Preparing for a Little One- Birth Stories

My friend Kaitlyn and I came up with a great idea that I absolutely love. 

As you know, Kaitlyn is expecting her first child. This can be so overwhelming and I know that other first time moms probably feel the same. She has so many questions and would love to hear the opinions of moms who have already been through this a time or two before.

Because of this, we are hosting a weekly series for a few weeks to try and get some answers to some of the most common questions.

We divided the series into two mini 4 week series grouped into questions Pre-Baby & Post Baby. The first mini series will be:

Friday, April 5: Registering (Everything you need to know, Must Haves, Don't Bothers, etc...)

Friday, April 12: Nursery Organization & Ideas

Friday, April 19: Packing For The Hospital: For you & the baby

Friday, April 26: Birth Stories (The good, bad, and ugly) / Birth Plans (yes? no?)

The second series will focus on bringing the baby home, new mom obstacles and losing the dreaded baby weight. We will schedule that as soon as we see how the first series does. Even if you are a first time mom, you may have posts or input on this first series especially!! I know some of you are due any day now, so I'd love to get your input as well.

If you decide to participate on any of the weeks, all you have to do is write a post answering and discussing the topic/question that week and link up to the main post on my blog. I think it will be a great resource for tons of moms to be!

Below you can grab a button to use on your posts and it will be helpful if you link back to Wifessionals or Five 27 Jones so that others can get the details to link up as well. I really hope some of you will share your secrets with us!!!

<br><div class="Wifessionals-button" style="width: 300px; margin: 0 auto;"> <br><a href="http://www.wifessionals.com"><br><img src="http://i1161.photobucket.com/albums/q501/Wifessionals/PFALO_Button_zps5e621c81.png" alt="Preparing For A Little One" height="300" /><br></a><br></div> <!--end button code box--><br>

Onto the fun, this week's topic is Birth Stories!   In case you don't already know I have two boys.  Noah is 3 and Carson is almost 20 months and their birth stories are very different and I love that I have had two completely different experiences with each of them.   Going into my first, of course I wanted to try and go natural and not get or do anything but let him come.  However, I also told myself to keep an open mind so that way I wouldn't be disappointed if it didn't happen as I wanted to.  I had recently had lots of friends who didn't exactly have their ideal birth and their birth plans just were not an option so my goal was to stay open because of that.   I just wanted to give birth to my healthy boys.  With Noah ( my first)  they had suspected he would be a big baby and after being dilated to a 1-2 for 4 weeks we scheduled an induction for 2 days before his due date.  I went in on our day at 7 that morning I was to be induced, got checked in and then headed to my room.  Around 9:00 they broke my water which was the weirdest feeling ever.  I'm a neat freak and sitting in a bed after they did that was not comfortable and made me a little grumpy.  Well all morning I didn't go any farther because I was still at a 3.  I believe it was around noon, since I wasn't progressing they gave me some Pitocin.  I didn't really want Pitocin because I knew if I had to get that, it would really intensify the contractions and I would end up getting an epidural but since they suggested I took it.  Then shortly after around 2:00 I requested for the epidural.  I was terrified of that epidural but the contractions were so strong, I didn't even realize they had put the needle in until they were done.  It wasn't nearly as bad as I had thought it out to be.   After a few hours of contractions and about 30 minutes of pushing Noah was born at 4:39 pm.  I will never forget as I was pushing everyone told me how much dark hair Noah had.  I'm blonde and my husband hair isn't that dark so I wasn't expecting a black headed child.  Also my thoughts were well if you can see his head so much why don't you get him OUT!  It's crazy the thoughts you have during childbirth.  You just do not always think like your typical self or in some cases talk normal.  Noah was my chunker at 9 lbs 3 oz. and yes I did get lots of stitches.  I didn't think I would ever recover from that but I did.  Overall I was so happy with his birth. He was born safe and sound and it was the greatest day of my life so far!  He was such a cute little chubster.   Here was our first family photo right after he was born and our family got to visit.  I gained 47 pounds with him and it shows!  I had a head cold and couldn't breathe right so that part was challenging.  I had to be on oxygen for a little while.  I also pushed way too much with my face because I burst a lot of blood vessels in my eyes and a few on my face.  I noticed them later that night and was like "what the heck happened to me?, I look like I got hit by a truck! "

 Chubby boy Noah

A short 20 months later we did this again with our sweet little Carson.  

Carson was due September 7th and on August 29th early in the morning about 7:30 I started having contractions.  I wasn't quite sure if they were the real things so I started timing them and they were about 7 minutes apart.  That continued for over an hour so I thought they must be real.  I started making plans for Noah in case I really was in labor, got together our things and headed to town.  I dropped Noah off at my sister in laws and told Matthew to stay on standby and I would let him know if/ when I needed to go in.  Not long after I got to my sister in laws, the contractions started to get stronger and stronger and closer and closer so I called my mom who worked nearby to have her take me to the hospital until Matthew was done with patients for the morning.  We got to the hospital, got checked in, headed up to my room at 10:30.  They checked me to see how far I was dilated and I will never forget  those words "hun you are at a 8 to 9!"  Say what?  I couldn't believe I was almost ready to have a baby.   I panicked a little, had mom call Matthew to get him there right away.  Everything intensified fast and I decided I wanted to do something for the pain and let them now.  Then I heard those awful words "sorry hun it's too late.  You are too far!".  I was mad but knew there was nothing we could do and I was close to having a baby.   Even though I was that far my water still hadn't broke and they thought maybe if they broke my water it might make me go backwards so they decided to let me push when I thought I was ready thinking my water would break and there would be some time before the baby would come out.  They were wrong, I pushed, my water broke and Carson came directly following.   Just a little over an hour after we got checked in Carson was born at 11:37 without a doctor present.  Carson laid on my chest, and we waited about 5 minutes until the doctor got there.  It just happened too quickly for him to get over and prepped.  It was a picture perfect delivery and the best part.  He had such a sweet little head and body at 6lbs and 4 oz.  I couldn't believe there was such a big difference in my two boys but I was thankful for it that day.  We knew he would be smaller just didn't think it would be almost a whole 3 pounds!  

Here is my sweet LITTLE baby Carson

And my first picture with Carson.  I gained 33 pounds with him, so quite a big difference than with Noah.  I felt so much better afterwards for the obvious reason that it was a much shorter labor and didn't have any drugs making me feel anything weird.  

I don't plan on having any more children but if we were I would definitely try to wait it out.  Inductions are not fun and I wouldn't do it if I didn't have to. I know with Carson I got lucky too, because I know not all natural labors don't happen that quickly or as mom eventful as ours did.   The after birth was much, much better without the epidural and the next day as well.  My back was really sore from where they put it in.  I could get right up and move around after Carson was born  where with Noah and the epidural they keep you to the bed since they don't want you walking with them until it completely wears off.   

I got to get cleaned up right away with Carson which is all I wanted to do afterwards, that feeling is just ugh!

Both stories are so different, both my babies are the biggest blessings I will ever know and  they both got here safe and sound which is the most important thing. 

My biggest piece of advice for future mommas is to be open.  It's okay to have a birth plan but be open to change it if need be.  Know that it's not glamorous at all having a child but so worth it.  Bring big comfy clothes for afterwards.  Be ready for the modesty to go out the window.   That was my biggest fear just other people seeing me during labor and I can say is in that moment I didn't care nearly as much as  I thought I would. Your focus is getting that baby here and as quickly as possible!  

I wish you future momma's luck and look forward to reading some other fun birth stories! 

If you have any more detailed questions I would love to answer them.  I left out a lot of the eww and yuck stuff  since not everything wants to read about that but don't mind sharing if there is something in particular you want to know.