Birth Story

First I want to start by thanking Sharon and Kandis of First Birth Ministries. You ladies have truly been a blessing to us and without your wisdom, support and encouragement I know our birth story would not be the same.

So here's my birth story, I don't know how interesting it is to anyone other than me, but I want to document it before I forget it.

I was scheduled to be induced on Monday, November 29th since I was 9 days past my due date. I was to go in to the hospital that night, they were going to ripen my cervix with some cream or something and then hopefully Tuesday I would have a baby...that was the doctors plans anyways, turns out the Lord had other plans...way better plans.

Sunday we ran around like crazy looking for housing supplies for a rental house we had purchased, I was hanging in there pretty well considering I was 10.5 months pregnant. Sunday night we got home and I had this urge to clean the house, or make it cleaner than it was considering it was already pretty clean, I should have known then the crazy nesting phase had kicked in and labor was not far away. I stayed up until 1:00 vacuuming (yeah I said it was crazy). At 2:30 am I awoke with contractions, these had felt different than the braxton hicks because they were lower and coming at regular intervals. I labored in bed until 4:30, remembering that Sharon had said to get as much rest as possible in early labor. From 4:30-6:00 I walked around the house and got into different labor position that seemed to ease the pain, I was contracting about every 3-4 minutes. At 6:00 I decided I wanted to take a bath...only problem was that in my crazy nesting stage, I hadn't thought to actually clean one of the bath tubs. I had to wake up Kris.

I woke Kris up and ask him to clean the tub, I remember his response being something like "This is crazy, didn't I JUST clean it?", my response "JUST, was 4 weeks ago and since then you went to Canada where you didn't shower for a week and then came home and used our bath tub". He agreed it probably needed cleaned - lol. By 6:15 am I was in the tub. The bath water was amazing, I remember there being a point in time where I actually thought my contractions had stopped. Turned out they hadn't cause the second I got out of the bath, they were back, coming at about every 2 minutes. I labored in different positions around the house for a little while longer and then took a shower so I could wash my hair and clean off before real labor started. When I got out I was pretty hungry so I thought I should wake Kris up, again, and have him go get us food.

By the time Kris got back with food it was 8:30 am and I was really in some pain. I told him we didn't have time to eat that we needed to get to the hospital (big mistake I should have stuck it out and eaten cause later I would be starving). I think he was a little shocked that labor had progressed that quickly. He loaded up the car and we were off. The drive there seemed to take forever and having contractions in the car with a seat belt on was not much fun. Not to mention that Fannin is like the bumpiest road in Houston!

By 9:10 we were at the hospital checking in and by 9:30 I was in a labor and delivery room. The nurse checked me and I was already at 5 cms! Labor was going well so far, but the pain was starting to get worse. Kris was doing a good job coaching me and helping me implement the breathing skills we had learned in our birthing class. We were determined to stick to our birthing plan and complete the process without an epidural.

By 11:30 I was at 7 cms and the pain was continuing to get worse, I was still on board with our no epidural plan, but I wanted something for the pain. They offered me Nubain to take the edge off, so I took it. I felt so much better, I was finally able to relax a little. The only problem was that it slowed my contractions. Luckily, the Nubain wore off in about two hours, however I had not continued to progress any. By 2:30 they were wanting to give me Pitocin. Kris and I both knew if I took the Pitocin the chances of me making it without the epidural was slim. The nurse was pushing me to take the epidural and the Pitocin; it was pretty obvious that I was getting tired and hungry. Kris actually had to ask the nurse to leave our room for a little while so we could discuss our options. It was time to call for back-up. Kris sent out a prayer request and called Sharon for some advice.

After talking to Sharon we knew that I had to get into some different laboring positions in order to keep progressing. I laid over the back of the bed face down to change my position. Kris also kept reminding me every contraction to continue to stimulate my breasts (not going to lie, I was getting pretty tired of hearing him say it). Doing this releases hormones that help the rogression of labor. I could tell the contractions were getting closer together and more intense. At this point I really thought I couldn't do it anymore and really wanted the epidural. Kris continued to be upportive and remind me that I was almost there...but I wasn't sure I was buying that, I still wanted the epidural.

All the sudden I was feeling the urge to push! I told the nurse and Kris that I was feeling the urge to push. She doubted that was really true since she had just checked me 15 minutes earlier and I was still at a 7. She ask if I wanted more Nubain and some pitocin, I agreed. So she checked me again - the look on her face was priceless - I had gone from a 7 to a 10 in 15 minutes (the power of prayer)! She agreed that I probably WAS feeling the urge to push.

She encouraged me not to push, to wait for the doctors (which I ignored and continued to push cause it felt better than contracting). I remember asking what happened to my Nubain; she commented that it was too late for that? I was going to have to do this with no meds - I wasn't sure I had it in me, but at this point it was too late to turn back. Kris continued to coach me and help me breath through the contractions, which were coming every minute or so at this point. At 3:30 the doctors and nurses were set up and they were ready for me to start pushing!

Then all the sudden - stage fright...the contractions stopped for 8 minutes. Nothing, everyone was just sitting there waiting. Finally they came back and I continued to push. Kris and the nurse held my feet and encouraged me that they could see the head! Finally after an hour of pushing Kris exclaimed - he's out!! I was so happy - I had done it and with no drugs!! At 4:38 pm, after 14 hours of labor, Edward Asher Von Hohn was born! He was 8 lbs 2 oz and 20.5 inches long!

I remember asking the doctor if I had to continue to push for the afterbirth, he said no that it would come out on it's own. What he failed to mention was that they would practically karate chop my stomach in order to get the plicenta out. After about 3 minutes the plicenta was out and I was done. We had done it, no drugs, no epidural, no c-section. Praise God our little boy was here! I was so happy! I of course immediatly ordered some food!