About 2 weeks ago I had the most amazing/scary/painful/wonderful experience of my entire life. I gave birth to my sweet baby boy Chate. I would like to share with you the story of his birth before the memories of those long hard laboring days fade from my memory. This story is not only for me but for my sweet baby boy, he is the light of my life and I want to express to him and my family and friends how wonderful and also how very hard bringing a baby into this world is. I have so much respect and great love and understanding for all mothers whom have given birth to their babies, it is not an easy task, and I truly believe this great calling of bringing children into this world was given to women for a reason. I look back on this experience and wonder how I made it through. But I know that with the help of my Heavenly Father, and my amazing husband I was able to face and bear this great trial of giving birth. Here is Chates birth story:
It all started on the night of June 30th. I was at home cleaning and organizing things for Chates arrival, as I was to be induced that Monday and wanted everything perfect as it could be for a new baby. Chance was at work, phone at the ready just in case anything decided to happen...Well around 8:00 p.m. I started having these weird crampy type feelings in my pelvic area and my back was really hurting. I didn't know what they were, I actually just thought that maybe I had an upset stomach from something that I ate that day-I have never done this baby thing so I had no idea what to expect! Well I text Chance and let him know what was going on, and he said that I might as well start timing them just to see if they are coming consistently or not. So I did just that, and they seemed a little sporadic, anywhere between 10-15 minutes apart, but I was definitely beginning to believe that these pains were not an upset stomach. When Chance got home that night, we continued to time the contractions, and I took a shower to take the edge off. We decided to not go to the hospital that night since they were not close together or very frequent. So we went to bed, well Chance went to bed, I was up pretty much the whole night, as those darn pains began hurting a heck of a lot mare and were about 4 minutes apart and frequent. We decided to head to the hospital around 10 o'clock Sunday morning, mostly to see if the nurses could determine if I was indeed in labor.
We went into a labor room and I was hooked up to monitors, they monitored the contractions for about 2 hours and they were about 3 minutes apart. They checked my progress, and I was 1cm dilated and 95% effaced. They had me get up and go on a walk around the hospital to see if that would help in the dilation process. At this point it was mid-afternoon, and the contractions were getting very painful, on our many walks we took, I had to stop several times, well with each contraction so that Chance could apply pressure to my lower back, where it was the most painful. After about the 3rd walk or so they checked me for the third time and I was dilated to a 3 and fully effaced, and the baby had dropped a bit as well. The doctor on call gave me the choice to go home or not, but he recommended I stay because I was "bound to dilate" soon...that's what they kept telling me anyways. And I was in a lot of pain, and if I stayed I could get pain medication. That night we went to bed- I was at a 5. They gave me some morphine for the pain, it did take the edge off a bit, and I was able to get about 2 hours of sleep because the nurses come and check on you all the time, and then say "try and get some rest" well I would if you stopped coming in every hour! Actually I have to say that I had THE most amazing nurses ever, they were all so sweet and answered all my strange questions and calmed my fears I loved those nurses to death.
Ok so Monday morning eventually strolled around, and Chance and I were very tired. Chance was the most amazing person to have at my side through all of this, he was loving, concerned, and just more than I could ever have hoped for when it came to this labor. He was right at my side with every painful contraction, helping me to breathe through them and letting me know when they were done. I love him so much, I could not have done it without him. 6 o'clock Monday morning, they moved me to an actual delivery room, and a doctor came in and broke my water. That was a very strange feeling, it really was like peeing your pants, except it just kept on coming, and with every contraction more fluid came with it. About an hour later I was wanting the epidural so bad, the contractions were getting unbearable, and I had already had to deal with them for a full day already and my body needed a rest. The anesthesiologist who gave me the epidural did such a great job, I didn't even feel a thing. The medicine started working about 20 minutes later, and the numbing effect it gave was a much needed relief. At this point I was dilated to a 7 I think and the contractions were 1-2 minutes apart, with the help of a little pitocin to make them stronger. I do have to put this in here-because of having an epidural they had to constantly take my blood pressure. So I had to have one of those dumb things on my arm for 12+ hours, every 5 minutes or so squeezning the living heck out of my arm, and then slowly releasing, I hated that thing so much.
Now, this is where the story takes a very surprising and painful turn. About mid afternoon around 6 or 7 that evening I started noticing that I was beginning to feel the pain of the contractions coming back. How was this possible? I had the epidural and that was supposed to make me not feel any pain right? Well apparently not in my case. I had been on the epidural for over 12 hours at this point and apparently my body was just getting used to the drug and its effect was not working on me anymore, even with the help of an even stronger drug than the epidural, I could still feel so much. About 10 o'clock that night I was fully dilated, and the pain was so unbearable, I cannot describe in words, how it felt, only that I told Chance on several occasions that I was going to die. I literally felt like my body was going to give up from all this burning, writhing pain that it was going through. I couldn't take it anymore, I wanted this baby out of my body more than anything that I had ever wanted before. The nurse said that I could start pushing but the baby was still pretty high. I didn't care though. I began pushing with all the energy that my body had left in it. I pushed for about an hour and a half with no success. The baby was posterior, and when the doctor finally came in to see how I was doing she said that I could push for 4 more hours and it wouldn't do any good because of his position and my narrow pelvis. She suggested a c-section, and at this point I did not care how they got the baby out as long as I did not have to endure this pain any longer. They immediately began prepping me for the surgery, very quickly as my body was shaking and writhing in intense pain. The poor anesthesiologist who was going to give me the spinal for the c-section was so concerned for me, she talked to me so sweetly and held my hand and was by my side until they let Chance into the surgery room. The relief that I felt from the spinal block was immediate. The warm numbing sensation overtook my body, and I was immediately overtaken by exhaustion, I fell a sleep as they were getting my baby out. The nurse woke me so I could hear the baby coming out. I remember hearing the most sweetest thing that I had been waiting for with 3 days of labor, my little boys cry. Chance was able to go over and see them clean him up and to cut the umbilical cord. Now, I do not remember very much at this point because I was completely and fully exhausted, I remember Chance bringing Chate over to me so I could see him. I put my hand on his tiny little head and I immediately felt a calm, and fully encompassing peace overwhelm my body. I had my baby here safe and sound and all was well. I then fell asleep again almost immediately as they took Chate and Chance to the nursery and the doctors were stitching me back up. Chate was born 12:37 a.m. July 3rd 8lbs 1.8 ounces.
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| I know this is an extremely bad pic, but this is the first time I got to hold Chate. I dont remember this, so I am very grateful Chance took this picture :) |
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| Chance holding his baby the following morning :) my cute boys!!! |
The following morning I was a bit more with it, and coherent, as the doctors let me sleep the rest of the night, at least I think they did, if they came in and checked on me I don't remember it at all. My family and mom was also there to support me through as well. I feel so blessed to have my little boy healthy and doing so well. I love him with all my heart, and appreciate life even more now from that experience, and the things I went through to get Chate here. Everything that took place was all worth getting my little guy here, each time I hold my baby in my arms and he smiles up at me and stares straight into my eyes, I know that he loves me so much, it melts my heart, and I couldn't ask for anything more than that. Mommy loves you so much Chate, you are my baby, and I hope and pray that I can be the best mom to you, that I can be someone you look up to, someone you trust, someone who can be a friend, someone who can teach you about love and Jesus, someone who can calm your fears, make you laugh, and hold you when you cry, I love you with all my heart.
-Love mommy
