Birth Story.

Here it is.  My second attempt at recollecting Carter's birth story.  I do have to say, I was
quite frustrated after typing the whole thing, and then losing it.. so I had to
leave it for a few days… Okay.. two weeks. ;-)

the story.

Friday night, May 14 we had gone to visit my parents, I was
one day overdue and needed some distraction, a place to relax.  We enjoyed a delicious meal, and time to just
sit and chat with my parents.  I hadn’t
had any strong contractions for over a week, so I did my best to forget about
labor & delivery for awhile.  That
night I slept wonderfully, and awoke on Saturday morning, May 15, at 6:30am to a contraction.. 10-15 min later..
another one.. and another one.  They kept
on coming, and for some reason I just knew today was going to be “the
day”.  I emailed my sister and texted my
friend Vanessa, just to let them know what was happening, (this is where we
planned to ship the boys), and finally called my mom.  I let her know that I really thought today
we’d be having a baby, and she told me to just bring the boys there since both she
and dad weren’t working.  So that was the
plan.  We sat down and had a big
breakfast with the whole family, and chatted about how today we would be
meeting our new little one.  After
breakfast I packed the last of the boys’ clothes and things, paced around the
house a bit, which I’m sure drove Jaco crazy.. Every once in awhile he could
tell I was having another contraction and I think he was concerned that the
baby might come quickly.

Finally we got on the road about 9am, and headed to my parents, gave them a hug and kiss and
headed for Abbotsford Hospital.  On the way there we actually passed our
neighbor Ed, who is a truck driver and shared a friendly wave.  We later told him we were on the way to have
a baby, he couldn’t believe it.

On the way there I called our midwife Bethany, to let her
know what was happening.  She was so
calm, and reassuring, letting us know we could head out to Abbotsford, maybe
walk around Mill Lake
Park, or just go to the hospital if
we felt like it, but just to relax until things picked up.  We decided to just go in to Triage and say “Hi”
to the nurses, and then maybe go downstairs, have a Starbucks, or walk around a
bit.  Since I was Group B positive, I
wanted to be safe and get to the hospital (or at least the Abbotsford area) on
time, in case things picked up quickly. 
We had originally planned for a home water birth, but due to being Group
B positive and having abnormally low platelets, after much, much prayer, we
felt God was nudging us to birth in a hospital, instead of at home.  I was checked for dilatation and was at
3cm.  I was feeling great, it was a
beautiful day and I felt like God had his arms wrapped around me and the
baby. 

We went downstairs and sat on the
chairs in the lobby of the hospital for awhile. 
It was great sitting there, feeling the warmth of the sun through the
tall glass windows.  Things were picking
up, so we went for a walk around the grounds. 
They have a nice path winding around the hospital that we followed.  Every few steps it felt like I was stopping
to focus on breathing through the contraction. 
A couple of times I almost fell over they were coming pretty strong.  We then decided to go back upstairs, by this
time it was about noon.  I was having nausea, and felt like this time
I wanted to stay upstairs, in case I would get sick in public.  They checked me again and this time I was
5cm.

Admitting went quickly and we were
shown to our room which was beautiful, tucked in the corner of Maternity, and
had huge glass windows with a view of Mt.
Baker.  Once in the room, I was put on IV
antibiotics, and our midwife Bethany
came to join us.  Contractions were
getting increasingly harder to breathe through, so I chose to try the nitrous
oxide to focus on breathing.  I also
plugged into my Hypnobabies scripts on my iPhone, which really helped me to
zone out.  I went on the birth ball for a
bit, and then in the shower, which was great. 
The mood in the room was very relaxed. 
Jaco and Bethany chatted about all kinds of things.  I kept to myself, and from time to time
joined in on the conversation.  I loved
how undisturbed we were.  Having Bethany
there felt more like having a friend there than a midwife.  She is incredible at what she does.

After I got out of the shower, it was 3:30pm and time to be checked again. This time
I was 8cm.

Crawling back onto the bed, I
was suddenly overwhelmed by back labor. 
Something I had not experienced with either of my previous
deliveries.  It was indescribable.  I even called for an epidural.  (Hindsight I’m glad that I didn’t get the
epidural, since I delivered a short time later).  I tried to focus, and tried to breathe, and
tried to do anything to even tolerate the powerful surges that were rushing
through me.  My body was changing
position on its own, I felt like I was apart from it, watching it all
happen.  Finally, after what seemed like
an eternity, I had the urge to bear down. 
A few pushes and Carter Liam entered the world at 4:45pm.  Carter had
been coming down the birth canal in a posterior position, which explains why I
had such a rough time at the end.  It was
not the calm peaceful delivery I was hoping for, but it was safe, with a safe outcome. 

Holding Carter on my chest, taking in his
smell, and feeling his sweet breath for the first time was magical.  Straight from the hand of God.  I was overwhelmed at how God took care of us
throughout his birth.  I breathed a heavy
sigh of relief and cast a silent prayer to heaven, praising & thanking Him
for yet another healthy son. “I’m done… he’s here.  Praise God!”