A Birth Story ~ Cadriel Jude

Monday morning, the day before my due date, Burkley and I headed off to the museum, as we often do on Mondays. I was happy to continue on with "normal" life as I waited for this baby to come, knowing that activity would only help Baby move down, but also that sitting around waiting for labor to start would be no fun at all. That afternoon when we got home from the museum, I started having some contractions, but nothing major. I had had Braxton Hicks worse than those. I laid down and took a nap with Burkley.

A few hours later, Sarah brought over her daughter for our usual Monday night school session before Bible study. The mild contractions kept coming and just for fun, Marcus and I timed them on the iPad's contraction app. They were about 4-5 minutes apart, but short (40 seconds or so) and none of them anything I needed to breathe through. I rated them all as a "1" on the app's intensity scale of 1-5. These kind of contractions continued on through Bible study that night and throughout the night while I slept. They were easy to ignore and made me hope that Baby C would be coming sometime in the next day or so. I was glad to finally be feeling something.

The next morning, Tuesday, I woke up realizing I had slept pretty well without being woken up with contractions, but when I got up to get ready for the day, they started back up again. Still nothing notable though, so I decided to go ahead and clean with my mom and sister as we usually do on Tuesday mornings. They picked me up at 9:00 and off we went to go clean a client's house. I told my mom I was finally starting to feel something but certainly nothing that would bring a baby anytime soon. I was happy to go clean, knowing that we teach our childbirth class students to just keep carrying on as normal right up until you can't or don't want to anymore and also knowing that at full-term, staying active would be the best thing to bring baby sooner than later. My husband stayed home sick from work that day because he wasn't feeling well the night before. So, he was home with Burkley while I went to go clean.

While cleaning, my contractions started to increase in frequency and intensity, but still nothing that would make me stop cleaning. I know that continuing activity when you feel up to it is a great way to keep things moving and that since it only takes about an hour for my mom, sister, and I to clean a client's house together, I told myself I could just rest when I got home if I felt like I needed to preserve my strength. I texted my doula and told her that I thought it was baby day! In my head, that was just a heads up for her to start thinking about getting her kids together and over to our friend's house, as was the plan. A few minutes later, I texted her again saying, "This is legitimate!" since I suddenly had a feeling it really was going to happen today! As we drove home after cleaning, I asked my mom if she would just go ahead and take Burkley home with her. His bags were packed and though I didn't feel like birth was imminent, I had a feeling we'd be heading to the hospital at some point that day. So, my mom dropped me off, we got Burkley all packed up and off they went, around 10:15am.

I told Marcus then that I wanted to take a shower (I hadn't in a couple of days!) and that while I did that, he should put the bags in the car and then he could shower and we could see where we were at and probably head to the hospital. I went upstairs and started getting undressed, yelling out random items I wanted him to make sure to pack. Around 10:20 or so, I got in the shower and started to wash. I had hardly even gotten my hair wet when the contractions really started gaining frequency and I was working on relaxing and breathing through them and I started vocalizing a bit. Marcus heard me and realized that this was really happening! I tried to wash my hair inbetween waves, but I found it almost impossible. Suddenly, I realized I was pushing. I stopped the water and began to get out, yelling to Marcus, "I'm pushing!" It was about 10:30. I grabbed my phone to text my doula and saw a text from my sister-in-law who was on vacation. She was asking if I had had a baby yet. :) I laughed to myself and texted my doula telling her to meet us at the hospital pronto. I sat down on the toilet, soaking wet and shivering from being wet and cold. Marcus grabbed me a towel and helped dry me, while urgently telling me to get moving and get in the car.

10:36    He called our midwife to tell her to meet us at the hospital and that we'd be there right away (we only live about 7 minutes away).
10:37    He called our doula to make sure she was on her way. She was freaking out a bit since he told her I was pushing. During this phone call I started to urgently insist something about us not making it, that we were going to do this HERE. He said to me, "You're not having this baby here, let's get moving." I yelled at him, "DON'T TELL ME WHERE TO HAVE THIS BABY!" He told Sarah that I was refusing to move and that we were doing this at our house. They both yelled a few things at each other (which now is humorous to me) and I could tell he was panicking a bit, but he ended the call with Sarah, and...
10:39    Then he called the midwife back. She did not answer her cell, so he called her office and told the nurse that I was pushing, not willing to move, and going to be having the baby at home. She instructed him to call 911. When he told me that, while I was sitting on the toilet pushing as my body chose to, I chuckled and told him, "Wow, that thought did not occur to me!" I truly didn't even think about calling 911!
10:40    So, he called 911. The dispatcher told him to tell me to stop pushing. He laughed and said, "She's not going to stop pushing." He did manage to convince me to get off the toilet where I had sat when I got out of the shower since pushing while standing felt so strange. He helped me to get on to my hands and knees in the (very small) hallway just outside our bathroom where he had laid down a bunch of towels. Within minutes I heard the sirens and a bunch of people entering my house.

The police officer was first on the scene, then the four EMTs who came with the ambulance and then the fire lieutenant. They came upstairs and started to boss me around a bit, telling me to lay down, asking me questions and making a commotion. At this point I tried to get their attention while I was vocalizing and breathing through my pushing. I tried to get their attention by saying, "Can I say something?" No response, just a hubbub of medical equipment being unpacked, people talking and asking questions, and some chaos. I said it again, "Can I say something?" Again, ignored. This time I shouted it, "Can I say something!?" and finally one medic asked me, "What is it, hon?" (or some such pet name, I don't remember, but there was one there). I then tried to calm everyone down indicating that Marcus and I teach childbirth, we know what we're doing, that all of this is fine, I wasn't scared, and it was going to be okay. They backed off and let me labor in whatever position I chose, though I found out afterward that the EMT kept saying that the baby was going to fall on the floor.

10:51   As I was saying this, my doula arrived on the scene and raced up the stairs. I heard her chime in with me saying, "She's fine, she's doing great. Can we all be quiet, please?" It was so great to hear her voice of reason and confidence in me. During all of this Marcus was behind me with one of the EMTs reassuring her that everything was fine and that what was coming out was in indeed a baby's head after she said she wasn't sure what she was seeing. (Sheesh, good thing we were there, right?! haha). Of course, he was also encouraging me-- especially by just being there and remaining calm and confident.

From here I don't remember much other than my hubby encouraging me from behind, my doula snapping pics and encouraging me while standing in front of me, and the EMTs quietly opening their equipment and just waiting. I waited for each surge and remember encouraging my baby saying, "C'mon, baby!" a couple of times when the contractions had spaced out a bit. Up till that point they had really been almost one on top of the other.

10:58   I remember that it took two or three pushes for his head to come out and then I came up off of all fours to just on my knees for a couple of breaths and waiting for the next surge. It came just a minute or so later and I returned to my hands and knees, pushed one more time, and out came the head. Marcus was looking at our baby's face from behind my bottom! The next surge came and out came our sweet baby. He came forward right out to me. The EMT helped grab him, but I quickly took my slithery baby into my hands. The very first thing I noticed were the huge hands--just like his brother's! Then, I noticed the penis! I looked up at my doula and we both mouthed to each other smiling, "A boy!" Marcus was still trying to lean over me to see the sex! Next I noticed how pink my little guy was! He looked so great and healthy!

We waited twenty minutes for the cord to stop pulsating and since I had not delivered the placenta by then and was so uncomfortable laying on the floor against the wall with a baby still attached to me via the cord, I had Marcus cut it and we headed down the stairs for me to get strapped to the gurney to head to the hospital. It was interesting riding in the ambulance (not emergency-style, no lights/sirens/etc.) and when I got to the hospital holding my baby, I met my midwife who was ready for us. I apologized to her profusely, insisting that I had not done this on purpose. She told me to stop apologizing and to be grateful, as she was, that everything went well and that my baby was alive and healthy. We weighed our baby and discovered to our astonishment that he was 9 lbs, 10 oz! About a half hour after we arrived, my placenta was finally delivered. After I was stitched up, we called our parents to tell them his birth story and texted our siblings.


We then moved to our postpartum/recovery room and nursed and hung out until my parents brought Burkley to meet his brother. I absolutely love this picture my mom captured!

Annoyingly, because I was Group B Strep positive, we had to stay for 48 hours for Cadriel to be "observed." We argued this with many people, but we did not get our wish. We wanted to go home as soon as possible and my midwife said I was cleared to go at ay time. But, Cadriel was not. It is that hospital's policy to keep GBS babies for 48 hours. His labs came back negative after 12 hours. We explained that we would obviously bring him in if he showed any signs of illness. I asked for an AMA form to sign, acknowledging that we understand the medical recommendation, but are choosing not to follow it. We were told that there is no AMA for a baby. I could sign one for myself declining medical treatment, but I could not sign one for the baby saying we would like to be discharged early. We were told that if we chose to just walk out and leave that DCFS would meet us at our house to take our baby back. I spoke with two midwives, two nurses, the on-call pediatrician, and the hospital social worker to plead our case and attempt to understand the situation. We asked, "So you're telling us that for the first 48 hours, we are not the legal guardians of our child? We do not get to make decisions for him?" They said it wasn't like that, that it was just hospital policy. We decided to look at it from the perspective that considering all we had been through in the past few hours, if this was the worst of it, then so be it. The most annoying part of all was that I was too tall for the hospital bed that I lived in for two days and it was very uncomfortable! I just wanted to be home!

On a positive note, though my birth plan was moot, the requests I made regarding the treatment of our baby were followed to a "T." No one gave us any grief about the various newborn procedures we declined and no one asked me about breastfeeding, which I had indicated on our plan-- to be left alone regarding breastfeeding. All of our nurses were wonderful and kind and helpful.

We are at eight days postpartum now and it already feels like Cadriel is the perfect fit for our family. He is breastfeeding like a champ and we are actually already in a great groove with elimination communication. It is so addicting to catch pees (I'm still working on his cues for poo!) and he's sleeping great at night too which means I'm really not all that tired (for now). Burkley is a great big brother and is really sweet, loving, and very protective of Cadriel. If Daddy has Cadriel in another room, Burkley will ask where he is. If someone else holds Cadriel, Burkley will defensively yell, "No, that's my mommy's!"

Cadriel was 3lbs heavier and 3in longer than Burkley, but there is still a resemblance!

Our new little addition has already brought us so much joy and excitement. His birth story is a wild one and we are so thankful everything went so well. We joke that we did so much to keep him in for so long that once his due date approached, he decided, "I want out and I want out NOW!" :)

We have taken to calling him Little Foot-- Burkley actually nicknamed him that because of the little newborn sounds he makes, especially when he yawns, just like Little Foot down in The Land Before Time. I joked that it doesn't fit, since Cadriel isn't all that "little"-- but Marcus reminds me that neither is Little Foot. ;)

I'm so eager to see what the Lord has in store for our little bundle. We came up with Cadriel's name after finagling some of the letters from one of my favorite boy names: Gabriel, which means "God is my strength." It couldn't be a better fit for a kid who was prayed over since conception for God's strength to keep him in until full-term.  Amazingly on his due date, he came barreling out in a big hurry--and God's strength was certainly with us all as he came! I know we'll be relying on that Strength as we raise this precious son!

Cadriel Jude ~ 9 pounds, 10 ounces & 20.5 inches

My sweet boys!