It has been several weeks since my last post. I apologize but at the same time, I don’t. A few weeks ago we welcomed our newest family member! It has been an adjustment and I have chosen to focus more on my family as we transition to a family of SIX! We have been adjusting while doing online learning and juggling doctor’s visits for all the family. I will continue to put my family first and work on adjusting to life as a bigger family. I will continue to write blog posts, but they may be infrequent. I thank you for hanging in there with us and for understanding that family will always come first for me!
Having a new baby has made me reflect on all of my kids’ birth stories. I thought it would be nice to share as they are each different. With that being said, I’ll start with our most recent birth story.
A few weeks ago I woke up at 3:20 am and was feeling really crampy. If you’ve ever been pregnant, you know sometimes this can be the first sign of labor and sometimes it can be other things. Sometimes that can mean you will start labor and sometimes it can mean nothing. Labor could still be days off. Or at least that has been my experience, but more on that in a different birth story. I really felt like this was the start of labor though. I started having contractions but they weren’t regular and they certainly weren’t close enough together. They were about 40 minutes or more apart. At 6:30 am, they stopped. Well, they were way more spread out. They were an hour or more apart. At 10:30 am my big kids started out for a bike ride with Daddy while I took Little Red on a walk in the stroller. I was having mild contractions, maybe 15-20 minutes apart so nothing that required me going to the hospital. I had a few strong contractions and decided to head back to the house as I thought maybe I just needed to rest a bit. By this point I had my handsome blonde boy with me too because he couldn’t keep up with his Daddy and big sister. I let him ride his bike through puddles (we had a little bit of rain and small puddles). We were having a good time! We met up with my husband and daughter as they were heading back to the house too. I had 2 fairly strong contractions 2 minutes apart so we headed to the house a little quicker. Then my contractions spaced back out to 30+ minutes apart. My morning walk was 1.8 miles. We ate lunch and did nap time. After nap time we went for another walk. My contractions were a little stronger, but still not close enough together. They started getting a little closer together and a little stronger so I called my husband (he had taken the 2 bigs for another bike ride) and told him I thought we should all head back to the house just in case. My afternoon walk was 2.21 miles. After getting home and resting, the contractions spread out AGAIN.
I was getting so frustrated so I went to the bedroom and had a pep talk with baby! I had a few really strong contractions, but again spread out quite a bit. I texted the person who was going to watch our kiddos while we were in the hospital. I told her I was having some strong contractions but not close enough to warrant going to the hospital. It was about 4:30 pm at this point. I really thought nothing was going to happen and that I was going to my appointment the next day and the doctor would tell me I was still only dilated to a 3.
At about 6:30 pm I had a REALLY strong contraction that brought me to my knees. I thought, “Man…I wish I could just go to the hospital and get an epidural because some of these are stronger than what I really want to feel.” My contractions were still really spread out though so I knew I would just be sent home if I went to the hospital. So I opted for taking a warm bath. My contractions spread out again. My doctor had advised me not to go to the hospital until my contractions were 8 minutes apart for 3 hours or unless my water broke. The contractions kept on but were very random and never regular. At 10:15 pm my husband and I went to bed. He went to bed with me to rub my back and keep me calm and to do what he could to help me sleep. At 10:30 pm I had another REALLY strong contraction that made me REALLY uncomfortable, but again, the contractions weren’t that close together. My husband decided it was time to call it quits and just get checked out at the hospital so he called our person to watch the kids. She came on over and I told her we would probably be coming back to the house because my contractions weren’t close enough together for them to keep me. While we were waiting for her to get to the house I had a couple of contractions that were only 2-5 minutes apart, but then they stopped so, again, I really thought we would just be coming back home.
My husband loaded up our labor and postpartum bags. He may or may not have sped a little to get to the hospital. I had a few contractions on the way, but again, not the 8 minutes apart. I kept telling him, “There’s no need to speed. We are just going to get there and be sent home.” At 11:15 pm we arrived at the hospital. He asked if I wanted him to drop me off at the front or just park. I was adamant that he just park. So we found a parking spot. At that moment I had another contraction and my water broke. Well….I guess we were staying! I cried when my water broke because it looked like I had peed on myself and now I was going to have to walk in to the hospital looking like I had peed on myself. I was embarrassed. We got in the front entrance and were screened for COVID and sent on our way.
My contractions were now about 2 minutes apart and VERY strong. As I was sitting in triage with the triage nurse, I kept thinking, “If they don’t hurry up and get me in a room, I’m going to have this baby right here, right now, in triage.” They got be back to a triage room and the doctor checked me. I was at a 6. They quickly moved me over to L&D. In the hallway, almost to my room, I had another SUPER strong contraction. I thought, “This baby is coming. I hope there is a doctor here.” They got me in the bed and checked me…I was complete (a 10 and 100%). One of the nurses said, “I want you to look at me. You are going to have this baby. I know you wanted an epidural, but baby is ready to come. The doctor is already here and she will be in in a just a minute. With the next contraction, I want you to push. It will feel so much better.” There were so many things racing through my mind. I always wanted to give birth without an epidural, but I was now no longer ready to deliver without an epidural.
It didn’t matter what I was ready for…Baby (who we still didn’t have a name for) was ready to come. As the doctor walked in (not my doctor but one in her group), I had another contraction. She quickly put on her gloves and told me to push. Pushing has never been a problem for me, but then I’ve always had an epidural. They say there is a moment where you just want to give up…that moment came for me when trying to get his shoulders out. I needed to breathe but that wasn’t the time so I had to push on (literally)! At 1218 am (an hour after we parked at the hospital) our sweet baby boy was born! If you have had a baby, you know that’s not the end. It’s magical and it’s the best part, but it isn’t the end. You still have to deliver the placenta. Things are much better once that happens! I delivered the placenta and got to enjoy my sweet boy. I did hemorrhage after delivery but luckily with a few extra medicines, they were able to stop the bleeding.
Now we just had to decide on a name! The whole pregnancy I felt like baby was a Grayson. Prior to having any children, I fell in love with that name. That and Gavin. I have 3 boys now…none of them are Grayson or Gavin! The first 2 didn’t feel like a Grayson or a Gavin. With our 3rd boy, my daughter had a name she really wanted for him (and this time it wasn’t Kristoff). She wanted him named Joseph because, “It’s a nice name and it’s in the Bible!” So we now have a Joseph in our family! I think she picked a pretty good name!
Sweet baby Joseph had some struggles with jaundice so we were in the hospital longer than we planned. This Mama was so ready to get back to her other littles. They were having a great time with the friends we had watching them but I think we were all ready for Mom and Dad to be home! We are still settling in but we are all healthy and loving our bigger family. We are very blessed. We have had some amazing meals from our friends and church family. One of our neighbors loved on our family by bringing snacks for this Mama and for the family. Life isn’t perfect, but it is perfectly ours!
***Below are Amazon Affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase from the link, I may make a commission at no additional cost to you. Please see disclaimer page for more information. These are a few of my favorites and have been lifesavers since coming home with Baby J!***
