Asher's birth story

Without going into too much detail, and without writing 20 pages, I'll try to share Asher's birth story. Amazingly, it's really hard to remember specific details, timelines, etc. I guess my mind was somewhere else! I didn't have a diary by my bed to jot down what happened when. We do have random hour-long videos throughout the whole process, but I don't care to sit and watch them all to try to figure out the exact details.

Here goes!

I was about 2 weeks late and due for an induction in 2 days when I started having real contractions. (I had a few falsies a couple days before) They started at about 1:00 in the morning on Superbowl Sunday. I remember this clearly because I couldn't sleep and was watching episode after episode of Weeds. Thanks for getting me addicted, Ali! When I had my first set of contractions, I remember being really mad at myself for not going to bed early that night. I knew there was no sleep from here on out. Everyone tells you to try to sleep when you start having contractions. I don't know what superwoman is able to mentally and physically block out contractions in order to catch some Z's, but that sure didn't work for me! I was UP. We made sure this was the real thing by timing it, and when it became hard to breathe through the contractions, we called my doula around 4 to tell her I was having regular C's, and she said to rest and keep track of them.

Around 7 AM my doula came to our apt and we walked, and walked, and walked, and walked...... It was Sunday morning and everyone in our building was headed to church, so it was just a little embarassing walking around our courtyard, every 4 minutes or so doubling over in pain from the C's. But it did help me progress.

Still at home: Chris holding my belly to help me through a painful contraction. 

The C's slowly got worse and worse, so when I thought I really needed to go the hospital, we high-tailed it over there. That's one car ride I do NOT care to remember!

We checked in around 9 or 10, and I remember having a bad contraction while signing in. What a pain!

Walking the halls at the hospital. Sweet Chris was by my side the entire time. My poor dad had to see his girl in pain-I'm sure that wasn't fun. 

I guess I should mention that my birth plan was au-natural. No pain meds, no epidural, no C-section, forceps, vaccuum, etc. We hired a wonderful doula that I loved, and she really did a great job helping me through my birth plan. I know most moms-to-be do not go the epi-free way, but this was my choice, based on lots of things. I don't feel I need to justify my choice, but I do want to share why! One-because women were made to carry children and give birth (so I knew I wasn't going into something impossible), two- because I truly believed I could do it, and three- because I had the amazing support and care of my family, doula, and hosptial staff, and four- because no meds is best for mom and baby. 80% of epidurals work, which means 20% don't. So even if you believe the epi is the best way,  you'd better believe you should be prepared to handle it if it doesn't work! (Straight from the Baylor anesthesiologist's mouth!) Also, the C-section rate is sky-high in the US, and lots of people believe epi's have a lot to do with it. I didn't want to chance that. I don't care to cite my sources-just know I read a TON, talked to many women on both ends of the spectrum, and even one of my bestie doctor friends. After viewing all my options (and I mean LITERALLY viewing- I saw 10+ natural home births, an actual C-section, and medicated and med-free hospital births), I decided to fork out for the doula and HOPE to birth my way.

Labor was HARD. It was the most painful and tiring thing I can think of going through (short of 24's Jack Bauer being tortured by the Chinese). Even then, I DID compare my labor pains to someone slicing open my back with a machete. I also had BACK labor. Definitely something to look up if you've never heard of it. It makes labor twice as painful, because not only are you having contractions in your lower ab region, you're also having excruciating pain in your back at the same time.

One of my many laboring positions- this was a favorite

A few days later (safely!), Chris told me this was when my breath was really bad! Umm...brushing my teeth was the last thing on my mind at that point! hah!

This is where the timeline starts getting blurry for me. I labored for about 18 or 19 hours, with painful contractions starting about 4 hours into it. I was not progressing at all- only dilated to about a 4 for most of that time. The nurses decided to break my water, but I still wasn't progressing enough. Then they gave me pitocin, which made my contractions painful to the EXTREME. I no longer had that cushion of water padding my muscles and now my body was being chemically induced to increase the length and size of my contractions.

I do have to say with some pride that I handled labor pains really well. When I got in a rhythm, breathed through the 2 or 3 minutes of pain, and relaxed my whole body, it wasn't that bad. The best (4+ as Chris reminded me!) hours of my labor were when I was sitting up with 4 people massaging my hands and my feet- my mom and mother-in-law on my hands, and my doula and Chris on my feet. It was heaven!

Chris's turn to massage my feet. 

My darling momma helping me breathe through the pain.

One of my breaks from the labor room. Lower back massage was a necessity. 

Problem was when they hurt so bad I just couldn't realistically relax.

Long story short-I was exhausted, in extreme un-natural pain, and my body couldn't do it anymore. I remember "gently screaming" for an epidural. My doula and Chris both did their best to make sure it was what I really wanted (which was, after all, what I asked them to do- help me stick with my birth plan!), but I made it really clear when I cried "Give me the freaking epidural!"

As soon as I got the epi, I could finally relax. After about 20 hours, I was almost at my breaking point, but apparently it was time to push. The nurses had me taking 20-30 minute naps in between pushing. I pushed for about 4 or 5 hours, which is longer than they say should happen, but I was so tired I had to take those naps to give me energy to get the job done.

After 25 looong hours, Asher was finally born! (He wasn't born on Superbowl Sunday like I had hoped!) He was born with his umbilical cord tied in a knot, which the doctor called a "true knot." When he came out, one of the nurses actually said "Oh my-it's a miracle baby!" I didn't know what they meant! If he had wiggled just a little bit more inside of me, he could have pulled the knot so tight that his air supply would have been cut off. He's my miracle baby! Thankfully the doula got a picture of the knot. Here it is!

Asher's true knot

My take on my "birth plan"- I feel that I did my best to go through a natural med-free birth. I always had in the back of my mind that something might go wrong and I was okay with that. I was NOT opposed to intervention if needed, and thank goodness for modern-day medicine. There is a reason that the number-one cause of death for women used to be child birth. On the other hand, obviously, the world was well-populated before epidurals, and women have been having babies since the beginning of time, so it can be done. :p I can attest to the fact that I really don't know how I would have survived this birth without all my wonderful nurses and doctor. Maybe I could have done it, and maybe not. Who knows. But at least I didn't have to get to that point. My baby was born safely and that's all that matters!

There's my story. :) If you would have asked me 3 days after the birth if I would ever do it again, I would have said "H to the NO!" But, like all mothers of multiples have told me, a few months later I forgot about the pain and would willingly do it again. 14 months later, I'm finally writing out my story, which brings back all the "painful" memories, but I'm still so excited to go through it all again when the time comes. Somehow women's brains are able to block out the emotions associated with the pain, so it doesn't seem all that bad. God knew what he was doing when he created women! All in all- it was an exhilarating, excruciating, once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I get to go through it again someday! Remind me to read that in hour 20 of the next labor!

My sweet sweet husband didn't leave my side when the baby was born; he waited patiently with me until they brought the baby over. 

It's a shame I didn't have more flattering pictures! Wowza- that was NOT a Cover Girl day. 25 hours of labor + 15 extra pounds of water weight from the epidural = one very un-photogenic girl!