Hitched on Health: Caleb's birth story: 1.5 years late!

I never published Caleb's birth story because i wanted it to be perfect, but with another one on the way I just need to get it out there!

** NOTE: If birth isn't your thing or hearing about childbirth makes you squirm, this post probably isn't for you.

Caleb’s Birth Story

During my whole pregnancy I tried to convince myself that I would deliver past my due date. That’s what my mom had done for most of her pregnancies, I was a first time mom, and I don’t deal well with disappointment. At our 20 week ultrasound Caleb was measuring 5 days ahead of growth so I made myself believe that I would have a big baby born late. However, I had this secret sneaking suspicion that he would be a bit early but I tried to ignore and deny that that could be true!

On Wednesday, January 8^th I went to an intense yoga class. Half way through I felt “off”. I am very aware of my body and felt like I had gas but it was different. I went home where I started having back pains every 10 minutes or so. I decided to cook up a bunch of egg dishes to put in the freezer. Later that evening John and I went to our friend's house for an Advocare leaders dinner. I was still having the back pain about every 7 minutes or so and it would last for about 1 minute. I had John push on my back during our meeting and I told everyone our baby was going to born in a week or two.

I finally went to bed at midnight and shot awake at 2:30am with the ever so present back pain. I took a herb called Valarium to go back to sleep, but I would drift in and out of sleep and stayed in bed until 5:45am. I woke up to go to the bathroom at 6am and I had the “bloody show”. I told John this meant we would have a baby soon and this was indeed real labor. I was terrified and felt so unprepared! Immediately I threw up everything that I had had for dinner the night before. I was really worried because this was supposed to be my nutrition to get me through the biggest workout of my life!

I laid down on the couch and called my midwife, Vickii, around 8am. She told me to rest, stay off my feet, and to check back in with her later to see if I could keep anything down. I labored on our couch on my side while John worked from home and fed me bits of toast, rehydrate, and water. I was riveted to peppermint oil and kept sniffing it to prevent the nausea! I had no idea at the time that peppermint oils should not be used later in pregnancy because it can decrease your milk supply.

I called our midwife after I threw up a second time and she recommended I come into her office to get out of the house, get some acupuncture for the nausea, and to check my progress. Getting out of the house and to her office was the worst! I was so uncomfortable in the car felt like I was sitting on a bowling ball. My contractions were so intense because I had been lying down for most of my labor, and now I was upright. I was moaning in the car, and since we didn’t have AC the windows were down and I remember being nervous someone would hear me at a bus stop.

When I arrived at our Vickii’s office, the acupuncture really helped with the nausea and I felt a lot better being able to talk with her. I lay down for my internal exam and braced myself to be told, “well, you are at 1cm and we have a while to go!”. What I heard instead shocked the living daylights out of me. She told me that I was 8cm and almost fully effaced on one side. I panicked because I wasn’t ready for this baby to arrive! Vickii quickly informed her partner midwife Nicole and their student midwife Wendy that we needed to go back to our place as soon as possible because a baby was coming soon! When we arrived at my home it was very chaotic. The bed needed to be prepared for the delivery or post delivery if I delivered elsewhere in our home, the tub needed to be inflated, all the medical supplies needed to be organized and laid out, and I needed to call my friend Stephanie to come over to help with the labor. All the chaos caused my contractions to slow down significantly, especially since I decided to take the role of host instead of laboring mother.

Around 5pm, Vickii suggested that everyone leave the house so john and I could be alone and hopefully my labor would pick back up to the intensity level it had been at before the environment changed. Stephanie went home and all the midwives went for a walk. It felt much better to be alone with John. John was an amazing support, working right along side me for every contraction. At this point I always felt the contractions in my back, I never had any sensation in my tummy area. I really wanted John to push on my low back to block the pain. This was amazing and worked really well to minimize the sensations of the contractions. The midwives came back an hour later to check on me and I told them I was doing much better and the contractions had picked up. I asked them to continue to stay outside and they went to grab some tacos for dinner down the street. When they came back I was checked again and I was still at 8cm. I lay on the right side to open up that side of my cervix. After throwing up again around 9pm ( I lost track at this point with how many times I had thrown up), I wanted to get into the pool, hoping to get some relief and to be able to eat. I had a smoothie and some bread in the tub but mostly felt like I was drifting away and wasn’t grounded. I got the break that I was looking for but unfortunately it wasn’t helping move my labor along and my blood pressure was getting higher and higher. Caleb’s fetal tones were good and he did not seem to be in distress, only his poor mother was.

I got out of the tub and Nicole suggested we get go for a walk, do some side lunges, and stay on my feet to get gravity to help. Lunging during a contraction wasn’t any fun but it definitely helped! I got all dressed up to go outside. I had on the most ridiculous outfit. A yellow sundress with a pink sports bra, black socks, pink ballet flats, and to top it all off John’s grey flannel shirt. Walking around the block was refreshing and hilarious. I would waddle to a shadow when I felt a contraction coming on and John and I would slow dance while he pushed on my low back. I didn’t want anyone to see me, and I would play it cool if someone was walking too. Nothing to see here folks! Just a mama in a ridiculous outfit taking an evening stroll and deciding to slow dance while moaning. No big deal.

When we got back inside my midwives wanted to give me an IV to rehydrate me and since I couldn’t keep anything down still. I sat on the exercise ball while Nicole attempted to put an IV into my twisty veins that were not cooperating. After several attempts she decided to put the IV in the crook of my arm. I needed to keep the arm straight so she taped a wooden spoon to my arm. Talk about improvisation!

John and I went into the bathroom so I could labor in the dark on the toilet. The IV was hanging from the shower curtain, I couldn’t move my arm because of the spoon, and I was still in that ridiculous yellow getup. I was a sight to be seen for sure. John started praying for me, and I truly believe that God showed up and surrounded me with his love and protection. John was my rock during those moments.

I didn’t feel the urge to push but I did little pushes to hopefully move things along because I was ready to meet my baby! After a while I stood up and felt like I was going to faint, so I told the midwives I needed to lie down. I moved to the bed on my side, hoping to get some relief and rest before the big event. John nailed a nail into our bedroom so my IV could hand there while I was on the bed.

Within 5 minutes of lying down I my body started to push and I started to shake and quiver. This was not the rest I was looking for! Pushing was the most crazy experience. My baby and my body took over and I simply partnered with the pushing my body was doing to help Caleb come out. I was on my left side and Wendy (who is super strong) was holding my right leg up while John was spooning me and pushing on my back. The midwives asked me if I wanted to stay in my yellow sundress and pink sports bra, or if I wanted to undress to welcome my baby skin to skin. I quickly scrambled between a contraction to undress. I was naked except for John’s black socks. I started screaming while pushing in a high pitched yell, and the midwives kept telling me between contractions “Low tones Ebey, high pitched tones aren’t going to bring him down”. I remember pushing and yelling “LOW LOW LOW” to remind myself as I slipped into a baritone moan. I felt a gush of relief during a push and I knew my water had broken. The next push Vickii told me she could see lots of hair and she guided my hand to touch the top of Caleb’s head. One big push later and his entire head was out. I think he did a little cry when his body was still inside of me! I didn’t quite know what to do next and Vickii instructed me to push my baby out the rest of the way while she guided him out. John sat up to watch and with a final hurrah he was out and delivered onto my chest. Feeling that slippery naked bundle of baby was the most surreal experience. Time all but stopped as he let out a big wail and started kicking his way up my chest. As I was holding him I reached down and felt his man parts and exclaimed “it’s a boy, I can feel his balls!”. He started doing the breast crawl and I brought him up to nurse. He latched on like a champ and soon enough my placenta was delivered. About 20-30 minutes after delivery, the midwives were shoveling sweet potatoes, a placenta smoothie with berries, and lots of honey water down my throat and I was gladly gobbling everything up because my appetite had returned with a vengeance!

A hour later the midwives had John hold him so I could shower off, go pee, and get checked for tears. My tummy felt so funny! It looked like I was 6 months pregnant still but it felt like I had a hole in my insides. When I got checked out I had two external tears and an internal tear from his elbow. Caleb was born with his shoulders sideways and his hand near his face. This may have been a part of the prolonged late stages of labor. While I was sutured up Caleb slept on John’s chest on our bed while I gripped the living daylights out of his hand. Apparently John fell asleep and had no recollection that I was gripping his hand so hard. I think getting sewn up was worse than pushing a baby out, and from what I have heard, Vickii is one of the most amazing people you could ask for to sew you up after having a baby.

After I was sutured they did Caleb’s newborn exam and weighed him. He weighed 8lbs 10oz, and 22 inches long! Apparently he had been born at 12:43am, but time had no meaning to me in those first few hours. The moments were long and precious but the hours seemed to fly by. Around 4am or so the midwives all left after cleaning up everything. You would have never known a baby had just been born! John and I got to snuggle this little bundle of joy in our own bed, undisturbed my anyone until the first rays of morning sun started to stream into our window. This was a slice of heaven.