The miracle of birth

For some strange reason I feel the need to write this post about my kids and their births. I have been a mom for 9 years now and I have noticed how different each one of them are. I don't ever want to forget the details of their births' so I am going to write it down.

Trevor was my first baby and with that comes a lot of unknown expectations. When we went to the birthing class I knew for sure that I would not be having an epidural. All it took for me to make my decision was to see the needle. I said to Bobby that night "now that is something I will not be doing" and it was true. In fact, I had all of my kids natural. I was very glad to take the birthing class because it taught me to stay calm and breath properly to divert the pain. The night before he was born I had my first ever contractions and I knew it was time. (He was only 3 days early.) I actually had quite a long labor (12-13 hours total). Since he was my first baby I pushed more than the others. I probably pushed for 2 hours which is a long time when you are doing it natural (it is a long time even with an epidural I am sure). The breathing and focusing on objects really helped keep me calm. Right after he came out I felt so good. I could have walked myself to my room but they wouldn't let me because I still had an IV and they didn't want to risk of me falling. Trevor was so cute and sweet. He was perfect in every way. Trevor was such a good baby. He loved to be held and rocked to sleep. Everyone (esp. my mom) told me not to rock him because he would be spoiled and in my mind I said "so what" so I rocked him until he was about 2 years old.


Abbey's birth was much different than Trevors. The day I was in labor I did a MK facial, an interview and helped a consultant with an order. As the day went on the contractions got stronger and harder. I went to bed and they weren't quitting. I was not going to go to the hospital early again like I did with Trevor. The nurses want you to just lay there so they can have those monitors on and I didn't enjoy that so I was determined not to do that. So I went to bed, slept for a little while, got up took a bath, put on my makeup, did my hair and then woke up Bobby. The contractions were going pretty hard by then and I could barely walk in the hospital. The nurse was really calm until she checked me. Then she ran out of the room and was yelling for someone to call my doctor. Abbey was born not 15 minutes after that. I had no pain medication whatsoever and no epidural obviously. My doctor basically just caught the baby and that was it. Abbey came 2 1/2 weeks early and she had the white stuff ( I don't know how to spell the technical name) all over her. She was also blue which was very scary. They wouldn't let me hold her and I was crying because I knew something was wrong. They did a lot of tests on her and she really didn't have anything wrong. She basically just stopped breathing when she started to eat. She had to wear a cake pan looking clear thing over her head for oxygen. She was put into ICU immediately and was not going to be released until the monitor didn't go off. The monitor went off if she wasn't getting enough oxygen. One funny thing the doctor said to me was that next time I should come in earlier to have the baby or I might not make it (he thought I cut it a little too close-I didn't tell him everything I did before I came in). I stayed in the hotel stay rooms at the hospital for a few extra days. That was hard because I already had Trevor to take care of. Through all of this I was sure that Abbey would not breast feed. The nurses preferred giving her a bottle because she could drink and breath easier that way. After I went home I came back to the hospital 3 times a day to see her. I only did that for 1 week thank goodness. The nurses told me that Abbey knew when I was there and tried her hardest to be alert and awake when I came. After I would leave she would crash for quite a long time. After the week was up I was very very nervous to take her home. We weren't going home with any monitors and we were basically on our own. We had one scare where we took her back in and she stayed at the hospital for a couple of hours but after that she had no problems. When we were finally home for good Abbey caught right on to the breast feeding thing. She did so well, she never had 1 bottle and she breast feed for one solid year. One funny thing about Abbey is that she hated to be rocked or cuddled. I would rock and rock her and she would cry and cry. Finally I decided I needed a time-out and set her down in her bed to cry but to my surprise she went right to sleep. Being the determined mother I was, I tried to rock her again the next time and sure enough the same thing. She cried and cried. When I layed her down in her bed she went right to sleep. That was all it took for me to decide that she didn't want to rocked to sleep and I never did it again. Sniff, sniff.

Kyra's birth was also unlike either one of the other births. First of all I went into the hospital more than I want to remember with false labor (I think 2 times). It seemed that I was having those serious contractions earlier with each pregnancy. Kyra was supposed to be born on May 20th but when people would ask I just told them I was having her in the first week of May. I just knew that would happen. She was born on May 8th so I was right. I went to bed early on the night my water broke. It was about one a.m. and Bobby had just come to bed about one hour earlier. I suddenly felt like I peed the bed. I was really embarrassed but I didn't want to wake Bobby up because he had just gotten to sleep. I just put a towel down and tried to go back to sleep. When the same thing happened again I knew my water had broke. The bad thing was that I was having absolutely no contractions. So we called labor and delivery and they said come in. When we got there, they made me walk the halls to get things going. NOTHING! Finally they gave me a low dose of Pitosin to get things going. That helped but I didn't enjoy that pain much. I hadn't had any pain medication yet because I was doing all right. Then the nurse asked me if I would you like something to just take the edge off and I said sure. While she was gone, Kyra completely dropped and I had this instant urge to push. Bobby ran and got the nurse. When she checked me she said the famous "Don't push". That is the worst thing you can say to someone in that position I think because the pressure is so great that is all you want to do. Kyra was born a few minutes later and no I didn't have any drugs. Kyra was the only baby that I didn't have my doctor for. Dr. Norda was the doctor on call and he did a good job. He basically was just there to catch her and stitch me.up. The funny thing about Kyra's birth was how busy they were that day at the hospital. They let me stay in the delivery room with Kyra for a long time. We of course wanted to check out little Kyra's features and when we opened the blanket, she didn't have a diaper on. We immediately fixed that problem. Nobody wanted baby tar poops on them. When Bobby finally gave her a bath, he could not get all the afterbirth stuff off of her because she didn't have a bath right away. Kyra was a very good baby like the others but she loved to be rocked like Trevor, yeah!

Jacob is my last child and final pregnancy Yeah! Even though I have really good pregnancies and really easy labor, my body is done having children. I had 4 ultrasounds with him because of different reasons. I knew long before 20 weeks that he was a boy and I was so excited. Now I could have 2 girls and 2 boys. I lost a lot of weight with Jacob and that was fine with me. I exercised up until 7 months and felt good. I had a lot of false labor with Jacob just like with Kyra. Right when I got to the hospital the contractions would completely stop. I didn't want to have a baby at home or in the car like Dr. Heiner warned so I would go in even though it was embarrassing to be sent home. When the time finally came to go to the hospital for real, Zanette came with us. She was planning to come the whole time, especially if Bobby couldn't be there (he was working in LA). It was a snowy icy morning and on the way to the hospital Zanette's truck went off the road. We just left it in the barrow pit and she got in with us. We made it there in plenty of time and the delivery went well. Again like with all the other pregnancies, when I could put my legs down and rest, I felt really good and wanted to walk to my room but again they wouldn't let me. It is a really good thing Jacob was my last baby. He was my hardest baby by far. It didn't help that he was born with double ear infections and had jaundice really bad. He had to have the billy Ruben lights for a week and get his foot poked everyday. That was exhausting for me. He did like the lights though so that made it easier. He never passed the hearing test at the hospital because of the ear infections. He had tubes put in a 8 weeks old. That helped his mood a little and the crying decreased but I held that little baby for 10 months straight. He would not sleep if I put him down so I just held him day and night. Bobby was still in LA for the first 6 months so I had no relief. Heavenly Father gave me extra patience during that time otherwise I don't know how I made it through. My problem is that I am a very independent woman and I like my children to be independent too and Jacob was not independent at all and really still isn't.

I love all 4 of my children very much and have special feelings for each one of them. I think birth is that greatest miracle there is . Each of my experiences was different but special. It is funny how each baby comes with her/his personality already intact starting on the day they were born. I think the greatest blessing in my life is to be a mother. I am thankful Heavenly Father trusts me enough to keep 4 of his children and raise them and teach the things they need to learn in this life.