Chase's birth story

It's so hard to believe that after months of preparation, Chase is finally here! I was so determined to have a completely natural birth and I feel so fortunate that everything turned out the way it did. I know that, most of the time in life, things don't go as planned. Especially when it comes to labor and delivery, you just never know what will happen. But honestly, I couldn't have imagined that things would happen as quickly and easily as they did! Here's the story... (warning: this is LONG and detailed!)

I went to see the midwife on Wednesday, Feb. 21st for my 39 week check-up. She said that I was 1cm dilated and about 70% effaced. I was content with that, and still expected that it would be another week or so before he arrived. That was my word of choice for the last few weeks of pregnancy: content. I wasn't anxious, nervous, scared, or anything. I just felt so calm and patient and ready to let things play out in their own time. The midwife, on the other hand, wanted me to go into labor the next day! She said she'd be on call at the hospital on Thursday and she really hoped to see me there (I had more than one midwife so I wasn't sure exactly which one would be at the hospital at the time... but I really liked this particular one, named Janine). I just told her "yeah right" and that I'd probably see her for my 40 week appointment. By the way, I LOVED having a midwife and highly recommend it! Even if you don't want a natural birth, they are just so much more caring and motherly than doctors are (the ones I've met any way).... they don't look at pregnancy as much a medical condition, and really treat you like you're the most important person they'll see that day! I will definitely use a midwife for any future pregnancies.

Anyways, that night I didn't sleep at all, but for no logical reason. I just laid awake forever listening to my iPod and thinking. Eric and I never ended up taking a childbirth class, although we wanted to. I decided that the standard hospital class might be a little too much geared towards a medicated birth and I wanted to find something else. I ended up reading a lot about hypnobirthing from various websites and magazines, and thought that it would be the perfect method for a natural birth. I ordered a copy of the book and tried to find an instructor in our area. I talked to one lady who agreed to come to our house for the classes, but then our schedules didn't end up matching up and so that fell through. I also found a class at a local hospital, not the one we delivered at, but it was too late at that point to sign up. So we were on our own. I read the book from cover to cover and ordered an additional CD (one comes with the book). Eric was great about going over everything with me and we practiced a few of the relaxation techniques when we could. The most helpful part about the program though, was the birthing affirmations CD that I listened to in my car every morning. I think this really made a huge impact on my whole perception of what labor would be like, and kept me thinking positively during contractions. I also listened to 2 of the self-hypnosis tracks every night on my iPod and I know for a fact that they worked perfectly. It took a while for me to get into it, but it was amazing how quickly I could get myself to completely relax my body, and yet at the same time focus on what I needed to do during labor.

SO, to get back to the story... on Thursday I went to work and just felt "blah" all day long. No contractions, that I could feel anyways, but I had a headache and felt a little nauseous. At that point I had a feeling that Chase might be born that weekend. So at the end of the day I packed up a bunch of stuff from my office and took it home with me. I made sure my to-do list was cleared and that everything was ready if by chance I didn't return the next day. But honestly, I didn't really believe that I wouldn't be back. When I got home I went to the bathroom and started to feel a pretty strong contraction. Then I heard a small POP and noticed that there was some fluid leaking out, but not much. I really expected a gush when my water broke, but it wasn't like that at all. I was a little confused and didn't want to create a false alarm, but I told Eric and we decided just to wait and see what happened. Well, then my mom called and when I explained it to her, she said she really did think it was my water breaking and that I should go on a walk to get some contractions going. So we went on a walk with the dogs around the neighborhood. I remember thinking it was so surreal that this was finally happening and that this would be the last time our little family was just 4 instead of 5! Contractions had definitely started, but I felt pretty good. I knew it was important to just stay calm and keep moving. When we got home Eric and I started getting the hospital stuff together and did some last minute things around the house. I called my mom and told her that this was "definitely it" and that they should start traveling! She and my dad decided to drive through the night and at that point I figured they would still make it in time for the birth (it's a 9 hour drive from Charleston). I listened to my iPod for a while and just kept busy as much as I could. Knowing that they wouldn't let me eat at the hospital, I wanted to get in a big meal before we left. So I ate some vegetable beef soup and crackers while we watched some TV. I also knew that it could be a long night and that I should get some rest, so I headed upstairs to get in bed for a while. In the meantime, Eric called his family. This was about 7:30pm. Listening to my relaxation tracks really helped, but the problem was the constant fluid flow! I just couldn't sleep so I got in the shower. I think I was in there for about 45 minutes. I know it sounds crazy but I really wanted to shave my legs! Again, I really think it was just about keeping busy. People have asked me if I was in "pain" during contractions, but honestly, I was just completely unaware of any discomfort at that point. I knew in the back of my mind that my body was working on having a baby and when the beginning of each contraction hit, I would just stop whatever I was doing and then try to work to help my body do what it needed to do. I would use the "slow breathing" techniques from hynobirthing and the visualization practices. I often got into a deep squat, which seemed to help things progress as well. I actually was really happy about the contractions (hypnobirthing calls them "surges", by the way) because I knew that each one was bringing Chase closer to me. Anyways, after the shower, I went downstairs and laid on the couch and listened to the iPod again. This really put me into a relaxed state, but I was aware that my back was starting to ache a bit. So Eric put a heat pack in the microwave for me and we kept it on my lower back for a while, which helped tremendously. While we were sitting there, we started timing the contractions so that when I called the midwife I would know how far apart they were. We were surprised to find that they were consistently 4 minutes apart for about 30 minutes. I thought it was a bit too early to go to the hospital, but I decided to call anyways. I was so happy to talk to Janine, the midwife I had met with the day before! She was very casual and just said, "why don't you come on in when you feel like it to be checked out." I thought I'd wait a little while, but then I had a very intense contraction. Eric came and rubbed by back during the next one and I hardly felt any pain at all. But I knew we should get going so we started loading things up in the car. This was about 9pm. The ride to the hospital seemed to pass by very quickly... I hardly remember it. I think I listened to the iPod again but I do remember telling Eric that he shouldn't call his parents yet because I was probably only 2cm dilated. I didn't want them to have to stay in the waiting room all night! I think he had already called them though, which ended up being a good thing!

So we pulled up to hospital's emergency room doors (since it was after hours) and I got out. There was no where to park there so Eric had to take the car around to the other side. I told him just to meet me upstairs in Labor and Delivery. I walked up to the admitting desk and told them that I was there to have a baby. The lady looked at me like I was crazy! She was like, "WHERE is your husband?" I told her that he went to park the car and would meet me upstairs. She then ran into the back to try to find someone to take me upstairs in a wheelchair but I kept calling after her to explain that I was quite capable of walking! Anyways, I made it upstairs with no problem and so did Eric. I was glad to see that Janine was still there and she assured me that she would be with me all night. When she checked me, we were all shocked to find out that I was already 8cm dilated!!! I was so excited to almost be done, even though I hadn't really experienced much pain at all, and I knew we were so close to meeting our little boy! This was around 9:45pm. The next 45 minutes are a bit of a blur. They had me signing all kinds of paperwork, which I was not happy about because all I wanted to do was relax and focus on my contractions. Eric really helped out a ton during this stage (most people refer to it as the "transition" phase). Every time my face or hands got tense, he would quickly get me to relax and talk me through it. I know there were a couple of times that I lost control for a minute though... Eric likes to remind me about the cuss word I let slip during a particularly strong contraction! He said that he had to hide his face from me a few times to keep himself from laughing at every thing I was doing! :) Anyways, I quickly progressed to 10cm and they let me start pushing. Not much to say about that! (If anyone reading this wants more details, I'm happy to share things like what position I pushed in, what it felt like without drugs, etc.... just ask me in an email, but I'll spare the general blog population.) It took me about an hour to get Chase out, but I think that's pretty normal. The weirdest part about pushing is that there is so much down time in between contractions. It's like one minute you're working harder than you've ever done in your whole life and everyone is cheering for you and rooting you on, and then the next minute you're all just sitting around, joking and laughing like there's nothing else going on! So, finally, Chase was born at 11:47pm! He came out wide awake and bright eyed, taking in every thing around him! Right after it was over I was so happy and just running on pure adrenaline. I remember feeling like I could do anything at that point... hike up a mountain, run a marathon... I felt SO good! The only thing that got me down was the fact that they had to take Chase to the nursery so quickly since I had gestational diabetes. I didn't know about that beforehand and was looking forward to nursing him right away. But instead I had to wait until they brought him back to us at like 3am. :( But oh well, he was just fine and his blood sugar levels were all normal so I'm happy about that! A small consolation was the pile of snacks they laid in front of me at midnight... graham crackers, shortbread cookies, Oreos!!! I was loving it!

Since Chase was born before midnight on Thursday, we were allowed to leave the hospital on Saturday morning. However, we were surprised when the pediatrician came in our room that morning and started acting very serious when giving us his report on Chase's health. I remember my stomach sinking to the ground because I just knew that he had bad news to tell us. I felt so nauseous. What he said was that Chase had a heart murmur and that we had to stay a little while longer while he had an echo cardiogram. He said it probably wouldn't amount to anything since Chase seemed healthy in every way, but it was just a precaution. We were so worried but kept thinking positively. We knew he was okay, because like the pediatrician said, you could tell that nothing was really wrong with him. He was eating, sleeping, pooping... everything normal. So we had to wait the rest of the day but in the end we got a call and they told us that we were free to go home... he only had a tiny "VSD". We had to take him to a pediatric cardiologist a few days later, but he confirmed that everything was fine. Chase has a tiny hole in his heart that should close on it's own within a few months. He said it's very small and shouldn't be a problem at all due to it's location. He even said that something like 99.9% of these go away on their own and not to be worried. So we're not! :)

Today Chase is 1 week old and weighs 7 lbs 12 oz! Already over his birth weight! He's 21 inches long, which is in the 90th percentile... he's going to be tall like his daddy! We're so happy to have him in our lives and can't wait to watch him grow! He's so much fun to just watch and observe! We'll be posting lots of pictures and reports on his progress so stay tuned!