The story of Silas' birth

STOP!

Okay, if you’re a guy, go ahead and read, just be warned, I didn’t make things specifically un-detailed. I’m the queen of details and though this is not graphic, it may be uncomfortable reading.

For those of you who love details, before reading this, scroll down and read the previous 2 posts.

For the rest of you, enjoy skimming through my second birth story. : )



Early Sunday morning, about 3:00 am - Contractions start, abdominal and back, quite regular, about 8 minutes apart. I was able to sleep off and on most of the morning, got up and showered, contractions were closer now, about every 4 -6 minuets. We timed them for about an hour, then called my Dr. at about 1:30 we arrive at the hospital. We check in, go to triage and my favorite nurse, Beth, comes in, “here you are! We had a room all ready for you this morning at 9:00, we left 2 messages for you, you were supposed to be induced this morning.” (Fist of all, since when has it been okay to leave a voicemail for scheduling a dr.’s appointment, especially one like a labor induction?!? Second, how can they just go ahead and set up a room for me, when I haven’t even consented to induction yet?!?) Ugh, anyway, I’m thinking “well, I’m in labor now, haha!” : ) So, they check me over, they don’t think I’m in labor, they think I’m dehydrated… they can’t get any IV.’s in me, I am REALLY dehydrated (remember, I was VERY sick.) Finally, they had the anesthesiologist come in, he got a vein, and they started a drip of fluids. 2 bags later, I was still having contractions, but they were farther apart and less intense. They decide it’s time to induce. I’m sick of fighting, I feel like my body is gearing up for labor anyway, I give in. At 2:00 pm Sunday Nov 23rd they start inducing with a little pill called me-zo (I’m spelling it phonetically, because I have no idea how it’s actually spelled. Plus, that’s just the nickname.) They use it internally, instead of orally, it’s supposed to “ripen the cervix” I’m given this stuff once every 4 hours, I had 4 doses, not much change, still contracting. I was able to sleep, Mark and my mom were switching back and forth, trying to catch some sleep on the little pull out cot.… at about 4:00 am on Monday morning we call my sister Joy and my mother-in-law and tell them to come in because my contractions were getting closer and more uncomfortable (Mind you, I was in labor for only 6 hours with Gideon and from “active labor” to “transition” to him being born, happened VERY quick, we didn‘t want them to miss anything.) at 7:45 my Dr. broke my water, I was 3 cm dilated. (Then she proceeded to leave the hospital to go into the office, sorry Janice, But you’re not delivering on my time… maybe I’ll get to deliver baby # 3.) There was next to no cervical change all morning. At 11:00 am they asked me to rate my pain on a scale of 1-10, I say “8 or 9” which was more then the last time they asked. Then the Dr. has the nerve to ask the nurse, “Is it really getting worse?” hoping that the monitors will tell them better than I can, the nurse says “No, she is the same she’s been all morning” apparently, the stupid machine knows my pain better then I do. They said I was maybe 5 cm, so they were going to start pitocin, “or just give me a ‘whiff of pit’” (ugh, I hate the medical propaganda, seriously, I think there is an underground religion of medical professionals that worship the “wonder drug” that is pitocin.) Anyway, They started a pitocin drip of 2... Which I guess is 2 parts pitocin to 500 parts whatever it is that they were hydrating me with (saline? I don’t know…) Literally, within 5 minutes of them starting the drip I exclaimed in the middle of a contraction “I think I need to push!” I start trembling and crying… Commotion happens… My substitute Dr. comes in “What? We just checked her, I don’t think she has to push.” She checks again, I’m at 5 ½ cm, “she’s fine, we’ll be delivering this baby in a few hours.” 5 minutes and 2 contractions later I say it again “this baby’s coming!” my mother-in-law runs out to get the nurse again. They come in, check and “oh look, the baby’s head is crowning… guess she was in active labor after all.” I pushed for 10 minutes and out came our beautiful baby boy, Silas Noah Leverenz. Then, despite my birth plan, they upped my pitocin for the after birth.

So, it was not an ideal birth, and my plan was not followed as closely as I was hoping it would be. But, in the end we had a healthy mama and a healthy baby, which is what matters most. Next time, I’m having a home birth, even if that means I need to move to Texas for a month so that Hannah can deliver my baby. : ) If I knew that it was going to go this way, I would have tried harder to figure out a way to have a homebirth this time, or at least an out of hospital one.


P.S. I’m going to give Mark public props, he is the BEST labor and delivery coach I could ask for. I love the connection that we have when we’re bringing our children into the world, together. He can read me like a book, and knows exactly what I need. He’s pretty much the best, he’s my favorite!

The Birth Plan

Onset of labor - Spontaneous
Clothing - Preferably my own, flip-flops, NO SOCKS
Empty bladder - Walk to toilet, bed pan if needed, NO CATHETERS
Fetal monitoring - Preferably none, intermittent if needed
Pain Relief - Basic relaxation, narcotics if asked for, please do not offer. NO EPIDURAL
Pushing - Only when I’m ready, then with direction so as to not go too fast (Side laying position?)
Perineal Care - Preferably massage, NO EPISIOTOMY
Cutting cord - Father, wait until pulsing stops
Baby’s warmth - Placed on mothers abdomen, breast feeding asap
Afterbirth - No pitocin
Rooming In - 24 hours with mother
Discharge - Preferably within 24 hours of delivery
No vaccines for baby!


Some of this may sound silly, but almost all of it came from my first birth experience. : )

The crazy week leading up to the birth of Silas

(I started writing this prior to giving birth, then finished it afterward)

This week has been hard! Due to being; terribly uncomfortable, stir crazy from bed rest, worried about induction, and insane as I watch the house that I’ve kept so clean this month, (In hopes of bringing a new baby into a tidy, organized home) simply turn disastrous in a matter of days. (Mark tried really hard, but… lets just say, he’s not a professional home-maker.)

Here is an account of what’s gone on this week, the week that has felt as long as a month.

Thursday Nov. 13th - Regular weekly Dr.’s appointment. Dr. says: “Oh, I’m really surprised you’ve made it past 40 weeks, it should be any day now. I’ll be out of town this weekend, we’ll do a non stress test on Monday… if you haven’t had this baby yet.”

Over the weekend - I’m having regular contractions, several really strong ones. I have a head cold, and feeling kind of tired. Mixed emotions, “I want to have this baby” battling “my Dr.’s out of town, I’d really like her to be here this time.”

Monday morning (17th) - 8:30, My mom picks us up, we drop Gideon off at my mother-in-law’s, we go into the hospital for the nst. 9:00, I’m hooked up to the monitors, baby sounds great, slight contractions, high blood pressure. 9:30, blood pressure still high, but gradually going down to a less dangerous spot. 10:00 I’m thrown into a whirlwind. Mark is trying to get in contact with me, no cell phone reception, I’m hooked up to the monitors in bed so I can’t use another phone, he decides to come. Before I know it I’m told we’re going to go ahead with an induction. I’m admitted, in a hospital gown, hooked up to more monitors. Mark is running back home to pick stuff up. My dad called and prayed for me, I then burst into tears. A nurse comes in to do a random room check, she sees me, inquires a little, then sends in my nurse and Dr. “what’s wrong?” they ask empathetically. “I DON’T WANT TO BE INDUCED!” Was my not so calm response (I’m still working on standing up for my patients rights, rather than letting the medical profession make every decision for me…) They then realized that this was a real concern for me, I whole heartedly did not think it was in my baby’s best interest for us to induce, and it was not just an attempt to have a perfect pie in the sky granola birth. 1:30, They agree to discharge me as long as I adhere to bed rest, and I take every test imaginable to ensure that this baby is healthy, and I can continue waiting for my body to do what it was designed to do. Every test came back negative. I did not have preeclampsia. I was okay, the baby was okay. (that’s what they were afraid of, I had preeclampsia for Gideon’s pregnancy, and they thought I had it again.)
Wednesday - Mark and I go in to office for another nst, we pass with flying colors. Turns out I’m the talk of the office. “Some crazy girl has made it to 41 weeks gestation and she doesn’t want us to induce!!!” Even the receptionists were talking about it. I didn’t get to see my Dr., so I was talking with a different one, who said, “usually this is such an easy call to make, we literally don’t know what to do with you at this point.” (Supposedly most woman are begging for inductions at 38-39 weeks.) I was told that my Dr. would call me that night or the day after.

Thursday - I’m doing well on bed rest… stir crazy, but I don’t want my BP to go up, I was being good. : ) No call from my Dr.

Friday - No call

Saturday Morning - Still no call. At this point I think something is up, but heck, she wants to induce me, and I don’t want her too. I’m not going to call just so I can argue my case AGAIN!
Saturday Evening - Within minutes of each other Mark and I both come down with the flu. It was NOT pretty. Vomiting and everything else you can imagine. We were miserable. Thankfully (for us) we were at my parents house when we got sick, so we had plenty of caretakers for ourselves and Gideon. (This was the FIRST instance where we were both sick at the same time. It‘s harder then being sick back to back) We hardly slept that night.

Looks like I'm back

It’s been quite a while... almost a month.

Why haven’t I been around? I don’t know… I guess I just haven’t felt a blogging inspiration.
I’ve had plenty of other inspiration though, perhaps I just need to drift about from one creative project to another.

Here are a few examples of the things that have stolen my blogging time as of late: Seasonal decorating, (I LOVE autumn and find that my moms knack to seasonally decorate is inherent) sewing, (I’ve started making my own pre-folds) reading, (I just finished a series by Beverly Lewis, just silly Christian novels set in the Amish country of Lancaster PA, but my younger sister and I both read them so it’s fun to discuss the books) and reorganizing (I’m just trying to get everything in place for our new little baby to come)

Speaking of the baby, all is well. I’ve been given the liberty go about my normal activities again, and was told “at this point, you can afford some contractions.” So that’s a relief, I just don’t care for “taking it easy“ it’s not really my style.

I know some of you have heard of my quest to find a midwife that that will take me THIS pregnancy for a home birth, but alas, I have given up my search. I’ve been told that there is only one, possibly two midwives that will do home births in our area. I could only get the contact info for one of them, and she is too far away from where we live to come out for the birth. I did learn however that we have the best kind of health insurance for a home birth, so, perhaps for the next pregnancy we can get things rolling a little sooner, and find someone willing to come out. I spoke with my Dr. about how I was on a quest for a midwife, and she said she understood why I would be interested in a home birth and such a route. She also said that she wishes my first delivery went a little better than it did, don’t get me wrong, I thought over all my birth experience was GREAT, but my two qualms were 1.) the episiotomy given by a Dr. I had never met, and 2.) the occasional annoying night nurses that had a bee in their bonnet about everything. My Dr. said that out of all of the Dr.‘s that deliver at that hospital, I got the one who was least like a midwife in the fact that she was quick to intervene. She said that overall, every other Dr. in that practice is primarily anti intervention and strongly believes that some soft music and a change of position is better by any measure compared to an epidural or any other kind of intervention. I am confident that because of different circumstances with this pregnancy I will have a much better chance of having my Dr. or at least one that I’ve met, do the delivery.
Wow, this post is SO long already, and I haven’t even started writing about the things I had intended on writing. Oh well, I guess that’s for another day.
I think I will go eat some ice cream. : )

"I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but..."

Okay, so yesterday, I was at my parents house, working on green beans (I'll elaborate another day) and I was standing at the kitchen counter. My sister Jenessa looked over at me from the rocking chair in the corner, where she was sitting and said. "Your cute, I love your big baby belly." With a smile I said "Thanks Nessa" she went on "You look really good, you have barely put on any weight besides around your belly." (Knowing this isn't true, yet feeling very good that someone would even suggest such a thing) I smiled a bit broader, "aw, really? Thanks" "Yeah" she replied, "I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but you kind of look like a fudge-sicle"

What?

I was wearing a brown baby doll type maternity shirt that makes me look EVER SO PREGNANT and apparently she thought that the skirt I was wearing it with was slimming on the legs. Somehow, the slendering skirt and the belly accentuating top made me look like a fudge-sicle. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but hey, if someone wants to tell me that at 7 months pregnant my legs look like popsicle sticks, I'll take it!

A morning trip to triage

So yesterday, was a bit of a crazy day. Gideon was in bed with us, nursing away like any usual morning. I was in and out of sleep, trying to buy any extra minuets I could, when I started getting really uncomfortable, I was having back pain and A LOT of Braxton Hicks, my whole abdomen went rock hard. That’s when I woke up. “Hmm,” I thought, “It’s unusual for me to feel this bad already. This is how it gets at night after a really hard day.” I stayed in bed Gideon stopped nursing and began exploring our bedroom as Mark and I kept one eye each on Gideon and with the other eye, still tried to sleep. (I’m describing a very typical morning for us.) As time drew on I realized I was having a lot more contractions than what is common for the irregular Braxton Hicks. At 8:15 I began timing them, they weren’t terrible, and not very long, But my Dr. told me that if I had more than 6 an hour to call her. Every 6 minuets, lasting about 30 seconds each, and that was after it calmed down. I called my Dr.’s office and they told me to go into the hospital where my Dr. was on call. We dropped Gideon off at my parents house and headed out to the Hospital. I signed in and waited in triage as they hooked up the monitors. Baby’s fine, mama’s still having some contractions, “Here drink this… internal exam… just a fingertip dilated, tell me about your morning, tell me about last night… beep, beep, beep… whoosh, whoosh… there‘s an active little boy in there… everything seems okay… a little more time on the monitor… we‘ll give you a shot to stop the contractions… you‘ll feel awful from it though… you‘re doing okay, we can send you home, don‘t do x.y.z… call us if a.b.c. happens…” Pretty much sums up the 3 hours we spent there. Thank the Lord I’m not on bed rest! They just told me to take it easy.

I was advised to stop breastfeeding seeing as how within the last week or so, every time Gideon nursed, (or rather pacified, having no milk left) I would start contracting, and that’s what I was doing when it all started. Yesterday morning was the last time we did it, and he’s actually doing really well with it. He only has asked for it prior to a nap or bed time, and when I say “No, I’m sorry, we can’t do that right now” he just lays his head back on my shoulder and rests as I rub his back and sing worship songs. Over the last month I’ve tried not to make nursing the primary focus of our bed time routine, making it much more about snuggling, singing and a back rub. I must admit, I cried last night, it was hard for me to say “no” to his request for nursing before bed, I’ve said “no” during the day before, and it wasn’t a big deal for me, but for some reason the night time nursing was just hard for me to deny him. He didn’t seem to mind, and I am sort of relieved that I won’t have to figure out how to work our regular nursing routine in with the new baby’s demanding schedule. And if he sees the new baby nursing and decides he wants to try again, I think I’m okay with that.

So, this is my little story, and perhaps the closing chapter of my first breastfeeding experience.

Please, pray for us though, I want this little baby boy coming no sooner than he’s ready. I don’t want to go on bed rest, and I want to continue to be the hands on, playing on the floor, chasing him around, active mom that I’ve been for Gideon all along. I would so appreciate it, Thanks!

3 - 2 - 1 - AAANND - AUCTION

Ah, contractions. I know that the little “Brackston Hicks” are helpful, and once it comes times to push this little babe out, I’ll be ever so thankful for the practice and muscle conditioning, but now… they’re just annoying.

This morning Gideon and I headed out to a local church to prepare for a big fundraising auction that takes place tomorrow. I’m excited about it, Mark and I (mostly Mark, I can’t see myself really making it through the long haul of the day) are heading up the youth volunteer portion of the auction. Which as far as I know is really just making sure everyone is in place, drinking enough water, working efficiently… The reason I’m so excited about this is because I really believe in the ministry that it’s helping out and I love that all of the churches and perishes are working together so efficiently despite denominational differences. This morning after holding hands in a circle while we opened in prayer, someone asked what congregations were represented there, everyone but one woman stated their name and church and she said “Oh, I’m a heathen, but I’m excited to help out here.” Though I’m sorry that she doesn’t have an eternal assurance of her salvation, I was thankful that she didn’t feel intimidated by the “churches,” and still saw the cause as a worth while one. : )

I had to leave early today because it was SO hot I was totally over heated, I looked like a lobster and Gideon needed his morning nap as well. After getting home and putting him in bed I lied on the couch and put my feet up, “Holy cow! My feet look like balloons!” I thought, when I finally got a chance to see them. “Elevate feet, drink water, try to rest,” the theme song of my summer. : ) I’ve been battling nausea and contractions off and on since then, hence the thought of not wanting to force myself to make it through the whole day of auctioning tomorrow. Especially because we have a wedding to go to in the afternoon, and I’d like to fit in my shoes.

It’s always hard to get our youth group kids involved in stuff that’s not the “super fun all about me kind of stuff,” not that these kids are overly selfish compared to any other group of young adults, I just think that the overall spirit of the youth in our little group is a little on the lazy side. I think we have a decent amount of kids committed to showing up tomorrow, but today we just had 2, and one of them is a Jr. Leader, or whatever Jake likes to call them. (They’re like the up and coming youth leaders.) So anyway, THANKS CHRIS AND JARON! You’re muscles today were very appreciated!