Just minutes old...
My little man and I get acquainted for the first time...
Proud Daddy (and perfect labor partner!!)
The Birth Story of Nolan Thomas Call
On Monday, June 27th I had an OB appointment at 3 p.m. Jason went with me and we left Abby and Landon with a neighbor since I knew they would be doing a cervical check (I hadn’t had one done up to this point.) I was exactly 40 weeks and 1 day at this appointment. The baby looked good and although he/she measured small (about 38 weeks), I was a bit concerned about going too far over my due date due to the size of my last two children (Abby was 9 lbs, 4oz at birth and Landon was 9 lbs, 14 oz). They decided to schedule an induction but my options were limited due to the approaching holiday weekend and the fact that they already had inductions scheduled at the hospital for the end of the week. I could either choose from June 28th (the next day!!), June 29th or July 5th. Since I was really hoping to avoid an induction, I chose to go with the latest date, July 5th. I was really hoping for a natural birth this time around. I had had a natural birth with Landon, but it wasn’t by choice. I had requested an epidural as soon as I arrived at the hospital, but he came too fast to have any pain relief in place. I really wasn’t prepared for an un-medicated birth, but my recovery was so good with Landon that I really wanted to try for another natural birth, this time by choice though. I also knew that a natural birth was going to be almost impossible with an induction (I hear those pitocin contractions are really hard because there’s no gradual build-up to them, so I really wanted to avoid that.) I also didn’t want to have a 10 lb baby though, so June 5th was planned although I was REALLY hoping to go on my own before then.
At the appointment, I found out that I was 2 cm dilated, 75% effaced and that the baby was very low. Since things seemed to be progressing, I went ahead and had the midwife (Jessica) strip my membranes in hopes that it might throw my body into labor sooner rather than later. I knew it would be uncomfortable, but I was willing to try it if it would help to jumpstart labor. She told me that her mentor told her that with a proper membrane sweep, she should end up with blood on her glove, and that she did!! Thank goodness it only lasted about 15-20 seconds or so!!
We came back home, picked up the kids, and ran a few errands. I was definitely a bit crampy by this point and about 5 p.m. I lost my mucous plug. Around 7 p.m. the cramps seemed to be coming in regular intervals, but they were staying pretty low in my abdomen and I didn’t feel like they were true contractions since I didn’t feel it throughout the entire uterus like I had felt when I was in labor with both Landon and Abby. We put the kids to bed and finally around 9:30 p.m. I started to have Jason time these “crampy” contractions. Some were pretty mild, but some were starting to become a bit intense. They ranged from about 3-6 minutes apart so I went ahead and called the midwife on call that night (Donna). She thought the same thing that I did, that since they weren’t spreading throughout the entire uterus, they may just be a result of the membrane sweep done earlier. She told me that if things started to change, to go ahead and come on in and that she would put the hospital on notice that I may be heading in that night. Jason and I headed to bed around 11 p.m. and Jason was fortunate enough to get a couple of hours of sleep. The “crampy” contractions continued though about every 3-4 minutes so sleep was pretty much impossible for me. Finally around 1 a.m. I felt the baby “drop” and fluid start to run out. I told Jason “My water just broke” and headed to the toilet where fluid gushed out of me. It was a brownish-yellow color so I knew that there was meconium in there (the same thing happened with both Abby and Landon…they broke my water in the hospital with Abby and my water broke on its own while lying in bed with Landon.) I put on a diaper (the nurses got a pretty good chuckle out of this one…but hey, those things are super absorbent!!), we called our “on-call-middle-of-the-night” person to come and stay with the kids and quickly headed to the hospital. I had about 7-8 contraction at home and then about 4-5 more in the car on the way to the hospital. As soon as my water broke, the contractions became far more intense and were now coming about every 2-3 minutes. I remember telling Jason at one point that it was definitely okay for him to speed to the hospital!! (I usually am the one to tell him to slow down a bit, but I really didn’t want to spend one second more in the car than I had to!!
It took us about 15 minutes to get to the hospital, about 10 minutes in registration and another few minutes to get Jason through security. I got to my room about 1:45 a.m. and I took one look at the bed and knew that I would not be leaving that room until I had given birth on that very same bed (always a bit of a sobering thought!!) Jason helped me to change into one of these oh-so-sexy hospital gowns, the baby monitor was put on my abdomen and the nurse checked my cervix (I was 4-5 cm dilated at this point). She asked me what type of pain relief I would like and I very hesitatingly stated that I would like a natural birth. I was officially admitted at this point (2 a.m.) A few contractions later and I turned to Jason to exclaim “I don’t think I can do this!” The contractions by this point were so intense at times that they would literally take my breath away. I remember having the distinct impression that I would really just like to crawl out of my skin and walk away at this point because the pain was almost more than I could bear. If I was lucky, I would get about a minute to rest in between them, but soon they started to come one on top of the other and there seemed to be no relief in sight. I started to question whether I should just get the epidural, but I also knew that it wasn’t going to be an instant pain-relief option. It would have probably taken at least an hour to get the IV hooked up, the entire bag of fluid drained into me, the anesthesiologist called and the actual drug administered. So I just hung on for dear life and tried to endure each wave of contraction the best way that I knew how.
Jason was a complete saint during the whole experience. I was blazing hot in that hospital room and he fanned me with this paper fan the entire time (I think both of his hands were about to fall off by the time we were through!!) He also did a great job of encouraging me and telling me what a great job I was doing. At one point he kept saying “Just breathe” and I finally had to tell him to stop saying that. Breathing was getting really difficult at this point and I did my best to breathe (and sometimes even moan) through each contraction, but I really didn’t want anyone to tell me to breathe for some reason!! I was able to sit up and stand and rock which really helped to get through the tough contractions. In the past I always labored laying down which is just the worst way to labor in my opinion.
About an hour later (3 a.m.) the midwife (Donna) entered the room and started to monitor the situation. She saw from the contractions that I was probably dilating further and since there was meconium in my amniotic fluid, she knew she would have to call in the neonatologist to take care of the baby once he/she was born. I told her that I was starting to feel pressure at this point so she decided to check me to determine how far along I was. As soon as she opened up my hospital gown, she exclaimed “There’s the head!!” Obviously I was fully dilated at this point and they frantically started to get everything ready for the arrival of this little baby. They called in the neonatologist and his assistant so there were a total of 6 people in the room when I delivered (me, Jason, nurse, midwife, neonatologist and his assistant.) I was so relieved when I found out that I was fully dilated and the contractions seemed so much easier to bear now that I knew that I was in the home stretch!! They were also much better once I could bear down with each one. I felt like I was actually doing something productive rather than just endure each one as it came. At about 3:20 a.m., I started to push and three pushes later, the baby was out!!! Official birth time was 3:28 a.m., almost 90 minutes from the time I was admitted to the time the baby was born! There was an instant wave of endorphins and relief that hit me as soon as the baby was out and I literally laughed and cried with complete joy. The midwife quickly raised the baby up, Jason declared “It’s a BOY!” and then they whisked him off to let the neonatologist do his work. I delivered the placenta about 5 minutes later and about 10 minutes after that I was able to hold my little man for the very first time. We bonded very quickly and he latched on and nursed for a good 20 minutes before they took him away to bathe him. Nolan Thomas Call was born at 3:28 a.m. on Tuesday, June 28th. He weighed in at 7 lbs, 10 oz and was 20.5 inches long. He is a pure delight and we are all in love!!
