A Very Belated Birth Story

I logged into my blog today and the last date I posted on here was 14 months ago! Quite a lot has happened since then but let's fast forward to the events of last fall.

September 15, to be exact.

Actually this story begins the day before. 

About to leave for the hospital

Saturday, September 14- David, Laura and I headed out on a two mile walk on muggy September morning. I had 6 days until my official due date which was the 20th and was feeling great. Well, minus being 9 months pregnant in the Texas heat. I had bloody show when we got home but knew that didn't really amount to much. I was going to have a baby some time in the next few weeks bloody show or not and I tried not to get my hopes up of it being before my due date.

David sweetly washed both of our cars that morning. After Laura's nap I headed across town to a friend's daughter second birthday party. I felt like I was having some Braxton Hicks but I really wasn't sure if they were real contractions or just practice ones. They stopped while at the party and kicked in again in the car.

By bedtime I was starting to have irregular contractions that weren't too difficult to work through. I tried to sleep for several hours and finally gave up and went downstairs for a snack and to watch tv.

I got David up around 5 am and was having contractions about 5-6 minutes apart but I could nearly talk through them and wasn't terribly serious in between so I didn't know what was going on. We finally called the on call midwife Katy (my practice had 6 midwives) and she told us to come in to the hospital.

I called our pastor's wife who we had arranged to come over when I went into labor. She fixed herself a pot of coffee and we prayed together while I held back tears before we left for the hospital. Praise God Laura was asleep through all this, it made everything so much simpler and allowed me to just focus on my labor. 

We got to the hospital around 6:30 am and I was able to walk to the labor and delivery floor. I was so elated to find out I was already 8 cm! Katy wanted to break my water to move things along faster but I really wanted things to progress on their own.  

I had made a new friend at church who was two weeks overdue and using the same midwife. I asked Katy the midwife if Kali was here and sure enough she had given birth just hours before! The midwife asked Kali if she was up for visitors we peaked in on her and her new daughter Eleanor. I was happily working through contractions while we chatted and adored her new baby for a few minutes until I decided we should leave and go have our own baby!

Back in my own birthing suite I was able to labor in a nice quite dark room with the birth ball. David fed me ice chips and Jolly Ranchers and Katy wiped my brow. The contractions were all right on top of each other during transition and I could barely catch a break.

When I got to 10 my water still hadn't broken but the midwife help broke it while I was pushing.

I was somewhat scared to push after tearing with Laura and I wasn't holding my breath while pushing. The midwife told me I had to push, he wasn't just going to come out on his own (which is what I wanted!)

A few pushes later and he was here! Daniel Joseph was born at 7:52 am, 7 pounds 3 ounces of perfection. It was a beautiful birth and we got to have skin to skin right away. I didn't get that with Laura because she wasn't breathing well.

I was bleeding quite a bit so they began a Pitcon drip and then switched to a pump for an hour. I was still bleeding more than the nurses liked so they gave me Cytotec to stop the bleeding. That was annoying because I had to stay in the recovery room for much longer than normal. And with no food! 

We called about breakfast and they said they had to check my diet. I should have just sent David out for food because it was probably 2pm until I had food delivered to my post partum room. I thought I would gag if I ate another Larabar.

Kali and Eleanor came to visit after I delivered Daniel

I had several fears and anxieties during this pregnancy, especially moving across the country 30 weeks pregnant. I was worried who we would find to watch Laura, knowing so few people in a new city and God provided. I was worried about David being stuck at work for several hours or being unable to reach him when I went into labor. I was anxious about driving across town to the hospital in the unforgiving San Antonio traffic.

Proud Dad

Yet not a single one of these worries came to fruition. I went into labor at night with David by my side and we were able to drive smoothly across town in the early morning. It was a sweet reminder that the Lord cares for the little things in our lives that bring us anxiety. God looked out for all our small needs during my labor and birth.

Grandma Denise drove down from Austin

Big Sister said "baby" for the first time

Grandpa Joe

"Aunt" Shelly drove down too!

Our family of four