Adalynn's Birth Story
I have to start by saying that my first three children were born at home, the first in CA and the next two in Seattle, WA. With Kieren I had help paying for a midwife and with Zoe and Freija, home birth was actually covered by insurance. Sadly in Michigan that is not the case and since we only had one income at the time (and it was next to nothing), I opted for a hospital birth because it was covered by Medicaid. At first I was extremely aprehensive, even a little scared because it was not what I was used to or felt comfortable with at all. I tend to believe that hospitals are for sick people and I have done a lot of reading about the "cascade of interventions" that happen in the hospital setting with birth and my worst fear was that this birth would end in a caeserean. Let me be clear, I have no judgment towards women who have had medicated births or c-sections, it's just not what I wanted for myself. I acknowledge that often these things are necessary for the mom and baby to be healthy (which is most important), but I had always had uncomplicated and low risk pregnancies. So what I wanted was the most natural birth possible and since I was used to the comfort of our own home I was not looking forward to a hospital room with monitors and IV's.
Thankfully Grand Rapids, MI was a good place for me to experience my first hospital birth. I was able to see midwives for my pregnancy and was guarenteed that whichever midwife was on call when I went into labor would deliver the baby. Originally I planned on using the natural birthing room but as I'll explain, that plan didn't happen.
Norm had accepted a call from a church in Austinville, IA and they were of course understanding of the fact that I was due to give birth in Decemeber so they respected our choice to wait to move until after she was born. However, our move date was set for two weeks after my due date which of course added a little bit of stress. I knew we would have a lot of help on both ends of the move but two weeks to heal from birth and adjust to having a newborn is hard regardless of it being your first or fourth time. I was also very worried about how my milk supply would be since I had a difficult time with Freija but it's a vicious cycle because worry and stress undoubtedly effect it as well.
My second two children both came late so as we got close to my due date I made a choice I never thought I would, to be induced. I weighed my two choices, to have a baby come late (Freija was five days past due date) and less time to heal/adjust or to be induced and accept the possible risks of what that means. When we went to my midwife appointment on Dec 20th I had been having contractions off and on but they weren't going anywhere and I had my membranes swept but that didn't really progress things either. They gave us the option to be induced on the 22nd and we took it but I didn't really know what I was getting into. Zoe had been three days past her due date (and I was HUGE) so I made the choice to take caster oil. I took it in a milkshake around noon and literally an hour later labor came on strong. It was SUPER intense and there was barely enough time for Norm to fill the birthing tub before my water broke and I got in. Labor was around three hours and after twenty minutes of pushing out came Zoe, the ten pound purple baby. So having never experienced a hospital birth, naturally I was expecting something similar to that. No one told me that when you're induced it can take days to meet your baby.
On Dec 22nd we went in to the hospital at 3am. They gave me the option to try different things to get labor going but I decided to just start with Pitocin so they put in the IV and started it at 4am. I really appreciated that the nurses were very respectful of my wishes and space and pretty much left me alone except to check in periodically. Every hour and a half to two hours they would raise the dose a little. We tried to nap, watch movies and mostly waited. Every so often we would walk around the hallway, dragging the IV pole along. I had a birthing ball in the room so I would sit on that and bounce. Weirdly the contractions died out when I walked or sat on the ball (the opposite of what should happen) and got more intense when I laid in bed. I know from the one other time I've been in the hospital that the beds are pretty much the most uncomfortable thing ever, so I definitely didn't want to lay there either. As the hours went on I got increasingly antsy and frustrated because the contractions I was having were no different than what I'd experienced in the weeks leading up to that day.
At one point the midwife checked me to see if they coud break my water but she thought that would be a bad idea because baby wasn't low enough and we would risk the cord coming down. So it was more waiting and slowly raising the pitocin dose. At one point Norm asked "how high can you go?" to which the nurse replied, "Oh we can go as high as 20" and at that point we were around 4 or 5. My longest birth was my first which even with three hours of pushing was about twelve hours. This last one was on it's way to beating that and did at about thirteen.
It wasn't until 4pm that things started to ramp up. The pitocin level was at 7 and apparently that was my "magic number". I was sitting on the ball getting into the "zone" of what we know as transition and Norm said "Do I hear focused breathing?" After three births at home with me, he knew the signs that a baby was coming soon. I was getting to that point where my breathing was getting more forceful and the contractions were making me cry. I went to the bathroom but as soon as I stood up had to sit back down because the contractions were closer together. Norm helped me get to the bed and the nurses were coming in to get things ready, they could tell from my no longer "stoic" appearance that I close. Up until then they were watching my contractions on the monitor and were surprised that I only gave them a 2 or 3 on the pain scale. So I was laying on the bed for a few minutes when my water broke but I couldn't tell them for a few seconds because the pain was too unbearable to speak. I told Norm, "I feel like I can't move" because I was in this weird position on my side and as it turns out I was sort of sitting on the baby's head. The nurse said to the midwife, "there's a baby!" and the midwife is telling me "Jasmine I need you to push out the shoulders now" and after the second push she was born at 5:01pm.
If you have had a baby you know that there's this point you get to where you don't think you can do it anymore and it's shortly after that point that you get the reward you've been working so hard for. It felt like that day was never going to end and we would never meet our baby girl and then we did!
When we went into the hospital we had our names narrowed down and we were pretty sure what we would go with but it was actually when I was in labor, waiting for things to get going that I brought up Adalynn. Before Norm suggested Freija we had actually planned on naming her Adalind but then really fell in love with the name Freija and are so happy we did. So that day in the hospital I said, "what do you think of Adalynn without the 'd'?" After an hour or two of looking at her we decided it was perfect.
Let me tell you, I never dreamed I would have four kids. It has definitely been an adjustment but we are so thankful and blessed. Each birth story is so unique and special. This time I was aprehensive and scared but ended up being pleasantly surprised. I admit, I did not like having an IV and the incessant "blood sugar" heel pokes of my "big" baby definitely ticked me off...but overall it was a good experience. I was very pleased with my care in the hospital and the midwife and nurses were excellent.
Now that we are a month out and settled into our new home in Iowa I feel like things went very well. It was a whirlwind and the days go by so fast so I'm trying to soak up each precious moment with our Adalynn Elise. To finish I will share that her middle name was chosen because Elise was my great great grandmother on my father's side who died during the holocaust. My Jewish ancestry is very special to me and I wanted to honor that. Thank you all who were praying for me throughout pregnancy and labor and delivery and who supported us in various ways...bringing us meals, giving advice and encouragement, entertaining our kids (Irene!) and thank YOU to my Mom for watching the kids, bringing me water, making me oatmeal and all the other things. We love you all!
Thankfully Grand Rapids, MI was a good place for me to experience my first hospital birth. I was able to see midwives for my pregnancy and was guarenteed that whichever midwife was on call when I went into labor would deliver the baby. Originally I planned on using the natural birthing room but as I'll explain, that plan didn't happen.
Norm had accepted a call from a church in Austinville, IA and they were of course understanding of the fact that I was due to give birth in Decemeber so they respected our choice to wait to move until after she was born. However, our move date was set for two weeks after my due date which of course added a little bit of stress. I knew we would have a lot of help on both ends of the move but two weeks to heal from birth and adjust to having a newborn is hard regardless of it being your first or fourth time. I was also very worried about how my milk supply would be since I had a difficult time with Freija but it's a vicious cycle because worry and stress undoubtedly effect it as well.
My second two children both came late so as we got close to my due date I made a choice I never thought I would, to be induced. I weighed my two choices, to have a baby come late (Freija was five days past due date) and less time to heal/adjust or to be induced and accept the possible risks of what that means. When we went to my midwife appointment on Dec 20th I had been having contractions off and on but they weren't going anywhere and I had my membranes swept but that didn't really progress things either. They gave us the option to be induced on the 22nd and we took it but I didn't really know what I was getting into. Zoe had been three days past her due date (and I was HUGE) so I made the choice to take caster oil. I took it in a milkshake around noon and literally an hour later labor came on strong. It was SUPER intense and there was barely enough time for Norm to fill the birthing tub before my water broke and I got in. Labor was around three hours and after twenty minutes of pushing out came Zoe, the ten pound purple baby. So having never experienced a hospital birth, naturally I was expecting something similar to that. No one told me that when you're induced it can take days to meet your baby.
On Dec 22nd we went in to the hospital at 3am. They gave me the option to try different things to get labor going but I decided to just start with Pitocin so they put in the IV and started it at 4am. I really appreciated that the nurses were very respectful of my wishes and space and pretty much left me alone except to check in periodically. Every hour and a half to two hours they would raise the dose a little. We tried to nap, watch movies and mostly waited. Every so often we would walk around the hallway, dragging the IV pole along. I had a birthing ball in the room so I would sit on that and bounce. Weirdly the contractions died out when I walked or sat on the ball (the opposite of what should happen) and got more intense when I laid in bed. I know from the one other time I've been in the hospital that the beds are pretty much the most uncomfortable thing ever, so I definitely didn't want to lay there either. As the hours went on I got increasingly antsy and frustrated because the contractions I was having were no different than what I'd experienced in the weeks leading up to that day.
At one point the midwife checked me to see if they coud break my water but she thought that would be a bad idea because baby wasn't low enough and we would risk the cord coming down. So it was more waiting and slowly raising the pitocin dose. At one point Norm asked "how high can you go?" to which the nurse replied, "Oh we can go as high as 20" and at that point we were around 4 or 5. My longest birth was my first which even with three hours of pushing was about twelve hours. This last one was on it's way to beating that and did at about thirteen.
It wasn't until 4pm that things started to ramp up. The pitocin level was at 7 and apparently that was my "magic number". I was sitting on the ball getting into the "zone" of what we know as transition and Norm said "Do I hear focused breathing?" After three births at home with me, he knew the signs that a baby was coming soon. I was getting to that point where my breathing was getting more forceful and the contractions were making me cry. I went to the bathroom but as soon as I stood up had to sit back down because the contractions were closer together. Norm helped me get to the bed and the nurses were coming in to get things ready, they could tell from my no longer "stoic" appearance that I close. Up until then they were watching my contractions on the monitor and were surprised that I only gave them a 2 or 3 on the pain scale. So I was laying on the bed for a few minutes when my water broke but I couldn't tell them for a few seconds because the pain was too unbearable to speak. I told Norm, "I feel like I can't move" because I was in this weird position on my side and as it turns out I was sort of sitting on the baby's head. The nurse said to the midwife, "there's a baby!" and the midwife is telling me "Jasmine I need you to push out the shoulders now" and after the second push she was born at 5:01pm.
If you have had a baby you know that there's this point you get to where you don't think you can do it anymore and it's shortly after that point that you get the reward you've been working so hard for. It felt like that day was never going to end and we would never meet our baby girl and then we did!
When we went into the hospital we had our names narrowed down and we were pretty sure what we would go with but it was actually when I was in labor, waiting for things to get going that I brought up Adalynn. Before Norm suggested Freija we had actually planned on naming her Adalind but then really fell in love with the name Freija and are so happy we did. So that day in the hospital I said, "what do you think of Adalynn without the 'd'?" After an hour or two of looking at her we decided it was perfect.
Let me tell you, I never dreamed I would have four kids. It has definitely been an adjustment but we are so thankful and blessed. Each birth story is so unique and special. This time I was aprehensive and scared but ended up being pleasantly surprised. I admit, I did not like having an IV and the incessant "blood sugar" heel pokes of my "big" baby definitely ticked me off...but overall it was a good experience. I was very pleased with my care in the hospital and the midwife and nurses were excellent.
Now that we are a month out and settled into our new home in Iowa I feel like things went very well. It was a whirlwind and the days go by so fast so I'm trying to soak up each precious moment with our Adalynn Elise. To finish I will share that her middle name was chosen because Elise was my great great grandmother on my father's side who died during the holocaust. My Jewish ancestry is very special to me and I wanted to honor that. Thank you all who were praying for me throughout pregnancy and labor and delivery and who supported us in various ways...bringing us meals, giving advice and encouragement, entertaining our kids (Irene!) and thank YOU to my Mom for watching the kids, bringing me water, making me oatmeal and all the other things. We love you all!
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