Isaiah’s Birth Story! My First Unmedicated Birth!

Wow. First of all, I am SO sorry it has been so long since you've heard from me! Life has been NUTS!!! From LuLaRoe, to two kids, I have left no time for me to sit down and document anything! But today I decided I would let NOTHING get in my way of documenting this boys grand entrance before I forget all of the details!

August 13, 2016 was set as my due date! Based on my last period, that's the day we could expect to welcome this new baby we'd learned about! Already, I felt like I had so much love for this baby human before I knew if it would be a girl or a boy! All of those things about not knowing if you could love number 2 as much as number 1 until you meet them were true! I felt a sense of missing my "new mom" life already! I was gonna be a momma of TWO!

My pregnancy as a whole went GREAT! After having gestational diabetes with Charlie I was determined to be healthier in this pregnancy and for that reason kept working out up until 34-35 weeks! I was super proud of myself around 30 weeks finding out I would NOT be diagnosed again! It was such an accomplishment and I felt like I could do anything! The weeks to come were tough though! We went to LuLaRoe Convention when I was 36 weeks and I was miserably swollen the entire time! It was terrible. But we had lots of fun and it was totally worth it! Somehow when I came home the swelling went down and stayed down even until the moment I delivered the baby! Oh, should I tell you about it? ;)

Here we go!

My due date changed to August 5 in the middle of my pregnancy when I had an ultrasound! Charlie was born the day after my due date so I didn't expect him to come early. My due date quickly approached and I was ready to have this baby with NO medicine! I had met with a doula in training (my cousin), and was ready for anything to come! Most importantly I KNEW I could do it! With the help of my husband and my mentality, I knew I could do anything I put my mind to! So, here is the good stuff! :)

The Tuesday before my due date (Friday) I started having contractions in the evening that were about 5 minutes apart. Not knowing if they would progress at all and how quickly, I texted my dad before it got too late to let him know that I had started labor and to keep his phone on him. He immediately offered to come give me a blessing and headed up to the house. I told him not to tell my mom because she is a horrible sleeper. He did and of course she didn't sleep all night! He came up to the house and gave me a blessing of comfort. It is amazing what the priesthood power can do and I can't tell you how much better I felt after. The contractions ended up slowing down that night and being light enough that I could get a full night of sleep. Or at least as much as Charlie ever lets me sleep! ;) The next few days the contractions continued to be sporadic and very low in intensity (almost unnoticeable) so I continued on as normal! Bags of course had been packed for weeks but we weren't in any rush! Once it got closer to my due date I got a little more anxious and ready for it to get serious! My doula, Katie, was out of town that week and would be getting in town ON my due date so I was okay with this little guy cooking until she got home! On my due date at 2pm Katie got back in town and it was game time! We hadn't done any "promoting" of labor previously but at that point we did! (TMI? haha)

So that night at 11pm I tried to crawl into bed and get comfy! In the process of trying to fall asleep I realized my contractions had started to increase in intensity and get closer together. It got closer to 1 am when I decided I would start to time them on the app on my phone! I timed them for about 45 minutes and realized they were pretty consistently 5 or less minutes apart with a few in there that were 8-12. I sent a screen shot to Katie to let her know things COULD be getting serious! Somehow she had a feeling it would happen that night and had her phone on her so she text me back right away to let me know I needed to keep timing and if they kept progressing to let her know when I felt it time to have her come over!

So after another 45 minutes or so of timing them, they got to be about 2-3 minutes apart and a minute long. Just as I sent Katie another screen shot of the progression she sent me those same stats and said when they get to be 2-3 minutes apart and 50sec-1min long you need to head to the hospital! Meanwhile, have you thought about Charlie?! Ever since about 10 minutes after contacting Katie I was trying to get in contact with my dad since Charlie was asleep and we would obviously have to leave soon! When Katie told me those stats I was calling and calling and calling and getting kind of nervous. Finally, after about 45 minutes (3 am at this point) he called me back and I told him it was time for him to come over! So he headed up to our house and was there in about 15 minutes. At the same time dad called me back I had told Katie to head over and she did! But somehow dad beat her! So when he got there, my contractions were to the point that I was on the ground on my knees leaning over the couch with Nu'u doing counter pressure on my hips to alleviate the pain. It was working! But dad watched that happen 1-2 times and was like "soooo are you leaving?" and I thought oh I guess we should but Katie wasn't there yet!

We got all loaded up in the car and I text her to just have her meet us there. The time now is about 3:45 and my contractions were getting pretty tough. They were about 2-2.5 minutes apart and a minute long. So I wasn't getting much of a break. We got to the hospital about 3:50 and headed straight up to Labor and Delivery. When I texted Katie she was about to pull up to the house but just turned the other way and headed to the hospital. So when we got there she was there and ready to walk in with me. Nu'u parked the car and we headed up. When I got up to the window, obviously between contractions, I said "I know it doesn't seem like it right this second but I'm in labor". The girl of course said okay we have a paper for you to fill out, when are you due, has your water broke? I said yesterday, and no! So she handed me the paper and had me sit down. I got about hallway through the paper when Nu'u came up from parking the car and I handed it off for him to finish because I just couldn't get through it anymore with enough focus.

I sat there bracing myself on the chair and breathing through one contraction at a time. They were now about 1-1.5 min and 1 minute long and getting much more intense. I sat there and could breathe through them for about 30-45 minutes. I kept having to go potty so in the midst of this I probably went in to the bathroom (that was intermittently being cleaned). After a little while they were getting pretty bad and Katie went up to let them know my water hadn't broke, and I wasn't gonna cause a scene in the waiting room, but I WAS in quite a bit of pain. The lady at the desk let her know they were working on a room for me and it should be ready soon. At this point I was standing above the chair bent over leaning on the arm rests and having Nu'u do counter pressure while I stood there and swayed. It was still working! All of the sudden I had the urge to potty again (poop...TMI again?) and so I went to the bathroom. This time of course took me a little longer than the other times and after a few minutes I heard Nu'u lightly knock and say "honey, are you okay?" and I said yeah! Then he told me they called us back! So I cleaned up and headed out.

They took us back to triage and had me dress down to a robe and hook me up to monitors. They asked me a couple questions like my presence on an epidural (none), and who's my midwife (Angela Detie, but Charlene is on call for her)! After a little bit of being on the monitors they checked my dilation. As soon as they did things went SO fast! I was at a 6-7 "so we're gonna admit you!"

It was 5:30 am, I was at a 6-7, and Nu'u threw his fist up to bump because he knew at this point, we could do it!!! The nurse, Melissa, was super on board with me not having an epidural and doing whatever she could to help me accomplish that! As soon as we got into the room she was giving me tips as to how and where to stand or kneel so that Nu'u could continue to do counter pressure because she knew that's what was helping me! I ended up crawling up in bed, bringing the back all the way up and kneeling with my arms resting on the top so Nu'u could reach my back and help my pain! One. Contraction. At. A. Time! That is all it took! I was breathing and grunting through every contraction while Nu'u pressed on my hips and it was still working! He also started playing my all time favorite song "Can't Stop the Feeling by JT" on repeat! By the time I got comfortable/situated in the bed, Melissa was ready to check me again. I was already at an 8. I continued to labor and get through one contraction at a time. When I got back up to my kneeling position they had someone come in and take my blood. Every time he thought he was ready to prick I would start another contraction and he would have to wait! It probably took like 3 contractions for him to figure out he needed to be ready AS SOON as one ended before another one started. He drew blood and then was done. A little while after that my legs started to get REALLY shaky and I wanted to find a new position.

We brought the bed down flatter and I rolled on to my left side where Nu'u could still reach my hips (he just had to do it sideways). After no more than 2 contractions in that position, at the very beginning of a contraction I felt a big pop, but nothing came out! As the contraction kept going I kind of pushed with it and a little liquid came out. As soon as the contraction was over and I could talk I said that I thought my water broke so they rolled me to my back and it ALL came out! Yup, it was my water! And guess who walked in at that exact time? Charlene (my best friends midwife)! She was the midwife on call for Angela (mine)! Thought I had never met her, I was glad they said her name and that it was familiar since that's who my best friend sees! When she saw that my water broke she said "oh that baby is gonna come flying out now, let me check you!"

She checked me right then and said I was at a 9, "but that could dissolve with one more contraction". And then she asked if I had any urge to push and I said no. Since she asked that I got kid of nervous and wondered why I didn't have any urge to push and didn't know what that would feel like! With the next one, I started to grunt and spontaneously felt the urge to push! I caught Charlene a little by surprise and she wanted to check again! As she did (she told me later) she felt baby's head turn and shift down and she knew it was time. I was also already pushing and there was no stopping me! With 3 more pushes, at 6:49 am, baby was out! He weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and was 19 inches! He was put on my chest and made almost no noise. He was calm as could be and breathing fine! They got a little cry out of him but he was just calm. Same as big brother. He had the sweetest smell and I just laid my head back to soak it all in. I couldn't believe I did it (I still can't) and I would do it again 100 times! I didn't tear at all! Afterpains were the worst part but I got some Ibuprofen and I was good! :)

Having this baby natural was the single most rewarding accomplishment I have ever experienced! It was extremely empowering and I can't tell you how good I felt and still feel! I feel like a super mom and like I can literally take on the world! Recovery as a whole has been SO much better not the mentally and physically and baby came out with no problems! Did you pay attention to time? I got admitted finally at 5:30 and baby was out hardly over an hour later! I was checked in the hospital for AN HOUR and that's it! It was absolutely amazing and the staff at Centennial Hill Hospital played a HUGE part in my all natural delivery! They were AMAZING and like I said, I would do it 100 more times!!

I hope you enjoyed this birth story! I promise I won't stay away this long ever again! (Or at least I'll try my hardest!)