The short version
After 5 1/2 hours of labor, start to finish, we were blessed with the birth of Avdon Christopher on Friday, August 20 at 5:33 a.m. He weighed 6 lbs, 7 oz. and was 20" long. Everyone is doing well and we are grateful to God for this new blessing and all the ways he blessed us throughout this event. His name means Christ-bearing servant, and it's a name we pray blesses his life and foretells the type of man he will be. Check out his pictures by clicking here!
The long version (if you want to read the details that I wanted to save for myself)
It was Thursday night, August 19, a little over 2 weeks before our due date. I went to bed around 10:30, wishing I had finished up a few more chores that night than I actually did and looking forward to the weekend to work on cleaning up the house some more. Around midnight I woke up with contractions. Chris wasn’t home from work yet, so I just lay in bed, adrenaline pumping, hoping that this wasn’t labor. I had finished up some important tasks at work, but hadn’t touched base with the people taking over for me while I was gone and was definitely not satisfied with the status and cleanliness of my “nest.” When Chris got home and crawled into bed, I indicated that I was awake and having contractions. He was pretty tired and suggested we just try going to sleep, but I insisted that we pack our bags for Shiloh and for the hospital and then we could try sleeping. Just in case. We started packing, and the contractions continued. I was able to empty my bladder and bowels and ate a banana and some string cheese. I could feel that my contractions were fruitful, really pulling and stretching a lot. I settled into bed, but there was no way I was going to sleep. We timed a couple contractions, and they were lasting over a minute long. We never got around to timing how far apart they were, but I could tell it was 5 minutes or less. Chris helped me to relax through the contractions, but it wasn’t long before I sent him to call his parents (he called them at 2:30). I was nervous about getting Shiloh to Chris’ parents’ house and nervous about when to go to the hospital. As I lay in bed, Chris prepared to get sleepy Shiloh into her Gigi and Papa’s car. I was anxious to have him come back. I was able to handle contractions so much better when he was around to help coach my relaxation. Very shortly after Shiloh left, we got into the car. I felt like my contractions had spaced out a little bit, but were still strong. I was able to walk to the car and get mostly settled in between contractions. This was so different from Shiloh’s labor, as I was in transition while getting into the car with her and extremely uncomfortable the whole time. This time I still felt in control of things. I think this caused me to doubt our decision to go to the hospital. I didn’t want to get there and find out I was hardly dilated.
Chris drove slowly and warned me of bumps. It was really nice to feel like we didn’t have to speed to the hospital, and to just take it slow, allowing me to work with my body. When we arrived at the hospital, Chris parked right in front of the emergency room and got a wheel chair for me. It was around 3:30 a.m. While we waited to get checked in, I was uncomfortable and very cold in the emergency room. Sandy, our midwife met us there and she walked us up to the birthing unit, allowing us to stop when I had a contraction so I could concentrate fully. We went straight into suite 4, and I found out that a co-worker, Tracey, was going to be my nurse. I was thrilled! I had the best medical team I could imagine to help support me through a natural childbirth. We got settled into bed in the dimly lit, quiet room with just the four of us. Sandy examined me and told me the good news that I was 7 cm dilated and 100% effaced with a bulging bag of waters. That was the best news I had heard, as I was still doubting whether or not it was appropriate for me to be at the hospital! I settled into bed with lots of pillows and they quietly monitored the baby’s heartbeat by just placing the monitor on my belly instead of strapping it all on. Then they just let me labor and Chris continued to provide comfort and encouragement to help me relax. I worked really hard to visualize my uterus just pulling my cervix open those 3 more cm.
Before long, the contractions intensified and I was getting ready to push. In preparation for this birth, I was planning on doing “a better job” during 2nd stage. With Shiloh, I laid on my side to push while Chris had to hold one of my legs in the air for an hour. We were both hoping for a different experience this time! While it was different, I don’t think my talents include pushing out a baby! I obviously get the job done, but perhaps not very efficiently! I think I started pushing a little prematurely and things didn’t just feel right, probably because of this. I had remained in control and pretty relaxed up until this point. I got really warm and uncomfortable. I moved from my side to sitting up, getting ready to push. Things get a little fuzzy here as I had to work really hard to keep breathing and not let the contractions get ahead of me. There were reminders from my great team to take deep breaths, and I responded well to that. Sandy broke my water at one point to help things keep moving. For the first time I started doubting whether or not I could do this, and my sensations moved from strong pulling contractions to feeling lots of pain. I had trouble just pushing the baby and spent a lot of energy pushing my legs too! There was plenty of grunting and screams, which really do seem to help, and finally he came out!
He was posterior (face up), which added to the difficulty I had pushing him out. It also added to the tearing and stitches I needed as a result. But none of that mattered when I could feel his little body slipping out. Wow! Apparently I yelled at one point “get him out!” and Chris did just that. He got to pull our little guy right out and immediately bring him up to me. I had shed my clothes back when I started pushing and wasn’t in the least bit disgusted by the slippery little body on my chest. I was pretty amazed. Five and half hours before I was in bed, not in the least expecting I would be having a baby today! He came at 5:33 a.m., and I couldn’t have been more pleased with the whole experience. I was so thankful and so blessed and so in love with this new little man.
The placenta came out before long, which feels really nice and smooth, almost cleansing. Sandy said it looked like there was no need for pitocin, so I went without. We attempted nursing, and had great success within an hour after delivery. Our wonderful nurse Tracey left us alone as much as she could, delaying as many procedures as possible. We opted out of eye drops, but consented for a vitamin K shot and blood sugar testing. Everything went well. Chris asked about our car at one point, assuming that vallet had moved it out of the way. He assumed wrong, as our nurse apparently had received word that someone had abandoned a car right in front of the emergency room. Vallet wasn’t even operating yet! Oops! He got that moved, I called my mom to surprise her with the news, and they finally had to come take Avdon from me in order to weigh him in at 6 lbs 7 oz. He was 20” long and his head was 12 1/2 cm.
The whole experience was rather surreal. I wasn’t even to the point in my pregnancy that I was feeling “ready” or uncomfortably large. But what a blessing to have this beautiful new baby. I am so thankful for the loving coaching of my husband, and that he once again spent time preparing for this event by attending a few Bradley method classes with me, encouraging me to do my exercises and eating a healthy diet throughout pregnancy. I am so thankful to God for all he provided and for keeping us safe and complication free. And now that I’m back home, I’m continually grateful for Chris’ servant heart as he helps take care of our family. I’m healing up, but am unimaginably tired, especially on the nights I’ve gotten 3 hours of sleep altogether! Avdon is quite the nurser, occasionally giving me a 2 1/2 or 3 hour break, but often wanting to nurse every hour and a half or more. My milk was coming in already on Saturday, so he's been getting substance for a while now. It might explain why he's only 2 oz. under his birth weight less than a week after being born! He’s quite the barracuda as well, so each time he latches on, I work hard not to scream out loud. It’s getting better. Slowly. Shiloh is adjusting well. She of course, is very interested in sitting on my lap now, especially when I’m nursing, and is very concerned to do anything without me around. Chris is doing a nice job distracting her and attempting to allow me some rest time. She loves her brother and has read books to him and shared her cars with him. She will be a good big sister.
With that, I’ll be done with this novel and let the story continue from here!
