Eden's Birth Story

Eden Rylee’s Birth Story

I cannot believe that I’m sitting here, looking at a sweet five week old baby girl! If you have witnessed our family’s journey over the past two years, then you know what a balm this little girl is to our hearts. In June of 2013 we lost our tiny baby Avery at the end of our first trimester. That was a deep valley for us, and one I can only give credit to Christ for bringing us through. Our joy when we discovered God’s gift of baby Eden was great indeed! My pregnancy was uneventful, which was a blessing to my fearful soul and truly a gift from God considering all of the moving/changes that our family underwent during the pregnancy.  From Tulsa, to Kansas City, to Winston-Salem to Indianapolis, baby Eden has traveled with us for quite the ride!

Eden is our first truly punctual baby. She was due on December 15’th, and labor began in the morning of that very day. I’d been having my traditional false labor runs for around two weeks, and even though I expected them, they made me question if she was coming a couple of times. My false labor contractions had a “bite” to them this time around, and that made everything more uncertain for me. On the 14’th, I was so tired from all of the contractions and suspense that I came home from church and slept for a solid 3-4 hours. I woke up feeling refreshed, and Sunday night was basically uneventful.

I remember having trouble falling asleep that night, but I was not having contractions so I didn’t think much of it. My SPD (symphisis pubis dysfunction) made it almost impossible to sleep comfortably, so I chalked it up to a flare-up of that, and made a mental note to bump up my next chiropractor appointment. I remember Kimber climbing into our bed around 3am, and when I moved over to make room for her… I had my first contraction. It was intense, to say the least. From that point on in the night, each time I moved in my sleep I would have another intense contraction. They were so intense that I actually woke Tim up for a couple of them. His comfort is helpful even when he's half asleep! At 5:00 I got up to use the bathroom and labor began with a vengeance. I had three separate contractions on the walk across the room. I had to stop for each one, and I was starting to get a feeling this was “it.” I had more contractions on the way back to the bed, and woke Tim up to help me climb back into bed. I wanted to try to sleep again and see what happened, since the contractions had all been associated with movement up until this point.

NOPE! That didn’t work. After about 20 seconds in bed I had the worst contraction yet. Tim woke my Mom, and jumped in the shower. I focused on throwing the last few things in the hospital bag and eating a solid breakfast. Thankfully the contractions slowed to being a couple minutes apart (sweet relief!), but kept their intensity. This felt familiar. I could do this.

We woke the kids and called or friends, Drew and Jessie Matthews, to let them know we were on our way.  We toyed with the idea of asking them to meet us at their exit, but Tim had been watching me closely and was confident we had time to go all the way to their house. Once we were in the car, we began truly timing contractions. They were 4 minutes apart like clockwork, which is typical early labor for my body. I could not talk through the contractions, but I was not to the point of the labor groan yet. This was a relief to me, because (even though we had prepared the kids that Mommy “moos like a cow” when she is having the baby) I didn’t particularly want them to see that stage of labor. I did not want to scare them at all. They were so sweet as we woke them and traveled. Kimber had stayed asleep in the middle of our bed despite all of the commotion, but insisted “it’s not morning guys” when she woke up. They were both very excited to know it was baby day, and Kyle even said “This is the best day ever!” as we drove. He kept talking about how excited he was to meet our baby. We dropped the kids off around 6:45. They were excited to spend the day with their friends, but gave us sweet hugs. I gleaned encouragement from Jessie’s eyes and words, while Tim and Drew unhooked the car seats. Yes, I could do this. God will help me do this.

We got back on the road, with a 30 minute drive left until the hospital. Tim called his parents, Mom called Daddy and texted my sisters, and I texted a few close friends. Contractions were now 3-4 minutes apart, and were growing in intensity. Tim had a close eye on me, and deemed that we should park in the parking garage and that I should walk in. I did not protest. I knew he was trying to speed my labor along, and he was right. We waited for a contraction to ease and then jumped out of the car (okay, Tim and Mom jumped… I waddled quickly). I had contraction after contraction as we walked, and Tim was a pro at reading my cues and stopping for each one. He would turn to face me and I would drape my arms over his shoulders and let him support my weight while I focused on swaying my hips from side to side.

We stopped for a contraction by the elevator, and suddenly I felt a hand scratching my back. I turned to look, and there stood my midwife Blythe. Our midwifery practice was large, and I had only a small chance of Blythe being in the hospital when I delivered. This would be different from my other babies (where I had known exactly who I delivered with), and was sad to me. I had prayed that God would allow me to deliver with Blythe! And there she was! “Looks like I’ll see you upstairs?” she said. “Oh, you’ll see me upstairs for sure” I replied. I felt a huge wave of relief. If Blythe was in the building, I knew she’d find a way to be with me. I was going to deliver with someone I knew!

We got up to triage around 7:45 and they asked Tim to wait outside. Thankfully, a friend had prepared us for this fact, so we rolled with it. After I had answered all of the lovely “does your husband abuse you” questions with a firm negative, I requested that he be brought back to me right away. Every contraction I had without Tim was harder… it just was.

Blythe was the triage midwife that day, so she was the one to come and check me. I was at 6 cm already, which rather surprised me! It was my first check of the pregnancy, but I had expected something closer to a 3. Yay! Blythe told me that she’d worked it out to be on the floor to deliver our baby. I was so thankful!

I had numerous contractions between triage and our labor room. Once we arrived in the room (around 8:30 I think), I stood leaning forward on different things, swaying my hips for each contraction. I asked the nurse for a birth ball, and to begin filling the birth tub. I was so thankful that all fetal monitoring was done with a Doppler! This made all the difference in the world to me! I didn’t actually touch the bed until I was pushing. I rotated between bouncing on the birth ball and standing/swaying while the tub was filling. It was during this time that I began the labor moan. Tim was the “keep your voice in the low ranges” nazi, and I think I obeyed pretty well? Eventually I changed out of my yoga pants and climbed on into the tub! The water felt wonderful, and I remained in the tub for the majority of my labor. The contractions remained around 3 minutes apart for the rest of my labor. I was able to talk between them, even joke a little bit. I had the song “Channels Only” running through my head, which Tim thought was a rather peculiar labor song. He’s right! But it seemed applicable somehow.

It wasn’t long before I started feeling a tiny urge to push. My water had not yet broken, so the pressure felt different than I was used to. I was beginning to feel uncertain about everything… which indicated to Tim that I was in transition. They called Blythe down, and sure enough I was measuring an 8. I continued to feel uncertain, and began to want my water broken in hopes that the sensations would become more familiar after that. Tim and Blythe both discouraged this, and I agreed that we had wanted to leave the bag of waters intact until it naturally burst. We decided to move me from the tub to the bed, in hopes that the journey would speed things along. I got out, and then Tim sprung it on me that I should really go use the bathroom. So I traveled to the bathroom, and then to the bed. I pretty much thought I was going to die!

Once in bed, I draped myself onto my hands and knees over the birth ball. It was in this position that I began to push. Blythe checked me, and sure enough I was a full 10. My urge was still muted, so we waited for it to become intense. Eden was still posterior, and so Blythe had me move to my side for a few pushes. Suddenly my pushing was intense, and I could feel her head finally engage. I was still on my side when my water broke. After my water broke, I moved onto my back and began pushing in a semi-reclined position. I was getting nowhere. I had been pushing for 5 minutes, but I could feel that something was just not right. Suddenly, Eden did a full flip and things began to feel a little better. Still though, I felt like something was just not working! I was pushing with all of my might, and she wasn’t coming under my pubic bone. Blythe could see the problem, and told me to get flat on my back for a push. As I pushed she reached inside of me and pressed against part of my pelvis. I’m not sure exactly what she did, but I do know that I literally stopped my “pushing groan” and yelled “YES” when she did it. On the next push, Eden came under the bone and instantly I felt the ring of fire. I was so relieved! My next contraction seemed to take forever to arrive. I could hear my Mom encouraging me with news of baby’s hair, and assuring me we were almost done! When the contraction came, I pushed gently (I think? I did tear, but not badly) and Eden was out. All in all, I pushed for 20 minutes. She was born at 10:40am, after only 5 ½ hours of active labor, and only 2 ½ at the hospital.

I was so relieved when they placed her on my chest! She was crying pitifully, and I could tell she was a big baby. I had Tim double check that she was a girl (lol), and just enjoyed the fact that she had arrived. My placenta took a few minutes to come, and once it did Blythe informed me that Eden was a “miracle baby.” She had what they call a “true knot” in her cord (very rare), and we thank the Lord it had never been pulled tight in the womb or during the delivery. In fact, Eden got a 9 on both of her APGAR scores. She weighed in at 9 lbs 6 oz (beating her big sister by 1 oz), and was 21.5 inches long.  

Overall, while it was a great delivery and progressed by the textbook, I must admit that my brain struggled to keep up with how quickly my body was progressing this time around. I must say that 5 hours was a little fast for me! I’m thankful that I was calm, and not fearful… and I was able to relax into the contractions like normal. I really credit my labor team for this fact, because if I had not had my husband, mom and midwife radiating confidence… I just might have panicked! God knew what I needed, and He gave me that help. I praise Him for the safe arrival of our sweet baby girl. I already cannot imagine life without her!