Isaac's Birth Story

I'm alive! And guess what? So is our son! Our baby boy Isaac Alexander was born on 10/11/12 at 1:23pm. He weighed 6 lbs 8.8oz & was 19 inches long.

Since we planned a pretty unconventional childbirth, I'm sure there are people wondering how it all went. At least, I would be curious. Did it go as planned? How was the pain? How long was labor? Did you end up getting an epidural? Well, no, bad, about 19 hours, and no. If that's all you want to know, you can stop reading. For those of you who want a few more details, keep reading...

On Tuesday October 9th, I had an appointment with my midwives to try to figure out some natural ways to coax this boy into coming out. I was getting a little worried, he was almost 2 weeks late, & they would only give us until Friday evening before they handed us over to the hospital to be induced. So, at the appointment with the midwives, they put in a tube they call "The Balloon." It's a tube with 2 reservoirs, one that goes right inside the uterus & one right outside, which then are both filled with water. This puts pressure on the cervix to start opening up, hopefully inducing contractions & starting labor. They also gave me Cottonwood Root, which I was to take every 15 minutes. Contractions started that evening, which was promising. They were pretty regular, about every 4-6 minutes. By that time Michael was home from work, so we watched Lord of the Rings & tried to relax. We went to bed as normal to try to rest as much as possible. Sadly, around 3am, the contractions completely stopped & didn't seem to be starting again on their own. This baby just did not want to come out! 

Around noon on Wednesday, after a morning of no contractions, the midwives instructed me to take out "The Balloon" & they suggested I take castor oil. They had given it to me at our appointment the day before, with the hopes I wouldn't have to use it, but, alas, if I wanted to deliver at the Birth Center, it seemed to be our last hope. I remember the midwife saying, "You don't have to take it, but doing so will greatly increase your chances of delivering here." I did not want to drink castor oil, but the last thing I wanted was to be admitted to the hospital to be put on pitocin. The day that would happen was quickly approaching, so I decided I'd do whatever it took to get Nemo out on time! I took 2oz of castor oil, just like a shot, with Powerade as my choice of chaser. I can't describe it well, because just thinking about it makes me gag, but it was... an awful experience. It wasn't the taste, but the thick texture made it hard for my body to decide if I should chew or just swallow. Ew. It was nasty. I got my 2oz down with minor gagging, then we sat back to wait.

A few hours later, the castor oil started doing it's work. If you don't know how castor oil is supposed to work, basically it's a digestive stimulant, shall we call it, that is supposed to trigger contractions. Well, it worked. Around 6pm I started getting regular, consistent contractions. I was able to sit on our exercise ball & just rock through most of them. Soon, though, I had to get up & start moving around during the contractions, which were quickly getting stronger. Michael called our doula, Erica, who came over around 9pm. I don't remember a lot of what happened while she was at our house, but Michael said I cried when the contractions got intense, & at that time Erica decided we needed a change of scenery. We called the birth center & soon we were headed in. I do remember getting some last minute things together, saying good bye to Grizzly, & having a moment of thinking, 'Oh my gosh, this is real. What are we doing?'

We arrived at Mountain Midwifery Birth Center around midnight. The midwife checked me & said I was 5cm dilated. Yes! Part of me expected to hear a 2 or 3, since they prepare you to be disappointed at that first check. Things progressed really well, and around 5am I was 9cm & preparing to push! I remember thinking, "this kid could be born the same time I was-5:32am- if things keep going this quickly." That's one of the few things I remember clearly, oddly enough. Then the story turns... The midwives found I had a lip of my cervix that wasn't allowing it to open 100% for Nemo to start coming down the birth canal. They thought that maybe if I started to push it would open the rest of the way. Turns out that was a bad idea. Pushing when I wasn't fully dilated caused my cervix to swell. Now there was no way Nemo was coming out until the swelling went down & I was fully dilated at 10cm. So by this point, it was about 6am on October 11th, I was 9cm dilated with a swollen cervix, & contractions had considerably slowed down. For the next 6 hours, we did everything to decrease the swelling & get to 10cm. This included:

• Getting in the tub
• Walking up & down stairs
• Sitting backwards on the toilet
• Walking
• Doing squats to force him down (OUCH!!!)
• Taking more Cottonwood Root & other herbal tinctures
• Resting through contractions on the bed (sounds nice & peaceful but actually sucks!)
• Hanging from a sling attached to the ceiling
• Sitting on a birth stool

And, you guessed it, nothing worked. Not to mention, sometime after the pushing fiasco, Nemo got turned funny so he wasn't in the best position either. This meant a lot of back pain in between contractions. One thing I vividly remember is that the only person I wanted massaging my back was Michael. No one else could touch me. What a man. =)

I remember sitting on the toilet thinking, 'How long can this go on? When is it time to start thinking of other options?' We went back into our room & had a talk with our midwife, Melissa. She said she believed I could give birth vaginally, but we had pretty much exhausted all the resources at the birth center & I was a pretty good candidate for transfer to the hospital. At that point, I was so tired & grouchy, I had been 9 cm for about 7 hours, & I was fully open to heading to the hospital for an epidural so I could rest. I thought I would be disappointed with a transfer, but I was so ready for something to change that I was actually eager to go. My thought at that point was, 'Ok, how long will this take?'

We drove over to Swedish Hospital around noon, & I settled quickly into a delivery room. They hooked me up to monitors & gave me the tube to start the IV. One of the nurses said it would be about 15 minutes for the epidural, & I remember whining a bit like a child at that point. She said she could get some other pain meds in me before then, & I calmed down a bit. At that time, I was on my side holding onto the bed handle for dear life. Suddenly I could feel a contraction coming & I may have started to cry before I actually felt it, but this one was different. I had some normal contraction pain, but near the end I felt this new sensation that a bowling ball was coming out of my butt & I just couldn't help but try to push it out. I hadn't felt this type of contraction before! I saw my doula & midwife look at each other with a curious look. They eagerly suggested that I be checked again & sure enough, I was 10 cm dilated & Nemo was on his way out! Like a movie, the nurses quickly prepared the room for a delivery instead of an epidural. They got Dr. Hall, who we had met once previously, and within a few minutes I was pushing again with the next contraction. In all, I pushed through probably 4 contractions, maybe about 20 minutes, & out came Nemo!

So we did end up with our unmedicated birth, although it didn't quite happen the way we envisioned. But everything happened just the way it was supposed to, & our little man Isaac is now here. It's true what people say about labor: you really do forget a lot of the pain. I remember being in pain, but I can't necessarily bring myself back to what it was like. I do remember thinking at one point, 'Ok, now I understand why women get epidurals.' I even mentioned to Michael that I'm not sure I would do a natural birth again the next time around. Haha, I guess we'll have to wait and see on that one. If I learned one thing, it's this: If you're stuck in labor, take a drive. 

Regardless of how it happened, our experience, and our baby boy, are both perfect! I clung to this verse throughout our experience, & can see now how perfectly it fits with what labor & childbirth is like.

John 16:21 says "A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world."

We thank God on a daily basis for such a wonderful, perfect, beautiful, precious blessing. We are so unworthy of this gift, but pray hard that we will be good stewards of what God has entrusted to us for this short time we live on earth. Yay for babies!

What a woman looks like after a REAL labor! No makeup, awful hair. But look at my happy baby. All worth it. =)

Happy little family

Daddy & Son