Our Birth Story

And the adventure begins!!!

When we first arrived at the hospital--I'm so pale!


I wanted a picture during labor of me smiling. Well, this looks more like a grimace and a scary smile. Everyone in the labor room was laughing because it's so scary. hah!

Baby is born!! I love Blake's face in these pictures!

I got a massage on Friday the 30th to induce labor, took 2 evening primrose oils and inserted 2 at 9 pm. At 11 pm I lost my mucus plug and had a few contractions so I knew something was happening but I decided to try to sleep as much as I could. By 1 pm, I was pretty sure I was in active labor. From about 1am -4am I had labored on my own. I woke Blake up at 1 and told him I was in labor but for him to try to sleep as much as he could and I would wake him up when I needed him. During my contractions my bladder was spazzing--it would not release. This caused me extreme pain that caused my entire body to shake and also caused me to start throwing up every 5-10 minutes. The contractions weren't too bad but when my bladder would spazz I had zero control over the pain. This lasted for 8 hours. At 4 am I woke Blake and told him I was going to start needing his help soon staying focused and things were getting bad with the vomiting. I needed him to start getting me water, Gatorade and something to eat. He made me toast with peanut butter and of course I couldn't keep it down but I knew I needed something for my energy so I just kept eating and drinking and it just kept coming right back up. I called the doula at 5 and told her I was in labor. She told me to get in the hot shower and then call her afterwards. So, I took an hour long hot shower doing all of my comfort measures like deep breathing, moaning, rocking, thinking of the beach, telling myself that this pain had a purpose.... Janessa came over at 7 am and started applying hot packs to my stomach and Blake putting them on my back. She was putting tiger balm on my back, giving me aromatherapy to smell, massage, etc...I had my lights off with just twinkle lights on and my spa/labor CD...she checked me when she got there and I was at a 4 cm. When she told me I was at a 4 I thought, UGH is that all!!??!! I knew not to expect to be that far along but it was a little shocking considering the pain I was in. So, from 7-9 I was doing all the stuff I had learned...rocking on the birth ball..spent hours on the birth ball and doing all the other comfort measures I had mentioned before. Got in the bathtub around 8 to try to relax my bladder so it would release. Didn't work...still throwing up..Basically I didn't pee for 9 hours. At 9:15 I told Blake, I can't do this anymore, I'm dehydrated, in pain, I need to go to the hospital now..and get meds, (I didn't use my code word though) I can't do it..so Blake was like, ok honey, ok we will do whatever you want (he wasn't supposed to tell me this but at this point I was just AHHHHH)..Ok, so the doula said, let me check you before we go and she did and I was at a 7cm and she said, well it's time to go anyway! We went to the hospital-- a 3 minute drive..15 min later when I got into the hospital room and they checked me I was at a 9cm!! After I got to the hospital I didn't think about my code word again or pain meds..I think it's because I knew how close we were to being finished. Got to a 10cm about an hour later, stayed there for an hour while I was waiting for the time to push ( I wanted my body to tell me when to push)...the transition part of labor was the worst. I got to the point where I said, I can't do this anymore...and Janessa said, ok, well it's almost over..when you say that you can't do it anymore it means that you're almost done...so, started to push and had to push for 2 hours. And, we aren't talking about pushing like a little bitty push.....we're talking pushing like it's the hardest work you have done in your life!!!!!!!! Blake was right next to me saying, "pushpushpushpushpushpushpush"...
Janessa was next to me saying, C'mon Fran you have to get this baby out!! You can do it! At this point though, the pain stopped and I just had to push and I was relieved I wasn't in pain anymore. When he crowned I didn't blast him out, I really controlled the pushing...and THEN the pain came. The last three pushes I could feel the tearing and the last three pushes I was SCREAMING. The last pushes were painful but once he came out, I can't tell you the RELIEF I felt! ahhhhh....I tore up a little and a second degree tear down.

As soon as he came out they suctioned him and then we got to hold him. After a few minutes they took him to be cleaned up and then we got to bond with him for an hour before Blake and his mom gave him his first bath in our room. I wanted to help but my body was so tired I didn't want to get out of bed.

It was really cool seeing the placenta and seeing the sac he was in. I also saw where my water had broken through. It was very healthy.

The nurses were wonderful during our entire hospital stay. They didn't have a lactation consultant though so I felt as if I wasn't learning much about breastfeeding.

Dr. Hill delivered since Dr. Crownover wasn't in town. He was so kind and I was really happy with our entire experience. I'm so thankful that everything went well and that Gavin is perfectly healthy. God is good!!