Isaiah’s Birth Story

I think this will forever be one of my favorite stories of my life to tell, read, and relive. It was truly an amazing event. Welcoming my first baby into the world will always hold such a special place in my heart, but there was something just as special to Isaiah’s birth.

My whole pregnancy with Isaiah had been pretty easy. Other than being tired the whole time from chasing Elijah around as well and some extra aches and pains it was pretty much smooth sailing. I was concerned though about going past my due date again since I went 42 weeks the first time around.

I had been having contractions for weeks that just never turned into anything. On Friday night I was having these contractions again but this time with a ton of baby movement as well. Saturday morning I woke up still pregnant but the whole morning it seemed like the contractions continued. Not intensely, but sort of regular. We went about our day and I considered not going into work because of the regular contractions but I didn’t want to call our nanny off less than an hour before, so I went in.

As the day progressed so did the contractions. They got to a point where I knew one was coming because it had been 7 minutes. I was able to predict them by watching the clock in my radar scope while I was working. And then the intensity went up a little. And then I got busy. In labor and working sort of busy air traffic. (How’s that for multi tasking?) I got off position and told Daniel not to skip a break because we may be going home. Sure enough things kept getting a little stronger so we left.

Thankfully our nanny was already at our house watching Elijah, and she was able to go home to get stuff and then come back for the night to stay with Elijah until my mom could make it out early the next morning.

I labored at home until around 10 pm when my contractions got to 3-5 minutes apart and we figured we should go in since they always say second babies come a lot faster and I hadn’t really experienced normal labor because of my induction.

We got into our room at the birth center and the midwife checked my cervix. I was at 5cm and 80% effaced. So a ways to go but we were staying there. I should also mention that while everyone at Dar a Luz is wonderful the midwife on call that night was probably my favorite and who I would have picked to be there given the choice.

She brought in the labor ball and I started to sit, rock, and bounce on that, but my contractions had just slowed down a lot. I was also exhausted. I had been up since 430 that morning with Elijah after not getting to sleep the night before till like 1130. I tried to lay down and sort of sleep for a little while and that helped, but it just kind of seemed like nothing was happening.

The midwife came in to chat about the slow down and gave us some options. One was to go home and see what happened there. She would stay and we could just come back if things picked up. Another was to try to rest more at the birth center and see, or to try and push labor along by walking, bouncing, and using the breast pump. I decided to just go home. I needed some sort of rest and the birth center as great as it was just wasn’t allowing me to relax into labor at that point.

Home we went at around 2am. We snuck into our casita to not wake or scare our nanny. We lay down and tried to sleep – Daniel even set an alarm to go relieve the nanny. I was able to get a few minutes here and there in between contractions, but at about 315 I was fully awake with intense and close contractions. I went to the bathroom which woke Daniel up and as I was in there I started to shake a little. I went back to the bed and sat there for a few minutes and noticed my contractions were pretty much on top of each other. Like 1-2 minutes apart. I told Daniel ‘we need to go back.’ He replies with “are you sure?” I said ‘yes’ and he asked me again if I was sure. I was at the end of a contraction and got up and walked out the door to the car.

We made it to Dar a Luz at just before 4 am and my contractions were intense. I continued to focus on breathing through them and even vocalizing through them( much to my surprise and anyone who knows me reading this).

The midwife asked if I wanted the tub and I said yes so she filled that and I got in. It wasn’t even full and I hadn’t even been in for more than a couple minutes and I felt my body start to push. I announced this and the midwife simply said “go for it.” (Talk about a difference from a hospital)

I pushed and felt like nothing was happening at first and then felt the burning , stinging ‘ring of fire’. She brought a mirror into the tub so I and she could see and there was the top of a baby’s head! I continued to push and hit a point where i looked up and said “I can’t do this” to which I had Daniel to my side saying “yes you can” and the midwife in front of me also telling me with a smile that I could absolutely do it.

With the next couple of pushes my water popped, and next thing I knew I could feel his head coming out. Then his body guided by the midwife as she told me to grab my baby.

I picked him up out of the water and brought him straight to my chest. I did it. He was here and I was his mama. I looked over at Daniel and we smiled with the happiest tears in our eyes knowing our family was complete.

I sat in the tub holding him for a while while the cord finished pumping blood. He was only taken for seconds to get a cry to help him get the gunk out. The midwife clamped the cord and Daniel got to cut it and then take Isaiah skin to skin while I delivered the placenta.

I made it back over to the bed and we snuggled up as a family where Isaiah latched in and nursed for a good hour and a half before they did any sort of exam or weighing or any of that.

She showed us the placenta and all it’s parts and also the two vessel cord he had – that the ultra sound clinic was worried about him not growing because of it. It’s not for the squeamish, but it was amazing to see the organ that my body created.

His weight was 8 lbs 2 oz and he was 20 inches long born 11/11/2018 at 4:28 am.

We left the birth center at around 8:30 am tired, starving, and blissfully in love.

This birth was the beautiful and empowering birth experience that I dreamed of. Every birth experience is special but this was so powerful to me. It was an experience of really trusting myself and finding a strength I didn’t know was there.