Seen through the eyes of our labor doula, Becky Dye
| It was 6 am, Tuesday morning, Sept. 18th. I woke up hearing my daughter starting her shower in the bathroom down the hall as I do every morning. A new day was beginning and as I lay in bed waking up, I wondered what God had in store for me for the day. I prayed that He would make it a good, God day! At 6:20, my phone rang and God's answer for my day was on the other end. It was your Mommy, Caeden, and she told me that her labor had begun. Her water had broken in the early hours of the morning and contractions had started right away. I got up, showered and dressed then called your Mommy back to see how she was doing. I talked to your Daddy this time. H e said to come on over. I arrived at your house around 8 am, greeted by Syrah and Chelsea who knew something was going on that was exciting! Mommy was laying on the couch trying to stay comfortable. Daddy had been busy timing contractions with his Palm Pilot contraction timer. Contractions were fairly consistent, coming about every 4 minutes and lasting near a minute each. Mommy had decided much earlier that she wanted to stay home and labor as long as possible before going to the hospital. So Daddy and I did all we could to help keep Mommy comfortable at home until it was time to head to the hospital. We soon discovered one of Mommy's favorite labor positions... she would lean against one of us while the other rubbed her lower back. Daddy talked Mommy through nearly every contraction reminding her of her beautiful, new son who would be with her soon. I loved hearing your Daddy's words of comfort and reassurance. And I think his words helped your Mommy to stay focused and calm even during the hardest contractions. We continued with this "labor ritual" for several hours. Close to 12 pm, Jennifer showed up at the house. She was going to be with Mommy and Daddy during labor as well to take pictures and video. It was right around the time that Jennifer showed up that Mommy noticed that labor was getting harder and it "felt different". Contractions were now about 3 to 4 minutes apart but would last sometimes as long as 2 minutes each. So Mommy got dressed and we all got in our cars and drove to the hospital. The first thing you have to do upon arrival is check in and spend some time in triage. So Daddy stayed downstairs for a few minutes and checked Mommy in while I went upstairs with her to triage. The nurses had to be certain that Mommy was in labor and that her water had broken. They also wanted to monitor her for awhile to make sure you were doing OK inside of Mommy. It was a little before noon when the nurse checked Mommy and found that she was 4 cm dilated, and you were happy and doing well tucked safely inside Mommy. But the pains of labor were beginning to become too much for Mommy and she started talking about epidurals . Daddy and I knew an epidural was not really something Mommy wanted so we had to work extra hard to keep her comfortable. Once we got to the room that Mommy would labor and deliver in, we set out to make the room as comfy as possible. We turned the music on, closed the blinds and returned to our "ritual" of leaning and back rubbing. But, even this was not helping Mommy anymore. She was still wanting to get an epidural pretty badly, I encouraged her to try getting into the tub or the shower as a last ditch effort before calling for the epidural. After a very short time standing in the shower, it was still too much. So we called the nurse in to begin epidural procedures. First the nurse had to see how much progress Mommy had made. In about 1 hour, her cervix had dilated to 7 cm!!!! This was S0 encouraging. Knowing that Mommy really wanted a natural childbirth, the nurse suggested trying the Jacuzzi tub before getting an epidural. I was S0 happy when Mommy finally said that she'd try the tub. The change in Mommy's attitude was nearly instant the second she sat down in the warm water in the tub. She could even smile again. I knew right then that she could make it through the natural childbirth she had prepared for! The nurse was awesome and so encouraging. She didn't make Mommy get out of the tub even once during labor. She went out of her way to find what she needed to do her required exams while Mommy stayed in the tub. At 4:00, after spending 3 hours in the tub, Mommy knew it was time to start pushing. We helped get her out of the tub and onto the bed. The only problem here was that the midwife who would be doing the delivery had yet to show up. Seems there were several other babies being born that day that she was having to deliver!! But she did finally arrive in Mommy's room in plenty of time to help you be born! After about 45 minutes of pushing, you made your first appearance into the world!! Oh, what a beautiful baby you were!! I think everyone's first impressions were on how big you were. Nobody, including Mommy, was expecting you to be 8 Ibs. 7 oz!!! But you were perfect in every way... we praise God for you are fearfully and wonderfully made... a beautiful Child of God!! What a blessing I found in that day! What an honor to be there as God Himself breathed that first breath of life into your sweet, precious body! May your life be full of God's blessings, Caeden! |