From Miracle to Milestone: A Birth Story to Remember

“Was that a faint second line?”

I grabbed my husband to get an unbiased viewpoint and made him tell me if I was crazy or not.

 

“You’re not crazy. I see it too.” It was so faint though that I vowed to retest in the next couple days. The next couple days became the very next one.

 

Sure enough, after taking a different brand of test, there was a very clear second line.

I was pregnant. I was going to be a mom. I was excited, but cautiously hopeful. After our miscarriage, it was hard not to worry. I needed to see that heartbeat.

 

At 7 weeks, our hopes and dreams were confirmed. We were going to be parents. We praised God and couldn’t wait for November 2022 to arrive….

 

 

It was now October 25th 2022. We had just finished our home visit with our midwife. We knew baby girl was probably going to come early, but obviously didn’t know how soon. I was getting more and more uncomfortable and was just ready to not be pregnant anymore.

 

That night, Ryan went into nesting mode. We HAD to have all of our laundry done in preparation for baby’s arrival. I went to bed around 10:30 and Ryan didn’t come to bed until after 2am as he had waited for the laundry to be done.

 

I woke up to use the bathroom around 3:15. I laid back in bed and cuddled up next to Ryan. All of a sudden, I felt some sharp pain on the lower part of my abdomen. I felt a couple sharp pains in a span of a few minutes and was not sure what was going on. I had never been through real contractions or labor before. I didn’t know what it actually felt like. I sat up and I felt a gush of liquid.

 

I woke Ryan up and relayed my symptoms and what was going on. He followed me into the bathroom and I realized it wasn’t my water breaking, but my mucus plug releasing. (TMI I know, but hey, it’s real life)

We went into the living room and I relaxed backwards on a chair and used our exercise ball while we started timing contractions. Ryan was going to try to take a cat nap and wanted me to wake him up when things got going and I really needed his support.

 

He didn’t get that cat nap. My contractions started out strong and frequent and continued that way until she was born. I must have been in early labor the few days leading up to my delivery date. Contractions came every 2-3 minutes, lasting about 40-60 seconds. There was no gradual lead up. She was ready.

We labored for about an hour before I had Ryan call my mom. I planned to have her present at the birth. My mom is my best friend and I knew I needed her support too. At around 4:45-5:00, my mom showed up, along with my dad because he was taking our dog back with him. They were very awake for it being so early. I wonder why.

 

After I was in labor for another half hour, I had Ryan call our midwife. (we had decided on a home birth). I felt like I needed her to be there. It was very intense and I didn’t want to wait too long…just in case.

She showed up around 7am. When she checked me, I was dilated to 6 and half, 7 centimeters. She wasn’t going to be leaving.

 

In my mind, I was like, sweet, we are already that far! Can’t be long now. Man, was I wrong. I labored for over another 7 hours. I was so exhausted. Dripping in sweat, not able to eat anything which made me feel even weaker than I probably was. If no one was forcing me to drink water, I would never have touched it. I was so in the zone that I had to have everyone else make sure I was staying hydrated.

 

I started pushing around 11:30/noon. My body felt ready to push so my midwife didn’t even check me. She let me listen to my body and do what it needed to do. I loved feeling like I had that control over my body and my labor. I was the only one who knew what needed to happen next and I just listened to what my body was telling me. It was empowering. And I’m so thankful for God’s guidance and strength through that process.

 

My dream was to deliver in the pool. So I labored in there for awhile, while intermittently pushing with contractions. However, when I got to that point, I wasn’t making any progress so that dream had to be let go of. It wasn’t helping with pain like I thought it would and she was just not moving. I had to get out and try different positions. And the only position that was comfortable and actually helped with the pain, was on our couch laying on my side with a leg raised. Because I knew I didn’t want to deliver on my back and that was the next best thing.

 

At that point, I had been pushing for three hours. Her head was right there, but every time I pushed, she wouldn’t move. Her head was basically stuck. Our midwife was closely monitoring her heart rate, and with every contraction and every time I pushed, her heart rate would drop. She was in the birth canal for a long time.

 

I was so tired and didn’t know how much longer I could go without help. I wanted her to get there safely so I told my midwife, “I need help.”

 

Which in turn meant she had to make a cut to make more room for her to be delivered. It wasn’t something I anticipated having to have done, but she needed to come out ASAP. So with the next contraction, she wanted me to push. I focused on Ryan who was up by my head and pushed when I felt the next one. I didn’t even feel her cut.

 

As soon as she did, baby girl literally exploded out of me. She was laid on my chest and I was so relieved and happy for it to finally be over. However it was far from over. The next couple moments were a blur as our midwife made sure baby was breathing and good before having her handed off to Ryan while she focused on me. She had to do major damage control. My worst fear about labor and delivery was tearing. And besides the cut she had to make, I tore in four different places, some even down to the muscle. I had lost a lot of blood.

 

So they all helped me to our bed, where for the next hour and a half, she had to stitch me back together. So the pain didn’t stop when she was born and that was really, really hard. I couldn’t even hold my baby right away, because I was in so much pain while being stitched I couldn’t focus enough to be present with her. That was deeply hard on this mama’s heart.

 

After she did what she could at that moment (thankfully I didn’t need to be transferred to the hospital. It was really close though. Rhea tore me up pretty good), my recovery was far from over. Not only did I have to be restitched a week later, but I also had to have a small procedure 5 weeks after that to get rid of the lingering pain I had been having.

 

We didn’t know at the time what was causing me to still be in so much pain, so once that was figured out and taken care of, I finally felt like I was able to move forward and really begin my healing journey.

 

 

Labor and delivery is a beautiful thing. The way God created women’s bodies to know exactly what to do is insane to me. Even after all the pain and hard recovery, I would do it all over again for my beautiful daughter. I love being her mama.

 

Parenting is hard, but we have such an important and special job as we raise up these little ones to become world changers.

 

Rhea, your daddy and I love you so much. We pray you live out your life as a reflection of God’s heartbeat. We know you were born for such a time as this.