It’s taken me five months to finally sit down and write Sage’s birth story. This birth story is slightly bittersweet for me and I knew it would bring up a lot of emotions which is selfishly why I have put off writing it until now. Today is the day I’ll let myself write my last birth story.
We found out the gender for our boys, and I always said that if we had a third baby the gender would be a surprise. Since we had two boys, I wanted the birth of the last baby to be a special moment for our family. Honestly, my pregnancy took us by surprise, and waiting to find out the gender of our baby was that much more magical. Each of my pregnancies were fairly easy. I’m not going to say I love being pregnant, but I am in absolute awe of what our bodies are capable of. I have both of my boys’ full birth stories written (Heslin & Leo) but for background my deliveries were all POLAR opposite. Heslin I had a textbook birthing experience-completely unmedicated. Leo on the other hand was breech and would not budge (even after an External cephalic version (ECV) performed by my doctor) so I had him via cesarian. Baby number 3 was TBD.
My pregnancy with Sage was business as usual. I have pretty easy, uneventful pregnancies, but Sagey girl definitly kept me on my toes. She stayed in the breech position until 36 weeks, but I was determined to have a VBAC after having a c section with my previous child, Leo so when she finally flipped I was SO relieved. By this time, I was now onto my weekly visits. At my 37 week appointment, my doctor was concerned with my fundal measurement (aka the measurement of your belly hight). We did an ultrasound to check on growth and fetal health. Blood flow to the baby, heart rate, etc. looked fine even though she was measuring small. Historically, I had two somewhat small babies (6.8 and 7 lbs) so baby could have just been petite. We decided to wait until the next week to measure again. At my 38 week visit she concluded that the baby was still measuring small and actually wanted to deliver me that day!
Meanwhile, at home, my entire family had been sick, with some sort of virus that Leo brought home from school. It literally took us out one by one, so we were going on week 3 of someone in the house being ill. Like my husband had no voice and sounded like he was on his deathbed. Luckily I was the least effected, and I was feeling OK but definitely not in the best shape to deliver a baby! We discussed and decided we could put the delivery off for two days, but I would be induced, because at this point, my doctor felt it could be detrimental to the baby if she did not come out. This was definitely a tough pill to swallow. I wanted to try for an unmedicated delivery, because I know what comes along with inductions and the potential cascade of events that increase your chance for c section- a chat for another day.
After getting her to flip I kind of felt I was home free, and I would just be waiting for labor. Although I was fearful of the unknown, I wanted to do everything in my power to keep my baby safe and give myself and the baby the birth I envisioned. I packed our bags, got all of the delivery room snacks, my coconut water (a MUST for labor), all of my essential oils, did my last labor prep exercises, and made my extra strong raspberry leaf labor tea. My induction was scheduled for 5am which meant I had to arrive at the hospital at 4:30am Thursday March 2.
Ok, now it’s time to have my baby! I had a clear vision of what I wanted my baby’s birth to be and communicated with my doctor through my pregnancy, so she took a very gentile approach to the induction. We assumed that once I was in labor my body would naturally respond well, but we had to get things moving. At 6am my induction began with the insertion of a “ballon.” The balloon would begin the labor process without the use of Pitocin right away. In a nut shell, once your cervix reaches 3-5cm, the balloon falls out and birth should be getting close. The goal from there was for the balloon to fall out by the time my doctor came for her lunch time rounds. I took the next hour or so to rest while I had the chance. We let the balloon do its thing for a bit, then slowly started my Pitocin after the first 2 hours of just the balloon. I made laps around the hospital and used the birthing ball in my room to keep things moving along. My contractions were definitely coming on stronger but still very manageable with my breath work- even with the use of Pitocin.
By lunch time, my contractions were picking up, and I was having lots of cramping. TMI warning: I then had the pretty sudden urge to go to the bathroom, and yes, I did have to go, but also the balloon came out! Right on time. My doctor came in and checked me, and I was five or six cm dilated so I knew we were getting close! We decided to up my Pitocin and then the contractions definitely started to pick up.
Around 1:45 PM I decided it may be time for me to get the epidural, because the contractions were starting to take everything out of me. With the increased Pitocin my body wasn’t really getting a break. I decided I didn’t need to be the hero and getting the epidural would take the edge off. I would later regret my decision, but that’s probably another story. They checked me before I got the epidural and at that time, I was close to 8 cm, and it was around 2 PM once the epidural started to kick in. I was feeling great and definitely at ease- until it started to kick in a little too strong.
Apparently I react strongly to epidurals, and I started to get numb up to my chest. Keep in mind if you do get an epidural, you are still supposed to be able to have slight movement and feeling, but I had none. I was still able to move my arms, but I was way too numb. Almost immediately after getting the epidural, we called the anesthesiologist back in to turn the epidural off, but the effects had already kicked in. Luckily the epidural did not slow things down and 20 minutes later I was ready to push. My doctor and nurses came in to prep the room and it was time to go!
We broke my water, and I gave three good pushes and the biggest sense of relief came over me… baby was out. When SHE came out everyone was waiting for Hess to give the gender reveal. I think he was so stunned it took him a second to say our baby was a GIRL. Cue the ugly tears. We were completely shocked after two boys to have our girl.
Sage was born on March 2nd at 2:46pm weighing 5lbs 5oz. Our tiny girl has forever changed our lives, and we could not be more grateful to have her complete our family.
