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!