Perfektly Mary

Christian David Boston

4/18/07, 10:45am

7 lbs 1.9oz

20 inches long

He is absolutely perfect and has all this dark hair! It’s so funny because both D and I were convinced that he was going to come out with dark hair despite our light colored hair…and he did! I just stare and stare at him. He looks so different from Maddie and I’m still trying to figure him out.

We are all home now. I can’t believe that labor has come and gone and we are now at home living life as a family of four. Dustin’s mom had to return to Page Thursday, so we’re here hunkered down, each picking a kid to watch and spending time as a family. Absolutely perfect! Our church family is going to start bringing us meals sometime over the weekend which I’m so stoked about since we won’t have to worry about cooking.

The Birth Story:

Life just doesn’t have all that many surprises, so this past week has been so cool to live out. I woke up Tues to my water breaking, had a great morning and got Madeline squared away with Dustin’s mom..all before contractions ever started. The midwife told us to hold off going to the hospital until contractions were 5 min apart. Around 2 in the afternoon we headed out to the hospital since we didn’t want to get stuck in traffic and thought things would go pretty fast once I got some good contractions. Once we were up by the hospital we walked around the mall, watched a movie, went out to eat and…waited. The midwife said that if by 10 that night we weren’t starting in with good contractions we’d have to go to the hospital anyways since they don’t want the baby to stay in there much longer after your water breaks. Thankfully around 7pm I started getting mild contractions not taking much concentration about 5 min. apart. so we checked in to the hospital.

That’s when we met our nurse and gave her a copy of our birth plan. She hooked me up to the monitors and we settled in to our beautiful birthing room, excited and anticipating a vaginal birth. When we checked in I was having contractions 5 min. apart, 50% effaced and 2 cm dialated. That was at 7pm. At 7am I was having contractions 10 minutes apart, still 50% effaced and still 2cm dialated. 12 hours later and the only thing that had changed was that contractions were farther apart, I was totally exausted and way discouraged. I really think it had a lot to do with our night nurse. She either totally misunderstood our birth plan or chose to ignore it. She actually told me at one point that the contractions I was experiencing were mild and not that big of a deal. She also complained to the charge nurse that we were difficult, which sent the charge nurse in to talk with us. She said that we were difficult because every time the nurse came in to do something D would ask her to wait a couple of seconds until my contraction was done (which was clearly a part of our birth plan). The nurse would never come back to do what she was orignally going to do after my contractions were done. That’s not our fault. She demanded to talk with me rather than D about our uncooperation and the suggestion for an epidural. All while I’m in an contraction. So from that point on, I doubted my ability to handle pain (since the contractions were so “mild”) and felt so discouraged that they were ignoring our wishes as a family. Dustin was AMAZING though. He never showed me his frustration but kept encouraging me in how well I was doing and how proud of me he was. And then talked to the staff and straightened everything out in the hall, rather than in front of me. He is such a great protector.
When the change of shift happened I was convinced that I was never going to have good enough contractions to dialate and they would end up giving me another c-section since it had been so long since my water broke. In comes the calvary! We got a new nurse, my midwife came and they along with Dustin all rallied around me and discussed how we can still get our vaginal birth. We decided to try a small amount of Pittosin (usually discouraged in VBAC’s) and see if that would give enough “umph” to get my contractions closer together and get me to dialate. They started me at 10ml (usually women get up to 40). Within 2 hours I was at 5cm dialated with STRONG contractions. But they still had a weird rhythm. I would have one, with it’s buddy contraction following about 25 sec later and then nothing for another 8 minutes. But despite only being 5cm and the weird spacing…I felt like I needed to push. So at 5 cm I started pushing and 15 min. later he was out!!!!!

Can I just say that delivery was the bravest but yet the most undignified thing I have ever done. I am a yeller! I screamed, moaned, grunted and panicked. At one point when Christian’s head was out, but the rest still in, I totally freaked thinking “there is no way I can push anymore, this kid is just going to have to live his entire life hanging upside down half out of me” then I was like..there is no way that could happen becuase I’m in so much pain staying like this, so I did the direct opposite of everything D and I had practiced. I didn’t relax, I didn’t work with the contractions, I ….um… screamed at him “DUSTIN! Get this boy out of me!” Dustin just reassured me and held my legs. What a guy. That’s why he was my coach. That’s why he was the only one in the delivery room besides the staff. He is my best friend and knows me the best.

So, after laboring for around 17 hours, our beautiful second child was born. There is nothing like it in the world. Feeling every bit of the laboring experience and then having them place him on my chest with my emotional husband (who usually is so not emotional) grinning proudly at my side. This is life. This is joy. It’s moments like these that solidify my faith and amaze me at God’s great grace in my life. I don’t deserve such a family. Such love. Such peace. Yet God gives it to me. His love is so unfair.