Joseph Aiden’s Birth Story (part 1)

Why has it taken me so long to get Jo's story written out? Part of it has been obvious: I'm fighting to build my milk for my newborn. But I think another part of it is because the story did not go as planned...there were some very sad and disappointing parts of it that I had to mourn and work through. 

It's a long story, too! I think to sum it up, I'll make a little calendar:

Friday, Oct 1: Due date and ultrasound, which baby was napping for so they didn't get to record as many movements as they like to see.

Sunday, Oct 3: NST (non-stress test) which recorded plenty of baby movements.

Monday, Oct 4: Another ultrasound which the baby was moving so much that the ultrasound tech mentioned that she was having trouble measuring the fluid.

Tuesday, Oct 5: I was hunting in the mountains and received a phone call from my midwife letting me know that the ultrasound showed that my amniotic fluid measured abnormally high. This can be dangerous because it can result in cord prolapse if my water broke, so I was advised to head to the nearest town with a baby delivering hospital (1.5 hour drive away) and stay there overnight so they could do another ultrasound in the morning. So my husband and I packed the kids off to Grandma's and headed out of town. It was nice to stay in a quiet hotel room with my hubby, but it was certainly not a vacation.

Wednesday, Oct 6: The ultrasound they did in the morning showed that my fluids were only slightly higher than normal. It was still recommended that I stay close to the hospital so my mom brought up my grandparents’ camper for us to live in the hospital parking lot and we also got to see the kids for a few hours. It was very hard for me to see my kids go!

Thursday, Oct 7: This was a crying day. It was nice to spend time with just my hubby, but the worries that were expressed about the baby by the healthcare workers and the pressure of it all (I was one week past my due date) and missing my family and my home was overwhelming at times. We went for walks and ate a nice lunch out together. The waitress was so friendly and told my husband to give me a foot massage because it would put me in labor. What's funny is that he did give me a foot massage while we were watching a movie that night and I started having contractions.

Friday, Oct 8: I had mild, irregular contractions all through the night. They were strong enough to wake me and I had to breathe through them, but mild enough that I could doze off back to sleep in between them. They continued into Friday morning but slowed down. I got a message around 10 am that my 7-year-old son had cut his hand. He had to go to the ER to get stitches. More tears from this mama! My son was hurt and I couldn't be there with him. We had another ultrasound at 12:45. Apparently that is also baby’s nap time and they were not able to get a lot of movement during the scan. So they sent me over to the local midwife to do a NST. They were concerned about baby’s slow heart rate recovery after contractions so they sent me to the hospital to do extended monitoring. 

I knew in my heart that my baby was and was going to be just fine. I had peace about that the whole week. But I also knew that once we went into the hospital my hopes for a "home" birth would be over. The plan had been to rent a place close to the hospital and have the birth there, where my kids, mom, midwife, and mother-in-law could be a part of the labor and delivery and postpartum.  Because of covid, I knew that I would only be allowed to have two people in the hospital with me. Based on my past experiences in that hospital I also knew that I would have interventions pressured on me, I would not have the option of a water birth, my midwife would not deliver my baby, and I would have to wait longer to go home after the birth. I had been so excited about having this baby in a home environment, it was really sad to step into that hospital.

I'm going to stop this long story here and continue next week. Take care, mamas!

Lee