I am still on cloud 9. Riding that oxytocin wave that only comes after giving birth to a precious little miracle. I don't want to forget a minute of this amazing experience, so I figured I better get started writing this story now. On April 13, 2014 at 5:00 am my husband was leaving for work. I was feeling a little crampy, but I didn't think anything about it and went back to sleep. Just a couple of minutes later, I felt my first contraction in weeks. I timed it & started timing the others that followed. My midwife lives 3 hours away & I wanted to make sure this was the real thing before I woke her up at 5am. After a couple of contractions (about 5 minutes apart) I decided to get in the bath. These were nothing like the braxton hicks I had been feeling over the past few weeks, they were really strong and uncomfortable. I timed them for another hour or so in the tub until I just couldn't handle the feeling of the water anymore. They were constistently 5 minutes apart. I decided that it was time to call my Midwife, Jo. I woke her up & sent her an email of my contraction history & she was on her way. This was it! I then called my amazing doula (& best friend), Cristin, to give her a heads up...she has 3 little ones that she had to arrange care for. Cristin beat Jo to the house so we decidec to take a little walk, it felt better to walk through the contractions. Our little walk turned into a mile to & from my mother-in-laws house. By the time we got there, my contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes and lasting a minute each. We hurried back home (as fast as I could manage to). By the time we got back to my house, Jo had arrived. She was sitting on the couch starting my labor chart. She said the contractions were definitely real labor, but that I was still not in active labor just yet. I decided to sit on my ball for a little while and see if we could get things going a little quicker. I sat there for a couple of hours and then was so uncomfortable I needed to move to the bath. In the tub, the water felt amazing! The warmth was just enough to take all of the pressure off of my tailbone & help me to focus.......at first. After a while, I couldn't take the heat anymore and had to get out. I moved to my bed & my body was in transition. Jo checked my cervix and it was only 6 cm. I was progressing---it was not. After a few contractions in my bed, my water broke. It flooded my bed & my doula's hand. Things really got intense from there, but I was still not dilating. Jo decided to manually dilate my cervix with contractions because my body was telling me to push & it was all I could do to fight that urge. I screamed, scared my poor husband, and asked Jo to kill me. It was HARD! I started questioning my sanity & literally begged for a nap in between sobs for over an hour. After fighting the urge to push and attempting to blow through the contractions for almost 2 hours (with the help of a little oxygen for the anxiety) it really was time to push. My little Landon was exhausted & his heart rate started dropping----LOW. I was pushing constantly (even when I wasn't having contractions) to get him out, quickly. His head was born and he stopped. He was STUCK and stuck good. I immediately was ordered to flip over on to my hands and knees so that my midwife could work to free his shoulders. It took almost 3 minutes to happen. I was scared to death when he came out, I knew exactly what was going on when she told me to turn over, I knew that meant that he was having a hard time. When he was born, he was immediately screaming, what a welcomed sound of relief. She laid him on my chest and waited for his cord to stop pulsing. I couldn't believe how perfect he was, bruised but perfect. I got to hold him for a little while & then Jo took him to the foot of the bed to do his newborn assessment. We were all shocked. We expected a 6-7 lb baby and he surprised us all by weighing 8 lbs 14 ozs (the scale said 9 pounds but it had to be adjusted for the weight of the sling baby was laying in). He was a little bruised from all of the excitement & he was definitely tired, but he was PERFECT & healthy. The fun wasn't over there, I had a mild hemorrage that was easily managed and stopped quickly. It was just enough to make me lightheaded. After everything was said and done, and big brother got to hold his baby brother, baby and I decided it was nap time. FINALLY, I got my nap that I had been begging for, for the past 3 hours. Everything is still so fresh in my mind, I am replaying every detail from my doula's Harry Potter ringtone (which she said I would remember forever & she is right...because it is awesome), to the immediate urgency to get him earthside, safely & quickly. I will cherish every precious, perfect moment of bringing this baby into the world. I know I couldn't have done it without my amazing birth team & my solid rock--my husband. He held me through all of the rough patches when I just *knew* that I couldn't do it anymore. They were all perfect & they made Landon's arrival perfect. We are blessed! A very special thank you to Carolina Weatherford for taking the amazing pictures. <3 To Cristin Stanley-Potter for being the most amazing doula and helping me keep my sanity. To Jo Davis for being, well just amazing, there are no words to describe this awesome midwife. To Carmel for driving so far to help out & helping with my post-natal care. To my amazing rock of a husband for being everything I needed you to be & then some. Most importantly, to God, for allowing the birth of my son to be safe & healing. It had some scary moments, but I know that everything is just as perfect as it should be, because of you watching over it. Thank you all, I will never forget you!
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AuthorAmber Varney is a mother from Eastern Kentucky. She is co-owner of a natural products store. She is the wife of Scott and the mother of two amazing boys, Brycen & Landon. Archives
April 2017
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