Jacob's Birth Story

7/5/21

Baby Day!

Jacob was born on July 3rd at 3:08pm at Uintah Basin Medical Center, like the rest of his siblings!

There's lots of back story on how we got here for delivery but here's the short version: We found out we were pregnant with Jacob right after Michael lost his job in Roosevelt, including his insurance benefits, and were in the process of selling our house, moving, and building our new home in Bicknell. It was definitely a turbulent time, and adding a pregnancy to the mix was the icing on top. I initially hoped to do an out-of-hospital birth with a midwife, and got prenatal care from a wonderful midwife in Nephi, and trained with Hypnobabies for a non-medicated birth. But as things progressed with my pregnancy and high blood pressure came in to play, I made the decision to transfer care to a doctor and hospital, and move back to Roosevelt to have the baby at the end of June. 

Getting pregnant with a child is an act of faith no matter what, but especially in the chaos of losing a job and moving and not having insurance. But we had faith that the Lord would help us bring his precious spirit to our home, and indeed he did. The last 6 weeks of pregnancy were a bit turbulent, as they always are for me. But he came, just like his siblings, at 37 weeks, with no complications, and a beautiful vaginal birth after c-section (vbac).  Well, 36 weeks and 6 days to be exact.

My due date was July 25th so not a lot of people were taking me too seriously or thinking that birth wasn't imminent yet, including Dr. Nolte. But I knew. All my babies had come early and I just felt it would be the same with this one. Friday July 2nd I had just gotten home from my 8th NST and Michael had just gotten to Roosevelt with Levi and Caleb, who had been at grandma's all week while I was up in Roosevelt with Alida getting NSTs every other day. It was nice to be all together and to be with Michael and I was glad we were all finally in the same place. Something my midwife would always say was that babies wait for their daddies. I had been thinking about the circumstances in which my other babies came, and with both Alida and Caleb, it was when things had settled down and Michael was home. His presence comforts me and makes me feel safe. I hoped that baby would come on the weekend when Michael was there with us.

Sure enough, later that night, about midnight, my water broke. I'd never had this experience before, but I knew that's what it had to be because there was liquid running down my leg! Then there was some bloody show, and I knew that this was the beginning of labor. I was relieved, to be honest, because I was SO READY for him to come, but Dr. Nolte had just told me earlier that week on Wenesday that because I was still so early, and things weren't urgent with my blood sugars, that it would be better for him to cook. He said specifically "It's my job to resist your desires to have baby now, and do what's best for baby, which is, right now, to keep him in" Ha! He was not opposed to letting him come on his own, but he did not want to induce until 37 weeks, which was July 4th. But I knew for myself that it likely wouldn't be long. At least it never had been before. But I guess this one could be different?

So Michael and I were settling into the idea of perhaps having our first pregnancy that would go past 37 weeks and what that would look like with the kids and me staying in Roosevelt, etc. But, luckily for me, my body has decided it doesn't need any more than 37 weeks to cook a baby, and we were a go at 36+6 late Friday night/Saturday AM. I decided to stay at the apartment and labor through the night because, as my RN friend Trina had said at my NST earlier that day, even if you are in labor, go home so you can eat and move around and be comfortable. Once you're at the hospital you'll be all hooked up and monitored and stuck in a bed until birth.

So I dozed on and off through the night and contractions, but by 4am I was wide awake. The contractions weren't painful, but were consistent. But I didn't want to wake up Michael and the nanny yet if possible. And I wanted a chance to cuddle with my Caleb one more time, whom I had hardly spent any time with yet since being seperated all week, and because it was his last day being my baby. Everyone woke up around 8am and we got some good cuddles in, and then decided to head to the hospital.

I actually went and picked up my van from the mechanic, where it was being repaired, and then Michael followed me to the hospital to see me off and then went home to get the kids settled with Emily before coming back to the hospital. I checked in at 8:30am and got all hooked up. I was having contractions every 2 minutes and I could tell the nurse realized we were a go as she started to hook me up. We got an IV in with antibiotics for Group B Strep and called Dr. Nolte- who had been up all night with 3 other deliveries. Michael got there about 10am and I was glad to have him with me. But ironically, things slowed waaaaaaaaay down after getting to the hospital. This reminded me of Alida's birth as well- I thought I was going to have the baby in the car with how frequent contractions were on the way to the hospital. But once I got to the hospital, things stalled out for a few hours. Alida didn't come for 8 hours after I checked into the hospital. Neither did Levi. I guess that ended up being true of Jacob as well. 

I was at a 3.5 when I got to the hospital in the morning and about a 4 around 12pm. Every cervical check baby was still high and cerix was thick so that was a bit discouraging as well. Dr. Nolte asked if we should start pitocin  around noon and I asked if it would help ripen cervix and he said definitely, so we started pitocin. Sure enough, within an hour things were moving along again. By 1pm I was a 4.5 and they were asking again if I wanted an epidural. They had asked previously and I was undecided. I wondered if I should try natural child birth, even though I didn't finish my hypnobabies course. But by 1p I was remembering how intense contractions can be. They weren't bad yet, but were getting intense enough that I couldn't talk or do anything but breathe through them. So I decided to get some help.

By 2pm, when the anesthesiologis got there, I was full swing, fully intense contrctions. I didn't remember how INTENSE they were!! Just enduring the pain took all my concentration and energy. I also remembered with Levi how I had asked for an epidural and the guy didn't get there for an hour and a half and I thought I was going to die!! I was glad this guy came faster because after just 1 hour of those contractions I was maxed out. 

I've been telling a few people this lately, but it's amazing how you forget the hard parts of pregnancy and delivery. I forgot how awful the end of pregnancy is- how you just sort of lose your mind slowly and the only objective is survival as your body shuts down. I also forgot how intense contractions can be- and if there is a choice, no woman  in her right mind can say "I'd like to continue enduring this pain". I decided to get a spinal tap- because less side effects, works fast but only lasts 2-3 hours. I was hopeful that it would mean I was less likely to puke as much and I might be able to feel more with it. Luke came in and was super fast and efficient and I am SO GRATEFUL for him! The spinal tap I got this time was THE BEST DECISION I EVER MADE!!! 

When Luke came in to do the spinal tap I was at a 7. The nurse warned me that if I did it too soon, it could wear off and then I'd have to just endure labor without anything. But I remembered that once my body decides to go, things progress quickly. Getting the spinal tap right when we did was the BEST decision. Geting it in and having to roll forward while enduring contractions was torture. I said a prayer that a contraction wouldn't come while he was putting it in my back, and that I could endure and not get sick. The contractions were getting INTENSE. Lasting longer. I had to breathe deeply in and out and count and do all I could just to get through them! He asked all the questions, I told him how they had a hard time getting the needle in the right place in the past, but he did great. The put me on the side of the bed with my legs hanging off and had me roll forward into the nurse's arms while he put the needle in my back. 2 pokes and he was there. I did get a contraction while he was working, but I got through it. And almost immediately after the medicine started to work.

As soon as it started to take effect I could feel sanity returnign to my mind. It was SO relieving. The pain was gone. I could still feel and move my legs though, and miracle of miracles, I had NO puking! No nauseau even! I felt like I was human again. It is AMAZING how exhausting it is to endure contractions- and that was only about an hour or two. I don't know how I did it with Levi waiting like 3 hours for pain relief and laboring 8 hours without any. I do think the contractions this time were worse than they had been before. 

Once the spinal tap was in, I hung out for a bit recovering and watching with curiosity as they said I was having contractions, but I felt no pain. WHAT A MIRACLE!! Around 2:30 I started feeling pressure down below and the nurse checked me and I was an 8.5 and baby had dropped. Things were moving along so she called Dr. Nolte and started getting things ready. I asked Michael to film for me because I had never seen any of my vaginal births, and I'm so glad he did that. The nurse Terrie and Brennon helped hold up my legs and helped me do a few pushes, maybe 4-5. I wondered why she was having me push though without Dr. Nolte there. She checked me again and I was a 10 and things were moving fast. In fact after my next push she had to tell me to stop or the baby would come without the doctor! So I waited while they transformed the room for delivery and Dr. Nolte got in there. I knew it would happen in the next few minutes so I was glad he came fast.

Oh I forgot to mention, around 10:30am when I wasn't really progressing, Nolte came in and did a cervical check and broke more bags of water. Apparently what happened Friday night wasn't all of my water and there was more. Well after he did that I felt like I was a gushing fountain of never ending fluid. At one point I had so much fulid coming out that I had to hold up the pad on the bed so the puddle wouldn't spill over on the floor. There was SO much fluid! I've never had that before. And every time I sat up or moved more fluid. They had to change my bed pad several times. I feel like I was retaining like GALLONS of fluid. I probably lost 20lbs just in water weight and was SO GLAD to get all of that stuff out! Almost immediately my swelling was going down and I was starting to feel human again.

Dr. Nolte was in the room and all ready for delivery within a few minutes of starting pushing with the nurses. I don't remember exactly how many times I pushed with him, but I think only 2-3 times. I felt baby crown and I knew he was out, and just a second later, his whole body was out too. It was SO FAST. I had only had my spinal tap for less than an hour and Dr. Nolte had only been in there a few minutes and we had our baby! 

As I was pushing toward the end I was overcome with emotion, I don't even know about what! There weren't any thoguhts in my head, but of a sudden I just started crying. I found myself saying "why am I crying?" and so did my husband. I didn't really know, but what I felt was "because this is hard. You're doing something really hard and it's almost over". 

The nurses kept commenting on how well I was doing with pain control before the spinal tap and breathing through the contractions and then how well I was doing after with pushing. I don't know that it's something you can be good or bad at, but I know that I was giving my all to endure and do well. When they pulled the baby out and put him on my chest though I was overcome. I was just SO RELIEVED he was here. I was so glad to be done. I was so grateful nothing went wrong and he was healthy and well. I was so glad it was over!

Dr. Nolte spent a little time cleaning things up and giving me a couple of stitches while I held baby and did some skin to skin. What a miracle babies are. How amazing how they come to us and are so perfectly formed. We didn't know for a long time how much he weighed or anything because I was just holding him for a couple of hours while everyone cleaned everything else up. After awhile I wanted to get up and take a shower and I loved that my legs worked and I didn't feel numb anymore. Michael got to hold his son for the first time and they started doing some little test on him too.

And that's it in a nutshell. 3:08pm on the Saturday before the 4th of July, at 36 weeks and 6 days, our little Jacob was born. 7 lbs. 10 oz., 19 inches long and fully really for life earth side. 

Welcome Jacob. Thank you for showing us that things work out when we surrender and let God prevail in our lives. Welcome to the chaos of our family of 6