The Smith Family Blog: August 2014

40 weeks and waiting!

This story begins a little over a year ago. It was June 2013 when I found out I had miscarried for a second time at 12 weeks along. It was one of the hardest moments of my life. For several weeks I held a baby in my womb that I would never get to meet. My biggest comfort was to know that this little one would be in Heaven. In a time when I felt I had sunk so low, God lifted me up and held me. He showed me how to trust in Him especially when I didn't understand why it happened. Eventually I decided to have a D&C and let the healing process begin.

I was no longer the same after this. I had changed. I can’t quite explain how I changed. Someone close to me often said that experiencing hardship was like losing a limb. You will never be the same but you learn how to live without the limb. I guess in a small way it feels like that. But God had lifted me out of the pit. Building a family and trying for number two was no longer about my plans but about God’s plan for us.

November 2013, I found out I was pregnant just before Robert’s birthday. It was a great birthday present to offer Robert. But it came with a mountain of apprehension. I remember God telling me to trust in Him and that it was going to be okay. But there was a long road ahead. Robert and I decided not to tell anyone the news until we were well out of the first trimester. This helped me to not focus so much on the pregnancy and just try to continue as normal.

The day after Christmas 2013 was our first appointment where we heard the baby’s heartbeat. I was so nervous but tears of joy came when I saw a viable baby with a great heartbeat. The doctor assured me that everything looked good and it would be really rare if something happened at this point.

January 2014 when I was about 14 weeks we finally told our family the news. Up until this point it felt like eternity. I was so glad to finally share. At my early doctor’s appointments, the early ultrasound calculated my due date as July 19^th but my due date that I had calculated was July 25^th. During the end of the pregnancy I kept this in mind when my doctor started to talk about induction.

About a week before my due date of July 19^th I started making preparations for the baby to come. Since my first son Zeke came 4 days early, I just assumed that this baby would also come early. My mom flew into town on July 13^th to stay with us. Once my due date of July 19^th approached I started to become slightly discouraged and anxious about the baby’s arrival. I spent some time doing a few things to help me relax including a prenatal massage.

Before my mom had arrived I had to start doing NST (Non Stress Test) due to one of my ultrasounds showing borderline low amniotic fluid. So instead of having one OB appointment a week I had a total of three appointments a week including two NST fetal monitoring appointments for the remainder of my pregnancy. It was pretty exhausting having to run to the hospital three times a week. But I had to keep in mind that as long as the baby was healthy then maybe the doctor would see no need to induce too early.

My doctor normally doesn't let his patients go past a week from the early ultrasound due date, but he was fine to compromise and scheduled my induction about 9 days over for Monday July 28^th at 5 pm. Once I realized that I really didn't want to drive the 405 to the hospital during rush hour on a Monday right at dinner time to get induced I politely asked the doctor to push it out to at least another day, preferably in the morning. He obliged and it was official that my induction would be set for Wednesday July 30^th in the morning. Robert and I agreed that we would stick with that date and would no longer try to push it out any further.

I really had such a hard time dealing with the induction looming over my head suffocating me so much I had a hard time sleeping at night. It literally felt to me that I was trying to keep my baby from being taken from me prematurely with no concrete medical explanation. I still did my best to be informed on how the induction worked and what the risks were just in case it came to that.

My intuition was telling me that this baby would come on his own when he was good and ready. My one comfort was turning to God in prayer. I was praying, my family was praying. I prayed that God would let me go into labor naturally, but most of all bring this baby into the world safely.Thursday July 24^th I had an OB appointment and I decided to have the doctor check me even though I didn't think I had made any progress. I held off being checked as long as I could but needed to be sure. And as I suspected, I was not dilated at all. The next day Friday July 25^th, my estimated due date, I noticed that I had lost my MP. This may be too much information, but for me it was a promising sign that my body was doing what it should.

On Saturday morning, July 26^th, I had scheduled a prenatal acupuncture appointment. Since I had been desperate to try anything, I went via a recommendation from a good friend who tried it and said she went into labor 48 hours later. Over the weekend I also ate a ton of pineapple, drank raspberry leaf tea, ate spicy food and nibbled on licorice. You name it I tried it.

By Sunday July 27^th, I started feeling really nauseated and very tired. It was almost as if I was experiencing the first trimester all over again. I also was having a strange hormonal flux that made me have some night sweats. I barely had an appetite. I remember the day being really strange altogether. The weather outside turned from a hot humid summer day to a lightning storm over our house. The sky opened up and lightning struck a neighboring house and did quite a bit of damage. Then it down poured. Robert, my mom, Zeke and I were stunned by the deafening sound of the lightning cracking through the sky. To take my mind off of how I was feeling I decided to spend some time with Robert and Zeke splashing through the rain and the puddles outside. For me the day brought a good reminder of God’s power and majesty. I needed that reminder of God’s power because it was so easy for me to forget God’s hand in my pregnancy. He knitted this baby together in my womb. And if He numbered this baby’s days, then He numbered this baby’s birthday.

The next morning, Monday July 28^th, I had a NST fetal monitoring appointment. During the appointment I was feeling almost feverish and nauseated and I started worrying that maybe I had an infection from being checked the week before. I ended up meeting with a doctor to go over what I was feeling and everything checked out okay. There was nothing wrong with me except that I was pregnant. The baby was fine, my amniotic fluid was fine and I had no temperature. The doctor told me to just go home and rest as well as eat small frequent meals. This was hard for me to accept at first because most people say that you should walk all over the place if you want to get labor started. But more than anything was I wanted my strength back especially with the induction quickly approaching. So I went home and took the doctor’s advice. That Monday afternoon I did nothing but sleep and eat small frequent meals. I must have taken three long naps.

At 11 pm on Monday night I was lying in bed on my side and I had what I thought was a contraction. It didn't feel like the kind I had started with in my first pregnancy. It felt more like a cramp than a contraction. So I took note of the time and tried to sleep again. About twenty minutes later I had another one. They were so far apart I just thought it was maybe my body just being uncomfortable. But then I had a few more still all about twenty minutes apart. Since they didn't seem to get closer together I wasn't too worried. And by about 4 or 5 in the morning they had stopped altogether. I even got up and tried to walk around but the contractions never continued.

On Tuesday July 29^th morning, I decided to just get up and continue my day as normal. I had mentioned to a good friend of mine that I had experienced contractions that just came to a stop. She had mentioned she had the same thing happen to her and that I should not get discouraged. She thought that it was most likely the beginning of labor.

I decided to make myself a hearty breakfast and get ready for the day. What was remarkable was I no longer was tired or nauseated and my appetite returned. Robert had taken the day off so we could relax before the induction the next morning. I told him about my contractions so we decided to go for a solid walk to maybe help the labor progress if indeed it was true labor. So we took Zeke and put him in the stroller and we walked all over Hermosa Beach and I pushed him in the stroller all over and up a good sized hill. Once we got home I took a small break and drank a bunch of water to hydrate. Then I asked my mom to go on another walk with me up hills and around the neighborhood. I felt slightly ridiculous walking all over trying to get labor going when who knows if my body was even ready yet. But I had a good time chatting with my mom. During this time I did feel the baby was a lot lower than he had been so that was an encouraging sign.

During our walk we decided to go check out the house in my neighborhood that was hit by lightning. As we stood outside, a lady came out and started telling us the story of what happened when the lighting struck. She began thanking the Lord for protecting her family from what could have been a deadly experience. Just seconds before the lightning struck her grandson had gone outside to take some trash out and when he walked back in, the lighting hit. She began to tell her testimony and at the end of it she looked at me and told me to give my baby to God. This was no chance meeting. God used her to remind me that this baby is in His hands and I needed to give it all up to Him. I was very encouraged on the walk home.

That afternoon when we got home I decided to retreat to my bedroom with the blinds drawn and lights low to rest. Instead of lying down I sat on my birthing ball and just relaxed. I started messaging my sister on my phone to say hi and catch up. As I was sitting there all of a sudden I had a contraction out of nowhere. It was 3:15 pm. I casually told my sister and she said to tell her if I had another one so she could time it. Then at 3:21 pm I had another one. 3:29 pm I had another. And another at 3:36 pm. This was it. I was in labor. I quickly told Robert and my mom that I was having consistent contractions all about 7 to 6 minutes apart. My sister wrote down that at 3:47 pm I said “holy cow!” These contractions came quick and they came on strong and a lot stronger than I remember with my first pregnancy.

Over the next hour I kept having contractions and stayed on my phone with my sister. It was fun having her company while going through the contractions. We were both pretty excited. I could tell Robert quickly changed modes once he knew I was truly in labor. He started to put on his game face. He became more serious and focused. He started packing the car with our things for the hospital and we talked about when we thought we would go to the hospital. By 5 pm Robert was starting to get hungry and I was thinking maybe I would like to eat dinner too before heading to the hospital. At that point my contractions were about 5 minutes apart and we thought maybe we would wait until they were about 3 minutes apart before heading to the hospital. So I asked Robert to run to In N Out to grab us all dinner. After he left I remember my sister telling me she thought I was crazy to even think about eating anything or doing anything besides getting in the car to go to the hospital.

During the time that Robert was gone I started to have contractions that were now three minutes apart. Since he wasn't back yet I started to get nervous and decided to call him to tell him we definitely needed to leave for the hospital. When he got back, one smell of the In N Out burger totally turned me off. I just couldn't think about eating anymore. It was on. I had passed the point of no return. Somehow in the time Robert got home and us getting in the car, he had managed to eat his burger. During the car ride my contractions slowed down and got further apart which I attributed to the fact that I was sitting and not standing or walking.

It was about 5:50 pm when we started heading to the hospital. During the drive Robert did a great job keeping the drive relaxing and we discussed whether or not we should check in right away based on how I was doing with the contractions. When we parked the car we decided to walk around the parking garage and hospital to work through the contractions without being on the hospital clock. We left everything in the car except the camera and started to walk around. Robert was an excellent support as I leaned against any wall I could find to work through each contraction. As we slowly made our way around we found ourselves outside the hospital entrance when we realized my contractions were now about 1 to 2 minutes apart. We knew we had to check in and there was no way I was going to make it back to the car to get our stuff.

It was 7pm when we checked into the hospital. At this point I was 5 cm dilated and 30% effaced. Are you kidding me?! I said immediately. I thought for sure I had to be much farther along for how tough the contractions were getting. I tried not to get discouraged but to do whatever it took to make progress. Instead of being wheeled around to my hospital room I decided to walk. I wanted to stay upright as much as possible to let gravity and my contractions bring the baby down.For the next two hours I labored through some pretty tough contractions. The nurse tried to get me to lie down in the hospital bed so that I could be monitored but I refused to lie down. I knew that if I walked or stayed up right the baby would come much faster. But because they wanted to monitor the baby’s heartbeat intermittently I had to compromise. So I sat on my birthing ball and gripped the hospital bed. Occasionally I would stand up or squat or hula on the ball to try to change positions.

At one point I told Robert I can’t do this. But he quickly told me I could do it. And that helped me snap out of my defeat. I almost lost control, but Robert helped me regain my mental stamina. During the contractions I remember reaching a point where the contractions felt different. Almost as if I had just climbed up a mountain and now I was climbing down the mountain. I realized I had just made it through the transition. I was getting excited. At that point I knew I could do it.

After a couple of hours had passed and when I was squatting on the ground, Robert had noticed something on the ground (without going into too much detail) and I felt a sudden urge to push similar to a BM. The nurse got me up on the bed so she could check me. And at 9 pm I was 9.5 cm dilated and 80% effaced.

By this point I was starting to sweat and get really parched. Robert continued to give me ice chips throughout my contractions. He also took a damp towel and cooled off my head which felt great. For the next hour I labored in a side lying position until my water broke which was really startling and loud and then I was finally at 10 cm. I let the contractions sort of take over my entire body. They were amazingly powerful.

The doctor came in when it was time to push and during that time I found it to be one of the hardest parts of the entire labor. By the time I was ready to push I was exhausted. It was literally like running a marathon and pushing through to the finish line. There were brief moments when I thought it was impossible; that I wouldn't have the stamina to push the baby out. I kept telling myself that there was no other way. I had to give it everything I had. When my breathing became slightly erratic, they gave me some oxygen to help me breath. During the pushing stage about 10 minutes had passed before we finally delivered our precious baby boy.

Jonathan Nehemiah Smith was born on Tuesday July 29^th at 10:08 pm. He weighed in at 8 lbs 14.5 oz and measured 21 inches long. Since I had an un-medicated birth I was able to sit up and see my baby in the doctor’s hands. He was beautiful. It was very hard work, but worth it. It was amazing.