Frederick Morris and His Birth

On Saturday morning (early morning, 1am early) I woke up with contractions.  I had a couple before we went to bed that night too.  I didn't get too excited but laid there and timed them for awhile.  After about an hour I let Jordan know that they were happening about every 8-10 minutes.  Jordan started timing them and we decided that we had better give Shayla a heads up.  She was planning on coming up from Utah to help for a couple of days if I happened to have the baby early (Mom and Warren weren't planning on being here until the 17th).  Jordan tried calling her cell phone 8 times; he called Colby too, whose phone was off; he called the house phone several times and then finally called Jara who answered on the first ring and she went down to wake Shayla up.  Her phone had been on silent and after she and Jordan talked it was agreed that she'd leave around 5:30am.  Second labors are usually half the time of first labors, so that would mean this one would be 15hrs, which would put us at about 1pm.

Anyway, after talking they both got online and looked at the roads and they were terrible.  There was no way we were going to ask her to drive in bad weather.  Around 6am, the contractions were getting closer together and at about 8 we were going to call the midwives but decided to call Dad and Donna first and have them come and take Cedrik for the day.  We went to the grocery store to buy a few things and they picked him up at 9.  After they left, the contractions stopped.  I had sporadic ones throughout the day but nothing great and we were confused.  We had also let Mom and Warren know earlier in the morning and Mom got on a flight that day and was here at 2pm.

Jordan and I spent the day alone, which we haven't really done since Cedrik was born.  It was a great day, he had me haul hay to the trash can which sped up the contractions for a minute.  He is a slave driving birth partner. :)  We also went a bought a Christmas tree since we had planned to go cut our tree that day.  It is a very pretty tree, but it is sad we couldn't keep the tradition going.  I guess labor is a good excuse though.  

That night was another night of contractions and just when the sun came up they stopped again.  We were exhausted and confused again and decided to call the midwives.  Jerusha said that it was pre-labor.  Some women go through it for days or even weeks before actual labor begins.  We were both tired and sad that it wasn't real labor and that it could continue for weeks.  The little relief we got was that that night we could sleep and I was told to take a Benadryl to sleep through the contractions which helped us relax a little more.  We went for a long walk, had a good dinner and went to bed.  I woke up at 1am again with contractions and started timing them and they were about 8 minutes apart.  I let Jordan sleep until 2 and then we started timing them because they were more intense than the previous nights and when I got out of bed they didn't stop.

We called the midwives at about 3:30 when they were about 5 minutes apart and she told us to call when we felt like coming in--at about 3-5 minutes apart.  That way, we could also be a little more sure that I really was in labor.  About 30 minutes later we called and let them know we were coming in.  It took us 15 minutes to get there...it's so nice to drive at 4 in the morning...but the roads seem to have a lot more bumps.

When we got there Jerusha checked me and I was 5cm dialated and she could "safely say" I was in active labor.  I paced the room, sat on the birth ball and listened to music for quite awhile.  Then the contractions started getting a lot longer and I couldn't hold back the tears.  I wasn't crying for pain.  In fact, I'm not sure why I was crying.  At that point Jordan was holding me through each one and that helped immensely.  It seemed to make them much more bearable.

I decided to get checked once more to see how far along I was because I had had a few contractions that made me want to push.  I wasn't quite ready for that (only 8cm) so I got in the tub.  The water helped much more this time and Jordan held my hand the whole time.  I cried for what seemed like a really long time as the midwives came and went a couple of times.  The baby was sounding great--I sounded like a woman in transition.  After that I got on the birth stool and it was about time to push but my cervix had a little lip on it.  I laid on the bed and cried some more, then finally I was given the ok to try pushing.  Each time I pushed, Holly (who delivered Cedrik) would push the cervix back over his head.  Then, when the contraction would be over it would come right back down.  I decided during one of the contractions that I was sick of it and gave a very big push and my cervix stayed put after that.  A couple of contractions later and I "decided" I was ready for my water to break and to get him out...and it broke.  It wasn't very long after that Jordan had to move from being my support to the catching position.  Jerusha took his spot behind me and although I can't stand anyone but Jordan in that close of a proximity to my face, it was so nice to have her behind me and I felt so incredibly supported.

I don't know how to describe this part other than to say that I didn't notice anything really that was going on around me.  I kept saying, "I don't want to suck him back in" because it felt like every time the contraction was done he went back up.  This is how it is supposed to happen, but during that moment I forgot.  Then, I could no longer hold back and I just had to keep pushing.  It felt like I was tearing and I kept saying that over and over but Holly assured me I wasn't.  I didn't believe her.  Then I was hearing "push the rest of your baby out."  It didn't seem like it was time for that but after his head was out I was worried for a milisecond that I wouldn't be able to get his body out...then it came out and Jordan caught him.  He handed him to me very quickly and all the midwives were talking about "her."  Calm, cool, and collected Jordan had the bright idea to check and make sure she was a she and found out otherwise.  Then he said "It's not a girl.  It's a boy!"  We both looked at each other and said" we knew it!" 



Total labor time: 8hrs
6lbs 6oz
21.5"
Pushing time: 30 min
Born at 9: 02am


Cedrik's labor time: 30 hrs
8lbs 1oz
21.75"
Pushing time: 2 hrs