Kimber's Birth Story

After using a midwife and having a natural birth in a hospital with Kyle, Tim and I decided to work with a midwife again the second time around. Unfortunately, our midwife Suzan no longer delivers at Spartanburg Regional (she only teaches now), and so we did not have that option for Kimber's birth. Since there were no midwives delivering in hospital in our area, we chose to work with a birth center, Labors of Love, in Spartanburg. We were very comfortable with the concept, especially since this was not our first baby. Linda and Amy are awesome midwives! I would truly not change a thing about my birth... and that's pretty amazing to me. 

Labor began with a vengeance at 8:00 Saturday morning, March 17'th. Kimber was 6 days overdue, thanks to the Lord answering my prayers that Tim be allowed to finish his final exam AND get a full night of sleep before labor began. I timed contractions for 15 minutes in bed before waking Tim and telling him we needed to get moving. In the shower I had to stop to relax through the contractions, and I knew this was labor. My contractions were 3 minutes apart, and were very intense. I'd had contractions off and on for the past three weeks, but these had what I can only describe as "the labor bite" to them. I called Linda and she agreed that I could grab a bite to eat on the way to the birth center, but cautioned me not to take super long, since my contractions were so close together. We (Tim, myself, Kyle and my Mom) piled into the car and headed to Stax Omega for breakfast. Keri, Nate and Erin met us there, and we ate a huge breakfast (stopping to relax through some pretty intense contractions every couple of minutes). 

After eating, we all piled into the car again and headed down the road to Spartanburg. Erin joined us, so that we had someone to take care of Kyle at the birth center. We arrived around 10:30am, and my contractions were still strong... but had slowed to being about 5 minutes apart. Linda checked me and I was dilated to 4cm (having been 0cm only a few days before). I was so excited that it was labor day! 

Over the next hour or two, my contractions continued to slow down. While I still had very intense ones occasionally... they began to lose their "labor bite." I was active in hopes of keeping the labor going, but even taking a walk didn't help. Around noon Tim asked Linda if we could just go to lunch and come back. We went to Panera, ate a large lunch and then did some shopping. My contractions still did not pick back up, and I was becoming very discouraged. We arrived back at the birth center, and I told Linda that I felt super drowsy... could I sleep for a bit? I took a nap for an hour, during which time none of my contractions woke me up. When I did wake up, Tim and I knew it was time to head home. 

I comforted myself with the knowledge that I knew what labor felt like, and that we'd been right in going in that morning... but it still was frustrating to go home on a second baby. I'm very thankful that we were working with a birth center, because I'm not sure a hospital would have allowed me to go home after seeing my contractions from early in the day. I was not labeled "failure to progress" or any such thing... and we knew I could possibly sit at 4cm for days, since my water had not broken. We grabbed some Mexican food on the way home, and Tim actually called in to work to let them know he could come in for part of the evening. 

After supper I had a few contractions that got my attention again. They were not regular, but the "bite" was back. I told Tim I would be more comfortable if he stayed with me... that I thought tonight was still the night. He called work back and said he wouldn't be able to make it after all, things appeared to be picking back up. Thankfully they were very understanding! 

Around 9pm, just as Tim's sister and her husband walked in the door to visit, I had another hard contraction and my water broke. It was such a blessing that they were there, because they were able to stay with Kyle (who was already in bed) until my in-laws arrived to spend the night with him. Meanwhile Tim, Mom and I headed back to Spartanburg. 

By the time we arrived, I was in VERY active labor and had dilated to 6cm. The tub sounded great, so after Linda checked me I got in and prepared for the long haul. Kyle's birth had taken forever to progress from 6cm to the end, so I knew this would probably be a long night. Boy was I wrong! 

At first the tub felt great, but my back labor became super intense... and all I wanted to do was sit on my tailbone and rock back and forth to provide counter-pressure. When I tried to do this in the tub, I felt weightless and had the thought "I wish we could just drain this water!" When I thought that, I knew I needed to move onto the floor. 

I spent the majority of my labor on the hard wood floor, leaning back against Tim for support, and trying to tuck my tailbone as far forward as possible. They could all see the baby's head bulging my back near my sacrum... and Mom says it's something she will never forget! If I could have achieved the position that I wanted, it would have looked something like this... my tailbone tucked forward and my knees/feet wrapped around my head. I wanted to bend in half! The closest my prego state could achieve was to sit on my tailbone beside the bed, and prop my feet up on the mattress. I still had my sense of humor, so was joking about how silly it was to be in the "stirrup position" in a birth center. :-)

 I wanted my back kept completely straight, and my poor husband sat behind me supporting me as best as he could. He actually has bruises on his arms from my backbone and his shin bones! At one point I felt like my back was slipping, and Linda wrapped a bed sheet around my back, then sat on the bed between my feet and pulled to give me support. I love that woman!!! It was the perfect thing to do, and offered tons of relief. 

With each contraction, I focused on going limp like a rag doll... and believe me, it works! The pain is so much less when you relax into it. Tim and my Mom were wonderful at reminding me to relax, and encouraging me that I was doing well. I also would focus on different things at different points of my labor. At one point when I was sitting on the floor, I would sing the hymn "From Whence this Fear and Unbelief?" in my head. I didn't realize that I was singing out loud until Tim began joining me with each contraction. It was really a sweet time, and I received a lot of comfort from the words of that hymn. 

At this point, I began to show signs of being in transition. Linda told me that she was willing to deliver the baby where we were... but if I wanted to try the bed it would be easier for them all if we had the extra room. I said I would try, and joked that I wanted to take the floor with me! My awesome midwife walked out of the room, and returned a minute later with a large cutting board. Yes, I delivered my daughter on the bed... on top of a cutting board. How cool is that??? It made all the difference in the world to my back! Midwives are AMAZING. 

Once on the bed, I rotated between my "cutting board" and being on all fours draped over a birth ball. I became very vocal at this point in my labor, sounding something like a cow I do believe. :-) Tim kept commanding me to keep my voice low, and apparently I was very obedient about it. He could also tell when I began to tense, because I always tense in my face first during labor. He would gently lay his fingers on my face and say "relax your face" whenever I began to tense with the pain. What an AWESOME labor coach! He never left my side. 

I began to feel the urge to push while draped over the birth ball. I leaned back into a few contractions and pushed hard. It felt SO GOOD! I love pushing. After a few pushes I moved back to my cutting board, and Linda checked me. She worked with a cervical lip as I pushed. I began feeling the "ring of fire" far earlier than I expected, so I looked at Linda and asked "how much longer do I have???" She replied, "You're an effective pusher, and I promise you will have this baby in the next five minutes!" I was determined to endure the ring of fire, and not rush the final push like I had with Kyle. It was super hard, but I managed it and pushed Kimber out slowly over the next two minutes. My sister Keri was standing at the foot of the bed, and encouraged me with the words "her head is halfway out Jess! You're doing great!!!" That was all the encouragement I needed, and I gently pushed her the rest of the way out. All in all, I pushed for 17 minutes, and only tore a tiny bit (didn't even get it stitched). NICE! Kimber Janelle was born at 2:27am, March 18'th. I only had four hours of hard labor once arriving at the birth center for the second time. What a blessing!

Kimber was placed on my chest immediately, and all I could think was how much she looked like her brother, and how happy I was that she was here! Tim cut the cord, and Kimber remained on my chest for the next hour cuddling and eating. It was precious! Her newborn exam took place next to me, and she scored a 10 on her APGAR. I was SHOCKED to see that she weighed 9lb 5 oz, almost a whole pound bigger than her brother. She was 22 inches long. 

This labor was short and intense once it kicked into high gear. I was so thankful to be allowed to let labor begin on its own, and praise the Lord for how smooth the entire process was. This labor was truly a spiritual experience for me, as well as a physical one. The Lord planted so many sweet thoughts in my mind during my contractions, like the fact that HE was controlling my pain... only allowing what I was able to bear... and that HE was helping me to bear it. I felt a deeper dependence on His strength during those four hours than I have ever felt in my life, and truly... it was precious. Even the words of the hymn that continued to play through my head were an encouragement. 

"From whence this fear and unbelief, 

hath not the Father put to grief 

His spotless Son for me? 

And will the righteous Judge of men 

condemn me for that debt of sin 

which Lord was charged on Thee? 

Complete atonement Thou hast made,

and to the utmost Thou hast paid, 

whate'er Thy people owed; 

How then can wrath on me take place, 

if sheltered in Thy righteousness, 

and sprinkled with Thy blood?" 

If Thou hast my discharge procured,

and freely in my room endured 

the whole of wrath divine; 

Payment God cannot twice demand, 

first at my Bleeding Surety's hand, 

and then again at mine.

Go now my soul unto thy rest! 

The merits of thy Great High Priest 

have bought thy liberty; 

Trust in His efficacious blood, 

nor fear thy banishment from God, 

since Jesus died for thee."

If my God did all of that for me in my salvation, I am surely guaranteed of His help in a small thing like delivering a child. What a gracious God we have! He gives abundant grace in time of need. I praise Him for seeing fit to allow us safety and help in the delivery of this precious little girl.

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40 Weeks

We are ready for a baby around this house!!! As I begin my 41'st week of pregnancy... I'm reminded to be thankful for the blessing of going full term. I've seen my due date come and go before, so it isn't a surprise that it did so again, and it is a blessing. I'm really very comfortable, just eager to have my little girl in my arms! My Mom came from NC for the weekend and helped me drag my house over the finish line, so I think we're finally totally ready for a baby.

Tim has turned in his final paper, and is currently studying for his exam. He has until Friday to take it... but we're hopeful that he can take it tomorrow morning first thing. It will feel so good to have that out of the way! I hope that he can get some rest before the big event.

As for Kyle and me? We're laying low this week. The beautiful weather might call us out to the park, but beyond that (and keeping the house clean) we're trying to eat well and get lots of rest.

Hopefully my next post will be an announcement! We shall see...

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Thinking back... Kyle's Birth Story (almost 2 years ago!)

As I quickly approach giving birth to little Kimber... my mind keeps going back to Kyle's birth, almost two year ago. While I know that every birth is different, I have received a number of questions regarding my birth with Kyle lately. I thought it would be nice to have the two stories near one another on the blog. Since I was not actively blogging when I had Kyle... this is the first time his birth story appears here! I hope you all will enjoy it, and hopefully I'll have another similar birth story posted soon!

Kyle Owen Davis

Born 5-31-10

Amazingly enough, all day Sunday May 30'th I was convinced that our baby would be at least a week overdue. Our due date had come and gone on Saturday, and I guess I was trying to cope with the depression of that fact by convincing myself it would be another week or so until Kyle arrived. Well, I was wrong! Sunday night I ate a big supper, and wanted to go to bed early.

Between 1:00 and 2:00am I began having hard contractions that were around seven minutes apart. However, I had experienced similar things a number of times in the previous two weeks, so my mind didn’t really register that this could be labor. Tim told me to go back to sleep and we would just see what happened. I did sleep restlessly from 2:00-3:00, and don’t have any idea how many contractions I had during that time. I can tell you though, it was a lot!

At 3:00am I experienced a contraction that really got my attention. For the next fifteen minutes, I timed contractions that were 3 minutes apart. I figured it was time to wake up Tim. We got up, showered, dressed, and I ate a huge breakfast (which my Mom, who was staying with us over the weekend, was sweet enough to make me!). All this took around an hour and a half, during which time I had contraction after contraction… all 3 to 4 minutes apart. I called our midwife, and she talked me through a couple of contractions over the phone to get a feel for where I was in labor. Since the hospital was 45 minutes away, she advised for me to go ahead and start down to Spartanburg. If my contractions slowed in the car, she wanted me to go to Waffle House and eat again. If they kept up the same pace, she wanted me to ahead and get checked in. She was sure this was the real thing though!

So Tim, Mom and I piled into the car and headed to Spartanburg. If I still had any doubts about whether this was labor, the doubts disappeared in the car! We got to the hospital around 5:00am, and they admitted me right away. I was dilated to 5cm, still having contractions every 3-4 minutes. We were ushered to a room, and met our amazing nurse Stephanie. She had read our birth plan from the chart, and was absolutely respectful of it. She had no problem with my laboring in my own clothes, and only doing monitoring of the baby vitals and my contractions intermittently. I spent the first few hours on the floor doing pelvic rocks, squatting etc… using my yoga mat for cushioning. Back labor began rather quickly I’m afraid, and my amazing husband massaged me pretty much all day long. I think I probably used up the whole floor supply of heat packs too! Back labor made it harder to relax during each contraction, but Tim was right there with me pointing out the areas in which I was tensing, and stroking my face to help relax my whole body.

Suzan (our midwife) arrived around 10am, and I did let her check me at that point. I was dilated to 7cm, and Suzan went ahead and broke my water. Suzan was by my side the rest of the day, and we were so thankful for her guidance! I continued to move about the room, going from position to position between contractions… never staying in the same place for super long. Tim supported me in each position, and I had to keep reminding myself that my poor husband had recently dislocated his shoulder, and I needed to be careful of his left side! Sometimes the bed felt great, and other times I felt like I would die while they were monitoring the baby!

Suzan was very kind, and only suggested checking my cervix every few hours. Around 1:00pm we did allow her to check, and I was dilated to 8cm. During the next few hours, each time I got into bed for the routine monitoring, I began falling asleep between contractions. I got out of bed a few times to get in the shower etc, but my activity level had really slowed. When Suzan checked my cervix again at 3:00, I was still at 8cm. At this point, I was exhausted, and Suzan could see this. She very gently told Tim that if this kept up for a couple more hours, she was worried I would run out of energy to push the baby out. She suggested that we begin thinking about pitocin as a possible option to speed up my labor so that I could deliver vaginally. None of us, (Suzan included) wanted to do that! Suzan suggested that she hook me up to IV fluids to get electrolytes into my system. I was well hydrated (having been eating and drinking throughout the entire labor) but Suzan wanted to give me the boost she thought I needed to keep going. At this point, I knew that if I wanted to do this naturally… I had to get out of bed… no matter how tired I was!

I got out of bed, and began rotating positions again, being careful to relax with each contraction. My contractions changed right away! Tim was still struggling in his mind with the question about pitocin, and at one point asked me if I wanted to talk to him about it? I replied very quickly, “Oh don’t worry about that… they won’t have a chance to offer it. This is speeding up on its own.” I wasn’t on the monitor, so no one else could tell yet, but I sure could! When I had to get back on for 10 minutes to monitor the baby, everyone realized with me that my labor had shifted into a higher gear.

From 4:30-5:00, I spent in the bed again, weathering each contraction as it came. Around 5:00 I insisted on being on my hands and knees, because the back labor was SO bad. Suzan began preparing to inject saline solution into my lower back to relieve the pain, but we ended up not having time. Once I got on my hands and knees, the pain increased greatly, but in a good way! I felt like the baby was finally coming out. It was in this position that I began pushing. Suzan worked with a cervical lip for a few minutes, pushing it gently to the side as I pushed the baby down. Once the lip was gone, I began squatting by the bed. Tim and Mom both assisted me in squatting, since Tim only had one good arm to support me. We probably looked hilarious, me squatting and them kneeling across the bed from me holding onto my hands. I don’t know how long I pushed in this position, but I do know that the baby made some serious progress! I’m thankful that Suzan never gave me cues for pushing. I was able to push as I felt the need to, for as long as I felt the need to. After about 30 minutes, I allowed myself to be put back in bed to see what kind of progress we had made. The nurses began rushing around once Suzan checked me, and I took encouragement in that! They pulled the mirror around, and within a matter of minutes I could see the head coming down. That was all the encouragement I needed! In its entirety, my pushing lasted for about 50 minutes. Once Kyle’s head was out, Suzan commanded me to stop pushing. I obeyed immediately, mostly because this was a foreign request from her! I saw her in the mirror as she quickly unwrapped the cord from around Kyle’s neck. I was very relieved to hear him cry normally a moment later. God was good!

Pushing Kyle out was one of the most amazing moments of my life! He was placed on my chest right away, and Tim and I simply couldn’t believe he was really there!! I don’t know how long the three of us bonded there, but Kyle was wide awake and staring at us with huge eyes. It was the sweetest thing!

Both Tim and I were thankful to have had a natural birth. For us, going drug free was important because of my health history, and we also felt it was best case scenario for the baby. I’ll never forget the feeling of relief I had when I knew that there was no need for pitocin, and it was too late to ask for an epidural. There was no more worry in my mind that I would yell for drugs in a moment of weakness, this baby was coming completely drug free! I’m thankful to the Lord for giving me the strength to get through a 16 hour labor. I’m also thankful for my amazing husband, who was right there the entire time, thinking with me, suggesting ways to be comfortable, and constantly helping me to relax with each contraction. He is my hero!

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