Well, after that long post about patience. I got to wait a little longer. I kept saying, "I never thought I'd make it to (insert any occasion or date)." But I just kept chugging along, feeling (and looking) oh so pregnant. I'll spare you all the whiny details, but let it suffice to say I really think if I had been pregnant one second longer, my hips would no longer be with us (may they rest in peace). And then what would I have to waddle with next pregnancy?
Pretty pregnant!
Now for the birth story...
Once upon a time in a far away land: At 4:30 in the morning, a princess awoke. Just kidding, I promise I'm done with the fairy tale. I was woken up by a pretty strong contraction, right in the middle of a wonderful dream about garage sale-ing. After a few contractions, I realized that this was the real thing, finally. I'd been having false alarms for a couple of weeks, so by this time I was pretty skeptical. I woke Joshua up pretty quickly, because I realized this one was going to be way faster (dream big!). The contractions started out much harder this time than they did with Judah. We didn't really have anything ready, so we spent the next hour or so getting things in order for my parents to watch Judah. When my dad left for work at 5:30, I told him to keep his phone with him because today was the day.
First Snuggles, totally amazing!
I was going to wait awhile to wake my mom up because I'm a nice person, but this was happening way faster than I anticipated. Joshua went over to their house at around 5:55 to wake her. I knew that I wouldn't want to be giving instructions for watching Judah much later. We finished getting ready until about 6:30, and then headed to town. Our plan was to get a hotel room near the hospital to labor in. We wanted to stay out of the hospital as long as possible, but knew I wouldn't want to be in the car towards the end.
Could not love this face any more, so sweet!
As soon as we got in the car, the contractions spread out and got less intense. It felt wonderful. I joked that I would stay in the car the whole labor. When we left the house we were almost thinking we'd go straight to the hospital, but once in the car we decided we for sure would get a hotel room. We headed to the Wildwood Lodge in West Des Moines. Joshua called ahead, and they said they had a room with a Jacuzzi tub available (yes please!). I'm sure they thought we were crazy getting a room at 7:00 in the morning... Oh well, just wait until they hear me moaning as we check in.
Loving the family time!
We pulled into the parking lot and started to walk into the hotel. All of a sudden I had a whole bunch of really intense contractions. Like, I couldn't make it inside the hotel. There was a cab sitting outside the hotel, I'm pretty sure they thought we were some young couple crazy about each other (which we are, but aren't quite as PDAish as it seemed). We would take a step, then I'd throw myself on Joshua and just hang there for the contraction. Ahh, young love... Anyway, we decided that this was happening fast as long as I stood up, so decided to go straight to the hospital. We figured we'd save ourselves money and just labor in the hospital waiting room. That way we wouldn't have to drive at all when it got really intense.
Look at those cheeks!
We got to Mercy Hospital at around 7:00. We didn't want to check in right away (since then they strap you down and that would slow things down too much), so we labored on the second floor for a couple hours. They have a nice waiting room there, and there wasn't too much traffic that early in the morning. The contractions with this labor were really intense and close together while I was standing, so I stood basically the whole time. If it got to be too much to handle, I would sit down for a couple contractions, and that would space them out to give me a break. It was like having my own pain control, it really helped me get through it. It gave me a sense of control so that I could relax. I truly believe it was a gift from God to get me through it.
Our good sleeper, mostly...
Finally around 9:00, I could tell I was transitioning (the worst part of labor). How could I tell? I think I remember declaring that I was just giving up, walking out of the hospital, and going home.
I may have also mentioned something about jumping off the balcony when Joshua told me option A was not possible. (I have a sick sense of humor when in pain. A lot of pain.) Did I mention birth hurts? That's where the expression "hurts like a mother" comes from. I was one hurtin' mama. Anyway, where were we? Oh yeah, at 9:30 point we decided we should get my lil' laboring booty up stairs. Up we went, with lots of contractions on the way. I could tell I was a lot further along than I was with Judah when I got to the check-in desk because they didn't really care about insurance, my name, or much else. They were just pretty interested in getting me to my room. I declined the wheel chair escort, because I wanted to keep the show rolling. I think I really freaked the nurse out though, since I had about 5 contractions on our very short walk to the room.
Long skinny feet, just like mama!
When I got to my room they promptly made me lay down on the bed, ugh. They hooked me up and checked me. I was at an 8, woohoo! I was actually at this point starting to feel a tiny bit "pushy," but I knew I wasn't ready to push quite yet. The nurse was so-so. She wasn't mean, but wasn't the happiest camper on the lot. She asked me a million questions. A million. During contractions even. Let me give you one little piece of advice. Never ever ever ever ever ever never ever ever ask a woman questions during transition contractions. It is mean, you will probably not get an answer, and did I mention it is mean? Luckily Joshua fielded most of these for me, but oh man, it really made it hard to focus on relaxing during contractions.
Hungry already!
Once the nurse was done with the third degree, the doctor came in (around 10:00). It was a substitute doctor, since the real on call doctor was doing a C-section. I really like this doctor because she told me I could get out of bed and go to the potty (over share, I know. But you ARE reading a birth story, that will always include over sharing, and if you only knew the things I'm not sharing...). While doing my thing I had a really strong contraction, that made my body push. I told Joshua that and he told me to stop right then and then ran out of the room and tattled on me (I didn't mean to push, it just happened, honest
(Joshua would like to note that "I told Joshua that" took the form of loudly screaming - "I'm pushing!" thereby slightly justifying the forementioned tattling)). Nurses came spilling in, I was promptly ushered to bed. People came a-runnin' in, like a little scrub army. Then I yelled "just kidding!" No, just kidding. My body really was pushing, but I could tell it wasn't doing it for reals, just kind of practice pushing. They checked me again, and I wasn't completely dilated yet. Everyone started breathing again. People finished setting up for the exciting moment and then left the room. It was really exciting when they put down the baby bed thing in the room, it made it feel more real. That helped me get through this time. I just kept saying that meant the baby was coming soon.
"Hey look! He makes funny faces when I poke him!"
The real doctor got out of their C-section and came in. I was kind of bummed because she's not very gentle with anything. When she would check me in visits it would hurt a lot and a lot of the other doctors weren't as rough. Around 10:35 they checked me and I was a perfect 10 (go me!). Our doctor broke my water with out telling me then actually lied about it when I asked her. I wasn't very impressed with that. I think I would have been okay with it, had she asked me first or at least been honest with me. That coupled with some other issues made me really disappointed in her because we
so appreciated her willingness to try birthing naturally with Judah. Any way, I had a couple minute break in contractions which was nice before I started pushing.
So snuggly already, good for a mama's heart.
At around 10:39 I started pushing. The nurse yelled at me to push harder and the doctor yelled at me to push slower. I didn't want to take sides, so I just pushed how I pushed and left them to duke it out. It was fun this time because Joshua actually got to see him being born, it really encouraged me to hear that he was coming out and was so sweet. At 10:45 Asher Avdon Stewardson was born. Huzzah! I felt so much better this time than after Judah was born so I was really able to enjoy holding him. I was so excited because it just happened that everyone else was busy so I saw when they turned him to put him on my chest that he was a boy. I never thought I'd get to be the first to find out. I announced that he was a boy and was so excited to meet my little man! They kept having to rub his back and pinch him because he just snuggled in right away and didn't want to cry a lot. He's already living up to his name, it means "happy."
Our big boy: 13lbs 12.8oz (after pooping already...)
Poor little face was bruised because of how fast it went apparently. Still perfect though!
After he was born, the doctor stitched me up. I only had a 2nd degree tear this time, so we were really grateful for that! At this rate, hopefully next time will only be a 1st degree. Woo to the hoo!
So happy to head home to see big brother!
So, that's how it all went down. It was just one big blessing. I had read on a blog about how labor can be a worship experience because you're so dependent on God to get you through it. It's totally true. It was an amazing time of relying on God and feeling his peace. He is so glorious and has made labor and birth to be such a beautiful experience. I feel really blessed to have gotten to experience it twice, and I hope to experience it again sometime.
Judah's such a good helper rocking Asher. If Asher survives... :)
Asher is such a blessed addition to our family. We all love him so much already. He is a really happy baby as long as he's not hungry (who could blame him...). I'm loving the new born phase this time around, I could just snuggle him forever. And don't get me started on how fun it is to see Judah interact with him. Judah is a great big brother. Asher is really blessed to have such a wonderful big brother. I think 15 months apart is the perfect gap. Judah really hasn't experienced jealousy, there's always room for two on our laps and he likes snuggling with Asher. All in all, we're just really enjoying our family of four and praising God for the gift of two beautiful boys. We hope to raise them to glorify God in all they do.
Brother snuggles!
Daddy's lap is the shnizz!
Over and out!
Kendall
