Rex’s Birth Story

For a couple of weeks leading up to his due date, I had been feeling braxton hicks on and off throughout the day. The daytime felt more like a tightening in my abdomen, but at night I’d wake up with more intense, period-like cramping. I had never really thought twice about it because #1: of course it never turned into labor, and #2: I was already convinced I was going to deliver way past my due date. I knew my body was just getting ready for the big day and all I could do was wait.

6.25.23

7am – I woke up and immediately noticed that I had lost my mucus plug when I went to the bathroom. Although I wasn’t feeling any contractions in that moment, and knew it could be days or even weeks before I go into labor, something just felt different about that morning. I was confident I was going to go into early labor soon. I texted my best friends, Griffin and Laine, who insisted we all hop on Facetime. It was the one Facetime we all did pregnant together. They prayed over me. I cried. It was a memory I will never forget.

8am – Michael is still sleeping at this point. I started to feel cramping. Nothing too painful – similar to the Braxton Hicks I had been feeling during the night the past couple of weeks. I decided to wake Michael up and tell him what was going on. He asked me if I still wanted to go to church that morning and I told him if this was the beginning of my labor journey, there was no where I’d rather be than in the presence of The Lord. So off to church we went!

9am – Sitting at church I noticed that my contractions were getting a little stronger and closer together so I started glancing at my phone every time I had a contraction. Pain scale was still just a 2/10, but took mental note that my contractions were lasting about 30 seconds and coming every 10-15 minutes. Our incredible community of friends prayed over us after service before we left. At this point I knew that this was it. We were going to meet our baby boy soon.

11am – We were on our way home from church and Michael convinced me to call my mom and tell her to move up her flight. She had a ticket to come on Tuesday (it was Sunday). I called her and she immediately got off the phone and changed her flight to the next possible non stop option that was supposed to land at 9pm that night. I figured that was perfect since I for sure wouldn’t have my baby until the next day at the earliest. HA! 😉 I also texted my doula and called my midwife just to give them a heads up that I was in early labor.

11:30am – When we got home Michael asked me what I wanted to do. Since I was still in early labor and wasn’t in much pain, I told him I wanted to tidy up the house and keep my mind off of things. This was when my contractions started getting a little stronger and closer together. I finally felt like it was time to start timing them. At this point my pain was about 3-4/10 and they ranged anywhere from 4-7 minutes apart and about 1- 1.5 minutes long. Michael cooked breakfast for us and we ate, cleaned up the house a little, and then Michael finally convinced me to lay down to try and rest.

1pm – My MIL was on her way over to do some electro acupuncture to try and speed things along.

2pm – Electro acupuncture starts. My contractions are still every 4-7 minutes apart and 1-1.5 minutes long, but I notice that they are getting much stronger. Pain had increased to about 5/10.

3:30pm – My MIL leaves and says she’ll be back around dinner time to bring us some food. I laid in bed watching stand up comedy on Netflix and “tried” to rest.

5pm – My MIL comes back with dinner. Nothing had changed with my contractions.

5:30pm – My water BUSTED while laying in bed. It was one of those “if that happened in public that would have been next level embarrassing” kind of moments. I called for Michael to come help me get to the shower so I could rinse myself off. Immediately when I stood up my contractions went from 0 to 100. Pain was a 10/10. It felt like contractions were 10 seconds apart and I struggled to be able to catch my breath in between. I told Micheal to call the midwife and doula to let them know we are headed to the birth center. I somehow managed to rinse myself off and find some clothes to throw on. I’m shaking at this point and only have the short time of relief between contractions to get myself changed and to the car.

5:45pm – We are on our way to the birth center. The drive down the 51 was the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. At the time I had no idea that I was in transition, which later on explained a lot!

Let me set the scene. I was in the backseat with a gallon ziplock bag in my hand since I felt like I could puke at any second. I had so much back pain that the only position I could sit in was leaned back with one hand grabbing the driver side back door frame and the other grasping the car seat. My head was pushed back against the seat and my whole body was awkwardly leaning to the right. My eyes were closed the majority of the time and all I could focus on was trying to catch my breath in between contractions. Michael tried turning on some Ben Rector (my favorite artist) and immediately starts singing. I waited until a moment I could catch my breath to ask him to please stop immediately HAHA. He also tried reaching back to rub my leg at one point and I remember telling him to stop touching me. Poor Michael. I also remember glancing at the speedometer, noticed he was only going the speed limit, and asked him to drive faster. He told me he didn’t want to get pulled over (valid), but I told him I didn’t care and to please get there as fast as possible. I started to feel pressure on our drive and intentionally failed to mention that to Michael because I didn’t want to freak him out, but definitely thought to myself “I could have this baby in the car”.

6:15pm – We arrived at the birth center and both midwives came out to greet us. The moment she opened the car door and saw my face I know she realized that things were much farther along than she had thought on the phone. I somehow made it into the birth center and just remember taking off my clothes and immediately getting into the bed. The midwife checked me and I was ANTERIOR LIP (basically 10 cm but you have a small piece of your cervix that is still in the way – this can easily disappear with correct positioning). I got on hands a knees and my ant lip was gone! Michael was still getting our bags out of the car when he walked into the room to me already pushing. He dropped the bags and asked what he should tell the Doula who was still on her way. My midwife said “text her A N T L I P and she’ll know what that means”. I continued to push on hands and knees until I finally wanted to switch to my back, which was surprising because I had never pictured delivering on my back.

6:30pm – My Doula made it to the birth center and I was still pushing. I’ll never forget the realization of how hard it was to control my breathing and push correctly, despite all the women I used to coach in pushing when I worked Labor and Delivery. When you’re in that much pain it takes so much self control to be able to channel that energy correctly. I remember saying multiple times “I can’t do this” and feeling this sense of defeat, as though he was never going to come, or I wasn’t strong enough to make it happen. I remember my midwife and doula telling me that when you feel like you can’t do it, that means you’re close. For some encouragement, Michael was trying to tell me that the midwife said she could see his head and he had hair, but I swear I couldn’t have cared less in the moment! I just wanted to push this baby out!

6:45pm – They would check his heartbeat with the doppler every couple of pushes and could tell that it would drop but then come back up, but now it was dropping and staying low. There’s nothing like hearing your baby’s heartbeat drop to motivate you to push harder than you ever have. My Doula had me try tug of war which helped put me in the best position possible and channel my pushing to the right place. My midwife said I was so close, but we really needed to get him out in the next couple of pushes. It was game time.

6:54pm – Rex was born! I will never forget reaching down and catching him as he was delivered. Pulling him up to my chest and hearing him cry for the first time is a moment I will never forget. I’ve never felt so tired and wired at the same time. There’s nothing like that post birth high!

Rex stayed on my chest for the next hour while the placenta was delivered and they cleaned up the room a bit. I got him to latch for the first time and just soaked in every moment I could. I couldn’t believe he was actually here!

After our golden hour of skin to skin, I let Michael have some time with him while they stitched up my tear. Then they did Rex’s assessment and I got up to go to the bathroom and rinse off for the first time. After a total of 3 hours we were ready to leave the birth center and head home!

My mom had landed in AZ right around the time we left the birth center. By the time we got home, she arrived shortly after with my FIL who picked her up from the airport. They both got to meet and hold Rex for the first time that night.

As I type this and relive every single moment in my head, I can’t help but feel immense gratitude for the amazing team of people I had standing by my side through the entire process. I knew from the very beginning that I wanted an unmedicated birth and couldn’t have imagined delivering anywhere else other than Babymoon Inn. Delivering at the birth center felt like delivering at your friends house – we were the only ones there and it just felt so peaceful and cozy. From our very first visit to the 6 week PP visit, they exceeded my expectations in every way. Feeling supported in my birth plan is something I don’t take for granted and thank God for giving me the strength to birth my precious baby boy into this world.