Lincoln’s Birth Story

Yeah.  About that live labor log thing I told you all I was going to do here.

Obviously, it didn’t happen.  But I didn’t change my mind about it.  I had planned all along to at least post quick little snippets of what was going on, with a picture here and there, and perhaps a short video once in a while, to keep you all in the loop.

Here is a picture of me in active labor, still thinking I am going to live blog my labor….

This was supposed to be inserted into a short post about getting the birth tub set up and ready for me to labor in.

And the picture was taken just  before I got into my own tub there to the left of the big, blue one, and never got back out of the water again (except to switch to the big tub) so that I could blog anything at all.  The picture was at about 10:00 Tuesday night, Valentine’s Day.

I had seen my midwife on Monday, and I was dilated to three.  Things looked hopeful that I would be having a baby that night or the next.  She stretched my cervix and recommended an herbal supplement called Start Up, which I took a dose of before leaving the parking lot.  The contractions had already started, in the office in fact, just from the stretching alone, and I was prepared to labor throughout the day and have the baby sometime in the middle of the night.  I continued taking my teaspoon of Start Up every two hours or so until around dinner.  The contractions did come and go, but slowed down considerably towards the end of the day.  I tried not to get my hopes up.  Either way, I knew I’d be having a baby soon.

My husband was merciful and loving and completely supportive as he always is, and took our family to Macaroni Grill for dinner, where I ordered, of course, eggplant parmesan.  It sounded good, and you know what they say about eggplant parmesan, right?  And then we went home and went to bed as usual.  I half-way expected to wake up contracting.  And although I didn’t sleep well, it wasn’t because I was in labor.

I woke up and thought, okay…..well, none of that worked….oh well.  I was tired so I went into the living room and sat while it was still quiet and drifted back off to sleep. Only to be awakened by a very. real. contraction.  “Whatever,” I thought.  Back to sleep.  And another one.  And then again.  As my husband kissed me bye on his way out the back door to drive to work, I told him what we were in for that day.  He said to call him when it was time to come home.

He was supposed to come back home to take our oldest to his science class, but called and asked if I was able to make the short drive.  I told him I’d be fine, especially since contractions were so inconsistent, and still obviously, totally manageable.  The boys and I loaded into the van and took Nolan to class.  It’s an hour long, so on those days, we take books with us and study in the car while we wait.  The sitting in the van waiting wasn’t a big deal, but the drive home….wow.  Concentrating on driving while contracting can be a bit of a challenge.  I had half a dozen strong contractions on the drive home, but still managed just fine.  But I still wasn’t convinced I was in labor yet.  I kept thinking I better write a quick blogpost and give everyone the heads up about a baby coming soon, but as soon as I would think about it, I would decide it was too early….After all, I didn’t want to give any false alarms.

The boys and I made lunch, Valentine cards for their Daddy, and cleaned up.  Contractions weren’t picking up as much as pressure was beginning to really build.  And I was beginning to lose my focus on anything else but labor.  I called my husband to come home.  I just needed to be able to BE in labor (in case I really WAS in labor).

He got home around three and this is what we did:

We gave him his homemade cards, and the one from me, and his chocolate.  We loved on our boys (how timely), told them how much we love them, and took a bunch of pictures of them enjoying their treats.  Soon, it was dinnertime.  It didn’t take long to decide that we were ordering pizza.

My appetite completely gone, and contractions starting to come regularly, I finally accepted I was in labor.  I thought of writing a blogpost again, but I didn’t feel like it yet.  I ate four bites of pizza.  A contraction came and I was done eating.  Sitting on the couch, the contractions began to come every five or six minutes.  I decided to move around some, and found out that standing caused them to be more intense.  A bath made them come two to three minutes apart.  Back out of the tub, they were five to six minutes apart again.  We called the midwife to give her an idea of where we were.  She came by about 9:30 and checked and I was dilated further.  The baby, she said was completely posterior….still!  She stretched my cervix again and showed us another method of trying to gently “pull/push” the baby to my left side, and recommended I stay on my hands and knees, or lying on my left side as much as possible.

I went to the living room with my big, purple birthing ball and tried to stay on my hands and knees while my husband put little ones to bed.  Dax did try helping me move the baby with the method she taught us.  I wanted to lie down, though, so I ended up on the couch again and my husband and I tried to watch the new Duggar episode that I had been looking forward to.  About five or six very strong contractions finally broke my focus and I headed for my tub.  Contractions were NOT slowing down.  There was no reason to time them anymore.  Labor was really here.  I realized I wasn’t going to  be live blogging anything.

Dax hooked up the hose to the showerhead and filled the big birthing tub.  Halfway full, I switched from my tub to that one.  Oh, they are so amazing, those birthing tubs!!  On my hands and knees still, I could hang my upper body over the soft sides and just relax in the deep water.  Such relief!

The contractions grew in intensity and Dax called the midwife, telling her that they were “on top of each other”.  She arrived close to midnight and I had dilated to about 7.  Praise God for the progress, I thought.  She expressed that she wasn’t worried at all about the position of the baby and we all thought it would be just a little while before the baby was born.

Contractions remained consistent, and I would breathe for as long as I could, and sometimes push lightly at the peak of each one, then breathe them out again.  The baby seemed to be turning to LOA, which was great.  But then he would turn again.  He seemed to be having a hard time descending into my pelvis.  This story familiar to me, I began to worry a bit about getting him out.

And rightly so…..Transition was long and intense.  And the midwives began to wonder about his size.

We decided I was dilated enough to go ahead and break my water.  Maybe that would let the baby’s head come down some more and we could just have this baby.  I tried pushing him down with several contractions, but he would not move, except to turn his head from side to side.  I had some cervix that just would NOT go away.  I hung my head over the side of the tub and threw up into a trash can.  I was done.  It was 4:30 in the morning.  I hadn’t slept the night before.  I hadn’t slept that night.  I was tired.  I heard the midwives discussing the best thing to do for me to help get the baby out.

I was starting to feel hopeless and the midwives knew it.  They told me to reach and feel for the baby’s head and he was right there….just not crowning yet, despite the hardest pushing I’d ever done.

It was time to get out of the tub and make it the few short steps to the bed. We were going to have to work even harder.  But with the baby’s head where it was, I just couldn’t lift my legs up to get out and my husband had to help me.  Then I couldn’t walk, and had to help me again.  I squatted momentarily when I did finally make it to the bed, hoping that would just suddenly bring him down, and I pushed with the strong contraction.

Finally up on the bed, the midwives and my husband and sister helped me lie flat on my back and all tried desperately to keep my knees back, although I resisted, trying to fix myself into a more comfortable position.  But it was the position they said that would allow the baby, who was obviously lodged in my pelvis, to slide underneath and through my bones.  Finally, after several hard pushes, the baby’s head was out.  And I fully expected the rest of him to follow quickly, but he would not slide.  With a look of concern, the midwife said she needed me to push really hard and she delivered one shoulder and removed the cord from the baby’s neck, which had been wrapped around twice.  A few seconds of panic hit the room when the baby’s other shoulder would not come out.  The midwife did what good midwives do and soon, he was freed and my husband was able to pull the baby the rest of the way out.  Lincoln was delivered with the help of his own Daddy!  And I was never more relieved when they placed that big baby on my chest!  The midwife said almost instantly, “no wonder!”  Lincoln was almost ten pounds at birth, turned from a posterior position, had shoulders almost too big to fit through his mother’s pelvic bones, and had the cord wrapped around his neck twice.  Everything made sense now.  But more important than anything, he was here….safe and sound.  And all I could do was declare my thanks to God – for the relief of childbirth being over, for Lincoln’s safe arrival, for this precious new life, the wisdom of the midwives – all of it!

Such a sweet, precious gift from the Lord!  We’re thrilled to have been blessed with our newest little man.

To all of you who prayed, thank you so much!

We feel so blessed and are enjoying our sweet boy so very much!

Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are sons born in one’s youth.  Blessed is the man whose quiver is full of them.  Psalm 127:4,5