Our story :)

JennaRaek · March 2014

My husband and I were expecting our first son on 1/9/14. Well, little Logan had other plans. On 12/31 at exactly 3am as I was rolling over in bed I felt a pop and told myself that there was no way my water just broke. A few seconds later I realized that it had. I woke my husband up and called my midwife. She was on call that night and was already at the hospital. She told us to go a head and come on in. The hospital is about 45 minutes away and after my husband showered, we got there around 4:30am. At that time, my contractions felt like bad menstrual cramps. The whole day is kind of a blur to me even though I went med free. I have no idea what time past entering the hospital these events actually happened. My husband feels differently.

As breakfast time rolled around I was starving and was on a "white diet". This meant toast or oatmeal. I hate oatmeal so toast it was! I was so excited when it showed up... until I saw the one piece of toast under the cover. Still starving, the day went on. I believe it was around 2pm when my obgyn suggested I get in the Jacuzzi tub. I was 3cm when I got in the tub, and 6cm when I got out only about an hour later. It was amazing. I highly recommend it! It didn't make the pain any less, but made it a lot easier to relax. My only complaint is that the tub was so big I had a hard time sitting. I'm only about 5'3". I would float away because my feet couldn't reach the other side of the tub. I ended up sitting vertical in the tub so I could rest my feet on something. Sitting on my knees with my arms over the side of the tub was also a position I was in a lot. After about an hour though, I got way too hot. I was sweating and needed out. After I was back in my bed things got a lot more intense. Contractions started getting a lot stronger and a lot closer together. By this point I was... I'll say.. whimpering with every contraction. Not loudly and I don't know why, but it was just a natural reaction. Around 6pm, my nurse asked me to get on my hands and knees in my bed. I was hugging the back of my bed so tightly with every contraction. Being in that position made everything so much more intense. That's when I almost regretted not getting any drugs. My husband still says it was the worst thing he's ever had to watch... knowing I was in so much pain and him not being able to do anything. I have no idea how many times he ran down the hallway to the ice/water machine. Probably 30. He was great! After I was back laying on my back, they checked me and said I only had a little bit of cervix left... and it didn't seem to want to budge any further. My ob said she thought I could push threw it, so at 6:30pm I started pushing. (I know that time exactly because the clock was right in front of me and I kept staring at it when she told me to push) After 45 minutes of pushing, our beautiful son was born screaming. Logan Reed was born at 7:15pm after 16 hours weighing in at 7lbs3oz. 22 inches long. He was immediately placed on my chest and he was just perfect. After getting my 3 stiches, I was up walking around and went to the bathroom to get cleaned up. The best word I have to describe everything is "intense". That's what I tell everyone when they ask how my delivery was. I can't say enough about my ob, midwife, and the nurses at the hospital. They were all awesome and I ended up having the birth experience I wanted. A few of my nurses actually stayed past their shift so they could see my son be born. It meant so much to see them care like that. My ob was the most encouraging woman ever. She was constantly telling me how good I was doing. While pushing, I said once "I can't do this" and the nurses, my ob and my husband all said at once, "yes you can!". My ob then told me to reach down and touch my sons head and said "Jenna, you're going to meet your son within 15 minutes. You're going great!". It was amazing and all I needed to keep going! To sum it all up... I had no birth plan. I only knew I wanted to try and go med free. My husband and I never took a birthing class. As my midwife told me the months before I delivered, your body knows what to do. Let it do it. You were made to do this. I just went with the flow and had an awesome experience!!! I did it!! I wouldn't have done anything different. Our son is now about 11 weeks old and is the happiest, most smiley little guy ever!