Isaac Ryan's Birth Story

Finally the post you (I) have been waiting for!

Our baby boy, Isaac Ryan, arrived at 2:38am on Sunday, August 7, 2011 (I was 40 weeks 3 days along) weighing 8 pounds 3 ounces and measuring 20 and a half inches long! He is beautiful and healthy and perfect in every way!

He and his birth were wrapped in prayer since day one, and it has been amazing to see how God has answered so many of those prayers and most of all to see my wildest dreams about Isaac's arrival turn out to be what God had planned as well. (Thank you Jesus!)

Of course the only thing I can compare my experience with Isaac to is my experience with Hailey, and I don't think there are enough words to explain how different my two experiences have been. There are numerous times throughout my day every day since Isaac has arrived where I wonder if this is really my reality, where things feel too good to be true, where things are better than I even had dreamed or imagined.  I never knew "this" side of having a baby... I never knew things could be "this" good... this perfect... this joyful... But they are.

So let me tell you about his birth story...

In last couple of weeks of my pregnancy I began to have noticeable Braxton-Hicks contractions. At my 38 week appointment with my midwife I was 2cm dilated and 75 percent effaced. Unfortunately, at my 39 and 40 week appointment things were the same. And so my due date came and went. Since the appointment where I found out my body was beginning to make the changes it would need to deliver Isaac, I began, with my midwife's consent, to try a variety to natural ways to induce labor: evening primrose oil, red raspberry leaf tea, walking, and more. At 40 weeks my midwife told me we would wait another week and see how things were progressing at 41 weeks if I still hadn't had Isaac. Thankfully this was possible because both Isaac and I were doing quite well.

Isaac's due date was Wednesday, August 3rd. By Friday, August 5th my Braxton-Hicks were getting more and more noticeable, so much so that at one point Friday evening they were becoming regular although not more intense. I began to hope and pray that real labor was not too far away. Saturday morning around 5:45am I woke up from a mildly painful contraction and began timing how far apart they were coming. They almost seemed regular for about an hour but not quite and just at the one hour mark when I was ready to call my midwife and update her on my contractions, they began to go away. But I hopped in the shower bright and early anyway in preparation that things might change. Once they seemed to disappear, I went back to sleep and managed to get a couple of more hours of shut eye late in the morning.

Throughout the day Saturday my contractions came and went irregularly and varying in degrees of pain. Clearly hoping this was my body going through the early stage of labor, I continued to try all methods of helping induce labor, so we went out and grabbed me some eggplant Parmesan for lunch. Around 7pm my contractions came back, more painful, and more regular. I timed them for an hour, and they were coming every 2-6 minutes and after an hour they were continuing. So I called my midwife and then my husband and let them know we were going to labor and delivery to get checked out (since we had a 45 minute drive ahead of us to get to the hospital).

Once we were in the car on our way to the hospital my contractions slowly began to, I thought, disappear again - they slowed to about 10 minutes between contractions - at that point I was afraid that I was having false labor or would go to labor and delivery and they would tell me to go back home. Thankfully, by the time we arrived and checked in, the contractions were back and growing stronger and stronger. When the midwife on call was finally able to come check me around 10pm I was shocked when she told me I was 6cm dilated - for only really having felt my contractions for about 2 or 3 hours (and not having them be painful really) that was wonderful news to my ears!

From there we waited for my room to open. I was so delighted when they offered me their one room with a tub for laboring in! Usually it's in use or there's a waiting list for it! But I got it! So of course once we were able to get into my room we started the bath right away. At this point it was about 11pm and the bath was starting, my husband and I walked out to the parking garage to grab our belongings (my choice to walk around in hopes of speeding things up) and we had permission to walk around until midnight. It was so funny to be 6cm dilated and having fairly intense contractions and be walking around the hospital and outside. It was a sense of freedom I had not during my labor with Hailey. It was amazing! At this point I'm not sure how frequent my contractions were, but they were coming fairly frequently and were fairly painful, but not bad. Around midnight I went into the bath and it felt amazing on my muscles and definitely made the contractions seem less intense. The best was having my husband aim the hose on my lower back during a contraction - it felt so good! At one point while I was in labor in the tub I was laughing and telling my husband how fun this labor actually was. Seriously, I was having fun in labor! It was crazy but true!

I could have stayed in the tub forever, but I was getting pruney and it was irritating me so I got out. My midwife checked me again around 1am and I was dilated to 8cm. My contractions were pretty frequent and painful at this point, but so far I was managing them well and not even really making any noises. A contraction would come, I would get into a position that seemed least painful, usually standing up, bending over, and using my arms to support me on a chair. At this point I wouldn't want anyone to talk to me or touch me, I just kind of would get into a zone, focus on my breathing, and let it pass. Eventually with the pain kicking up, I went into the shower so I could have hot water aimed on my lower back again, which again felt so good.

Around 1:30am the contractions seemed to be reaching their peak intensity and were quite painful. Thankfully they were nothing near as horrifying or as painful as they were when I was laboring naturally with Hailey under the awful affects of pitocin. At that point we were just waiting for me to get the urge to "bare down." My water still had not broken and my midwife explained it probably wouldn't until I started pushing (something about the position of my cervix and baby's head and there being no fluid in between. Somewhere around 2am I began pushing. Surprisingly pushing felt so good. My midwife had many wonderful suggestions for different positions for me to try when pushing. I'm not sure at what point but my water did eventually break while I was pushing. Again, surprisingly, my contractions were giving me a break that allowed me to rest between pushing sessions. I felt much more exhausted than I did in pain, which again was surprising to me. As he began to make it further and further down the birth canal and was getting to close to crowning, obviously the pain was pretty intense - but nothing like it was with Hailey (and I wasn't screaming bloody murder like I was then either - which was a relief to everyone in the room I'm sure). Thankfully, everyone's encouragement in the room really helped motivate me to keep pushing. I've never done something so hard in my life - talk about a full body work out!

The rest is pretty much history... Isaac finally arrived at 2:38am after what was really a fairly short labor and short amount of pushing. Immediately he was placed on my chest (like I'd wanted and had wanted with Hailey but didn't get). His cry and the fact they placed him on me reassured me that he was okay, although I asked countless times if he was okay, if he was healthy, and so on, not believing it. I held him and stared at him and kissed him and told him over and over again that I loved him. Shortly after, Josh was able to cut his umbilical cord (again, something I'd wanted and had wanted with Hailey but didn't get). And the next hour or so was spent bonding with Isaac on my chest. I didn't have anyone try to take him from me. Time slowed down, and it was just us and our new family, and it was wonderful. Eventually they took him to weigh and measure him - 8lbs 3 oz, 20.5 inches  much bigger than we'd anticipated he'd be!

Everything about his birth was better than I could have imagined or asked. I was able to deliver him vaginally and naturally. It wasn't nearly as painful as it was when I was induced with Hailey and trying to go naturally. In fact it still amazes me how it didn't seem that painful at all, that at one point I said it was fun, and that not only was I able to do it all naturally, but that all the estimates of his size were around 6.5 lbs - not over 8lbs! I have to say, I am a little proud of myself that I delivered an 8lb 3oz baby naturally and almost enjoyed it! Of course it was the most demanding physical act I've ever done, but still, it was a wonderful experience.

Thank you so much for praying for my labor and delivery with Isaac. I'm so thankful God answered them by indeed giving me a birth experience that gave me everything I wanted and more. Most of all, I am so thankful to have a healthy baby at home. We are so in love. :)

(Side note/ soapbox moment - I encourage everyone to try to deliver naturally if they have the option. You don't need the meds and if I can do it, you can do it! And everyone should watch the documentary The Business of Being Born - I don't necessarily agree with everything in the movie but it gives a perspective on childbirth that isn't given enough. Just because so many women are giving epidurals and other medicinal pain relieving options doesn't mean they're safe or what's best for mom or more importantly baby.)