Lane Eliot James' Birth Story
Christmas ushered in feelings of dissatisfaction and impatience, bitterness even. Caspian was born a month early so by the time January rolled around [with a due date of Jan 15] I was feeling 2 weeks overdue. And huge. And ugly. With the permission of my midwife, I was trying to get labor started at home.
We had a false alarm the evening of the 10th. I was having very regular contractions (1-5 minutes apart) for several hours without stopping but the contractions weren't painful at all. Michael tried checking me and thought I was at a 3 so the midwife said to go ahead and come in but I was only maybe a 2 so she sent us back home with the unwelcome prediction that I would probably have several days of these light contractions. The Topeka Birth and Women's center is about an hour away from our home. We rolled back into the driveway around 1 am, tired and disappointed.
The next day, Wednesday the 11th, I spent my morning as usual; I think my mom came over. I watched a movie while Caspian napped. At 2:15 I got him up and walked down to Commercial St for lunch with friends, about a 15 minute walk. My friend Mary in France texted and asked if we could skype the next day. "Sure!" I said. (Spoiler alert: we didn't skype the next day.) ;) Pushing Caspian in the stroller, I had 8 contractions on the way there: ones I could feel! I was excited but not too excited. They slowed down a bit during lunch but stayed fairly strong. On the way home I had 11 contractions. In 15 minutes. At this point I think I was in denial. I got home and decided to lay down to make sure it wasn't another false alarm. Texted Michael "I'm having real contractions now." Instead of going away they got stronger very suddenly. Labor hit me like a train and suddenly I was breathing through these contractions while attempting to keep Caspian happy and I hadn't even called Michael. He hadn't texted back so I texted him again "When can you come home I'm having a hard time with these contractions." He called almost immediately and started interrogating me. I could barely talk but that answered his questions! He decided we were leaving, told me to call the midwife and called my mom. We hit the road around 4:30. I coped pretty well in the car, better than I had feared. We arrived at the birth center around 5:30, welcomed by Eileen and Rachelle.
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| The peaceful room I delivered in at the Birth and Women's Center. |
I moaned through all my contractions in the car and most of the rest of them once we arrived, combined with moving my hips and focusing on Michael's presence. I had a harder time keeping my body relaxed than with Caspian and labor was more intense. I labored mainly in the tub though I spent some time out of it standing, on the ball, and in bed as well. Michael was my rock. I held his hand through almost every contraction and found my strength in him. I was much more coherent this time, even joking with the nurse when she was putting on a long glove to check the baby's heartbeat while I was in the tub. She said something about it being used for AI and I said, "
What are you going to do to me? I'm pretty sure I'm already inseminated!" Sami was there and she took these photos. She really helped Michael and was able to be support for him.
I started to feel really worn out and asked Eileen to check me. I was at a 7. I got back in the tub and after a while went through transition; I broke down crying and Eileen encouraged me to go ahead and cry. She had asked me before to let her know if I started feeling pressure and shortly after transition I did and told her I was feeling a bit pushy during contractions. She said to push if I felt like it and grunt. It really started hurting and I kept feeling to see if he was crowning yet and I felt my water break. I told Eileen my water had broken. I think at that point she really started encouraging me to push more. I pushed for about 15 minutes total.
It's hard to hear in the video, but I think Eileen said, "Is the head born?" "yes." ""then push the rest out." And then she told me to pick up my baby. It's amazing how you forget to do those things in the midst of the pain. I feel like I shouldn't have to be told to push the body out or pick up my baby once he's born but I did! I felt right away when I picked him up that he was a boy, as I did with Caspian. I told Michael and started saying, "Hi, baby!" and, "I love you." Then I lost it and bawled long and loud. He was born at 8:59 pm, after about 6 hours of labor. I didn't know until after, but he had a hand up by his head and the cord was wrapped around his neck. She got me out of the water and onto the bed and covered me with blankets. I did not tear! The placenta was delivered shortly after. Eliot cried and cried for a long time and refused to nurse for about an hour and a half, but that's about the grouchiest he's ever been. He's such a chill baby. He weighed 8 lbs, 0.5 oz, 21 inches long, with a 14 inch head. He only scored 37 weeks on the test even though we were 39.3, and during those first hours looked and acted more like a preemie than Caspian had at 35 weeks.
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| The whole birth team helping Eliot learn to latch. |
We went home that night, at almost the exact same time we had made the journey the night before...but with a baby in the carseat! On the way home we discussed adding Lane to his name because he already reminded us of my dad so much. We are so glad we did!
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| Newborn photos I took at one week. |
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| My sweet little boy. |
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| 3 months |
Thankfully Eliot's first hour of life on the outside was not indicative of his eating habits, and he is now known as Chief Pumpkin Cheeks ;) He turned 3 months old yesterday and he is a beautiful, happy baby. We love him :)
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