Wrens Birth Story[my favorite story in the world]

Wren Eisley Nichols

Born: 6/15/15

11:46am

7lb 2oz //19 1/2in

this is the story of her birth...

Before we found out we were expecting, I had decided I would have our next baby without an epidural. I was not a fan of the one I received when I had Ephraim and the more natural birth stories I heard, I knew I could do it too!  

I had to be induced with Wren, due to high blood pressure, so we arrived at the hospital at 5 am Monday morning to start the process. Through out my pregnancy I experienced so much fear [you can read about that here] and Wren was laying breech until 32 weeks, that I hadn't REALLY given much thought to a natural child birth. I didn't go to any training, read any books, I didn't have a birth plan and I only mentioned it to my doctor in passing. So naturally, when the nurse walked in to get all of my info in their system, the first words I said to her were " just wanted you to know, I'm going to try to do this without an epidural, so don't offer me one unless I ask". She just stared blankly for a second, said "oh okay great" and went back to her paperwork. 

6:00 am-My sweet nurse comes in to start pitocin. She also tells me that they have 15 inductions today so she may lose us.

around 6:20am- my sweet bubbly nurse came in to introduce a not so bubbly nurse, that will be taking her place. At first I wasn't a huge fan of our new nurse. I thought I needed our old bubbly nurse to get through a natural child birth, to keep a pep in my step so to say. Turns out I didn't need her. God had given me the exact nurse I needed to help me through it all.

6:30am- a doctor [not mine] came in and broke my water-- does it freak anyone else out that they basically use a huge chopstick? Anyway, at this point I hadn't progressed any from my appointment the week prior, so I was a whopping 2 1/2 cm and 70% effaced 

after that, we just hung out... Stephan (the hubby) was cracking jokes, and I was just bouncing and rocking on the birthing ball.
8:45am- they checked me again and I was only 4cm. That was frustrating, but I was in zero pain so I wasn't too concerned. At this point all my contractions were in my back so it was just pressure. I think the nurse thought I was crazy when I told her they were not hurting, because apparently they were pretty strong on the monitor.

I was in so little pain, that I was texting with a few friends.

here is a close up of the cat photo- my bestie has jokes, and we have a common love for cats

9:15am- I asked to be checked again because I was feeling more pressure and I wanted to know how much longer miss Wren was going to decide to stay warm and cozy in the womb. I was 5 and a half cm. Praise the Lamb! only 4.5 more to go. I went in saying if I can just get to 7cm I know I can do this drug free and at this point I was still in no pain, so I knew getting to 7 would be a breeze.

Still texting my friends and joking with my husband at this point. Between jokes, Stephan was helping me a ton, by applying pressure to my back during each contraction. Him applying counter pressure and heating packs were my bae during this time!

I get this lovely visual from Brittany

saying "yay you're past a daisy!!"

9:45-11:00am- I was up out of the bed, using the birthing ball, and a ballet bar at

the end of the bed, to help little miss turn over, because she was sunny side up. I wanted this delivery to be as painless as possible so I was determined she would turn over. I was getting really tired and the pain was picking up. We turned on a worship play list, my wonderful husband put together, to help me focus.

11:15am- my contractions were all in my belly at this point and around a 6/7 on the pain scale. I was almost 8cm so I got in the bed to take a break from laboring on my feet. The nurse told me she was going to give me a 30-45 minute break to rest or take a nap-- I am not sure what kind of woman can nap while having contractions that are on top of each other, but sure whatever works for ya.

From here on I lost track of the time, but my contractions went to being around a minute apart to sometimes 10 seconds apart. I had zero recovery time between them and I couldn't breathe. My nurse showed Stephan pressure points on my arm and hand that would help to counteract the pain-(Turned out, my nurse had only been st vincents for a few months, and she came from a natural child birth background-- God knew...). He was so great at talking me through each contraction, even when I wanted to kill someone.

Pretty soon I felt like I absolutely had to push, I wasn't really in pain it was just this indescribable amount of pressure and I knew it was time. A nurse came in to check me and I was at 9.5 cm.

I think at this point I was telling them I was going to push, they couldn't tell me not to and that I needed them to get my doctor now before they had to deliver this baby without her. My nurse told Stephan to hop in the bed behind me so I could lean on him-- and possible also so he could restrain me. After what felt like forever my doctor showed up. She told me it was time to get this baby out and I push, while also screaming that I am peeing a lot and I'm worried that Wren will be covered in pee. I know my husband was thrilled to hear this, since he was in the bed with me. He was probably thinking "dear God please don't let the pee reach me"--poor guy! 

 I pushed a grand total of 3x and at 11:46am she was here, with a  head full of dark brown hair, which was all could talk about when I saw her.

I wanted to do skin on skin, so they gave her to me immediately and I was so in love. I held her while they cleaned me up and for a while after then I decided to share and let Stephan hold her.  I got a bite to eat because having a baby will make you famished!

he was smitten. the first thing he said when he held her "oh goodness this is going to be so bad"

yep he was so wrapped. never had a chance :)

Wren came out grunting... The nurses initially thought it was due to her being pushed out so quickly. They told us that usually when that happens the baby will transition to breathing better around the 4 hour mark.  They gave us 3 hours with her. At the 3 hour mark, it was obvious she was not going to get better on her own. It's all a blur what happened next but she was taken from our room, to a little room behind the nurses station, where she had a chest x-ray an we met the NICU doctor...