Birth Story :)

It all started at 3:45am on Friday morning, June 24th. I was laying there in bed, not really sleeping, semi-talking to God about how we need to have this child soon! Then all of a sudden, I felt this little rush of water down-under. So I jumped up to the bathroom and discovered my water had broke. Thankful I didn't leave a lake in the bed with my quick reflexes. So Mike and I woke up, had some breakfast and called my midwife. She told us to sit tight until my contractions got more intense, closer together or I just didn't feel comfortable being at home. So we started timing things.

Here's Mike with his I-pod and Contraction counter, a very prepared coach!

We went for a walk, took showers and by about 8am decided that things were about 4 minutes apart and intensifying. So we headed to the hospital to get admitted and to start getting some

antibiotics since I tested positive for carrying Strep B. (They like to have a few doses of

antibiotics in you before he is born)

We got admitted quickly and headed up to the maternity ward where we found out that we could birth in the Holistic Room! I was so excited to have that prayer answered, it's like the luxury suite of birthing rooms!

Once we got situated and checked out, I appeared to be between 3 and 4 cent. dilated. So we started walking, resting and laboring. The contractions were lower than I thought they would be and intensifying very quickly. They told us to keep moving, roll around on the birth ball (hated

that), go sit on the toilet (this really helped because the middle was hollow so it took the pressure off my bum). They need me to be 5-6 cent. dilated to get into the water. We did this til 4pm. At that point, I had to get checked. I just knew that all those contractions had moved things along and I was right! I was a 6!! Praise God, fill up that tub!

As soon as I got into the tub it was like an instant epidural. They kept the water at about 100 degrees, so it's really warm and my body instantly relaxed. I could still feel the contractions, but in between I could float and relax. It was amazing! They monitor the babies heart rate under the water every 15 minutes or

so. At 6pm, we were having a hard time getting a good listen at his heart beat, so they needed me to get out of the water. (Since the water was like a drug, this was not pleasant! ) Once out of the water, my midwife discovered that I was not fully complete, about a 9. So to speed things along, she moved my cervix with her hand to open everything up. This was the worse part because she had to do this during a contraction. But she told me that it would make everything move every quickly- and she was right. Everything turned out fine and I was able to get back into the tub.

At this point, I felt like pushing. I slowly began to bear down with the contractions and it felt so good! The neatest part was my midwife just let me labor in my time, coaching me, letting me monitor how far down the head was and finally being able to feel his little hair head! I started to crown and his head slowly made his way out with each contraction. I was stretching beautifully

and the water took a lot of the burning away. Finally his little head popped right out, what a relieving feeling! I was motivated, get this baby out! As I kept pushing, I just couldn't get this little shoulders out and that's when Colleen discovered his left hand was bent up. So with a little wiggling, she finally manged to pull his shoulders out and up he came!

His little, wet, slimy body was on my chest and he was wide awake! They did a little suction and patting on his back to get him to open his lungs and then he was calm, just gazing into my eyes. After a few minutes, Mike cut the cord and the nurse took him to the warmer to check his weight and such.

I delivered the placenta in the water and then they wanted me to get out of the water. As I stood up, the blood started pouring out. I didn't know if this was normal or not, but they quickly got me onto the bed. They had a hard time getting my uterus to contract and it took them about an hour to finally stop the bleeding. This was a minor complication, that left me a few points away from getting a blood transfusion. I also ended up getting a stage 3 tear due to this little arm pointing the wrong way. After about an hour and a half of them working on me, I was cleaned up and the grandparents came in to meet Anderson. The blood loss left me extremely anemic, so my recovery has left me really tired and a little dizzy at times, but every day I feel stronger. And my tear has been easy to manage with very minimal pain.

It was such a beautiful experience.

It was everything we prayed for and declared from the beginning. God gave me such a strong sense of peace and strength. I never thought "I can't do this", He ordained each hour with his grace. Mike was an amazing coach (even though I didn't want anyone to touch me) and support for me. He picked Anderson right up and has been smitten with him ever sense. I am so thankful for the amazing nurses and my midwife. They let me have the birth experience that we imagined and were so wonderful to our family (who was listening right outside the door the whole time). God was faithful and to Him be all the Glory!