This first time mom has a pretty awesome birth story and I am so glad I get to share it. I had the great honor to have this family in my Birth Boot Camp class at Edenway Birth Center in Cleburne Texas. Mom was so excited to learn and be prepared for the birth of her sweet boy. Without further ado, the birth story of sweet Thomas.
I guess the best place to start with my birth story is the beginning of my week. I had my weekly check up on Tuesday and everything was good and checked out. Wednesday we rushed back to the birth center because we thought my water may have broken, but after running test my midwives assured me it had not. False alarm. I always wondered how women could be unsure if their water broke or not and now I completely understand.
On Friday morning I woke up 5:40am to make my hubby coffee and breakfast for work. After he left I went back to bed since I was officially on maternity leave. I got motivated around 9:00am so I made my breakfast smoothie and began my daily house cleaning. Sometime around 11:00 I started getting what felt like Braxton hicks, so I let my midwives know and proceeded to walk and drink more water to get rid of them like I had done a few times before. This time they were not stopping and after a while started getting more intense. Again I let my midwives know and per their instructions I started timing them. They were about 5-6 minutes apart. I thought that couldn’t be right so I kept timing them over and over while walking. About 2:50 I let them know I was feeling sick and that I was going to text my husband to come home and bring me to the birth center. Next thing I know my contractions are a minute apart and I am in the floor on my hands and knees trying to breath through them the best I can. My husband had to stop and put gas in his work truck so he could make it to our house 25 minutes out of town. He got home, got the bag and helped/convinced me to get into the car. Unfortunately we had to stop and put gas in my car to make it to the birth center 1.5 hours away. Laboring in the car was terrible and a level of uncomfortable that I can hardly describe. Even worse was that I transitioned 10 minutes away from the center! Luckily I have labor amnesia and don’t remember a good bit of the drive. Thanks to my husband’s driving (he says 70-100 most of the way) we got to the birth center at 4:21pm. It took me what felt like forever to get from my car into the birth cottage which was about 15 ft. The midwives met me at my car and helped me inside slowly while being calm and reassuring the whole time. Once inside they tried to asses how far along I was. Sitting hurt, trying to lay down hurt even more. Standing and leaning on a small dresser like shelf was the only place I wanted to be. Eventually everyone’s voice became background noise then silence as I focused and let my body do what it wanted. Next thing I knew my lead midwife was telling me that if I wanted a water birth that I needed to get in now! At some point they had filled the tub and I had no clue.
Getting into the tub took some work but once there the relief was amazing. I went through the rest of my labor in some sort of squat position, all I remember thinking was that is was odd that I found it so comfortable. One thing I remember clear as day is my husband holding me and whispering that he loves me! And that is a memory I cherish dearly. After a few more minutes our son Thomas Lane was born 6lbs 12oz and 21inches.
After me holding him for just a moment the midwives asked to see him. He wasn’t breathing and was turning blue. That was the scariest moment of our lives. Our baby wasn’t breathing. The ladies acted quickly and sucked fluid out and put a respirator mask on him and worked to get him breathing! This makes me cherish every sound he makes and thankful for every breath my healthy baby boy takes each and everyday!
Thomas was born at 4:51pm, only 30 minutes after we got to the birth center and 5 hours of labor. Needles to say some of my birth plan went out the window because things happens so fast. But I got to labor at home like I wanted, I got the water birth I wanted, delay cord clamp, and a few other things that were important to me and we were in our home again by 11:30pm that night.
