Sawyer James' Birth Story

I LOVE birth stories. Actually, that is an understatement. I adore birth stories WITH EVERY LITTLE PIECE OF MY HEART. It's fascinating to me how different everyone's experience is, even though the end result is nearly always the same. I get excited over people's marriage proposals too, but birth stories will always and forever be my favorite.

Before I had Avery I scoured over all my friend's blogs to get my hands on any and every birth story I could find. So naturally, I've re-read all those stories again (and found some new ones too!) with this pregnancy. I am including this little tidbit in case I ever talk to you and can describe the details of your child's birth better than you can remember them. If you like, you can go here to read Avery's story and we can call it even. :)

So with that said, let me share all the details of my wonderful Sawyer James with you.

His due date came, and his due date certainly went. Avery was 15 days early, all of my mom's kids were early, all of Kyle's mom's kids were early, and I was absolutely shocked to still be pregnant.

After 3 hours of sleep I woke up at 2:15 Monday morning to the largest "kick" I have ever felt. My immediate thought was, "I wonder if that was strong enough to break my water?" I started to roll over on to my left side and was immediately greeted by a downpour of water. I quickly grabbed the pillow from between my knees (because what pregnant woman doesn't sleep with at least a pillow under her knees, under her belly, and under her head?), pulled off the pillowcase, tucked that up between my legs and hobbled over to the bathroom. (I know, my creativity that early in the morning astounds me too!) Words cannot describe how nice it was to have those next 20 minutes to myself. It was good to take a breather before labor began. I was SO excited and feeling SO grateful that the wait was over!

I waddled back to my room and spent a good minute or two trying to wake Kyle out of a dead sleep (Kyle has confessed to me since that while he was waking up he was thinking, "Why is she doing this? Doesn't she know that I am sleeping and don't want to wake up?") He asked me what was going on, and I excitedly told him that he was going to have a son that day.

Now, when my water broke with Avery, I never started any contractions on my own without pitocin. So I was guessing we had a while before we needed to get to the hospital and labor would be in full swing. I had an appointment with my midwife at 8:30 that morning, so my current plan was to take Kyle with me and see what the 3 of us could come up with for the delivery (I REALLY didn't want to get that pitocin again!)

Well, none of that ended up happening. I jumped in the shower at 3:00, and at 3:01 I was in full blown labor with contractions coming about every 4 minutes. Talk about fast and furious! By the time I got out and got dressed (it took a bit longer than usual since every time I had a contraction I had to stop what I was doing) Kyle had already showered, dressed, and got all our odds and ends into a bag. A little before 3:30 we woke up my Mom and told her we were on our way to the hospital. I am so glad she was already at our house and we could just let Avery keep sleeping. I don't know if we could have called a friend that early in the morning and had them get to our house before we left for the hospital. You are the best Mom!

The roads were absolutely vacant and our typical 20-25 minute drive to the hospital was reduced down to 12 minutes (and Kyle only ran 1 red light.) This was awesome since my contractions were now coming 2-4 minutes apart.

We parked in the parking garage, walked into the hospital, and had to go to the information desk to find out where to go (you'd think we would have been a little more prepared and had already toured the hospital with Sawyer coming a week late, but nope!) The information lady asked if I wanted a wheelchair to make it to Labor & Delivery on the third floor, but I was determined to keep this labor moving and opted for walking. It may have taken us twice as long to get there because every time I got a contraction I had to lean against the wall and breathe through it. We made it up to the triage room, gave them my drivers license and insurance card, and they escorted Kyle to the waiting room while I had to get weighed, give them a urine sample, and change into a hospital gown. Now, none of those things are hard to do in and of themselves, but my contractions were coming steadily every 2 minutes and I was getting pretty darn nauseous (although I hadn't eaten since 6:00 the night before.) I kept having to just put my head down and lean against something until each contraction was over. Fortunately I was able to get each task done by a little after 4:00.

I then got hooked up to the contraction and fetal heart rate monitors and then just waited on the hospital bed for someone to come meet me. There were only curtains separating me from other laboring women. It seemed funny that there were all these unseen ladies going through exactly what I was at that moment. Some of them cursed with every contractions, some of them moaned, I'm guessing some of them were silent, and I mostly just dry heaved into a bucket. Like I said, everyone's labor is different! :)

Finally Kyle was able to come back and hang out with me. He was excited about some infomercial that was playing in the waiting room ("Did you know that there is a toaster oven that can cook a completely frozen steak in less than 15 minutes? I almost pulled out my phone and ordered one!") At 4:30 they checked me and I was at a 5.5 and completely effaced. They asked if I was wanting an epidural and I told them I was hoping I could do this thing naturally. They told me I was handling labor pretty well so far, so it seemed like a real possibility. Awesome!

At 5:00 they had me walk over to the labor and delivery room with two nurses (one was orienting and the other had already been oriented...she was oriental...sorry lame joke.) They started an IV and hep-locked it. By then I had started shaking and throwing up again, which they told me were signs of being in transition.  Like I said, this labor was fast and furious!

There was a birthing tub in the room, which I was definitely not interested in giving birth in (blood and guts in and of themselves don't gross me out, but the idea of swimming with them does) but they said I could chill in it until it was time to start pushing. So they helped me hop in and I sat there for about 5 minutes.

At that point the on call midwife came in. He started talking about something (seriously, all these medical people kept on talking and I couldn't focus on anything they were saying for the life of me) when I had the most distinct urge to push. I asked if I could already be at that point (I mean we had only been in the delivery room for 30 minutes.) He checked me and said I was at a 9, but the baby's head was already really low. He gave me two options.

Option one, we could wait for me to dilate to a 10, meaning I would have to resist the urge to push for some unknown amount of time. Now, there are a lot of things I don't know, but one thing I do KNOW is that it is pretty near impossible not to push when your body wants to. So that option was out.

Option two, the midwife could press on the front part of my cervix  while I pushed to help get me dilated and get the baby out. Only catch is that it is a lot more painful than just regular pushing (who knew childbirth could get even more painful?) Well, I had already made it this far, so I figured we might as well just get the job done. Option two it was.

I got back in the bed trying to resist pushing with every step, and I am not going to lie, began the most intense few minutes of my entire life. With Avery, I had an epidural and could feel the pressure of the contractions and knew exactly when to push. I got in a rhythm and would push 3 times per contraction and then break until the next contraction hit. This time was entirely different. I pushed minute after minute and it was HARD! I was gripping Kyle's arm with my right hand, one of the other nurses' arm with my left, was tucking my chin to my chest and pushing with all my might. I remember thinking to myself that I wouldn't yell and be one of those people, but sure enough, I hollared loud enough to convince any soul in that hospital that going naturally is crazy! Then I would take a deep breath, remind myself I wasn't going to be one of those people, and then do it all over again. :)

After a few pushes, the midwife informed me that the scartissue from my previous episotomy was not stretching and he would have to recut part of it. And as soon as he did that, my little Sawyer James popped out and was placed on my chest after 3 hours of labor.

He was absolutely incredible, and he was indeed a HE (I was 95% sure he would be, but still had to double check.) He was 8 lbs 7 oz, 21.5 inches long, and Kyle cut the cord (and was very proud of himself). As we were enjoying getting to know our little man, the midwife noticed Kyle wearing one of his many free BYU T-shirts that he loves. He asked if we were LDS, and come to find out the midwife was too! He said he was impressed with me for not swearing during the labor, which I told him I had no choice (I was worried he would tell my bishop). ;)

So without any further details (like I said, I love birth stories so I probably got a little carried away detailing mine), enjoy some pictures of the little guy!

And a few hours after Sawyer's birth, Avery got to meet her little brother and we got to be a family of four (!!!) for the first time.

She's still not quite sure what to think of Sawyer. She mostly pays attention to him when he cries or when he's nursing (which this child is a dream at!)

Welcome to the family Sawyer! We love you and are so happy you are ours!