Clara's Birth Story :: November 14th, 2021

Here is the story of how Clara entered the world:

Monday, November 8th: 11 days before my due date, I woke up not feeling well at all. My throat was sore and I was all stuffed up. I was supposed to go in for an ultrasound, NST, and prenatal appointment the next day, so I needed to get a covid test just to rule it out per my midwives office regulations. Thankfully, I was negative for covid, flu, and strep, but we postponed my appointments until Friday the 12th anyways, hoping I would feel better by then. On top of being sick, I was feeling more anxiety than I ever have during a pregnancy and was super emotional.

Friday, November 12th: For the first time ever I had prodromal (some would call false) labor. From 1am - 8am I was having light, but consistent contractions and wasn't able to sleep at all. I woke Dean up around 6am, and promptly started crying. I've never had contractions start and not result in having a baby within 6 hour, so it totally messed with my head. It didn't help that that was the one day that my doula was not going to be available, so I was worried she might not make it. Once I was up for the day they all but stopped. We went about our day as normal, although Dean stayed home from work just to be safe. I went in that afternoon for all of my appointments, and everything looked great during the NST and ultrasound. We had my mom take the boys that night just in case things started up for real that night.

Saturday, November 13th: I had yet another night of prodromal labor! From around 1am - 8am I was having contractions, this time a bit more uncomfortable than the night before, and again, once I got up and moved around they stopped. After being sick all week and two nights of hardly any sleep, I was feeling emotionally and physically drained. The boys came home eventually, and since nothing was happening, Dean took them to their last flag football games while I lay low at home. I had a few very sporadic contractions that afternoon, which is also not the norm for me. With all four of my other labors, once contractions started they didn't stop until baby was there. 

6pm: I was not looking forward to another night of contractions that led to nothing! Since it has worked in the past, we put a movie on for the kids and Dean and I had some...alone time. Within 15 minutes after, contractions started up about 5-7 minutes apart.

7pm - 9pm: Contractions continued and gradually became more intense. We gathered our things, contacted our doula and midwife, got the boys to my parents house, and headed to the hospital by 9pm. 

Between having a history of relatively quick labors, on average 5hrs from start to finish, and having had all of that prodromal labor the 2 nights before, I wanted to play it safe and get to the hospital before things got too crazy. With my only other hospital birth, I ended up having him about 40 minutes after arriving, and I did not want to do that again! We were in triage around 9:30pm and contractions were about 3-5 minutes apart. I don't know why, but I have always denied being checked to see how dilated I am, and I had no desire to change that for this one either.  

10:30pm: After about an hour in triage, I passed the NST and was definitely in labor! We walked to our delivery room, stopping for a couple contractions along the way. 

With all the anxiety and emotions I had been feeling leading up to that point, Dean and I were both concerned how I would handle labor. But once we were settled in I was so determined to just get that baby here! After all of that prodromal labor, I was not going to let one contraction go to waste (which probably isn't even a thing, but it made sense in my mind), so with every contraction I was super focused on relaxing everything and picturing the baby moving down. 

The lights were dimmed. We put on some music - a George Winston Pandora channel -and we chatted lightly in between contractions. Dean and my doula were right there with me, the nurse and midwife checking in every so often to check the heartbeat. 

11:30pm - 12:30pm: Contractions were still progressing, just minutes apart and growing more intense. It was heavenly having my doula put pressure on my lower back/butt. We tried some new to me positions - lunges, and lifts and tucks - to get things moving and eventually got on the birthing ball as my legs were getting tired. 

In all of my other labors I would lay in bed until everyone who needed to be there arrived, then I would assume my position at the edge of the bed, swaying with my hands on my hips and bending over during contractions, and then once I felt like pushing would get into bed on my right side.

At this point, I had been in labor for 6 hours. In all my other births baby would have been here by now, but that didn't really phase me and time really was flying by. My doula recommended getting into the bed. Dean was hesitant about it, since I normally don't do that until I felt like pushing as it can slow things down, but I was so tired so it sounded good to me.

1:00am: I got into the bed on my right side with a peanut ball between my legs. Throughout this whole labor, anytime I would move into a new position, my next contraction would take awhile to kick in, but once it did, the intensity level would be greater. This time was no different. After I got into bed, I lay there for awhile with no contractions at all, but once they started back, whoooooaaa boy! After only a few contractions in bed my water finally broke at 1:10am. Not having that cushion of waters really does make things that much harder. Transition is always pretty short for me, but it always brings self doubt and that feeling of wanting to escape. Within 10-20 minutes I started to have the urge to push! It took everything in me to focus on relaxing while pushing and staying on top of the pain. It felt so overwhelming and I needed something to focus on other than the burning pain, and so it helped to focus on the sound of my own voice growling (which according to my husband, made me sound hilariously like a pirate).

Side note: at one point between contractions, her head literally halfway out of me, I got a cramp in my left groin to which I said, "Ow, it hurts...I mean, you know..." Haha!

1:44am: After about 20 very long minutes of pushing, Clara was finally here! It is the best feeling in the world when that little body finally slips on out! She weighed 5lbs. 11oz. and was 19.5 inches long.

Since I was considered high risk during this pregnancy, it brought a lot more twists and turns as we were now planning a hospital birth with multiple providers involved and managing medication (medication that I had to take twice a day, yet didn't want it in my system at the time of labor). There was much anxiety about it all throughout the pregnancy, along with a sadness over not having a home birth, so I am very grateful that in the end I had a wonderful experience with no further complications.

We are SO glad to finally have Clara here with us! 

A Home Birth Story :: Henry Francis

Sunday, July 17th. It was a typical Sunday. We made it to church that morning, came home for some lunch, and then later that afternoon headed over to my in-laws for some swimming and dinner. I was feeling just fine, other than being a little more tired than normal. A friend texted me around 7:30pm asking if I was having any signs of labor and I said, "I'm doing well! No signs of baby coming, but I never do get any early signs of labor. I haven't really decided if that's a good thing or not!" My due date was on the 21st, and with my other babies being born 4 days late, 3 days late and then 3 days early it could happen any day!

We got the boys to bed once we were home, and then Dean and I settled into bed for the evening. I got a text from my midwife around 10pm saying that she had just been going through my charts and noticed that they had given me the due date of July 18th at my 20 week ultrasound based on his size. I said, "They never mentioned that. Haha. Oh well!"

I finally fell asleep around 11pm. I woke up around 1am feeling uncomfortable and having occasional light contractions, and for the next couple hours was in and out of sleep. At 3:15am I finally pulled out my phone to start timing them. For the next 1.5 hours I was having contractions every 4 to 7 minutes. I hadn't woken up Dean yet. Even though I wasn't able to sleep through them, they weren't unbearable, and I knew if I woke him up he wouldn't be able to get back to sleep. At one point I looked on my weather app to see what time the sun was going to rise, because I really didn't want to have the baby while it was still dark. I also had grand plans of eventually getting up to fix my hair, put on makeup and help get the bed ready. Priorities man!

Around 5am I got up to use the bathroom. Contractions were around 5 minutes apart by this time, but the whole time I was up I had no contractions. I started thinking that maybe I just had to go pee this whole time! I have never had contractions go from being consistently 5 minutes apart and then just...not. I went back to bed and within a few minutes I had a toe curling contraction! I woke up Dean right then, and told him what was going on. He was a little upset that I didn't wake him earlier! I had two more intense contractions, and we immediately went into baby is coming mode! By 5:30am we had called everyone on my (long!) list, and told them to come asap. I told Dean I was going to get up to fix up my hair and put on makeup, and he quite sternly told me, "No way are you getting up!" Smart guy! I continued to lay in bed on my side until everyone had arrived.

By 6am everyone had arrived. I knew as soon as I got up that things would really speed up. It was the same way with both Sam and Charlie's births. I lay in bed until everyone is there, and then I get up and assume my position at the edge of my bed. No tub. No birthing ball. I feel like I should apologize to my photographer; I do not give much variety when it comes to different photo ops!

We woke the boys up once everyone had arrived, and they all had to get in their hugs. I loved having them there!
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I continued to labor at the side of my bed, but it didn't take very long before I got the urge to push!

This was my first birth having a doula, and I am so glad I did! As wonderful as Dean is as a birth partner, it was great having someone there who knew exactly what to say to keep me focused (and to remind me during every contraction to relax my face!)

Once I got the urge to push, I immediately got back into my bed onto my right side and started to push that baby out! My waters had not broken yet, and I pushed out his head with the sac completely intact! He was also posterior, and had his hand up on his face. It was by far the most intense birth I've had!

 Seeing my baby's head still in the sac! So crazy!

I think I very well could have had him completely en caul, but the cord was around his neck. My midwife had to break my water to unwrap the cord from his neck before I could push his body out. After about 15 minutes of pushing, Henry Francis Eaton was born at 6:52am!

 Big brother, Will, got to cut the cord

 7lbs. 6oz. 21 inches long!

Will's birth story
Sam's birth story
Charlie's birth story