Our Birth Story With Baby #2
I’ve been meaning to carve out some time to talk about my birth story with our second born, Brooke <3
I do plan to also publish a post on my pregnancy experience with her as well, so stay tuned for that because the months leading up to her birth, has without a doubt manifested into our birth story. It’s remarkable what you can really do if you set your mind + take the necessary action.
Brooke was born on a Sunday morning at 11:52 am. By the way, I do not enjoy being pregnant, but I sure do enjoy the moments after giving birth - minus the postpartum breastfeeding contractions (oof some of them felt like actual contractions this time around!).
The day before I gave birth, my twin sister came over and decorated my belly with little sticker gems and took some cute photos of my belly and I had also walked about 12,000 steps that morning. The days prior, I was definitely started to feel some pressure in my pelvis/rectum area and my boobs were starting to feel sore (as if my period was about to come). My first pregnancy, my boobs were sore immediately after I became pregnant. But with this pregnancy, my boobs didn’t hurt at all and I’m assuming it’s because I was breastfeeding while I was pregnant and/or because it was my second pregnancy. So I knew things were moving in the right direction, I just had to continue being patient and trust the timing of it all. And so I did.
Around 5am on Sunday morning, I climbed out of bed (to pee… again), but this time I felt like I had to poo, but nothing happened other than a pee. So, I crawled back into bed next to my husband and just closed my eyes. And then, suddenly, I felt a long wave-like painless contraction and my eye balls grew wide. And then about 10 minutes later, another one. And then another 10 minutes, another one. By this time it was almost 6am. I patted my husband to wake him and told him I think I’m having contractions. That woke him up LOL.
It actually worked out perfectly because my twin sister ended up sleeping over that night, so she was already here to help take care of my first born which was the plan.
Around 6:30am, I took a shower + brushed my teeth - contractions becoming more frequent a little more painful. And my sister came into the bathroom to check on me and I told her what was going on. I climbed into a cotton bra + some high waisted yoga pants.
My husband brought my purple yoga ball up to our bedroom and then brought my some coconut lemon water my sister had made for me.
Around 6:50, things continued to progress and become more painful. I just moved through the contractions one at a time on my yoga ball leaning into our bed. I even texted my mom and told her things were “happening”.
As time went on, I stayed in my same spot playing my labor playlist songs. Oliver coming in and out of the room without a clue as to what was happening. My sister ended up leaving the room and my husband came in instead, which at the moment is what I needed. I told him I didn’t want to keep track of the contractions because I just wanted to be in my body and in the moment. So that was his duty along with applying counter-pressure on my lower back every time I had a contraction. I wish I didn’t need it, but I DID!! It’s crazy how much it helps.
Around 8am, things started to feel pretty freaking painful, but I breathed through it. My body started to get the shakes and our doula said it was normal and due to hormone changes. I played one of my favorite songs i listened to during these past few months and I just started to get really emotional. I knew I was fine and I knew everything would be okay - it’s just a lot leading up to this moment and then actually being in labor.
Around 8:30, we decided to head to the hospital. I switched my music from my labor playlist to a meditation playlist - actual music started to feel like noise as the pain got worse and more and more frequent. Read more on all the things I did to prepare for a natural labor and delivery here.
We got to the hospital around 9am. The drive there was painful, but I kept my cool and just did all the things I planned to do to remain calm. We went to the ER and I just kept my eyes closed as the put me in a wheel chair. I remember briefly hearing the gentleman my husband was talking to - he was a very nice cop that was so respectful as he guided us through the halls toward the maternity unit.
We got to the maternity unit and I started to feel my body tensing while the nurses were trying to communicate with me as I signed digital forms. Once that was completed, we went to one of their triage rooms so they could truly see if I was in actual labor or not. HAHA. I get it, but dear lord, it just adds one more stress to your mind when you just want to be back in your own home doing what I was just doing. But it is what it is.
Anyway, we had a lovely nurse who was also actually 9 months pregnant herself. She got me in my gown and hooked up - omg and noone really prepares you for the pain you feel while you have to do this type of shit while in labor. But again, it is what it is - it’s just hard and uncomfortable because I just wanted to lean on something rather than sit on a bed during the contractions. So I ended up standing up and then all of a sudden I felt this uncontrolable urge to push and little dropplets of blood starting to drip on the hospital floor.
Then the doctor came in and confirmed I was 8cm. We were amazed and so grateful. With my first, I was barely a fingernail dilated when we got to the hospital (and my water broke with him!).
They finally wheeled me into my delivery room at around 9:30? Not really sure exactly when. We get settled - even tho my jaw is shattering because of the pain. All the things I learned to keep myself calm, cool and collected started to feel obsolete at this point, but I continued to listen to my meditaiton music and had my husband apply pressure at my low back during every freaking contraction.
I was in all sorts of positions, but started on the floor. From here on out, I’d have to push during the contractions even tho it wasn’t pushing time for baby just yet. Again, I just felt this uncontrollable urge to push.
The doctor was behind me just in case she came out. But i honestly didn’t think she would because I didn’t feel her down there yet. With Oliver, my water broke and so I could feel his little body moving down, but with Brooke, I didn’t feel it and was eagerly waiting for it to happen.
So the doctor suggested breaking my water. I didn’t wanna do it, but we agreed to it because I just wanted to have this baby and be out of pain. So I laid on my back at an angle and he broke it, but nothing really gushed out like I had expected. I felt the gush with my first baby at home!! But here I am in the delivery room, and still no gush.
So I continued to labor down. And then all of a sudden I’m on my back again and I just am so over it and I keep having to push for my contractions. The doctor ended up having to apply pressure vaginally with his fingers to help guide me to push toward him - which I do find this helpful, It helped me with my first too. But my plan was to just labor down until I felt that urge - but again, I never felt it “down there”.
So he went back in and here, the baby’s sac was double-lined. So my water didn’t completely break. But as soon as he went in again and broke it, I pushed during the contraction with all the help from the clinical staff, my doula and my husband to help me hold the push as long as a I could and then all of a sudden my body shot up into a bridge position and baby came out, but her shoulder got suck for a few seconds and then I had to stop and the doctor did a maneuver and voila… she was here.
They checked her and she was slightly bruised but that went away rather quickly. She was perfectly healthy. No issues at all! It was insanely crazy, but so so so amazing.
I got to her hold her right away and latched her shortly after.
It was funny, during one of my contractions I was facing the bed frame while gripping my damn portable fan to my face thinking, “are we done yet? I’m hungry”. I was so excited to eat food without feeling so pregnant! LOL!
But the contractions even after birth felt pretty brutal. We had family over shortly after I gave birth and I remember sitting there in pain, trying to act like I wasn’t. I even had to breathe through some of them like they were labor contractions. Kinda wild.
XOXO,
Kelsey