snickerdoodles & Butterflies: July 2009

*Warning: This IS a birth story...I tried my hardest to not get too detailed, but there are some things that can't be omitted. Read at your own risk ;)*

~MICAH'S BIRTH STORY~

On Thursday evening, July 9th, I went into early labor...FINALLY! Well, we thought. The contractions were consistent and they were definitely "Real" contractions...but they didn't change or intensify at all. So, I labored for 12 hours when all of the sudden *POOF* they started being erratic and spaced out, and varying in intensity. This was around 4:30, so I decided to take this opportunity to sleep in case this was gonna be another long labor like Tyler's.

At 6:20am, the alarm went off, and I had only woken up twice with a mild contraction in those two hours. We got up, and got ready to go to my ultrasound at the hospital to check on the amniotic fluid since I was past 41 weeks at this point. Theresa (Jon's mother) came with Jon and I just to see baby on the ultrasound, and in case for some reason they wanted to keep me. Unfortunately, the fluid was super low, so they sent us to Labor & Delivery, with the intention of inducing. I REALLY didn't want to induce, and none of us had a peace about this. After talking with the doctors and my midwife, and understanding everything that was going on, we just felt a peace from the Lord about going home, re-hydrating to get the fluid back up, and waiting for labor to kick in again on its own. They didn't like it very much, but the doctors were understanding and respectful as they watched us leave.

That afternoon, we just kept praying and asking for a peace from the Lord about this decision, and for him to keep Micah safe...meanwhile I drank probably 2 gallons of water!!! Our biggest concern was that I wouldn't go into labor for a few more days, and then I really would need to be induced. Just to note....the problems with induction were:

1) Micah was posterior, and probably wouldn't respond well to the induction drugs
2) It can be very dangerous to induce when you have had a previous cesarean section, as I had with Jason, because of the risk of rupture
3) When you labor in the hospital, if you don't progress exactly like they want, they will do many things to "get stuff going" and then "Eliminate your extreme pain", and we really wanted this to be a natural birth
4) We felt like the possibility of another cesarean section was much higher if we didn't allow nature to take its course with Micah's birth. We had come such a long hard path to keep from needing cesareans every time we have a baby!! The more you have, the greater risks there are for future pregnancies, and this seemed like they were being overly fearful, negative, and paranoid about his fluid levels, and wouldn't hesitate to do a cesarean if anything else wasn't exactly to their "liking".

Jonathan called some of our elders/deacons, to come pray for me, and we had family praying as well, that my labor would start on its own.

It DID!!! That night, at about 10pm, I went into labor again, Yay!! We went through the night and all morning with the contractions still being erratic, and quite a few times they would quit for a long period of time. I really tried to pace myself to endure a long labor, so I napped or took a bath during the breaks to help myself relax. Things started getting intense Saturday afternoon, and I started begging nobody in particular for an epidural...which I really did NOT want, I just had to beg for it, lol! The contractions took another break, but instead of resting we tried hard to get them going again with walking, etc.

Things picked up again, and during what I assume must have been transition, I started really freaking out and truly saying I wanted to go to the hospital right then for an epidural. Jonathan had Theresa come in my room so we could figure out what to do, and after talking to and watching me, she really felt like I might not make it to the hospital at this point...and that I was probably near fully dialated. I said I really wanted to try, so after another really bad contraction, I went to get off the bed, and my water broke!!! TONS of it too...which means the doctors really were wrong when they doubted my ability to re-hydrate and get the fluid levels up :) Praise the Lord!
I knew Micah was doing fantastic with tolerating labor, because he was so active...but I also knew he was still posterior, and I don't know how the Lord did it, but I didn't have back labor AT ALL!! Yeah...until my water broke. OUCH!! This was at about 7:20pm Saturday night.

I practically ran into the bathroom and got into the shower, and had a couple KILLER contractions! Jonathan and Theresa got the shower temp. good, and turned on, and at this point they realized that the baby was coming NOW. The only way to tolerate the contractions was to push...so that's what I did. A few contractions later, Theresa's voice suddenly changed and she said, "Um, Heather, try and see if you can feel his head", so I did, and I could feel his little head!! A couple pushes later, and his head came out...and we made sure the cord wasn't around his neck. It wasn't, so the next time I pushed, we had a baby! In our bathtub! At home! AHHHH!!

Jonathan had jumped in the tub/shower with me FULLY clothed, and had cought baby Micah when he came out. He was moving a little, but not crying or making noise. We gagged him a little, and out came a little whine, and then a huge scream! It was the most amazing thing! I couldn't believe I had just delivered this tiny little person. Theresa went to go find something to tie his cord with, and some scissors, and then she put them on to boil...his cord was so short, I could only hold him on my tummy until we could cut the cord. They wrapped us up in towels and flannel baby blankets, and we let the bath fill up with water from the shower so we could stay toasty warm.

He was born at exactly 7:34pm...about 15 minutes or so after my water had broke!

We called ahead to the hospital, and started getting ready to go. Unfortunately, I started bleeding a bit, so we waited to get it stopped before getting everything in the car and going. We drove the 45 minutes to the hospital, getting there at about 10:30pm. Everyone was SO nice to us, and I believe we were quite the item of news that night :) Micah weighed 8lbs, 9oz when we arrived, and was doing fantastic! Praise the Lord! We ended up staying for a couple days so they could make sure Micah was ok and didn't get any infections or anything. We were so happy to come home though, and were so grateful for the wonderful help of Miriam and Theresa...all the mess was cleaned up, laundry done, boys' room cleaned, and our wonderfully soft bed all made up for us!

Quite the story to tell Micah when he grows up...and although there are many more details of his birth, the most important was that, at EVERY turn during the prelabor, labor, and birth, God totally was guiding our steps. I remember one of the elders from our church said that he kept hearing God speak the word "Natural", when they had come to pray with us on Friday. I have no doubt in my mind that God had every bit of this planned out...we just had to walk the path, and trust him. I don't think you can get any more "Natural" than an unassisted home birth ;)