Luke's Birth Story

Before I jump straight into the story of Luke’s birth, I want to share the goals Ray and I developed for his birth.  For the most part, they are the same goals that we had for James’s birth, but we were even more resolved this time.  I had a mostly natural birth with James, but I did take one dose of a narcotic.  I took the lowest dose and it only lasted about an hour.  I took it because contractions were very intense – I didn’t get a break between them.  Contractions were most likely this intense because my water broke and nothing happened, so after 10 hours we decided to go to the hospital to get induced since my water was broken and nothing was happening.  In the end, I was happy with James’s birth because both of us were healthy (read James's full birth story here), but I really wanted to avoid drugs completely this time around. 

Here are some of the goals listed in our birth plan that we made for our midwives/doctors:

·         - We want to have a completely natural birth. 

·        - We would love to have a water birth and at least be able to labor in the water if not deliver in the water. 

·         - We understand that things may happen outside of our control, but unless it is a medical emergency, we ask that our requests be followed. 

·         - Do not ask us if we would like pain medication.

·         - Avoid all unnecessary interventions and procedures – we prefer to let birth take its course naturally

·         - Avoid the use of pitocin unless absolutely necessary

·         - Avoid breaking the bag of waters unless absolutely necessary

·         - We do not want an IV

·         - We only want the baby to be monitored intermittently

Like I said before, we had this same plan with James, but I ultimately decided to take pain medication rather than have a completely natural birth.  So how would I try to make things different this time?  Ray and I both decided that we wanted extra support in labor, so we thought it would be a wise decision to hire a doula.  (read about what a doula is here).  We hired Natural Baby Doulas because one of the three doulas in this group, Sarah Carter, taught our Bradley Method birth class during our first pregnancy.  We felt confident in her ability to support families in labor and we knew she shared the same goals about natural birth. 

I also researched a lot in preparation for labor.  The more you read, the more you realize that the research is clear – natural birth is the safest option for both mom and baby in most circumstances.  Natural birth is empowering and it is what women were made to do.  Modern medicine is wonderful and it has its place, but in most cases, not needed in labor and delivery.  I am so thankful for the option of modern medicine – this is why I decided to birth in a hospital – because I want to be close to that option if necessary, but I hoped I would never need it.  I read tons of birth stories to mentally prepare myself.  I knew without a doubt that a natural birth is what I wanted.  I wanted it bad.  I let it slip through my fingers with James’s birth and I was preparing with determination to have the birth story I longed for with Luke.  

Luke’s birth started on his due date – Monday, September 29, 2014.  When I woke up that morning, I was rested, relaxed, and free of a toddler because Ray’s parents took care of James the night before.  We knew labor was going to come soon, so we decided that a day of rest for me would be very beneficial.  An alarm woke me up for the first time in almost two years.  Usually James is my alarm clock, but I actually needed to set a backup alarm since he wasn’t home.  I had to get up around 8:45 because I had an appointment with one of my midwives that morning.  

I choose Central Carolina OBGYN as my healthcare provider in my pregnancy with James and I had a wonderful experience with the midwives there, so I naturally decided to keep my care with them for my pregnancy with Luke.  I prefer to see midwives to doctors in general because I favor their approach; however, many of the doctors at CCOB are different from the mainstream in that they are naturally minded and want to see patients have their birth goals come true.  During this pregnancy, I saw midwives the majority of the time, but I was also able to see three of the doctors at the practice – Dr. Stringer, Dr. Haygood, and Dr. Rivard.  I knew that I’d be happy with any of the three midwives or any of the three doctors I saw there for Luke’s delivery.  

So as I walked in the office for my 40 week appointment, I was hoping this would be my last time going to the office while pregnant with Luke.  They took my blood pressure and weight and all looked healthy.  I talked to the midwife about how uncomfortable I was – Luke’s movements had been hurting me so much during the past few weeks that they took my breath away in pain.  I also had round ligament pain that was so bad that when I moved at night in bed, I’d sometimes almost cry because the pain was sharp and intense.  After my complaining, my midwife listened to his heartbeat and it sounded perfect.  Then, she measured my uterus and it was huge – I was measuring 43 weeks!  Just the week before at 39 weeks I was measuring 38.5.  She said he probably had a growth spurt and changed positions.  I wasn’t too concerned because I knew I was going to have a large baby and I kept reminding myself that my body was capable of birthing the baby that I grew.  I left the appointment feeling good about things and I continued to hope (and I almost knew) that Luke would be born before 41 weeks.  

I left the office and decided to go to Panera to get a snack, read, and do my Bible study.  This was precious time.  I haven’t done this outside my living room since James was born.  After that, I went back home and met Ray for lunch.  We went to Lucky 32 – one of our favorite restaurants – because we knew it would be one of the last times we would be going out as just the two of us for awhile. 

 

When I got back home, I was very tired, so I took a quick catnap.  Then, Lisa, my stepmom, came over to pick me up to go get a manicure and a pedicure.  I got a pedicure on my due date with James and I loved it!  When I labored with James, I kept looking at my toes and somehow the pretty polish encouraged me, so I wanted to do it again.  I also liked the idea of a foot massage at this point in pregnancy.  During the pedicure, I was having some contractions, but they were very similar to the Braxton Hicks contractions I’d been having for the past two weeks.  The lady who did my pedicure was also pregnant and she was aware of the spots in your feet and ankles that you should and shouldn’t massage when treating pregnant women.  I told her to massage all the spots that would help get the baby out.  We laughed and I joked that I’d have to bring her an extra tip if she made me go into labor.  We left and I loved the look of my nicely painted fingers and toes.  I decided on a calming green color.  

When I got back home, my stomach hurt a little and I took another short nap before Ray got home from work.  Soon after he got home, Ray’s family came over and brought dinner and they brought James back to us.  I spent time with his family for about a half hour, but when it was time to eat, around 6:30 or so, I decided I didn’t want to eat and I went to our room to lay in bed instead.  I turned Pandora on to a Hillsong radio station.  I was having a contraction during each song and these contractions were different.  They were more intense and I noticed I needed to focus on my breathing in order to be comfortable while lying on my side.  I just stayed there with my eyes closed and the room got dim around me as the sun set.  Ray came in to check on me and I told him that James should go back home with his parents because I was pretty sure that these contractions were the real deal.  Ray brought James in the bedroom and he kissed me goodbye.  This made me very emotional and I cried – another sign to me that I was in labor.  

Once Ray’s family left, Ray asked what he could do for me.  I told him I wanted some candles lit in the bedroom and I asked him to clean up the kitchen for me because I wanted the house somewhat in order when we left.  He did this and he worked on packing things for the hospital.  After about an hour, I told him I wanted to go on a walk – I wanted to see if the contractions continued to test to see if this really was real.  We walked for about 20 minutes and the contractions were more intense.  When we got back home, Ray suggested I get in the tub.  When I got in, the water felt amazing.  Contractions were easier in the tub, but they were still consistent.  While I was in the tub, I called my doula and she reminded me that if possible, I should try to sleep through these early contractions.  I listened to her advice, but first, I had to get Ray to shave my legs.  If you know me well, you know I can’t go to bed without shaving.  So if I was going to get any sleep while in labor, I needed to have silky legs.  After he shaved me (and he didn’t cut me!), I got out of the tub, put some comfortable pajamas on, and got in bed.  

Surprisingly, I was able to sleep decently well from 9:30-3:30.  I woke up every hour or so and had to go to the bathroom, but I was able to rest which was very important.  At 3:30 I woke up and worked through the contractions on my own, but by 4:30, I wanted Ray’s support, so I woke him up too.  He got me a snack of apples and peanut butter and a bowl of cereal.  I ate them slowly, but I made sure to eat as much as I could because I knew I needed that for labor.  We worked on different positions to see what felt best.  I thought I would love laboring on my hands and knees, but that ended up being more painful for me than I thought.  I stood up and hung on to Ray’s shoulders during some of them while swaying.  I sat on an exercise ball during others.  But my favorite position at this time and over the next few hours was sitting on my bottom with my legs crossed.  It shouldn’t surprise me that this was my favorite way to sit because I sit like this all the time.  Ray downloaded a contractions timer app on my phone and started timing contractions at 6am.  They were very regular – coming every 4 minutes and lasting about 45 seconds to a minute.  

At 7am, I called my doula, Sarah, to let her know about the progress.  I told her I was thinking about heading to the hospital.  I didn’t want to get to the hospital too early, but at the same time, I wanted to get there with enough time to have my birth tub set up, be able to labor in the tub, and make the space at the hospital feel like home.  When talking to her, Sarah was surprised that I was ready to go to the hospital because I was very calm and collected.  At this point, I was talking fine between contractions and only couldn’t talk during a contraction.  

Ray and I decided that I should get in the bath at home again just to relax and be sure I was ready to go to the hospital.  Once I got in the tub, my contractions started coming about every 3.5 minutes and still lasted a minute.  While in the tub, I asked Ray to call Central Carolina because I was no longer in the mood for talking much at all.  Ray called and Dr. Stringer answered.  I was so happy to hear his voice.  I knew he’d be working from 7am-7pm, so it made me happy to know he would be the one there while I labored and delivered.  Dr. Stringer advised us to come in.  I got out of the tub, got dressed, and Ray did last minute packing.

We arrived to the hospital around 8:30am.  Sarah had a class to teach that morning, but one of the other doulas in the Natural Baby Doulas group, Christina, met us at the hospital.  No one was in the waiting room, so after checking in, I went back to triage quickly.  The nurse checked me and I was so afraid that she was going to say that I was only 1cm dilated or something awful like that.  Much to my surprise and relief, she said I was 5-6cm dilated!  Dr. Stringer met us in triage and then we were quickly admitted and we went to our room.  Christina set up the birth tub and Ray went to the car to get the rest of our things.  I was able to labor on my own fine at this point.  Christina asked me what oils I wanted diffused in the room.  I decided on a DoTERRA blend called Balance.  One of my friends just used this oil in her labor a few months ago and I liked the way it smelled.  It was a calming and grounding smell in the room and we diffused it the entire labor.  

Once Ray got back in the room, the tub was almost ready and I couldn’t wait to get inside.  When I stepped in, the water embraced me and I melted.  It was beautiful.  I was weightless and able to relax.  Contractions came and went and as long as I remembered to breathe and relax, they were very tolerable.  I took deep, slow, breaths like I had been practicing in prenatal yoga during the pregnancy.  Christina would remind me to relax by telling me to relax specific parts of my body.  She’d tell me to relax my face, my hands, my shoulders, my back, or whatever other area seemed tense in the moment.  Ray and Christina would make me change positions in the tub if I had been in one position for more than a few contractions.  Some positions were more comfortable than others, but I knew I had to keep moving so that Luke could get in an optimal position in my pelvis.  

The room was very quiet and calm during the entire labor.  The only thing I heard was the sound of the water moving with me in the tub and occasional background noises like a door closing.  I was not hooked up to any monitors or machines, so there wasn’t any beeping or other obnoxious noises.  Our nurse, Karen, came in the room every thirty minutes to monitor Luke’s heart rate during a contraction.  She needed to listen before, during, and after a contraction to make sure his heart rate didn’t dip.  She used a waterproof wireless monitor to do this in the tub.  She was as noninvasive as she could be and was a nice support too.  I got out of the tub every hour in order to use the bathroom and walk around.  I dreaded getting out of the tub because I got cold and would shake.  This made me tense and it made the contractions more difficult.  But Ray, Christina, and Karen had warm towels and blankets to embrace me as I got out of the tub each time.  

Around noon, Dr. Stringer came in to talk to us.  He had been in and out of the room, but I hardly knew he was there because he was so quiet and calm.  He respected my space and blended in with the rest of my support team.  He would just come in and watch me labor.  He’d ask if I needed anything and then quietly leave.  But when he came in at noon, he wanted to talk to us about a concern he had.  He said Luke was at risk for shoulder dystocia.  This happens sometimes when the baby is big.  Shoulder dystocia happens when the baby’s head has been born, but one of the shoulders becomes stuck behind the pubic bone.  The baby needs to be born fairly quickly to make sure he gets enough oxygen. When the baby is stuck, the umbilical cord is squashed, so he has less oxygenated blood reaching him.  Dr. Stringer said that he was fine with me laboring and having Luke in the water, but he wanted me to know about the potential risk of shoulder dystocia and he wanted us to know that I may need to deliver out of the water to get him out completely. This was the first time this was mentioned to us, so Christina talked to us more about it after Dr. Stringer left.  Christina said that it only happens in one out of one hundred births.  After discussion, we still felt good about laboring and delivering in the water.  We knew that worst case scenario, I could get out of the water at the last minute.  

Soon after lunchtime, Sarah arrived.  She finished teaching her class, so once she arrived, Christina left.  Sarah said she was surprised by how relaxed and calm I was.  I never yelled.  Sometimes I groaned a little, but overall, I was mostly quiet.  I just focused on deep breathing.  

Around 2pm, I felt a little more pressure and I wanted to be checked.  Dr. Stringer checked me and I was 10cm, 100% effaced, but baby was -2 station.  The -2 station means that he was still up pretty far in my pelvis.  This is pretty unusual and often indicative of a large baby or posterior baby.  In my case, I think it was just big.  This also explains why I had back labor.  

Since I was 10cm, I tried pushing, but it just wasn’t working.  I remembered what it was like to push with James, but this wasn’t it.  My will and my body’s will were not working together.  I was telling my body to push my baby out and my body was saying that my baby wasn’t ready.  This was very frustrating.  After about 30 minutes of completely ineffective pushing, I decided to stop pushing.  So rather than pushing with the contractions, I went back to relaxing and breathing through them.  This felt much better because I felt like I was back in sync with my body rather than fighting against it.  

Dr. Stringer came back and checked on me.  My water still hadn’t broken.  Dr. Stringer mentioned breaking my bag of waters.  He said it was completely up to me and that there was no rush since I was healthy and Luke was healthy.  I really wanted to just trust my body to do what it wanted to do rather than intervene.  Breaking your bag of waters isn’t bad necessarily, but I’d rather wait on my body to do it rather than force something that wasn’t completely necessary.  

At 3:45 I asked the nurse to check me to see if Luke had descended any further into my pelvis.  He hadn’t.  This was discouraging.  I felt like I didn’t know what to do or where to go from here.  I stayed out of the water for a little while and I just didn’t know what to do.  I remember at one point when the nurse monitored me, I was hoping that his heart beat would drop so that there was a reason for me to have an emergency c-section so that it would all be over.  Irrational thoughts like this are a huge reason why laboring moms need a great support team – or at least I know I do.  I don’t remember expressing this thought though.  If I did, I know that Ray and Sarah would have set me straight and not let me talk like that.  

Around 4:30, Sarah mentioned trying water papules to relieve my back labor pain.  Most of the pain was in my back at this point.  Water papules are injections of water in your back.  They have been shown to relieve back pain for about 45 minutes in most laboring moms, similar to acupuncture.  We talked to Dr. Stringer about it and we all agreed that it wouldn’t hurt to try – it was just water.  So he put four injections in my back and the plan was to try to relax, especially between contractions, for as long as I could.  I laid down on the bed on my side and the pain didn’t disappear, but it was much better in my back.  I knew it was better in my back because I started noticing the pain in my uterus rather than my back.  Sarah and Ray said that I was much more relaxed and that I sometimes dozed off between the contractions.  This may have helped Luke move down more.

Around 5:30, I decided to get back in the tub.  Sarah had to step out for a minute to get something to eat, but I hardly noticed she was gone because Ray was a pro by this point at supporting me through each contraction.  Ray made me eat some Italian Ice and it was refreshing.  He kept making me move to different positions in the tub.  I needed him to make me move because I just wanted to stay stalled in one position.  Ray kept telling me I could still do this even though I thought I couldn’t.  

Once Sarah got back, the three of us discussed breaking my bag of waters.  We decided that we should do something because I was nearing the point of exhaustion.  We called for Dr. Stringer to come to do it.  However, soon after getting back in the tub, I started experimenting with contractions and I realized that it felt better to push with the contraction rather than relax through it.  This is what I had been hoping to feel since they told me I was 10cm!  It felt so good to push.  I was having bad reflux, so my mouth burned and at times I thought I was going to throw up (one of my worst fears).  Sarah and Ray told me to throw up if it made me felt better, but I wouldn’t do it.  

I reached down and started to feel something when I pushed.  They asked me what it felt like – if it felt like a head.  It didn’t.  I remember feeling James’s head as he crowned and it didn’t feel like that.  This was slick.  When I described it, we all knew it was my bag of waters.  After pushing a few more times, I finally felt a pop and my bag of waters broke on its own.  This was so cool because we were just getting ready to have Dr. Stringer do it and then my body did it on its own.  

After my water broke, I kept pushing with even more intensity and it was fully determined to get this boy out soon.  Suddenly I felt a sting with a push and I knew that meant his head was crowing.  I experienced the ring of fire for a long time with James, but this sting was quick and his head was coming out fast.  They called for Dr. Stringer and extra nurses right away because they knew Luke was at risk for shoulder dystocia.  They all came running in fast and with two pushes his head was completely out.  But his head was blue.  I pushed two more times, but made no progress. He was stuck and we didn’t have much time.  Dr. Stringer quickly made me flip to my hands and knees which is the first thing you try with shoulder dystocia, but that didn’t work.  So Dr. Stringer said “we need to get her on the bed now” and he just jerked me up out of the tub all by himself with superhuman strength and put me on the bed.  Dr. Stringer and the nurse team tried the McRoberts maneuver where the nurses held my legs back as far as humanly possible and they pushed on my belly to help manually move his shoulders past my pubic bone.  Some babies break their collar bone during this and sometimes moms are hurt, but nothing of the sort happened to us.  Dr. Stringer had his hands inside me at the same time reaching for his shoulders.  He was out quick though.  His face was a purple/blue color.  However, since we were both so healthy, he recovered super quick.  He started moving on the bed while they were clamping and cutting the cord and then started breathing actively on the warmer.  The NICU team came, but they didn’t have to do anything.  Ray went right to Luke when he was moved to the warmer and kept his hand on Luke’s chest.  Sarah and Dr. Stringer stayed with me and told me what was going on just on the other side of the room.  The NICU team was gone in less than ten minutes and they put Luke on my chest.  All was well.  After a somewhat traumatic end to an otherwise peaceful labor, we were all safe and healthy.  He was born at 6:47.

Amazingly enough, I only had a couple of small first degree tears.  Dr. Stringer fixed those and they gave me a shot of pitocin in my leg to help my uterus contract since he was so large and it was my second baby.  After Dr. Stringer finished with me, I sat up to let Luke nurse.  He latched on right away and nursed for about an hour.  I wanted to weigh him because I had to know how much he weighed!  We were all wondering if he was over or under the ten pound mark.  Imagine our shock when we realized he was 11 pounds 8 ounces!  No wonder his wide shoulders got stuck!  

After weighing Luke, they took his blood sugar because they do that with babies who weigh a lot since they are at risk for their sugar to be off.  His sugar was low – 29.  If it is 25 or below, they automatically go to the NICU to get an IV with sugar and are fed formula if needed.  I didn’t want him to go to the NICU because I didn’t want to be away from him.  I also didn’t want him to have formula because that’s not the ideal start for breastfeeding.  Thankfully, a wonderful lactation consultant, Kim, came to the rescue.  She was amazing and told us she’d do everything she could to help us avoid the NICU.  I told her I could get breast milk from a friend and she told me to get it immediately.  They were going to test his sugar again in one hour and if it wasn’t better, we would have to spend our first night apart.  So I called my friend, Danielle, and told her I needed milk.  She just had a baby about 4 months ago and I knew she had some in the freezer.  Ray left the hospital and drove to her house to pick it up.  He was back within 25 minutes and we gave Luke the donor milk through a supplemental nursing system.  We were doing skin to skin the whole time to hopefully help his sugar too.  When they tested his sugar, it was all the way up to 43!  Normal is 45 and when they tested it the next time, it was well within the safe range.  The donor milk saved the day!  

It was a full day, but I am so very thankful for this baby and his birth story.  I’m thankful first of all that we are both healthy – we only stayed at the hospital for 25 hours after he was born.  I had a natural birth – exactly what I wanted.  I was supported in labor by amazing doulas and my husband who could never be replaced.  I was able to trust my body with my huge baby.  When we encountered challenges that could have been very serious, God put the perfect people in our path to take care of us.  Dr. Stringer was amazing and calm and knew exactly what to do to keep us healthy.  And then Kim, the lactation consultant, was instrumental in keeping Luke with us and away from the NICU.  

Here's Sarah - our wonderful doula - 

Luke Thomas Bower

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

6:47PM

11 Pounds, 8 Ounces

21 ¼ Inches Long

14 ¼ Head Circumference

Dr. Stringer - who was amazing!