The Day I Met My Son

Well, it was going to happen sooner or later. I finally got to bring my beautiful son into this world last Tuesday June 4th at 12:52pm. And what a whirlwind of emotions it was and has been. Besides him being extremely late and taking his sweet time, I had the most amazing experience ever and I can honestly say that from the bottom of my heart. Ive typed this out a million times with my full emotions poured into it, but felt it was a little long, so I've condensed it down as much as possible and cant wait to share Indy's birth story.

My son was due according to Dr's May 23rd and according to me more like May 26th. Everyone including my midwife thought I was going to have him early. After all he is my second child and usually second babies come quicker. But for some reason I can't always be the typical of anything. Its been like that my whole life. And my son decided to follow mamas foot steps because he had to take his sweet time and keep people guessing.

I stopped working at 40 weeks, May 25th to be exact and thought for sure he would be here shortly after. Days were getting long and nights were even longer. Anyone that has ever been overdue knows exactly what I'm talking about. You go to bed at night thinking this could be the night that possibly your water breaks randomly or maybe your labor will begin, then you disappointingly wake up the next morning and you're still pregnant. Sounds dramatic I know, but its rough waiting around for the little one, especially if you have stopped working. It was also extremely rough because I was going for a natural unmedicated childbirth, which is not the norm of today's society, so I had so many women ask me why I was still pregnant and what my doctors were going to do about me being so late. That pressure alone was hard to get through everyday and I'm pretty sure I got a little depressed listening to women's opinions. But, as stubborn as I am I didn't listen and I waited it out. 

I slowly progressed through out week 40 to 41weeks of being pregnant and I was willing to go up to 42 until I would cave in and get medically induced. At 41weeks 5 days I had my check up with my midwife to find out if I had made any progress. I could have technically waited it out a few more days before we would have to get serious about trying to get baby out, or she could break my water right there and then because she felt that I'd have my baby in no time at all and my cervix was very favorable. I decided June 4th sounded like a glorious day to have a baby and she agreed. The cool thing about my midwife is that she was going to allow me to take my time with the birthing process and put no expiration date on the process. Which means, I didn't have 24 hours of my water being broken before she would have to do a C-section or put me on any kind of medication to get things rolling faster. She knew I wanted to go medication free so she was respecting my wishes.

My midwife broke my water at 9:15 am Tuesday morning. By the time I got all my paper work filled out to be admitted to the hospital it was already 10:30am or so and I wasn't feeling much but a few back contractions. Everything was peachy, I was emailing a few people back and my husband was jokingly braiding my hair. I'd say around 11am I started to feel some really good contractions and the hubby and I buckled down as we knew this was going to be it. I did the typical breathe in, breathe out method and since I was going without pain medication I decided to go for some visualization as things were progressing at a very rapid pace at this point. With every deep breathe in I took I visualized my body opening up and as I exhaled I visualized my baby descending. Through the heart of the contractions I felt most comfortable with getting through each one on the birthing ball. Probably because it allowed me to move my hips without having to stand.

As my contractions got worse, I had my husband notify the nurse on duty (who was an absolute saint I must say) and see if she could recommend any other positions I could try during contractions as I was getting pretty uncomfortable at this point. This was around 11:50 am or so. Her and my midwife suggested getting into the shower and see if that helped coping with the pain from contractions and maybe moving to the birthing tub after that. On my way to the shower I had to stop for a really painful contraction and I knew things were going to get crazy fast. I reached the shower and could barely get in at that point. Pain was coming quick and fast. I think I got into the shower for two contractions and had to get out as quickly as I got in. I already had an urge to push at this point. Eeeekkk...It's happening I thought!

As quickly as a near  42 week pregnant lady who is in hard labor can, my husband and me quickly made it back to my bedside and I got back on the birthing ball. This was by far the best position for me. I told him to get a nurse that I had to push, and he quickly came back with one. I told her I needed to go to the bathroom and she sweetly said to me that I didn't need to go to the bathroom that it was babies head. A few more extremely painful contractions went by and my midwife was in the room asking me to get on the bed and before I knew it, I was on my side with an uncontrollable urge to push. And literally 5 pushes with my husband next to my midwife ready to catch baby, at 12:52pm Indy Chance Strebe entered my world. 

I was overwhelmed with joy at this point. To be honest, I thought holy crap, I freaking did it!! I know this sounds stupid but I'm someone that loves a good challenge and having a natural unmedicated childbirth was my challenge and I did it. It went so fast I couldn't even take it all in. Which reflecting back at it, it was probably a good thing. As I laid my eyes on Indy for the first time I immediately felt a huge bound and love that poured from my soul to his. Indy laid on me bonding with skin on skin contact for over an hour and I got to nurse him for the first time. After an hour or so we had them weigh him and he weighed 9lbs 4 oz. What a big healthy boy I thought! My sweet Indy boy is such a blessing.

 This experience was hands down the most amazing experience of my whole entire life. When you go unmedicated, its just different...I can't quite explain it, but my body did what my body was meant to do and I felt unstoppable. When birthing my beautiful daughter I got induced and had the epi and it was such an incredible experience but this one was completely different. 

So there's my birth story, and I'm glad I can share it with the rest of the world.  I of course don't judge women for however they want to bring in their little ones into this world, but I'm so proud of myself of my huge accomplishment, and I just had to share.