Happy Birthday, Noah!

We celebrated my baby's first birthday yesterday! Noah will be one May 26 and I cannot believe how this year has flown by so very quickly. I remember the day he was born like it was yesterday and I feel so blessed to be this happy little guy's mama. I love you, Noah!
I thought I would share his birth story today. I was so thankful to the Lord for that day!
At 34 weeks, I was diagnosed with toxemia and put on partial bed rest. It was such a tough time for our family as I continued to keep my daycare open while visiting high risk ob/gyn's at UT, turning in lab work, doing stress tests and ultrasounds three times a week. We were thankful that Noah continued to grow well throughout this whole process and at 38 weeks, my midwife finally said that we had done enough and that baby Noah would be perfectly fine if he were born now. We determined on Monday's visit that we would induce the upcoming weekend. I remember telling her that I wished I could record myself praying for a natural labor and delivery and have it play around the clock because every time I breathed, I was praying. I had been induced with Isaac and I really didn't want to have to go that route again.
But then Tuesday night as I was getting ready for bed, I felt like tonight was the night. I had been having Braxton Hicks for 4 months but something just had felt different that day. I didn't say anything to Jeremy for fear of being wrong. =) {It's called pride, people, and it can get ugly}
We went to bed around 11:00 and I was awoken at 1:30 with what I thought were more Braxton Hicks. But I just couldn't get comfortable enough to go back to sleep. I started getting butterflies in my stomach - could this be it?! I gave up on sleeping and got up to watch TV and time contractions. Well, what do you know? They were 7 min. apart for half an hour, 6 min. apart for half an hour, then I got down to 5 minutes apart. But I wasn't in any pain so I decided to experiment and see if the contractions were maybe just false labor. I took a long shower. Still contracting. I ate a bowl of cereal. Still contracting. I remember thinking, is the Lord really answering my prayer of a natural labor!?!?! Oh, me of little faith. =) After eating, I timed my contractions again. They were not really consistent but were increasing in intensity. It was about 5 a.m. and I really wanted to walk but didn't want to go by myself so I woke up my sister, Hannah. Hannah had flown in from WI to help me about four weeks earlier. I told her that I was pretty sure I was in labor and would she mind to go walk with me. I've never seen Hannah get out of bed and dressed that fast! haha! She was so excited! So we stepped out into a foggy, cool morning for a walk. At first, i was walking through the contractions only slowing down during a contraction. But then I got to where I would actually say aloud, "Keep walking, keep walking, keep....nope. gotta stop." And we'd stop while I swayed through the contraction which felt wonderful because I was already starting with back labor. I still couldn't believe that this was happening and i wanted to change that recording from please Lord, please Lord, please Lord, to THANK YOU LORD! THANK YOU LORD! THANK YOU LORD!
So anyway, as we're walking, we smell the BBQ starting up at Bread of Heaven, and it surely did smell heavenly! So Hannah and I decided to go to Hardee's for biscuits. That was NOT a smart idea! I did fine on the way there but on the way back we had a little incident. =) We were stopped at a red light when a contraction hit. The pressure was so intense that I couldn't lift my foot from the brake! The people behind me waited so patiently and didn't even honk as I couldn't move until the contraction let up.
Well, we got home in one piece and I woke up Jeremy to let him know that he wouldn't be going to work today and he needed to get up. I must not have sounded urgent or nervous because he just calmly walked off to the shower. I was left thinking, okay, that's okay. I'll be fine for another 30 minutes but then the contractions were about four minutes apart lasting a minute and my back was really beginning to hurt. So when he came out of the shower and started to fix breakfast I kind of flipped! I was like, forget breakfast! Take me to the birth center! =) So after taking one last photo as a family of three we headed off.
All the way to the birth center I felt like I was breathing thank you's to the Lord for this experience and that it had started naturally.
Once at the birthing center, I really felt best leaning on the back of a chair and swaying back and forth. Man did my back hurt! My tummy really didn't hurt at all, I just was feeling the intense tightening. My midwife checked me and I was almost halfway there at 4cm and 50% effaced. Yay!
We headed to the hospital where we learned that every pregnant woman in Knox County was also having her baby on May 26, and I would have to labor in triage with other women. Woo-hoo! Around 11:30, I was really feeling the pain and was blowing like a whale through the contractions. =) I had now been in active labor for 3 hours and Isaac had been born after 5 hours so I was fixing to get a little upset about not being in a room and not having been checked to see how I was progressing. Just as it was about to get ugly, they took me to my room. hallelujah! I was so excited I crossed the whole floor in the middle of a contraction. I just wanted to have some privacy and my own room! Once in my room, my midwife brought in the birthing ball. I LOVED THAT BIRTHING BALL! It really helped remind me to keep my body open and relaxed as a gently rolled on the ball. I had started making some vocalizations through the contractions, just letting my jaw open loosely. I would actually find myself smiling after a contraction! I visualized each contraction as a wave and as one would start I would think, "Okay, baby. We're gonna ride another one together. Ready? Here we go!" It was painful, of course, but keeping my whole body, included jaw open and loose made the contractions so much more manageable. Then I noticed that the sound was changing to a pushing or grunting noise even though I didn't feel like pushing. Addy, my midwife, checked me and sure enough, I was 7 cm and 95% effaced. That meant that I was in transition. I firmly believe that someone needs to come up for another term for this phase of labor. Transition seems to be such a gentle word and this phase is in no way gentle! In fact, I began to lose control of the pain. I quickly progressed to completely dilated and effaced and the pain was unimaginable. I remembered with Isaac that I had felt my body pushing whether I wanted to or not and pushing had actually relieved most of the pain. But it was nothing like that with Noah. He was trying to come out "sunny-side-up" or face up. That means that the largest part of his head had to work through the pelvis first, instead of the smallest part pushing through. So that was the reason for the horrible back labor and why pushing made me feel like my hips were ripping apart. The "vocalizations" quickly turned into screams and I apologize now to all my family that were witnessing Noah's birth. =) I had started half-heartedly pushing around 12:50 and at 1:30 Addy looked at me and said, "Rachel, it's time. You need to push this baby and he needs to be born. Push now." That's all it took, I started pushing through the pain. It was like my brain was so fogged with pain that I couldn't make that decision to push through by myself and I just needed someone else to take charge and tell me what to do. At 1:45pm on May 26, 2011, Noah Jackson Lane made his entrance into the world, my arms, and our hearts! I loved that slimy, stinky thing from the moment I laid eyes on him and that love has grown by leaps and bounds this year as I've had the privilege of watching him grow.
I firmly believe in a woman's right to choose - her method of childbirth that is. BUT, you can never have a bonding experience with your child like labor. The more you can be present in the moment and feeling everything your baby feels, the stronger that experience is. When I let go of my fear and embraced the "waves," I was able to experience the most amazing sensation a woman can have. The joy of feeling her little one fight his way out of the womb to meet his mommy. Nothing can compare.
Happy Birthday, Noah! Your mama loves you so very, very much!