micah's birth story

i finally got around to writing micah's birth story. i love reading others birth story and want to share our story with you.

monday march 25 i had, had contractions on and off for several weeks at this point and didn't really think much of it when contractions started at 4:30pm.  i made supper, spicy thai noodles. i was trying to eat as much spicy food, pineapple and raspberry tea as possible to get things going. clint got home an hour later i told him i had a few contractions and we decided to start timing them since they had been happening for over an hour. we had plans to go out for wings night with our small group from church, i wasn’t sure if it was the real deal and i was feeling pretty good so we headed out.

that evening i was pulling out my phone pretty consistently, i hate when people are texting when they are out with friends but my contraction timer was on my phone. while out the girls were asking me what i would do if i went into labour and if i would tell them if i was having contractions. i told them i would, but i never did. we dropped our friends off and got home around 11pm and i tried to go to bed but after an hour of tossing and turning and realizing that sleep wasn’t going to happen i moved to the couch and watched tv and let clint sleep a bit.

 tuesday march 26 all night my contractions were consistently 8-9 mins apart. as my contractions started getting a bit more intense i paced the hallway and kitchen and by 4:30am the contractions jumped to 2-3 mins apart. i timed them til 5am and woke clint up telling him we would probably need to leave in the next half hour. i went and made coffee, did the dishes and  put my make up on, called my mom to tell her it was go time. i told her that i didn’t feel like my contractions were very intense but wanted to go in to the hospital since they were close together and we had an hours drive ahead of us.

both clint and i were so calm. we both expected that we would be frantically trying to get out of the house but it was the complete opposite. we were both so relaxed, although i've never seen clint  wake up so quickly. we double checked to make sure we had our bags, camera, car seat and off we went to the hospital at 6am. clint drove the speed limit the whole time we were so calm but so excited that soon we would be holding our sweet baby!

we got to the hospital around 7 am walked in the emergency entrance since the main entrance was still closed, my sweet best friend also met us there. the security guard asked if today was the day and pointed us in the right direction, we knew where we were going if we went in the front entrance but didn't know the way from emergency. we headed down the long hallway to the elevators and up to the third floor. i was so excited at this point. i felt like i'd be holding my baby in a few hours. we filled out the paper work and i hopped up on the bed to be checked out. i was 4 cm dilated and 80% effaced. there was still progress to be made but i was very excited that i was far enough dilated that i got to stay at the hospital. next came the dreaded IV. i didn't handle that so well, closest i've ever come to fainting. the nurse called out we need cranberry juice and a cold face cloth and two seconds later there was a cloth around my neck and a straw shoved in my mouth.

the dr. came in and said i was looking good and but his shift was over so the new doctor would be coming around right away, i asked who it was and it just so happened that it was my doctor who was on shift next! i was very excited because my doctor is fabulous and i was really hoping she would be the one delivering my sweet babe.

we got moved into our room, I didn’t want to sit because on the drive in my contractions had slowed down to 6 mins apart so we started walking the halls. my mom showed up around 9:30 am with my sister and we started crying because we were so excited that this was actually happening! we continued to walk the hall to keep things going.  at 11 am the resident came in and checked me and said that i wasn’t progressing very much and so they wanted to put me in synto drip to get things moving along. i really did not want to do this but they hooked me up so that we could get things moving a bit quicker. i was confined to the bed at this point so i asked for an exercise ball and started doing squats on the bed. within 30 mins the synto was working it magic. my contractions increased in intensity and and length. each contraction lasted two hours with about 30 seconds in between to breath. as time went on the contractions got more intense and the resident came back and said to up my synto drip because i wasn’t progressing enough, talk about discouraged! the nurses looked at her in shock and i said please no! i was curled up in a ball and moaning, my body was unable to get a break since my contractions were lasting two hours. i started crying out of frustration, why weren’t things moving quicker?! after the resident left the nurse checked me and said i was progressing and i was at 6-7 cm and completely effaced and that she wasn’t going to increase my synto drip unless my doctor ordered it. i was so thankful because i wasn’t sure i could handle much more.  

 clint and my mom were so encouraging through all of it! my mom kept telling me i was beautiful and clint kept telling me i was doing a great job and helped with my breathing.  i had mom on back rubbing duty and clint held my hand and i had to be able to see him at all times.

at around 4 pm they were having a hard time keeping the monitor on micah because the contractions had him moving all over and i was curled up. so the resident came back at 5 pm and hooked up a head monitor to him. i hardly felt human at this point because i had so many wires and tubes connected to so many different places on my body. while the resident was there she asked if i wanted an epidural, i quickly replied no. i heard a quiet gasp sweep the room. after the resident left clint, mom and the nurse all asked why i didn’t want an epidural and they all said that i should get one so that my body could have a break and save some energy for pushing time. the sweet nurse then told me that since this was my first baby that i would probably be pushing for 2-3 hours. i agreed to get an epidural since it looked like it would be several hours of crazy two hour contractions ahead of me.

at around 6 pm my doctor finally came to check me. i asked if i could go off of the synto drip and she said yes. Praise the Lord! i got my epidural and was able to breath for the first time in hours it felt like. however the epidural only took on the right side of my body. the left side was completely unaffected by the epidural so the nurses started rolling me from side to side. this caused micah to get stressed and his heart rate shot up and nurses came rushing in. i became very worried and was hoping this didn’t mean i would have to have a section. once they stopped rolling me around micah’s heart rate went back to normal. a nurse came in to check me i was still at 7cm, ugh! i was hoping i was closer to the end than that! when she checked me micah’s heart rate went shooting up again, the nurses flooded in again, they started rolling me around again. this happened several times and we realized that if my right leg moved at all then micah’s heart rate shot up. i had to lay still, even if my foot moved his heart rate shot up. my doctor came back to check me at around 9 pm and my contractions had slowed down to much so they put me back on synto, i was not pleased but i knew there needed to be an end to this seemingly endless labour.

i felt all the contractions but couldn’t move otherwise micah’s heart rate would shoot up, so i was squeezing clint’s hand a lot. a nurse came in to check me around 11:30 pm and said i was 8cm and that if i felt i needed to push that i shouldn’t because it can cause inflammation and that would make things take longer yet. we were nearing the end and i was getting excited.

wednesday march 27, 1 am i NEEDED to push! clint was so encouraging and helped me with my breathing so that i wouldn’t push. i was so frustrated. i wanted this all to be over and to be holding my baby in my arms. the nurse checked me and said i was 9cm. i so badly wanted her to say i was 10cm but i remembered what she said about pushing early so i tried my hardest not to push. the nurse went and called my doctor and the whole pediatrics crew since little mans heart rate was going crazy. at 1:30 am i got the go ahead to push, and push i did.  i had the nurses voice in the back of my mind telling me that i would push for 2-3 hours since this was my first time. that gave me the drive to get this baby out of my. i pushed with all i had in me, i thought i was going to blow ever blood vessel in my head. the doctor said i was doing great and only a few more pushes. i thought to myself, she’s just saying that. the next push she says, “oh babies hand is by it’s head” i replied, “do i keep pushing?” she never said anything so i kept pushing. next contraction i was given an episiotomy, clint had to hold my leg back from kicking the doctor in the face, OUCH! my mom had to lay down because she got a little light headed. next contraction i gave it everything i had and told the doctor to pull this baby out of me. i pushed one last time at 2:21am and then had the most beautiful baby i had ever seen laying on my chest. i asked clint what it was. he was in shock, his adrenaline had worn off and he turned white and all he said was “whats, what?” the nurses told him to sit. someone told me it was a boy. i cried and couldn’t take my eyes off him. 

labour didn’t go anything like i had wanted it to but the end result was getting to hold my sweet baby boy in my arms so it doesn’t really matter.

micah william alexander enns 

march 27th, 2:21 am

8 lbs 8oz

21 1/4 inches