Posted on October 26, 2009 - by Jason
Bowman’s Birth Story
Friday, October 16, 2009
Didn’t sleep too much Thursday night after celebrating Jason’s bday with our community group. I was quite uncomfortable.
3 am: Our cat, Molly, wakes me up with her cold wet nose on my forehead. She had to touch my face twice; I realize that I am having contractions in my lower back. I let Jason sleep, knowing that he would need to be well rested. I get out of bed & go sit on the exercise ball while I use the computer. Lots of bathroom trips. Molly & Eldrick are my labor assistants. 6:51 am-Jason wakes up & starts timing contractions (still in lower back)
Friday morning: Send text to some friends & family, “Haven contrctns. Eatn bfast. Thnks for ur pryrs.” It’s very brisk outside. First sunny day in 13 days! We are hopeful. Took shower, got dressed. Contractions over 1 minute. Jason calls Teresa, our doula, who comes over to check out my progress. With Teresa’s visit, the contractions stop for an hour. Teresa tells us that since I’m having contractions in my lower back, the baby may be posterior (face-up/head-down). I’m instructed to do more pelvic rocks & crab walks.
Friday lunch: Contractions back as we drive to La Huerta to eat lunch with Candy, Gene & Adam. Yes, they are back.
Friday afternoon/evening: Random contractions. Quick walk around the neighborhood. Try to rest. Putz around the house. My niece, Hayley, visits with her friend, Ashley. They help me perfect my crab walk.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Attempt to sleep through the night. Perhaps slept 2 total hours off & on as contractions continued randomly.
Saturday morning: Feel more confident as my body reveals some more symptoms that indicate this is true labor. (Trying to keep this story G-rated)
Saturday afternoon: Watching football, contractions strengthening. Take a bath. Teresa comes to check our progress & decides to stay with us, as all signs are good. The Hogs are playing Florida & doing well, but I don’t really notice as my efforts are focused on relaxing through contractions. My sister-in-law, Kerrie, visits & we ask her if she’d like to be an assistant to Teresa during labor/birth. Kerrie helps Jason take a walk with me around the neighborhood to encourage contractions to continue & strengthen. We have to stop at least 5 times (including on Carley Road) for me to relax through a contraction as I lean into Jason.
Saturday evening: The family who has taken residence at Grammie’s house orders pizza. I avoid the pizza as labor has induced burping. Jason uses my burps to gauge when a contraction is finished. We relax through continued strengthening contractions, using various positions—leaning into the exercise ball, laying on my left side, leaning back into Jason, squatting, etc. We also use the rebozo method to continue to encourage the baby to turn around. Rebozo is Spanish for shawl. We use a flexible t-shirt material sheet instead of a shawl to wrap my belly. Jason stands behind me, lifting my belly up very gently from side to side. This gives the baby extra space to perhaps turn around. (I think it worked…but we didn’t know until later). At 11 pm, we decide that it’s time to head to Mercy as Teresa checks my progress & I’m dilated 6 cm at least. As we head out, we walk to Grammie’s & quickly pray together with Jason’s parents, Grammie, Teresa & Kerrie. Matt wakes up Abe & Luke and they head to the hospital as well.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
We arrive at Mercy & wait in the Emergency Room for 10 minutes. Lindsey & Sarah show up as well. When we get to the delivery room, we meet Liz, our nurse until 7 am. We also find out that our doctor, Dr. Johnson is out of town, so we meet the doctor on call, Dr. Joel Jones. Jason quickly reviews our birth plan with the team & we agree to have intermittent monitoring (baby’s heart rate & contractions) to allow me to move more during labor. I’m still dilated to 6 cm.
As we progress through the wee hours of the night/morning, we hope to have a baby by noon. We enjoy a beautiful sunrise through the 3 large windows in the room. Contractions are continual & we alternate between lots of positions to relax through the contraction. At some point, Dr. Jones proposes that we consider breaking my water as I haven’t progressed past an 8 for some time. As the doctor presents options, we discuss them as a team—myself, Jason, Teresa, Kerrie (& perhaps our moms if they happen to be in the room). We agreed to have my water broken. It does work to heighten contractions & I progress to a 9 by 7 am.
Our memories of the afternoon become muddled as natural contractions continue without making progress; however, the baby was changing stations—getting lower in the birth canal. We have a wonderful nurse, Cyrese, who we prayed would be as great as Liz & she was! Throughout this entire process we all continually pray aloud, at times just crying out, “Please dilate my cervix, Lord Jesus!”
Sometime around 2 pm, we decide to have a “whiff of Pitocin”. I am able to manage the contractions, but as time wears on, Jason & I begin to lose steam—mostly mental exhaustion. The next day, we figured out that we both started to hallucinate a bit thinking that the contraction machine was controlling my contractions & that Jason simply needed to unplug the machine to give me a break! Pitocin is crazy hard to handle after a while. After all the hard contractions, I still was dilated to a 9.
Around 6 pm, Dr. Jones proposed that we consider an epidural, thinking that my body would relax & then dilate to a 10. He was correct. Within 30 minutes of being highly uncomfortable even though I couldn’t feel the contractions, Dr. Jones checked me & said the magic words, “We are ready to push!” The epidural was lighter than most as I could feel when someone touched me & could feel enough to know when I was pushing correctly.
I loved the pushing part! I pushed for an hour—Teresa at one leg coaching me along, Cyrese at the other, Kerrie snapping pictures & Jason watching in amazement. Dr. Jones nicknamed our baby “Shim” since we didn’t know the sex or the name. He helped lighten the mood as we joked coxing “Shim” out. On the final contraction, I could tell by everyone’s faces that we were close, so I pushed 3 extra times & that was it! Dr. Jones exclaimed that it was a boy & placed him on me immediately. Jason cut the cord & then the baby was carried to the warming area immediately in front of me where the nurses worked to get his body welcomed to the world. Teresa encouraged Jason to talk to his son & Jason was sweetly overwhelmed. We announced that his name was Bowman & then quickly agreed that his middle name was Cruz (we had 2 other options to rule out).
After a bit more bonding & the doctor tending to me, Jason announced Bowman’s arrival to our faithful family & friends in the waiting room—they were a bit delirious themselves, as Jason had to announce it several times. Everyone crowded in the delivery room to welcome sweet Bowman Cruz.
Amazingly following delivery, I was able to walk to our post pardem room—again the epidural was quite light. We were a family. Jason & I were both overwhelmed to know our child.
