Here is the birth story of my precious baby. He's now 7 1/2 months old and I'm finally getting around to writing it down :)
My due date was June 12th. Baby was measuring big
at 10 ½ lbs. On the 12th I was 2 cm dilated. Dr stripped my
membranes and we waited. My due date had come and gone. I did EVERYTHING to
start labor. Walked about a trillion miles, or so it seemed with my painful
hips and pubic bone, drank raspberry leaf tea like it was going out of style,
rolled back and forth on the yoga ball, got a pedi and foot massage, thought
about taking black and blue cohosh herbs, but ended up not, ate pineapples,
tried the pressure points on the ear, hand and little toe, I mean I tried just
about everything. This is where I realized that all though I’m sure some of
those techniques work for some people ultimately baby comes when baby is ready.
(Me trying to walk that baby out)
On the 16th, fathers day, I started having some contractions around
6pm. I was the happiest soon to be mama on the planet! They were 8-11 minutes
apart, all where I could walk through them. I was pretty
sure I was going into
labor (can you tell I’m a 1st time mama haha). Contacted my doula
and we waited for them to get stronger, however they did not. I went to bed
that night. Woke up the next morning on the 17th and the contractions
were about 5-8 minutes apart. Some took my breath away but still were not
strong enough to go to the hospital. This continued all day long and night.
Next morning was the 18th and I had an appointment. I was positive I
was going to be dilated more I mean after all I had been in early stages of
labor for almost 2 days now. No such luck. Instead my blood pressure was high
and so they said they were going to have to admit me. Before they did the Dr.
stripped my membranes a 2nd time.
(41 weeks pregnant arriving at the hospital)
We arrived to the hospital, my
mom, Kevin and I. My amazing doula also joined us. Contractions were about 5
minutes apart. They checked me in, this seemed to take forever even though I
was pre registered, I remember hating having to sit or stand still while I
filled out some papers. I got all settled in a room and they hooked me up to
monitor baby and my blood pressure. At this point my blood pressure was normal.
I asked to go home to continue laboring and of course they said no. Now as many
of you know, my birth plan was to do an all-natural birth. To me this meant no
medicine, no epidural, no IV’s. As I sat
rolling back and forth on my birthing ball the doctor came in and approached me
with the idea of C-section for the purpose of how big my baby was measuring. I
think the look on my face said everything. I was NOT going to have a C-section
unless it was medically needed for my baby’s safety. I told the Dr “God gave me
this baby so I’m going to birth this baby”. The Dr explained to me their
concern of my baby “turtle-ing”, where the head comes through but the shoulders
get stuck and then the baby slides back in. She expressed how this is a very
serious thing they try to avoid because with in a minute baby’s oxygen is cut
off when this happens so it results in breaking baby’s shoulders to get baby
out. Still hesitant on this C-section mumbojumbo, I said I would like to talk
to Kevin and my doula alone and then make my decision. The time was about
11:30am. We decided at this time to thank God for modern medicine and go with
the scheduled C-section for later that night at 6pm. Genetics were working
against me, there is a history with my mother and grandma both having
C-sections because their labor stopped progressing, I came to terms with maybe God’s plan for my
baby was not what I had in mind. We waited and waited and my contractions
seemed to stay around 5 minutes apart slowly getting more intense. I still kept
praying I would just go into hard-core labor before the C-section time. I was
pretty stuck on that natural birth still… part of that lead by so much fear I
think. I was terrified of a big freaking long needle being stuck into my back.
Worried about not having the skin on skin time with my baby during that “golden
hour” after birth since I would be in the OR. Worried about the effect it would
have on breast-feeding if I didn’t deliver vaginally. Then the peace came, the
peace that passes all understanding. I worked with the nursery nurse to still
plan to do skin to skin in the OR…. I was shocked they supported me in that,
but so grateful they pulled strings to still help the birth plan I wanted to
happy even though it was going to be a C-section.
Kevin and I got all suited
up. I said good buy to my mom and Kevin as I was rolled back to get
that massive needle put in my back. They took me back to that freezing cold
operating room and I sat on the table as they prepped the area for the needle
to go in. All the sudden my water breaks. I say to the nurse and anesthesiologist
“I did not just pee on your table. That was my water that broke” totally wanted
to reassure them it wasn’t pee. They continued the cleaning of the area and I
turned my head to look at the needle and the nurse grabs my head “honey your
not going to want to look back there” wow, that’s sure calming I thought. The
needle went in perfectly and I’m now lying down on the table. Kevin walks in
and stands up by my head. It’s around 6:15pm now. They had my baby praise and
worship music playing softly just like I had wanted in my birth plan. The
feeling of the surgeon tugging was so strange. I started to have a reaction to
the medicine and got very itchy on my face, a fairly normal reaction. However
since I’m highly allergic to antihistamines they couldn’t give me medicine in
the IV to counter act the reaction. I heard the one of the Doctors say “We have
meconium in here. We need to get this baby out now!” my heart just about jumped
out of my chest, I knew exactly what that meant and the impact that could have
on my precious baby. I knew at that moment one of the reasons WHY God’s plan
was for this baby to be born via C-section instead of waiting hours longer for
my labor to progress and possibly loosing him to the toxic maconium. The doctor then said to Kevin “Mr Steinberg your baby’s
about to be born stand up” as Kevin processed to try to walk around to the
other side of the curtain. Oh he was so ready to see his baby all right! Nurse
stops him and says he can’t come on that side and to just stand up. In seconds
I hear the sweetest most pure cry my ears have ever heard. I start crying.
“Here is your baby boy” the Doctor says, “6:25 is the time” as they held him up
for Kevin to see. They checked him out real quick because of the meconium. With
in minutes they brought him to me and placed that perfect baby boy, our Luke
Evan, on my chest. I continue crying tears of joy, overwhelmed, as my whole
world feels so complete now! He was so perfect. He just lay there; he instantly
stopped crying the moment he was on my chest. He was the most gorgeous thing I
had ever seen. That moment will forever be in my mind. Perfection!!
Luke’s nurse said “He is one of the most chill babies” I just beamed! After
about 10 minutes they had to take Luke away while they finished stitching me
up. He weighed in at 8lbs 13oz. and 22 ½ inches long. No 10lb baby. But 8lbs
13oz of pure cuteness! His name we chose for a few reasons; Luke because we
loved it, and the meaning “bringer of light” and oh is he such a light of joy.
Evan we chose because my maiden name is Evans. I loved the meaning of it too
"God is Good”. I praise the Lord
for the life of Luke, for how He really protected him. I learned that no matter
what our plan in life is, even with a birthing plan, God sometimes has a better
plan, for reasons at the time we can’t even understand. As far as my fear about
breast-feeding after a C-section, my little Luke had such a wonderful latch and
latched on right away. Recovery was the normal length for a C-section about 8
weeks, and went very smoothly. So there it is, the birth story. Here are some
photos! Enjoy
