Burton's Birth Story

Sorry for the length of this post, but welcome to a personal journal entry to remember & document Burton's birth.

4 weeks before our due date, I was feeling overall tightness around my whole stomach after standing for a long time or after any simple exercise (walking, squatting, etc.).  I panicked a bit because my other two kids were 8 and 5 days late, and I felt like this baby could come any minute.  We got ready in record time... only to wait... until July 12th.

It was Friday.  The kids and I woke up as usual, had cereal for breakfast, they went to play and I took a long shower.  By the time I got out, it was 8:30 AM and my stomach was solidly tight - not unusual for the previous 4 weeks, but slightly unusual for that early in the morning.  I tried to lay down in bed which usually relaxed my belly back to normal.  But with 2 top of the morning kids, I had to settle for reading stories on the couch.  And I realized the period-like aching that I'd had a few days earlier was back and getting stronger.

At 10:30 AM we got in the car.  I had my due-date check up at 11:30 so I took my kids to my mom's house for my cousin Amanda to watch them.  In the car I realized the tightness was coming & going contraction style and started timing.  By the time I was sitting in the exam room at 11:30 AM my contractions were about 5-7 minutes apart for an hour, lasting less than a minute.  I started texting Blake that things felt a little different today and to stay tuned.

My nurse practitioner was on vacation so my appointment was with another doctor who hadn't seen me my whole pregnancy.  We talked a bit about what I was feeling and she said they were all good signs, but still set up our plans for if baby didn't arrive two weeks after the appointment.  She also had me schedule several follow-up non-stress tests and ultrasounds in case I was overdue.  She finally checked me and said I was dilated to 3 cm and 50% effaced, and that baby's head was in position.  Since she didn't seem to sense any urgency, on my way out I asked for a paper to tell me when to call Labor & Delivery.  The paper said if contractions were every 5 minutes to call...

I got in the car and realized that with my other two babies, when I called Labor & Delivery they always said to drink 3 huge glasses of water and take a nap and call again.  I called my cousin and asked her to keep my kids a bit longer so I could nap, and called Blake and my mom to be on standby.

I got home, ate lunch as fast as I could because contractions kept coming, drank a ton of water and went to nap.  The contractions slowed to 7-9 minutes apart and so I slept.  Mae had been at a friend's house that morning and called about 1:30 to ask if she could stay longer.  I told her I was having contractions and would love to have her home instead.  Her friend's mom rushed her home, and Mae was a ball of excitement.  She kept checking in on me, filling my water cup, and just being happy - great company to cheer me on. 

Blake had a meeting at 2:00-2:30 and was on his way home at 2:30 when his boss had an "emergency" task - that of course took longer than the 5 minutes anyone expected.  So an hour later when I figured traffic couldn't be THAT bad in the middle of the day, I contacted Blake who was finally in the car.  I watched the "Find My Friends" app on my iphone to know how far away he was.  Thankfully the car kept moving. ;) 

In the meantime, I called Labor & Delivery.  Contractions were 4-5 minutes apart when I was laying down and 1-2 minutes apart when I was standing up for my bathroom and water breaks.  L&D basically said to come in and they'd be ready for me.  I told them I was waiting for my husband but we'd be in soon.

Blake got home sometime after 4:00.  I told him we were leaving now - and he was surprised & confused since we planned to labor at home as long as possible.  Maybe we jumped the gun a bit, but the way my contractions were going I didn't want to chance it.

When I walked into the Labor & Deliver room I saw the warming station for the babies right after they are born and I teared up realizing that we would be meeting our new son soon.  It's one thing to be pregnant and to know there's a life inside, but it's another thing to realize that this baby is another person you get to meet and know and love for a lifetime and more.

By 5:00 I was in a hospital gown and in a bed getting monitored.  We were thrilled to find out that the same midwife, Rosanna Myers, that delivered Anson was on duty that night - but her shift was over at 8:00 PM.  She was absolutely wonderful for Anson's birth and supportive of our natural labor determination - and I didn't have any stitches with Anson thanks to her help.  Blake joked we needed to have the baby in 3 hours.  At least he thought he was joking...

Our L&D nurse Ann was also fantastic.  She has 38 years of experience and recently scaled back management and academia work to get back to some bedside time where she liked to be.  She was sincere and compassionate and seemed to sense what we needed before we asked.

All day I was keeping myself drinking lots of water and going to the bathroom every hour since that was something I didn't do well for Anson's birth.  By 5:30-ish Ann and Rosanna determined my vitals and baby's vitals were strong enough that I could walk around without a monitor for a whole hour.  I didn't get that luxury of time with my other two births so I was really excited!  We took a couple laps around the floor but retreated to my room so I didn't have smiling nurses watching me squat through contractions...  As the hour approached Ann brought in a "wireless" monitor so we could still move around with monitoring - something I meant to ask for but had forgotten about.  Thank you, Ann!

When my legs were finally tired from squatting & standing for so long I took a "break" on the bed - but contractions really started getting intense and hardly and break in between.  Blake and my mom were great - making sure I didn't need anything and it took both of them massaging my body & legs through the hard contractions.  Periodically I would glance back at that warming station and would again each time be overwhelmed with the feeling that we were going to meet another member of our family.  And then I'd look away so I didn't start crying my eyes out and to focus on the task at hand.

I decided I needed to change up something to get through these contractions that were so strong and wanted to try the shower.  Ann came in at that point to check my progress.  She said I was 8 cm dilated, 100% effaced, and that it was too late to shower - stay close to the bed and tell her when I wanted to push!  Another nurse came in with all the equipment for the delivery and Rosanna came in.  I told them with my other two I wasn't sure what the "bear down" feeling was because it only just hurt less when I was pushing.  "That's the feeling!" they both said.  OK, I told them I wasn't there yet.

And then about two contractions later I was there!  I got helped into the bed and tried to concentrate on the pushing position and instructions I was getting - but the pain at that point was crazy.  I thought to myself, "I don't want another baby after this!"  After a couple less effective but "good" pushes I was told to break the contraction into three pushes each.  I think after two of those types of contractions the baby's head was delivered.  And then they told me to stop because we had to deliver his big shoulders.  That was the strangest feeling of all - baby on the inside and outside.  At the green light to push we started again and I was surprised at how hard it was to deliver the rest of his body.  My other two kids seemed to slip out after their heads were out.  But we did it!  Blake and I feel like were were only pushing 10 minutes - my mom seems to remember 15.  Either way, it was SO much less time pushing than our other two births!

Soon everyone at the end of the bed was cheering and they pulled up this little baby.  I'm told he was alert and looking around even before he made his first cry.  (This was a relief to me since Anson had the cord wrapped around and took some fast attention before he cried and got color.)  This little baby's cord was short and so Blake was asked to cut the cord so they put my new baby on my chest.  And we got to stay like that for a long time while I got stitched up (just one stitch needed, and a second for a "cosmetic" adjustment on the first stitch), delivered the placenta, and established breastfeeding.  I got to just hold him close, wriggling around, letting the reality sink in.  Blake started making phone calls to family members and couldn't answer the questions about weight & length because baby hadn't been measured or bathed yet.

The stats were finally this:
Born 7:53 pm on July 12, 2013
8 pounds, 11 ounces
21.5 inches long

Baby Burton has his dad's forehead and toes, my mouth and chin, Claire's double crowns on the back of his head pushing his hair into a mohawk, Anson's ears, and Burton's own broad shoulders & a full head of dark hair.  He's like us, but already is his own little unique person.  It's humbling to be a parent to this eternal soul and I look forward to getting to know him!