Below is Quinton's birth story. I know it's a little late...ok 4 weeks late, but life has been a bit chaotic with a 2 year old and a newborn. Better late than never. I wrote down all the details that I wanted to remember, so if you don't want details of his delivery then don't read on. It's version #1 and unedited, so forgive any mistakes, but if i don't post it now it'll never happen I think!Even as I type this I have a sleeping newborn laying on my shoulder, haphazardly stuck to my chest with a moby wrap, and a sleeping Ella upstairs....I'm racing the clock to get this posted before one of them wakes up!
Many thanks to my mother-in-law Lorri for taking photos at Quinton's birth....it's amazing what a blur it becomes and it's so nice to have photos to record and remember it all by!
Please give me the reward of a comment or 2 so I know anyone is even reading this! :)
More photos & stories to come I hope! :)
Quinton’s Birth Story:
On Sunday August 7th, I was 39 weeks and 1 day pregnant, and oh so ready to be done being pregnant. I was really uncomfortable and just ready to meet our sweet new baby. About 3:30 in the afternoon I started having mild contractions. They were just like cramps and almost felt like Braxton hicks, just a tightening not really any pain. But they kept coming and coming so I decided to start timing them. They were about every 6 minutes apart. I’d been having contractions for many days that were often regular and lasted for hours so I wasn’t really thinking too much of this. All afternoon and evening I continued to have these mild contractions – we went about our day though, my dad visited, we played in the back yard, we went to visit my Grandma in the hospital. Once evening rolled around and I was going on 5 hours of contractions I decided that we should make a plan for what to do with Ella in case we went to the hospital. My step-dad John came to stay at our house for the night after we put Ella to bed, which was a big relief that we didn’t have to drag her out to someone else’s house. Jason convinced me that we should go in just in case it was the real deal this time. The midwife told us that if contractions were 6 minutes apart for a hour that we should come in, considering how dilated I was already (I was 4cm and 80% effaced starting at 37 weeks). I just figured that contractions would stop, as they had the previous days, as soon as we got there. So about 10:00 we headed to St. Vincent’s after a bit of convincing on Jason’s part. We left all of our stuff in the car thinking that we would probably be coming home. Once we checked into triage they monitored me and found that contractions were every 5 or so minutes and that I was 6cm dilated. We called all of our parents to let them know we were in labor and staying there. They moved us to our labor and delivery room and we met our nurse (who also was pregnant and wanted a natural delivery so that was a great match!). My mom came right away and hung out with us in our room. Jason’s parents were on vacation in central Oregon so as soon as they got the call they got in the car and headed back to Portland.
In triage, just sure we're going to be sent back home
Last belly photo!
My contractions picked up a little bit, they were every 3-5 minutes but were still just like period cramps – totally tolerable, I requested that I only be monitored intermittently so I could be free to move around and not strapped to a machine. I also requested to not have an IV, which was nice to not have to endure or feel tied down to. Around midnight I got really hungry so I had a veggie sandwich, and felt much better. We tried to rest a bit before things got too intense that we couldn’t.
At 1:00am or so I was 8cm dilated but my contractions just dwindled down to nothing.
I started to panic, thinking that they’d send us home or have to give me pitocin, so we got moving again to hopefully get labor going. We walked what felt like 100 laps around labor and delivery, I sat on a big yoga ball, I did squats, just moved a ton. Dale and Lorri arrived from central Oregon about this time.
At around 2am we decided that breaking my water would probably kick start things into a good pattern again, so the midwife did just that. Man alive did it get my contractions going! At this point I couldn’t talk through them and had to really focus and breathe my way through. I was really worried that things would stop again though, so we kept walking laps around L & D. Leaning over the bed and walking were the two best things for me to do to get through the contractions. Eventually the nurse started walking laps with us. She told us later that the nurses at the station were shocked when she called for delivery assistance just after they had seen us all in the hallway walking – I was doing laps at 10cm dilated.
Grandmas waiting patiently for our little man to be born!
Sitting on the birthing ball. Notice the tennis ball, Jason used it to massage my back.
Eventually I started to feel pressure and wanted to push. I just pushed on my own as I felt the urge to, I didn’t want to be told when to push or be counted at….of course I needed much more coaching just before he was born because it hurt like heck to push so I didn’t want to do it. I asked them if I could use a squat bar to push with, basically I was in the squatting position kind of leaning over a bar using gravity to help….that was the thought anyway! I recall it being sort of comical that I couldn’t hold myself up over the bar because I was too tired and so that idea went out the window. The midwife had me lean over the back of the bed and push that way (let me tell you when people say all modesty is out the door when you’re having a baby it’s no joke! Sure glad our moms are forgiving because I'm sure my backside hanging out wasn't pretty! :)) That wasn’t working well for me either, so I finally turned and pushed in the “normal” position with the help of a mirror and that seemed to be the most productive. I pushed for a total of 19 minutes they say, but my gosh it felt like hours!! It felt like I was a bit of a contortionist during that time, trying to find the best position to push in! My entire labor, with exception of the last 2 hours or so, was really not bad but the pushing phase was SO INTENSE! I kept trying to remember some of the helpful hints I read while pregnant, and tried to remind myself that childbirth is natural, and I thought of all the animals in the wild that have babies all the time and that all do it naturally...I tried to tune into my inner lion and be strong! I don’t know that I will ever forget that burning, stretching and pressure feeling, that was something I didn’t experience with Ella because of the epidural I had with her. It took quite a bit of coaxing from the nurse and midwife to get me to push through that pain. I wanted to go slow enough that I didn’t tear but my gosh I wanted it to be over.
What a joke, trying to push with the squat bar didn't work for me at all, we all got a good laugh out of how silly i was trying to use it! SO tired by this point.
At 3:55am, after 12 hours of labor and 19 minutes of pushing it was time to meet our little man. He came out looking sideways instead of down. The midwife had me reach down and pull him out and up onto my chest. It was a feeling of such joy, elation and relief to have our baby finally be born! He cried immediately upon being born without any stimulation. He hung out on my chest skin to skin for about an hour before they took him to weigh him. He weighed 7lbs 15oz and was 19.in long.
He's here! So happy to meet you baby, Quinton Alan Manson!
Overjoyed and so blessed!
I don't like my bath one bit!
Daddy's first time holding me
7lb 15oz
After weighing him they gave him back and he latched on right away and nursed for a little bit, then they took him and gave him a bath and cleaned him up. He was just perfect! 10 fingers and toes, no cone head at all, kissable lips, he was just as sweet as could be! He looked so much like Ella when she was born.
Our newest family member!
What an amazing experience it was to deliver Quinton naturally. I only needed one stitch (which she gave me without any anesthetic mind you, OUCH!) I felt so great immediately after the delivery. I was able to move around and walk as soon as he was born, it was so great! Ya I was exhausted from being up all night and from laboring and pushing but didn’t have any meds on board, no fluid making me feel puffy and bloated, or any lines tying me down.
I completely realize that any number of physical and medical conditions make it so not all women can have a natural delivery, (let alone have children at all!) so I feel so blessed to have had a healthy pregnancy and birth. If I had it to do again I would do my darndest to have another unmedicated delivery!
All dressed up in style for my hearing test!
He looks like a grumpy old man here!
He looks like he could just break out in laughter here!
