Irelyn's Birth Story

Irelyn’s actual birth story is not that long but I have a lot I want to preface it with. I feel like I learned so much from both of my birth experiences and I think it is so important to share what we learn with those around us so I’m going to start Irelyn’s story with a preface. If you want to skip forward to the actual story you are welcome to (I bolded where it starts)!

Holland’s birth twenty months ago was a pretty hard experience for me. (You can read about it here—part 1, part 2, and some of the after effects here). If you don’t have time to read all of that you mostly just need to know that I ended up having a C-section when I had planned to have a natural, unmedicated birth. I honestly did not realize the implications of having a C-section until I was in the OR and my midwife happened to mention that the doctor doing the surgery was really good about stitching me up in a way that would make me a great candidate for a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). That is when it really hit me: Holland’s birth would affect all of my future births.

When I got pregnant with Irelyn I knew my goal was to have a VBAC. I immediately went on a local Facebook forum and asked if people knew of any VBAC friendly doctors in my area. I was so grateful to get TONS of recommendations from the ladies in this group. I was also told about a forum on Facebook all about VBACs (VBAC Facts Community—anyone who has had a previous C-section should check out this forum and website to learn more about VBACs/RCS (Repeat C-Sections)). I joined the group on Facebook and started researching the many doctors recommended to me.  

I found a wonderful doctor and my pregnancy passed quickly (thanks to Holland keeping me nice and busy!) without any complications. I made sure to talk to my doctor about my plans to have a VBAC at every appointment and the more I talked to him the more supported I felt. I would come home from each appointment just so grateful to have such a supportive doctor.

As I got closer to my due date I felt like I needed to mentally prepare for whatever birth experience I would end up having. I felt like I needed to face the reality that things might not go the way that I wanted. At this point I really felt like the most important thing I could do to prepare for this birth experience was to take my concerns/fears/desires to my Heavenly Father and then let things happen the way He planned. The last few weeks of my pregnancy I went to the temple a few times, read my scriptures, wrote down scriptures and hymns that I could read before/during/after labor for comfort, and said a LOT of prayers. I knew that having a C-section again was something that I might have to face and I wanted to be able to feel peace with whatever birth experience I ended up having.

My due date came and passed uneventfully, just like Holland’s. Let me tell you, going over your due date is not fun at all! I do not wish it upon anyone. With Holland I remember crying every day I went over my due date. I would go to bed every night thinking, ‘Tonight could be the night!’ and waking up every morning was really disappointing. This time I wasn’t quite so upset but I didn’t know if I could emotionally handle going two weeks over again and then going through the same labor experience just to end up with a C-section again. So just after my due date passed I started praying about whether or not I should schedule a Repeat C-Section. This was something I had not even seriously considered my entire pregnancy and honestly, before I started considering it I had thought it was absolutely ridiculous for people to schedule Repeat C-Sections for their personal convenience. But, here I was considering it. And as I prayed about it I felt peace. I felt like it was an okay decision for me to make and this was a reminder to me not to judge others for their decisions.

I had an appointment the following Wednesday (40 weeks and 3 days) and I talked to my doctor about scheduling a C-section. I went over the pros and cons with him and explained my reasons for coming to this decision. He was very supportive and understanding of my decision and we scheduled the C-section for one week later (41 weeks 3 days) with the hospital. He reminded me that if I went into labor before then that of course we would still try for the VBAC. I cried on the way home from that appointment because I felt like I was giving up on my lifelong dream of experiencing natural, unmedicated childbirth. I prayed and let Heavenly Father know that I was trusting in Him that things would happen the way they were supposed to. After getting my tears out I again felt at peace with my decision. I knew that I was still giving my body/my baby time to start things and I also had a week to come to terms with having a C-section if that’s how things turned out.

And then things actually started happening.

Thursday through Saturday I had Braxton Hicks for a couple hours each night but they would inevitably fizzle out and be gone when I woke up the next morning. I did not have these with Holland at all though so that was definitely a positive change! Saturday during the day I did some serious nesting. I am not an awesome housekeeper (just ask Race) but Saturday I deep cleaned our kitchen and bathroom and just did other general house cleaning things. I spent hours cleaning and organizing. I’m sure we’ve all heard stories about people doing serious nesting RIGHT before their babies come and I’m not going to lie, I was hoping this all meant something for me but I also didn’t want to get my hopes up too much. So I went to bed hoping I would wake up to contractions in the night or to my water breaking or something but I woke up the next morning a little disappointed. I couldn’t be too sad though because it was Easter!

Race, Holland, my brother Solomon, and I headed to church and enjoyed some wonderful talks and musical numbers speaking of Christ and His wonderful sacrifice for all of us. I was pleasantly surprised to notice that I was experiencing Braxton Hicks (during the day!!) so we headed home after Sacrament meeting so that I could get some rest and see if the Braxton Hicks were going to turn into anything more.

At home we ate a delicious Easter dinner, hid Easter eggs for Holland, ate lots of yummy candy, rested, and just enjoyed the afternoon together. The Braxton Hicks got a little bit stronger but they weren’t any closer together or really regular at all. I wasn’t getting my hopes up that Irelyn was on her way just yet. I did start looking up some information on Spinning Babies about how to turn a posterior baby while in labor. I was pretty sure that Irelyn was posterior just like Holland and I didn’t want to end up with a C-section because I couldn’t push this baby out. So around 8:30 PM with my contractions becoming a bit stronger but still somewhat irregular I decided to try some abdominal lift and tucks. In between/during contractions I did some work, showered with Holland, tried to rest, helped put Holland to bed, and just tried to see if things were progressing. I was totally in denial that things were really happening until 11:13 PM when I texted my mom telling her that the contractions were stronger and closer together but that I was going to try and rest and time them for a few minutes before we decided to head out the door.

I didn’t end up being able to rest at all. Race and I started getting last minute things ready to go, and over the next 45 minutes while we rushed around things finally started to feel real to me. I really had to stop and concentrate when I had a contraction and I didn’t have much time between contractions. I kept trying to braid my bangs so they would be out of my face during delivery but after trying to quickly do that between 3 contractions I gave up and just twisted them back quickly.

At 12:00 AM we headed out the door to the hospital. My mom has always said that you don’t leave until you don’t want to get in the car. I hadn’t intentionally done that but the car ride was absolutely the hardest part of my labor. It was not fun to labor in the car at all. My contractions were close and very strong the whole drive so the drive felt like much longer than the 30 minutes it actually was. I responded to a text from my mom asking how close contractions were saying “Not sure. 1-3 minutes. 1 minute long. Really strong. Car is bad.” So eloquent. Haha. On the car ride I was a little ridiculous during contractions but Race just kept comforting me—letting me know that we were getting close and holding my hand.

We arrived at the hospital around 12:30 AM and I had to stop two or three times on the very short walk from the car to the ER to squat through contractions. At this point I had realized that I was feeling the need to push and I couldn’t really help trying. We were taken up to labor and delivery and I was admitted into triage at 12:35 AM. I got into my gown quickly and the triage nurse checked me. She didn’t actually say how dilated I was but as she walked out of the room she said to the other nurses “She’s good to go.” I wasn’t sure what that meant but immediately after she walked out I kind of pushed through a contraction and my water broke…all over the triage floor. It was seriously so loud and so much water that I was convinced for a half second that my baby had just shot out of me! Super ridiculous, I know, but it was really super loud! All the nurses heard it so they rushed right in and got me moved into a labor and delivery room right away. By 12:39 AM I was hooked up to monitors and by 12:50 AM I was pushing.  Pushing felt AMAZING. It felt so good to push through the contractions and to know that my body was doing just what it was supposed to. The entire time I was pushing I was just thanking Heavenly Father for this wonderful experience. At 1:09 AM Irelyn Sage Ashby came into the world and was immediately placed on my chest where she stayed for the next hour or so. Eventually we found out that she weighed 7 lbs. 12 oz. and was 20 3/4 inches long. I was so in shock at how wonderfully things had gone and so grateful and happy to meet my sweet baby girl and to have had such a wonderful delivery experience.

My doctor was unable to make it to my crazy fast delivery but the doctor on call was wonderful! Dr. Bradley did some massaging of my perineum while I pushed to help avoid serious tearing, which I was so grateful for. The nurses were also amazing. They coached me a little on how to push more efficiently and then just let me do my thing. Afterwards they said they wanted me to come back and teach classes on how to have a successful VBAC and one nurse kept telling me that I had such amazing control while pushing at the end that it seemed like I had an epidural. I was so grateful for the loving, encouraging words and was just so overwhelmed with joy at how wonderfully the whole experience had gone. Even though our experience with Holland was a little scary and loooong and exhausting for Race and I both, Race was still so supportive of my decision to have a VBAC. He was my constant support and he was so happy to have had such a wonderful experience this time around. I am so grateful for him and I am so grateful that we were both able to experience such a healing, beautiful birth. I am also grateful to have learned so much from my birth experiences, and I feel like because of my very different experiences I can be more understanding and empathetic towards people who have had all kinds of births.

And now for some photos! 

Last bump photo on Easter Sunday {41 weeks} 

Sweet new baby with Mom. 

Meeting Dad for the first time.

So tiny and adorable.

Our first "family picture". Holland is holding her new baby doll while Race shows her Irelyn and I'm hiding back behind the faucet in the reflection. Haha. Holland is absolutely in love with her "baby sisser"!

Holland's Birth Story {Part Two}

Miss Holland's birth story was pretty long. I spent a few hours over the past couple of days getting it all written out to go into her baby book. I wrote it in letter form to Holland and that's how I am going to post it on here as well. It just makes things a bit easier on me. Anyway, since it is written to Holland there are some things you might need to know to make sense of who people are and such. "Dad", "your dad", "Daddy", etc. refer to Race, "Mimo" is the name my mother has chosen instead of Grandma, "Grandpa" refers to my dad, and "Aunt Helena" is my sister Helena. I hope it's not too confusing!

I want to post this on my blog and share my experience with others but I would appreciate it if people were kind in their comments. I know that people are often very opinionated about things surrounding birth and I love to hear people's opinions as long as they are not rude. So thank you in advance for being kind!

I mentioned above that this is a pretty long story so I am going to split it up into a couple of different parts. Here is part two! {Read part one here!}

Continuing on...

Tuesday, August 14th I woke up at 3:47 am to my first real contraction. Dad was still awake playing video games and I explained to him that this felt like a real contraction. I then sent him to bed so he could get some sleep before we headed into the hospital. I walked around the house while breathing through contractions and measured them on an app on my phone. They were anywhere from two to seven minutes apart {averaging about three minutes apart} and they were lasting anywhere from thirty seconds to just over one minute. I put everything we had packed for the hospital lined up by the door and I gathered up some final things. I wrote you a quick note in your journal to tell you how excited I was to finally meet you. I then woke up my parents to let them know that things were finally starting! I continued to focus on breathing through my contractions and I continued to time them on my phone. Just before 8 am we got things loaded up in the car to head to the hospital. Your dad also gave me a beautiful blessing just before we headed out. 

We got to the hospital just after 8 and got signed in. We headed up to Triage where I changed into a hospital gown and was put on the monitors. You were doing great through the contractions and I was dilated to 3 cm and 90% effaced. This was progress from the last time I had been checked {the Friday of the non-stress test} and I was only dilated to 1.5 cm and 70% effaced. I was admitted to the hospital and had my first round of antibiotics for Group B Strep. After finishing up the antibiotics and getting off the monitors I was able to walk around while they got my room ready. I walked the halls stopping to hold onto the handrails and focus on my breathing when contractions came. Once they got my room ready we headed in there and it was nice to have some space to ourselves. As the day progressed my contractions got closer together and they were lasting longer. Mimo and Dad helped me through the contractions by putting pressure on my lower back, tickling my feet and legs, holding my hands, and helping me change positions. I tried lying on my side, sitting on the laboring ball, showering, using the laboring tub, and a few other things to help manage the pain. I felt like I was handling the contractions well but nothing seemed to be happening.

Your dad and I in Triage

My IV for Group B Strep
The printout from the monitor

Around 5:30pm I finally broke down and asked the nurses to check me to see if I had progressed at all. They checked and I was now 3.5 cm dilated and 100% effaced. I was so discouraged. There was barely any change and I was to the point where I was having almost no break between contractions and they were much longer. But, I continued on. I kept switching from the bed to the shower to the tub to the laboring ball and continued to manage the pain. I don’t feel like I ever reached a ten on the pain scale but I was physically and mentally exhausted. After four more hours of this we asked them to check me again because the contractions were even more intense. This time there was good news! I was 7.5 cm dilated! This helped boost up my spirits and I was able to continue on.

Breathing through contractions and timing them on my phone with Dad by my side.

Dad reading and putting pressure on my back while Mimo tickled my feet and legs.

  

One of my wonderful nurses {Jamie} checking up on you.
{She actually came back the next day to check up on us and came to the c-section with us even though I was no longer one of her patients!}

Mimo kept track of my contractions throughout the day.

During the next few hours of contractions Dad and Grandpa gave me a blessing while I was in the laboring tub. I do not remember much of what was said but I am so grateful for the priesthood and the comfort it brings. I am also grateful I was able to have two worthy priesthood holders with me through my entire labor. After approximately four more hours of intense contractions {since the last time I had been checked} I asked to be checked and again, there was disappointment. I was still at 7.5 cm dilated. {The nurse did say you were at a +1 station which means your head was starting to move down but later they said you were back at a 0 station so I don’t know if there were just different interpretations or if you really did move back up.} Mentally this is about where I broke. Things were not progressing and I was exhausted. I had not slept in hours and I had not eaten anything in quite a while either. {I did sneak in half of a PB&J sandwich while I was in labor earlier in the day even though you’re not supposed to eat at the hospital.} At this point I asked to try some kind of a pain killer that would help me sleep so I could reboot. They gave me an opioid that {we are pretty sure} is called fentanyl. I don’t remember it helping much but it may have given me a little bit of a mental break through a couple of contractions. I don’t remember being able to sleep at all though which is what I really felt I needed.

At some point after the fentanyl I remember using the bathroom and seeing meconium in the toilet. I knew that this was possibly a sign of you being in distress so we let the nurses know. I think they monitored you a little bit more but you still seemed to be doing fine through the contractions.

Around 2:30am I just couldn’t handle it anymore. I was so ready to meet you and I could not see when that would happen. There seemed to be no end in sight. I was physically and mentally finished. All I wanted at this point were two things: to sleep and to have you in my arms. I finally asked for an epidural. This was the hardest thing for me to ask for. You can ask your dad. I did not want to say the words. I just kept saying that I was so tired and that I couldn’t do it anymore. It was so hard to ask for because I did not want to feel like I was a failure in my desire to have a natural childbirth. Your daddy and Mimo made sure that I knew I was not a failure. I got the epidural around 3am. Getting the epidural was no fun. I didn’t feel any pain {from the epidural}, but bending over a pillow with a huge belly while you are having contractions is not enjoyable. Dad stayed with me and held my hand while they gave me the epidural. The anesthesiologist finished quickly and afterwards I was able to relax for the first time in hours. {Almost 24 hours exactly since my first contraction.} The nurse made sure to do all that she could to keep labor going despite the epidural {which can sometimes slow things down}. She had me put a peanut ball between my legs to help you move down and she had me put an icepack on my back in hopes that you would turn your dear sweet face around since you were sunny side up {or posterior--which was also the cause of extra intense back labor}.  Once I was all situated I slept for the next two and a half to three hours.

Around 6:15am I was checked again and I had progressed to 9.5 cm dilated. Three hours later at 9:15am I was checked and I was FINALLY 10cm dilated and was told that you were at a 0 station. At 9:22am I began to push. I pushed for the next two and a half{ish} hours but I wasn’t able to feel much and I was having a hard time pushing correctly. At some point they turned the epidural off in hopes that I would start feeling things again and be able to push more effectively. I also tried a couple of different pushing techniques but nothing was really happening. 

Your dad and I just before pushing.

Around 11:30am my CNM, Tiffany {the one I trusted more out of the two I had} came in and had me push a couple of times and then explained to me that I probably needed to think about having a c-section. She explained that your position {posterior}, the presence of meconium, and a few other things were cause for concern and reasons that I might want to consider having a c-section. It was not an emergency yet but at some point it could turn into an emergency. As she explained this I was not nearly as upset as I thought I would be. I think at this point I knew that things were just not going to go the way I had desired and I was just so ready to meet you, my sweet {stubborn!} little girl. We had the nurse and Tiffany leave the room so we could talk about what we wanted to do. Tiffany had told us that we could try some different pushing techniques and other things before resorting to the c-section as she really knew that this was NOT what I wanted. After talking we decided to just go with the c-section as I was not feeling like things were going to change and progress. This decision was much easier to make than I had thought it would be and I started getting excited knowing that I was finally going to meet you! We let the nurse and Tiffany back into the room and let them know our decision. Tiffany then called Dr. Kells to have him come to the hospital to do the surgery. She let me know that he was the best one to do the surgery as he does all that he can to make sure women can go back to vaginal births after their c-sections. It was encouraging to hear all of this. At this point I had not even thought about the possibility of never being able to have a baby naturally if things went badly so it was nice to hear that I had an extra cautious doctor. The anesthesiologist came in and gave me a different medicine in my epidural to prepare me for the c-section and then Dr. Kells came in and talked to me. He let me know that I could try pushing some more if I wanted and he said he could try the forceps but there would probably be a lot of tearing. Dr. Kells also knew that a natural childbirth is what I had desired and he did not want to take that away from me so he wanted to make sure that a c-section was a decision I was okay with and was not feeling forced into. I really did feel okay about the decision. I know that there were other things I could have tried but your dad and I were so ready to meet you, our sweet little Holland girl.

Just before heading into the c-section with our wonderful nurse Angie. 

{The epidural made me feel really cold. That's why I'm completely covered up.}

At 12:01pm they rolled me out of my room and into the operating room. You were born at 12:16pm. Being behind a curtain when I heard your first cries was not the way I had imagined things happening but it was still the most wonderful experience of my life. My baby girl was finally here! They brought you around the curtain and showed you to Dad and I. Let me tell you little lady, you had the LONGEST conehead I have ever seen! But don’t worry, we were still so in love with and happy to meet you! Oh, and your conehead did go away! After they initially showed you to us they took you a little ways away to clean you up a bit more and they had Daddy cut your cord. They brought you back over and we got our first family picture together. You were just perfect! You and Daddy then left for you to get your first bath and have you weighed and show you off to Mimo, Grandpa, Aunt Helena, Uncle Knowlton, Aunt Jasmine, and cousin Edmond {Egg} who were waiting at the nursery. I stayed in the operating room where they quickly and carefully stitched and glued me back up. It was only 20-30 minutes before I was wheeled into the recovery area and you and Daddy met me there where I was able to nurse you for the first time. You latched right on and I was overjoyed to have my baby girl in my arms! I got to hold you close and admire your beautiful, perfect little body. And that’s what I’ve been doing every day since then!

Our very first meeting.

Our first family picture!

I want you to know that I am so grateful to your dad, Mimo, Grandpa and your Aunt Helena. They stayed with me through all of this {although Aunt Helena did go home to get some sleep at some point} and helped keep me motivated. Your wonderful daddy helped me through my contractions all day and night, he let me know that I could do this, he supported me when I decided to get an epidural and made sure I knew I was not a failure. He stayed with me while I got the epidural, held my legs while I pushed, and was with me when I had the c-section. He was by my side the entire time we were at the hospital. Mimo helped me get through every single contraction, she constantly tickled my legs and feet and was by my side the entire time. She also held my legs while I pushed and coached me through the entire laboring experience.  Grandpa was there the whole time and helped us communicate with the doctors and nurses as well as helped us be calm and think of what to do before making decisions. Aunt Helena was a constant support and also helped hold my legs while pushing. They all let me know while I was going through this that I was not a failure and they continue to remind me that I am not a failure when I have days that I feel otherwise. I am so grateful for my “laboring team” and I could not have done any of this without them.

Finally, I want to end this by saying that I am learning to be grateful for every single part of my experience. I do not regret laboring for 24 hours before having an epidural, I do not regret having an epidural, and I do not regret ending up with a c-section. It is so hard to be grateful for this experience because it is not at all what I wanted or imagined. In fact, it is pretty much exactly what I did not want. There have been days where I have mourned the loss of the birthing experience I desired but as I said before, I do not regret the decisions I made and I am so incredibly happy to be a mother to you, my sweet, beautiful, little girl. I pray that as the years go on I will learn more and more from the experiences I had in bringing you into the world and I pray that I will recognize the reasons things happened the way  they did. I hope that I can have more empathy and understanding when I come across others who have similar experiences and I hope that this experience can help you and other future daughters or daughters-in-law that I have as you all bring children into the world.

August 15th, 2012, 12:16pm was the most wonderful moment of my life and I look forward to many more wonderful moments with you as my daughter. I love you Holland girl.

Love always,
Mom

Holland's Birth Story {Part One}

Miss Holland's birth story is pretty long. I spent a few hours over the past couple of days getting it all written out to go into her baby book. I wrote it in letter form to Holland and that's how I am going to post it on here as well. It just makes things a bit easier on me. Anyway, since it is written to Holland there are some things you might need to know to make sense of who people are and such. "Dad", "your dad", "Daddy", etc. refer to Race, "Mimo" is the name my mother has chosen instead of Grandma, "Grandpa" refers to my dad, and "Aunt Helena" is my sister Helena. I hope it's not too confusing!

I want to post this on my blog and share my experience with others but I would appreciate it if people were kind in their comments. I know that people are often very opinionated about things surrounding birth and I love to hear people's opinions as long as they are not rude. So thank you in advance for being kind!

I mentioned above that this is a pretty long story so I am going to split it up into a couple of different parts. Here is part one! 

August 25th, 2012

Dear Holland,

It’s been ten days since you {FINALLY} made your arrival into our family. Your Dad and I are absolutely enamored by you. I want to write your birth story out before I forget all the details so that is what I am going to {try} to do today. It is a long story so it will take some time to get it all written out. Growing up I always loved to read the story of my birth and to recount the tale to anyone who would listen. I hope that you also enjoy knowing what it was like for your mother to bring you into the world. And I hope that someday my experiences will be able to help you through things that you experience as a mother.

Well, here goes! I want to preface this story by telling you what my birth plan was. I wanted to have an all natural childbirth experience. I planned by reading Hypnobirthing, I went to Heavenly Father in prayer to ask for this experience, I wrote down my wants and desires for your birth in the journal I’ve been writing in for you, and I told my Certified Nurse Midwives {CNMs} and Doctor what my desires were. I felt prepared mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually to bring you into this world with as little medical intervention as possible. I felt prepared on your due date, August 1st and then each day after but you were not ready to come just yet. 

Two days after your due date, Friday, August 3rd, your dad and I went in for a non-stress test to make sure that you were still healthy and thriving in your little water world. I felt that you were fine but you were not very wiggly during the non-stress test {because it was in the morning--your nap time} so our CNM recommended that we go into the hospital for another non-stress test and a biophysical profile ultrasound. Mimo told me that they would probably try to make me stay in the hospital and be induced but I did not think they would do something so ridiculous since I was sure you were fine. Your dad had things going on for the day so Mimo and I went to the hospital. We were there for a long time but everything was looking fine. You wiggled lots for us and the ultrasound looked great! I was all ready to go home when they hooked me up to the monitors again. When we asked the nurses why they told us they were just waiting on my doctor’s approval to send me home. A couple of minutes later the nurse came back and asked me if I was opposed to being induced. I could not believe my ears! They were really going to try to keep me there! I told them that I was opposed to being induced and we asked if we could leave against medical advice. We were then told that if we did leave against medical advice our insurance would not pay for the visit to the hospital that day {we later found out this is a myth}. I was upset and crying and we did not know what to do. We called your dad and he immediately came to the hospital to be with me. We also requested that the nurses contact my CNM and/or doctor so that we could speak to them and try to figure out why we were being kept at the hospital. I talked to my midwife and just felt like she was trying to scare me into having you that day. As ready as I was to meet you, being induced was not a part of the plan I had in mind. I had wanted my body to start things when the time was right. And, I trusted that my body would start things when it was the right time. Finally we got Dr. Kells to come into the hospital and look at the records of the non-stress test. He talked to us some and then gave us the OK to go home. We were just told to make sure you were wiggling a good amount each day and that had never been a problem so I wasn’t concerned. We were incredibly grateful to be able to go home. 

The next week and a half was very hard. Every day I was so ready to meet you and yet my body, and you, were just not saying it was time. So I waited. Your dad took me on dates, Mimo had gifts for me to open every day, and I made lots of bows and hair things for you to pass the time. I walked with Mimo and Aunt Gelsey to school every day in hopes that things would get started. I started a list on my phone of all the suggestions people gave me on how to get labor started {That list is a whole story for another time}, I tried these suggestions, nothing seemed to work. 

Date with Daddy at The Melting Pot

The gifts from Mimo.

Just some of the many suggestions to induce labor.

Sunday, August 12th Sister Pittam, from the ward, came over and taught Mimo how to do reflexology on my feet to get things started. It was basically one AMAZING foot massage for a LONG time that put me to sleep. It was WONDERFUL! I don’t know if that is what got things started but Monday, August 13th around 5:15 am my water broke! I was having a funny dream where Aunt Jackie and Uncle EB lived in the master bedroom at our house {where your dad and I are living now} and Mimo, Aunt Helena and I were working on something in their room when we saw a scorpion. Mimo told me to call 911 because apparently we had previously had a bad experience with scorpions so she wanted the fire department to come and get rid of it. I was on the phone with the dispatcher who was telling me that I had to look and see if the scorpion had two prongs on its back. I was trying to carefully approach the scorpion to look for the prongs when it jumped at me and bit me once on the hand and twice just above the knee. I went crying to my mom to tell her I had been bit when I all of a sudden started peeing and couldn’t stop. So I sat on a little tin antique children’s training potty that Aunt Jackie had decorated the room with and just let myself pee while I waited for my mom. I was pregnant in the dream but for some reason I was not convinced that the constant, uncontrollable peeing was my water breaking. Just after this all happened I woke up to a soaking wet bed. I excitedly woke your dad up to tell him that things were finally starting--ALL ON THEIR OWN! I headed to the bathroom to clean up and then went downstairs to tell my parents. We were all so excited but I had yet to feel any contractions. Mimo, Dad and I decided to go on a walk to try and get the contractions to kick in. We walked to Walgreens and back and viewed a beautiful sunrise. Your dad and I were giddy the whole walk. After getting home I decided to walk around in the pool for awhile, also in hopes that things would get started. I was feeling some very light contractions but not enough to feel like things were really starting. Mostly I could just touch my stomach and feel it hardening. We decided to wait somewhere between 24 and 48 hours to go in after talking to my aunt who is a midwife and researching about the risk of infection after your water breaks. This was the time period I felt comfortable with. We walked around the mall that day and continued to try to kickstart things. I went to bed a bit disappointed but still trusted that my body would kick in and get things going when it was supposed to.

The beautiful sunrise on the day my water broke.

To be continued...Part Two