On May 1st, we welcomed our sweet Ezra Potter into our family! I am about to share my birth story...keep in mind this is a BIRTH STORY...there will be details! If you don't want to know them, stop reading now :)
I had an appointment on Monday, my 39 week appointment and had no more progression at all. It was quite disappointing. She told me I probably at least had another week or so and to get myself a project to keep my mind off of it. I did just that. I decided to let it all go and focus on something else. Tuesday and Wednesday morning, I had tons of contractions. Painful, but not timeable or anything like that. I was pretty frustrated about it and was thinking I was just going to have to deal with contractions for who knows how long...the longest early labor ever. I was 4cm already and 90% effaced, so all of this was so confusing to me. I couldn't understand how I was so close, yet things seemed so far away. My cervix was still posterior, so that is why she felt my body wasn't ready. Wednesday around 11am, I went to my chiropractor and had an adjustment, acupressure, and acupuncture done. I didn't really think it would work since she said my body didn't seem ready. I had 2 strong contractions during the acupuncture. I ran a few errands after that, nothing seemed to be happening. A few hours later, the contractions started back up, but seemed all over the place. I tried to just go about my day and ignore them. We went to Missional Community at 6pm. Around 7pm, the contractions were very uncomfortable and noticeable. I started to try and see how far apart they were while trying to not seem like I was in pain. They seemed about 4 min apart. I kept having to go to the bathroom...both #1 and #2. Around 8:30pm I was very uncomfortable and told Josh we needed to leave. He asked if we needed to go straight to the birth center, I said I wanted to go home and lay down and see what happened. My water broke with Zeke around 5cm, so I just kept thinking that would happen. The contractions were bad in the car. We got home around 9, put the kids to bed, I was back and forth to the toilet and in lots of pain. Josh had been trying to call my midwife, she wasn't answering because she had a mom pushing a baby out. At 9:30, Josh came into the room and I was sitting on the bed, he had already texted my midwife and said, "Jo is definitely in labor, we are on our way to the birth center." I didn't even know at this point that I was in labor, I think I was just so focused on getting through the contractions that I wasn't even processing anything. My contractions were very painful and 2 min apart at this point. He said to me, "We are getting in the car, NOW!" He popped the kids out of bed (PJ's and all!) and off we went. About 15 min down the road, I said, "I think this is it." Josh said, "Um, yeah!" We had a 40ish minute drive to our birth center and I told Josh he needed to hurry...that he did! Flashers and 90mph, we got there in 20 min. We arrived at the birth center around 10pm, I had one contraction in the doorway and my midwife says, "I think you are about to push your baby out." My water still hadn't broke and I told her I didn't think I was quite that close. She disagreed and she was right, she checked me and I was 9cm! The mom that had just had a baby was in the big room with the tub and we didn't have time to blow up a tub, I was so distraught because I was set on a water birth and didn't think I could do it without the water. After complaining about it several times, my midwife said, "You have to move past this, you can do this without the water!" I labored on the bed for a bit and then started feeling more pressure, so I got up on my hands and knees, leaning over the birth ball. A few minutes later, I felt like I needed to push, I literally swatted that birth ball off the bed and began pushing. After 3 pushes, his head came out, it was in the bag of water and my water broke then! This was actually the best thing that could have happened because I was strep b positive and (obviously) didn't have time for the antibiotics. The bag of water protected him through the birth canal-God is good!!! One more push and his body was out! He had pooped in the womb and was covered in it. The cord was also wrapped around his neck a little bit, so overall, he was a very strange color and he wasn't crying, his eyes were closed and he was very still. I kept saying, "Is he ok, what is wrong with him?" over and over. He was breathing and they assured me of that. They told us to pick him up, he began crying...turns out he was SLEEPING!!! Haha! He cried and then fell back to sleep when I cradled him...what baby comes out of the womb sleeping and completely un-phased by labor?! Sweet boy! After that, we had a few hours at the birth center before going home around 3am. He nursed well, we cleaned him up, had an herbal bath, met the few people who were there, and then headed home! It was awesome to get to sleep in my own bed! I haven't even uploaded photos to my computer yet, so I will share those some other time!
Ezra Potter Brock was born at 10:30pm, weighing 7 pounds and 10 ounces, 20 inches long, and 14 inch head.
My first time to hold Ezra! Minutes after he was born!
All 6 of us and meeting and holding Ezra!
The girls had asked if we could unwrap him so they could check him out! They said, "I want to see his whole body!"
Getting weighed, his head measured, all those stats!
Having an herbal bath with mom and getting his hair washed!
