This is a very long post. I want to get it all typed up while we can still remember the details. This was such a special event in the life of our family and our marriage. We always want to remember how our baby boy entered this world.
Around 11:00 pm we all decided to go to bed. I could not sleep so Craig couldn't either. The gas pain would not let up at all. Finally Craig decided he was going to time the pains. After about 5 pains we started to get a little nervous. The pains were lasting 35-45 seconds and were coming every minute. There was a pattern and it was not stopping or slowing down no matter what I did. Craig went downstairs and got my exercise ball. Sitting on the ball with my legs spread out was the most comfortable position I could find. I sat in the corner of the room so I could lean back on the wall if needed and Craig kept timing to see if anything changed. The pains kept coming every minute and continued to last for 45-50 seconds.
Around midnight the pain shifted and I started to feel it in my back. We began to realize it was time. Labor might have really arrived. I got down on my hands and knees to see if it would help with the pain which I believe we had started to call contractions at this point. My chiropractor had told me that in early labor I needed to spend time that way because of the position of the baby. "They" tell you to go to the hospital when contractions are 4-5 minutes apart and last 1 minute for 1 hour. We didn't know what to do since the contractions were not lasting a full minute. There is no way my labor could have started with contractions one minute apart! We were in denial/confused.
Around 1:00 am I told Craig he could make the call. We moved downstairs because I wanted more room to walk around. Craig called the doctor and told the nurse what was going on. It sounded something like this:
Craig: This is Craig Montgomery. We are not sure but we think my wife might be in labor. We thought it was gas pain but has moved to her back. The contractions are lasting about 45-50 seconds and coming every minute.
Nurse: You are definitely in labor.
My mom heard us at this point and she came up to the living room. When Craig hung up the phone he and my mom got busy running around putting everything in the car and getting dressed. It was starting to sink in that it really was time. The baby was on his way. We were ready to head out and still hadn't heard from the doctor. Since the hospital is about 25 minutes away we got in the car and started driving. Craig said the worst they could do was send us back home so off we went.
About 45 minutes after calling the doctor we still hadn't heard back. Craig called again from the road and the nurse wrote our number down wrong or something along those lines. Either way we were there within 5 minutes of him actually talking to the doctor. On our walk from the car up to the birth center we had to stop three times for contractions. I would lean on Craig until it was over. I had one at the desk for check-in and another in the hall while the concierge was taking us to our labor and delivery room. The contractions were all in my back and it was not feeling good!
Craig and I got into our room around 2:00 am and met our nurse, Lucy. We had to answer a bunch of questions, get initial vitals, monitor the baby for about 20 minutes and some other stuff like that to get started. She would let us stop and do what we needed to with each contraction. After watching us through our first contraction she commented that she could tell we had done our homework and knew what we were doing. It was nice to hear since we really had worked hard to get ready for labor and delivery. Since we were trying to get through without medication she told me she would not bring it up at all and she kept to that the entire night.
Around 3:00 am Lucy checked my cervix to see how far along I was. My doctor was down the hall with another patient...we could hear her screaming in our room. It's very comforting to hear sounds like that when you are just a little behind the other patient. I thought it was funny though. At my first check my cervix was 6 cm dilated and she could feel my bag of waters bulging. After that I tried to get in the jetted bath. The water felt good but my back pains were so bad that I had to have counter pressure and it was hard for Craig to reach me in the tub. When I got out of the bath it was time to do another quick check on the baby. Lucy brought the wireless machine into the bathroom and we did it in there. I remember having a hard time staying still when the contractions would come and the pain was continuing to build.
We moved back to the labor and delivery room and I would lean on the side of the bed and have Craig put counter pressure on my lower back through the contraction. He did an amazing job! I can't stress enough how supportive he was throughout the entire experience. I was working him really hard. At this point I needed to get back on my hands and knees to try and get the baby to turn off of my back. The bean bag worked the best for this position. Again I had Craig pushing on my back like crazy through every contraction. I would mutter whatever I could to try and get the pressure harder. What I didn't realize was that he was already pushing as hard as he could. I really don't remember much that went on for a good chunk of time. At one point I remember almost crying as I was moaning through a contraction. I also remember Lucy telling Craig that when we got to the hospital no one thought we were in labor because I was so calm. If they could have been in my body right then they would have known! Craig was right next to me the entire time encouraging me the whole way. After a while we moved me onto my side and elevate one leg using the bean bag.
Around 5:00 am Lucy came to do the next check of my cervix. She warned me that she would be very careful but my bag of waters could break. I measured 8 cm so she left us to keep doing our thing. Before she left the room she suggested that I flip to my other side because we were still hoping to get the baby to flip and it might help. I waited until after the next contraction and started to flip. About half way through turning over my waters EXPLODED. There is no other way to describe how quickly and powerfully it came out. Craig was at my feet and was inches from being covered in amniotic fluid. There was meconium in the waters so they had me move to the bed to monitor the baby from there on out.
At this point Lucy told me that any time I got the urge to push I could go for it. We put the bed in position so I could squat when I was ready to push. With each contraction Craig helped me move into position. Lucy was watching the progress and encouraging us along the way. Before I knew it she could see the baby's hairy little head. She had Craig move to the end of the bed so he could see our son for the first time. After that she called for the doctor and told me a team would be coming in for delivery. The next thing I knew Craig was on my right, Lucy was on my left, Dr. Price was at the foot of the bed and two other nurses were in the background. I continued in the squatting position for a push or two and then they had me stay on the bed and pull my legs up to me with the final pushes. I was so tired that it was hard to hold my legs so Craig and Lucy each held a leg to help me. The baby was having trouble getting over the final rim of muscle so Dr. Price used mineral oil and a few fingers to help him over. There was already so much pressure from the pushing that what she was doing didn't hurt even though Craig says it looked very intense.
Once the mineral oil was being used it was just a couple of contractions and out came the head. At 6:21 am on Wednesday, January 16, 2013 our baby boy came out with one final push. They put him directly on my chest. His nurse moved into position and did everything she needed to with him on me. They hooked me up to an IV at this point. My placenta popped out very quickly and I didn't even realize it. We didn't know until after the fact that the IV was pitocin. I didn't feel any contractions from it and it moved things along so we didn't really care. The doctor asked Craig if he wanted to cut the cord. He told her we wanted to wait until it stopped pulsing but she had already made a cut so we went with it. We had not remember to say we wanted to wait until it stopped pulsing and our birth plan didn't make it in from the car with us so we didn't care. At this point I was too busy admiring our little boy and thanking everyone in the room.
I did have a 2nd degree tear so Dr. Price had to stitch me up. I felt the shot but after that it was mostly just tugging while she worked on me. There were a couple of spots that were more painful than others but I had just given birth without drugs and was not going to complain about getting some stitches. I could not believe how hard they push on your belly to get your uterus to shrink up and move back into position. It was intense after all that had just gone on down there. The final push before they had me get up and move into the bathroom all sorts of liquid came out of me. It was really crazy. The other thing that shocked me was how sore I was once it was time to sit up and move around.
We decided on the name while we were still in recovery in labor and delivery. I told Craig he could grab my phone to get my list but he said it wasn't necessary. It was going to be Brady Mitchell Montgomery. We settled on the middle name several months ago but had not been comfortable on picking the first name until we saw him. Once he was out we knew he was a Brady. My mom had been in the waiting room all night so we called for her to come back and she got to watch as they did all of Brady's vitals and took his official measurements, etc. and we told her his name. He was 8 pounds 6 ounces and 21 inches long.
After 12 weeks of birthing class, lots of reading, discussing and praying we were so happy with our birth experience. We know things don't always go according to plan (we even changed things along the way) and we are beyond thankful for how everything went for our family. It was not easy and it sure was not pain-free but if we had to chose we would do it exactly the same way. I could not have done it without Craig by my side. He made it possible to follow through on what we set out to do.
Brady is unbelievably beautiful. We are so in love. When he is really upset and cries really hard he sounds like a goat. After he sneezes he makes an "Awww" sound. It is the sweetest thing. Craig is a wonderful dad and loves his little boy so much already. I can't wait to watch their relationship as Brady grows and develops.
Thank you Jesus for our sweet little boy. We could not ask for more.
