Our sweet Michael is 8 weeks old, finally sleeping independently for naps (for the most part) and sleeping long stretches at night, so we’re all starting to feel somewhat human again over here. To celebrate, I thought I’d tell the story of how he arrived.
Let’s start by saying, this is the first pregnancy I’ve had where I’ve experienced a pre-labor where I was having contractions for several days in a row before going into labor. With my other birth’s, once my contractions started the babies arrived a few hours later. This birth was so different.
I had been having intense Braxton Hicks for about 3 or 4 weeks prior to the baby being born. In fact, at 36 weeks we just about headed to the hospital one night when I thought I was in labor. I had gotten a terrible virus which made me have a fever and horrible body-rattling chills and I think that brought on the contractions. I had contractions regularly for about 16 hours and they were so intense that my mom and dad even drove 3 hours thinking this was it. Of course, as soon as they arrived the contractions subsided. The virus however, lingered for the next 5 days and it awful. I truly thought I might die and even went to the urgent care and got tested for COVID. After about 5 days I was recovering and only had contractions here and there and they weren’t very painful. I was thankful I wasn’t going to have a premature baby, but also a little disappointed to have to wait even longer to meet my baby.
The next few weeks dragged on and felt like an eternity. When I hit 39 weeks (it was a Wednesday) I started having more intense contractions and noticed that evening (after having my membranes stripped that morning at my doctor’s appointment) that they had become fairly regular. They continued throughout the night and into Thursday. Thursday afternoon I lost my mucus plug and noticed some brownish blood, so I called the doctor and she wanted me to go to the hospital to get checked as brownish tinted blood can sometimes mean an infection. Scared out of my mind, we quickly dropped the kids off at my friend’s house and headed to the hospital to be checked.
When I got to the hospital I was still just 2 centimeters and 50% effaced (the same as I was at my check up the previous day). I was definitely having consistent contractions, but since I wasn’t dilated much yet they didn’t want to keep me. Instead, the sweet sweet nurse told me to go do a lot of walking to try to get things moving along.
We left the hospital and went straight to the mall (it was easily 98 degrees and there was no way I was walking outside and if we happened upon a bath and body works sale while we were walking that would be a plus). So, we headed to the mall to get some dinner and walk this baby out of there. My contractions subsided on the ride to the mall, but as soon as I sat down to eat my meal at the mall they returned with a vengeance. I continued to experience regular intense contractions as we walked the mall and knew then this was it. We called my parents and Zach’s parents and let them know so they could get ready to come. We left the mall about 6:30pm and picked up the kids. When I got to the house I took a shower, bounced on my birthing ball, and tried to lay down and sleep. My mom got there soon after we did and we were so thankful to have someone there to keep the kids in case we needed to go back to the hospital that night.
I held my babies extra close that night as I knew it was our last night as a family of 5. I especially held Emmie Grace close knowing she wouldn’t be my baby after tonight. I remember shedding a few tears as I put her down that night. It was a sad, but sweet moment that I’ll never forget.
The contractions started to really pick up and I never did get to rest any. Around 1:30am my contractions were getting more and more painful and were about 3-5 minutes apart so we decided to head to the hospital. They checked me and I was more thinned out but still not dilated much. Since my contractions were so painful and regular though, they kept me.
I got my epidural around 5:00 Friday morning. Soon after that my blood pressure started to drop and I told the nurse I felt dizzy and needed to throw up. I threw up and almost passed out, but thankfully the nurse gave me some type of shot that stabilized my blood pressure and then I was fine. That was such a scary event. I didn’t progress much through the night and stayed a 3-4 for what seemed like an eternity. Even though this seemed to be taking forever, God knew what He was doing and He was working to give me the birth I had prayed for and I didn’t even realize it at the time. You see, because of covid, my mom wasn’t going to be able to be in the delivery room unless it was visiting hours (9:00am-5:00pm), so if I had had a quick labor she would have missed it and I would have been incredibly sad. The nurse ended up letting her and my mother in law come in the room around 8:30am and once they got there I was ready for things to start moving.
I told the nurse “ok, the gang’s all here. Let’s get this show on the road,” so she gave me a tiny dose of pitocin and rolled me on my side and things started to move quickly after that. I progressed to an 8 by 10:00am and my water broke around 11:30am. By 12pm I was fully dilated and ready to push.
I pushed maybe 4 or 5 times and the baby came right out. The moment we had anticipated for so long had finally arrived! Was it a boy or girl? The doctor held up the baby in the air for the private parts to be on full display and we all saw IT WAS A BOY! Our hearts rejoiced as we happily welcomed our 3rd precious boy! I took the baby right from the doctor and got to hold him and nurse him and love on him for quite awhile. He weighed 7 lbs and 14 oz and was 20 inches long. We named him Michael William Bruce. Michael after my dad, and William after Zach’s grandfather.
I feel like this was one of the best if not THE best birth I’ve ever had. It was such a sweet, calming experience and with so much less pain than my last two births. It was made even more special by my sweet mother in law getting to witness the birth of her grandchild (something she has never been able to do). I was so happy she got to experience that with us. and of course having Zach and my mom there made it all possible. I couldn’t have done it without them. Zach was such a strong support through it all, cheering me on and encouraging me the whole time. I’m so thankful for him!
It was so neat to watch God move and work through this whole situation. Little by little, I got to watch all that I had prayed for come to fruition. He is such a good God who is so good to His children. I am blessed.
To see his birth story in real time, check out the YouTube video here.
I would love to hear your birth story! Share it below!
