Getting him here was an adventure and tougher than I expected. Lucky for me, there were a lot of people who were worried about me having this little or should I say big guy, at home, so they were praying...hard. :) I guess it's also lucky, I'm tough. No, not luck, blessed to be tough. I can do and actually have done something uber hard. (I did have Joshua, our 4 yr old without drugs, just in the hospital and that was a lovely, four hour labor, starting at 2:30 A.M. with a broken water and hard contractions, ending at 6:30 with his arrival. It was lovely.)
So, there I was. Wednesday May 8th, (my "due date") sleeping in my bed. I awoke to contractions at about 1:30 A.M. Since I had placed my order and was hoping and praying for a repeat of Joshua's birth, I thought, "this is it!" I began relaxing through the contractions and timing them. They were a decent amount long, 45-60 seconds and were 10-15 minutes apart. I was just waiting for my body to flip the switch and start laboring hard and fast like last time. Well, time passed. I got up, walked around, Zach gave me a blessing, he gave me some yummy fruit juice ice chips he had made and time passed. The contractions were super hard ones. There was one that I thought had broken my water it was so hard. Yeah, no.
We texted Zach's sister & my family to say, "today's the day" and Zach's sister Kimberly came over about 6:00 to be there when the kids woke up and help with them. Time passed and then I fell asleep. No more contractions every 15 min., they were now every 30 and I slept. We went for a walk with the kids and the contractions continued. Well, Kimberly took the kids for lunch at her place, we took a nap and contracted some more. I lost my mucus plug but that was it. Good sign I guess, that the contractions were doing some good.
I talked to my midwife and asked if she thought I should try some oils, jump on the tramp, foot rubs, etc to get things to pick up or what... She said I could or I could just go about the day as normal. Oh bummer! I was supposed to be holding our baby by now! What's a normal day after that expectation? We did try the PMS blend, essential oil, (with clary sage in it) that gave some good contractions but nothing stuck.
At 5:00, we went to Huntsville park, picked up the kids and went to Subway for dinner. I was still having grab the seat your sitting on type of contractions about every 30 minutes. At Subway they might have been a little closer together than that.
We went home and got the kids into bed, the contractions changed back to every 15 minutes at 8:30. These were some toughies. I got in our bath tub around 10 to see how I handled them in there. The bath was nice. The best was when the water was on when I had a contraction. Yeah, that was the best.
Zach thought it was crazy to watch my uterus contract so much. My huge belly got small with these contractions. They were doing some work.
We called Heather my midwife about 20 after 10:00 to tell her they had been consistently 10 minutes apart for the last hour and a half, and were getting closer every time. We were down to 6 minutes apart but not consistent, when we called her. She asked us to time them for twenty minutes and call her back. Well, we got caught up in contracting and didn't call her back until after I got out of the bath at 11:00 and she got there at 11:30. She knew it was game time.
Yeah, I thought the contractions were tough before this, they were seriously intense now. They were at there longest, 5 minutes apart.
My method for birthing that I practiced and used with Joshua is the Bradley method. I think like these people and very much appreciate the body and what it does naturally. I try to stay out of the way by relaxing every other muscle & leaving the uterus to do its job. Problem was is relaxing wasn't coming very easily for me. I was tired by this point. Very tired. I had used all my best relaxing earlier. Now, it seemed like every contraction, I was praying that the Lord would help me to breathe. He did, thank goodness!
About 12:30 Heather checked me for the 1st time and I was an 8. My water hadn't broken yet but she said it was super saggy and ready. I asked her if she thought we should break it and she said, "let's wait until Janelle (her assistant) gets here". Next contraction, my water broke. *hee hee. Next contraction I am pushing. Then I threw up-which I'd never done before. I'm sure that helped move things along!
I was on my side at this point and didn't want to push my baby out in this position so I asked for help moving into the sitting squat position at the head of the bed. Man, moving at this point in labor is seriously rough! We got there though. Janelle got there shortly after I was in this position. It was nice to have someone on the other side of me.
The nice thing about the pushing stage is that the contractions are different. They are SO much easier to relax through. I was so exhausted at this point that I didn't want to push. I honestly just wanted to lay there! So, I did.
I was actually scared to push as well. I don't know how to explain my labor brain but I was quite scared. The last baby I had was dead when she was born. This was something that I did not plan on thinking or feeling or facing at this point in labor. I had a really hard time.
Zach was trying to coach me to push and my midwife recognized the difficulty and quietly suggested he give me a minute. He did.
Then I asked Zach to help me push. I needed him to count for me because I needed him to challenge me. I was having a really hard time getting myself to really push. This helped but I still struggled a great deal.
When the baby crowned I was overcome with the burn and couldn't breath. I couldn't get him back down or out. He just stayed there. (I would not recommend this to anyone! Holy crap!)
All the while, my midwife was checking his heart beat and he was doing awesome. I did finally pull it together and get the job done. I really only had probably 4 or 5 quality pushes (that's how bad I was handling things) and he was out!
They put this sweet baby on my tummy and I was overcome. I was in shock and in love all at the same time. Oh, the sweetness that could never be described in words! He was totally relaxed and content it was amazing. They put a warm towel over his back and I just held him. He cried the sweetest cry. There was no rush. No bright lights, mayhem or chaos. Zach cried, I was just holding him, not sure if all that had just happened. I nursed him, held him and loved every minute of it. His little body was a big body. I remember looking at his hands thinking, you have big hands.
I have this vision in my mind of these three great people helping me deliver this baby and for how intense it was for me, it was not a chaotic or out of control feeling. Everything was fine. They were all so calm and encouraging and strong.
After I had all the time with Reddick that I wanted, I gave him to Zach, (you can't see Reddick below, but he is in Zach's arms, just wanted to document my awesome coach, husband!) my midwife stitched me up, which I needed...pretty badly. Then, the part that Zach loved most was they helped me into the shower and helped me get cleaned up and back into bed. They changed the sheets which didn't "really" need to be changed but was super nice to get into a freshly cleaned bed. They just took care of me and were so thoughtful and caring.
Then I got back in bed all clean and watched as they did all the checking on Reddick. I was seriously shocked to hear he weighed 9.2! He was also 20.5 inches long. As I watched though I just kept thinking, this is a big baby! They were so good with him. I loved how I didn't feel like his needs were disregarded. They were kind to him and didn't just let him cry. They would put their pinky in his mouth to calm him and were very gentle. Zach cut the umbilical cord off. They had just put it into a ziploc bag while they were taking care of me and left it attached.
This is how they weighed him, in this sling held up by a luggage scale. It reminded me of a stork package. Pretty resourceful, I'd say. :)
Then we got him dressed and bundled him up...and ready to meet his siblings in about an hour!
Sarah followed close behind, "you had our baby?!"
After she held him we asked her to go wake up Ben. Which according to reports, went like this: shaking Ben and exclaiming "mom had our baby, he's upstairs!" He was up those stairs in no time. Now, this kid loves his brother! He kept saying, "he's so sweet." He is still saying that.
p.s. for those reading this: if there was something you wanted to know and I didn't write about, please ask. I'm not sure if I missed any major details. :)
I talked to my midwife and asked if she thought I should try some oils, jump on the tramp, foot rubs, etc to get things to pick up or what... She said I could or I could just go about the day as normal. Oh bummer! I was supposed to be holding our baby by now! What's a normal day after that expectation? We did try the PMS blend, essential oil, (with clary sage in it) that gave some good contractions but nothing stuck.
At 5:00, we went to Huntsville park, picked up the kids and went to Subway for dinner. I was still having grab the seat your sitting on type of contractions about every 30 minutes. At Subway they might have been a little closer together than that.
We went home and got the kids into bed, the contractions changed back to every 15 minutes at 8:30. These were some toughies. I got in our bath tub around 10 to see how I handled them in there. The bath was nice. The best was when the water was on when I had a contraction. Yeah, that was the best.
Zach thought it was crazy to watch my uterus contract so much. My huge belly got small with these contractions. They were doing some work.
We called Heather my midwife about 20 after 10:00 to tell her they had been consistently 10 minutes apart for the last hour and a half, and were getting closer every time. We were down to 6 minutes apart but not consistent, when we called her. She asked us to time them for twenty minutes and call her back. Well, we got caught up in contracting and didn't call her back until after I got out of the bath at 11:00 and she got there at 11:30. She knew it was game time.
Yeah, I thought the contractions were tough before this, they were seriously intense now. They were at there longest, 5 minutes apart.
My method for birthing that I practiced and used with Joshua is the Bradley method. I think like these people and very much appreciate the body and what it does naturally. I try to stay out of the way by relaxing every other muscle & leaving the uterus to do its job. Problem was is relaxing wasn't coming very easily for me. I was tired by this point. Very tired. I had used all my best relaxing earlier. Now, it seemed like every contraction, I was praying that the Lord would help me to breathe. He did, thank goodness!
About 12:30 Heather checked me for the 1st time and I was an 8. My water hadn't broken yet but she said it was super saggy and ready. I asked her if she thought we should break it and she said, "let's wait until Janelle (her assistant) gets here". Next contraction, my water broke. *hee hee. Next contraction I am pushing. Then I threw up-which I'd never done before. I'm sure that helped move things along!
I was on my side at this point and didn't want to push my baby out in this position so I asked for help moving into the sitting squat position at the head of the bed. Man, moving at this point in labor is seriously rough! We got there though. Janelle got there shortly after I was in this position. It was nice to have someone on the other side of me.
The nice thing about the pushing stage is that the contractions are different. They are SO much easier to relax through. I was so exhausted at this point that I didn't want to push. I honestly just wanted to lay there! So, I did.
I was actually scared to push as well. I don't know how to explain my labor brain but I was quite scared. The last baby I had was dead when she was born. This was something that I did not plan on thinking or feeling or facing at this point in labor. I had a really hard time.
Zach was trying to coach me to push and my midwife recognized the difficulty and quietly suggested he give me a minute. He did.
Then I asked Zach to help me push. I needed him to count for me because I needed him to challenge me. I was having a really hard time getting myself to really push. This helped but I still struggled a great deal.
When the baby crowned I was overcome with the burn and couldn't breath. I couldn't get him back down or out. He just stayed there. (I would not recommend this to anyone! Holy crap!)
All the while, my midwife was checking his heart beat and he was doing awesome. I did finally pull it together and get the job done. I really only had probably 4 or 5 quality pushes (that's how bad I was handling things) and he was out!
They put this sweet baby on my tummy and I was overcome. I was in shock and in love all at the same time. Oh, the sweetness that could never be described in words! He was totally relaxed and content it was amazing. They put a warm towel over his back and I just held him. He cried the sweetest cry. There was no rush. No bright lights, mayhem or chaos. Zach cried, I was just holding him, not sure if all that had just happened. I nursed him, held him and loved every minute of it. His little body was a big body. I remember looking at his hands thinking, you have big hands.
After I had all the time with Reddick that I wanted, I gave him to Zach, (you can't see Reddick below, but he is in Zach's arms, just wanted to document my awesome coach, husband!) my midwife stitched me up, which I needed...pretty badly. Then, the part that Zach loved most was they helped me into the shower and helped me get cleaned up and back into bed. They changed the sheets which didn't "really" need to be changed but was super nice to get into a freshly cleaned bed. They just took care of me and were so thoughtful and caring.
Then I got back in bed all clean and watched as they did all the checking on Reddick. I was seriously shocked to hear he weighed 9.2! He was also 20.5 inches long. As I watched though I just kept thinking, this is a big baby! They were so good with him. I loved how I didn't feel like his needs were disregarded. They were kind to him and didn't just let him cry. They would put their pinky in his mouth to calm him and were very gentle. Zach cut the umbilical cord off. They had just put it into a ziploc bag while they were taking care of me and left it attached.
Then I got Reddick again, nursed and loved him. I was, and still am, honestly in heaven.
Of all the perks of not having to drive the canyon when in full and contracting labor or being able to climb back into my bed, or having a very calm birth, I absolutely loved it when the kids came upstairs in the morning! -this was my favorite!
Josh was the first one up, as usual. Zach heard him come upstairs, so we sat up and watched as we saw a light in the hallway. It was the light of Josh's headlamp. He came into our room, saw Reddick in our arms and quietly gasped and said, "our baby!"
They all love their brother. It has been such a wonderful thing to welcome Reddick to our family. Our children are so sweet with him and hold him so gently. They have been in awe at how much I nurse him! It seems like every time they walk into my room, I'm feeding him. They sing to him, lullabies they've written, read him stories or talk to him about what they see. It is love in action.
Having the opportunity to have Reddick at home was really great. I didn't decide to have him at home until about 28 weeks. I had another midwife who would have delivered him at Ogden Regional. After I got passed the point that I lost Lily, I started thinking, praying and pestering Zach about the option of a home birth. It seems I had a really hard time settling on having him at the hospital. It was crazy, he probably got annoyed with how much I asked him what he thought and if I should have him at home or the hospital...
Once I spoke to my hospital midwife about helping me if there were complications and she consented to it, I felt an incredible amount of peace about having him at home. That peace was welcome because it seems I fretted about it forever. It was nice to have a decision made.
Because I did feel peace with my decision, I wasn't worried about possible complications. I knew everything would be alright...and if there needed to be a switch, that I would be prompted to know it.
I've been asked if I have another baby, if I'd have that one at home too. My answer to that is, I would do the same thing in making my decision that time as I did this time. I would pray about it and consider it and do what I felt best with. I am happy with this choice for this baby though!
So here we are, one week old today! He is such a sweet baby and has been a delight!!!
Reddick James Nielson, May 10th, 2013, 1:47 A.M., 9 lbs, 2 oz., 20.5 inches. Blonde hair, mostly on the back of his head. Long fingers and toes. Dimples in his cheeks. Cute little ears and sweet gassy smiles. Welcome to our family Reddick! I am one happy Momma!
