Serena's Birth Story

For all my female readers who share my love of birth stories. :) (Sorry it's a little long!)

From the moment on November 17th when I saw that second line appear on the pregnancy test which meant the result was positive, I knew that I wanted to have a natural childbirth. Before that, I never really had an opinion about natural childbirth versus medicated childbirth. But now that my turn had finally come to bring a baby into the world, I knew instinctively that I wanted to do it with as little medical intervention as possible. So, I set out to learn everything I could about pregnancy and childbirth. I read books and articles galore in an attempt to not only prepare myself for the task ahead, but also to educate myself about the different choices I had before me. The techno-medical era that we live in gives women so many choices for childbirth, and I wanted to be able to use the scientific advances of our day to ensure a healthy pregnancy and birth for our child. Yet, I also had this very deep desire to forego all unnecessary medical interventions and trust my body to do what God had created it to do.

Having decided how I wanted to give birth, I realized that I needed to surround myself with the right people to help make it happen the way I wanted it to. After some internet research, I found a hospital here in Des Moines that offers midwife services. The midwives are all certified nurses, and their clinic is right across the street from the hospital. They use the hospital's facilities for the births they attend and have a collaborating doctor to assist in case of emergencies. I decided that this would be a good choice for me since it seemed to offer the best of both worlds...the midwives' holistic approach to pregnancy and birth supported by the hospital's medical technology in case something went wrong. I ended up really happy with my choice...the prenatal care I received from the midwives was personal, thorough, kind, and understanding. My experience at the hospital was also very positive. I then took it upon myself to prepare for the birth by trying to stay physically fit throughout the pregnancy. I got to know my elliptical machine really well, and once the weather was nice out I took lots of walks with Jordan and Macy. As for diet, I tried to eat a fairly well-balanced diet, but didn't go so far as to cut sugar or chocolate out! Or Bunny Tracks! Haha! ;)

Well, Serena's due date came and went. The midwives talked about inducing labor at 41 weeks, and I spent a lot of time researching and praying before declining. I decided that as long as the baby was not giving us any distress signals, I would like to 'let nature take its course' (in spite of how hard it was getting to keep waiting!). Thursday, the 30th, I was 41 weeks pregnant. Jordan had a softball game, so I went with him to watch him play. I brought Macy along, and while Jordan's team was warming up, I walked Macy around like I usually do. I remember feeling very drained though, and a little crampy. Finally, I took Macy to the bleachers to watch the game. The cramps went away and I felt normal again by the time the game was over. That evening, I enjoyed a bowl of Bunny Tracks ice cream and then took a walk with Jordan & Macy. We went to bed sometime after 11, I think. One of us said "Maybe it'll be tonight" but since we had been saying that for a couple weeks now, it was hard to really believe it. Although, for the record, Jordan did say on Tuesday night that he had a gut feeling that we were going to have the baby by Saturday! Why is he always right?! ;)

I woke up at 1:30 in the morning with the usual pregnant-lady-needs-to-use-the-bathroom feeling. I was having some Braxton-Hicks contractions, but that had become a pretty typical occurrence over the last month...definitely nothing to get excited about. I laid down to go back to sleep, but only dozed because I soon noticed that the BH contractions were actually somewhat regular and my subconcious was beginning to have a 'feeling' that these were not my normal BH contractions. Around 3am the BH contractions began to be accompanied by some light crampy sensations. Now I was really starting to get excited and hopeful that this was going to be the real thing! I was just so afraid of them disappearing, though, so I laid there anticipating each wave of contractions and almost reveling in them! I guess that sort of weird mindset is to be expected of a girl who is 8 days past her due date! ;) A little after 4am, I decided to get up and do some things to see if the contractions would persist or not. I went downstairs and made myself a protein shake which I drank while I checked Facebook. I remember being so excited to be in labor, and truly disappointed that none of my friends were logged in to Facebook at 4am so I could tell them! Haha! Over that hour, my contractions began to escalate noticeably. I started walking around the house and trying different positions to ease the discomfort. It began to dawn on me that I was in for a pretty big ordeal and that it might be a good idea to try to get some more rest if possible. I went back upstairs and laid down, suddenly regretting the hours that I had already been awake and 'enjoying' labor when I should have been sleeping!!! Sleep eluded me. I didn't try timing my contractions, but I knew my body was serious and working hard. I tried to relax and let my body do its work. Finally, sometime after 6, I decided I should wake Jordan up and just let him know what was going on. (I truly wish that I had a recording of Jordan's version of the story beginning at this point! It is really a great story that has gotten better/funnier with each telling!) I told Jordan that I was pretty sure we were going to have the baby today. He said something like, "So when do we need to go to the hospital?" and I was all, "Don't you know?!" because I had given him a book to read about childbirth and I KNEW it said in the book that you should go to the hospital when your contractions are X minutes long and X minutes apart...I just couldn't remember what the X's were!!! Apparently Jordan had not gotten to that part in the book yet, so he started paging through the book to find the info. I was convinced that since I'd only been in serious labor for a couple hours, we still had a long ways to go before our trip to the hospital. So,when Jordan had found a satisfactory answer, he decided to try to sleep a little more.

I talked to my mom a little after 7. The contractions at this point were hard enough that I couldn't talk through them, and I would hand the phone to Jordan whenever one came on. Mom told us we should really probably time them because they seemed like they were pretty close together. We tried timing them then, and found that they were pretty inconsistent...anywhere from 30 seconds to 4 minutes apart and lasting for a good minute or so. After talking to Mom, I called the midwife. Susan was the one on call, but Sea was going to be coming on at 9. Susan thought things sounded like they were moving along really well, and wondered if I wanted to come in and get checked to see if we should go to the hospital. I told her that I really didn't feel like going anywhere and really wanted to labor at home for as long as possible, so she told me to call them back around 9:30 or 10 to update them on how we were doing.

Jordan went downstairs to have some breakfast and I had him make me a bowl of yogurt and granola to eat. My contractions were getting pretty hard, so I decided to get up and take a shower. The shower felt really good. In retrospect, that was the last point of relief that I had. The shower slowed down my contractions a little and I felt more relaxed. I definitely took my time in there! After I got out, though, things started to progress very quickly! My water broke, and it crossed my mind that I had read labor usually gets a lot harder once the water is broken, and I just kept thinking that I wasn't ready to be this far along in labor! It was supposed to go A LOT more slowly than this and work up to this point!! I was soon unable to walk around anymore and spent my time either in the bathroom or in the bed. Jordan called his mom to update her, and she said she thought by the sound of things that we were going to have the baby by noon. This shocked Jordan & I because we had been so ingrained with this mindset that labor was going to take so long, and we'd only been at it for a few hours. Jordan began packing up a bag to take to the hospital. I had been planning to pack mine as soon as I was done in the shower, but pretty soon I called Jordan over and told him that I wasn't going to be able to pack my bag. I had, however, made a list of things I wanted to take to the hospital, so Jordan got the list and began packing for me. Meanwhile, contractions were coming rapidly, and I didn't feel like I could handle them alone anymore. I would call Jordan over when one would begin and he would come hold me until it was over. Then he would go back to packing for about 30 seconds or so until I started having another contraction and would call him over again! Poor guy, I definitely did not make things easy for him! He was starting to get worried that we were going to have a home birth after all, and I remember telling him that he was stressing me out, haha! (I guess it never occurred to me that a home birth might stress him out!) I was still thinking that we wouldn't be needing to go to the hospital anytime soon because the midwife had said to call around 9:30 or 10.

At 8:45, Jordan made an executive decision to call the midwives and tell them we were going to head to the hospital as soon as we could get out the door. They asked if we wanted to stop by the clinic first to get checked and to see if we were in serious enough labor to check into the hospital. Jordan said, "No, this is serious enough! We'll see you at the hospital!" He threw a few more things into my bag for me, helped me through some more contractions, took our things down to the truck, and then came back for me. With a lot of encouragement, he managed to get me to get up and head down the hallway as soon as the next contraction was over. Had a contraction at the top of the stairs. Had a contraction at the door. Had a contraction before getting into the truck. I remember thinking with relief that I had read and heard that most girls find that their labor slows down or even stops when they leave for the hospital since it kind of gives you a little adreneline to finally be making that trip. However, I had no such luck. We left home around 9:05, and the 15-minute truck ride was really hard! And for some reason I was very concerned about how Jordan was driving. I had my eyes shut in an effort to stay relaxed through the labor, but every time I felt the truck accelerate, I was like, "Jordan, don't speed!" "Don't run any lights!" He assured me he wasn't, but he later told me that he did run one red light, just because he didn't know when he'd have a good reason to do that again, haha! (It was a left-hand turn signal.)

Anyway, we made it to the hospital and Jordan went inside to find out what we should do next. There was an elderly lady at a receptionist's desk. When Jordan told her that his wife was in labor out in the truck, she was like, "Okay." (Not too helpful.) So Jordan asked her what he should do or if he was even in the right place. (We hadn't toured the hospital ahead of time.) "Oh yes, you're in the right place. You could grab one of those wheelchairs and bring your wife in here and then go park your truck," she said. She was very adamant that he must go park the truck and he could not leave it there. Soon I saw Jordan coming out with a wheelchair. I wondered how in the world I was supposed to be able to get into it. I didn't want to move. Jordan helped me through a contraction before easing me into the wheelchair. He then brought me into the lobby. I must have looked pretty bad. I remember the lady's sympathetic face. "You can go ahead and take her up to the 6th floor and come back and park your truck after you get her settled. I'll let security know," she said, apparently suddenly feeling a little more helpful than before. Jordan wheeled me to the elevators. There was a man waiting to go up as well. My mind was racing as I felt one contraction after another and just tried to hang on. Finally, an elevator opened, and Jordan started wheeling me in. I remember being completely shocked when the man also got in with us. I mean, sure, he was there before we were...but WHO WANTS TO BE IN AN ELEVATOR WITH A LABORING WOMAN?!?! I don't think I would even do that, and I'm a WOMAN! What kind of man voluntarily puts himself in that position?! I also wanted to protest when he hit the button for the 4th floor. Are you SERIOUSLY going to slow down my progress to the 6th floor by making me stop on the 4th?! You are treading on dangerous ground there, buddy!

Thankfully, we finally made it to the 6th floor without any further setbacks. Room #629 was very close by, and we were greeted there by Sea, my midwife, and a wonderful nurse named Megan. It was about 9:30. I wanted to use the bathroom before getting into bed, and they gave me a hospital gown to change into. Jordan helped me with everything (and the intermittent contractions) until he had me in the bed. Then he told me he was going to have to go down and park the truck and he would be right back. I remember asking him to hurry (as if he wouldn't have!), but in my mind I was trying not to panic at the thought of him leaving me even for those few minutes! Sea checked me then (it was the first time I had ever been checked, since I'd declined having it done at my appointments), and I remember thinking, "Please don't say 4! Please don't say 4!" "Eight centimeters." EIGHT!?!??! I'm not ready for EIGHT!!! Jordan got back momentarily, and I remember reminding Sea of some things (between contractions) that were really important to me (i.e., not to clamp the umbilical cord until it was done pulsing and to be sure to give me the baby right away). The next few contractions were very difficult and I felt like I was barely hanging on. Sea checked me again and said I was 'almost there'...there was just a little bubble of my bag of waters that had not yet popped, and could she break it after the next contraction? But it popped itself during that contraction, and then Sea said she saw a little meconium staining the water. Suddenly there were five more nurses in the room and Sea was telling Jordan that they were going to have to clamp the cord and take Serena right away after she was born to get her 'cleaned out' in case she had breathed in any of the meconium. Take her away?! Where? Just to another corner of the room. Couldn't they do that at the bed? Wouldn't the equipment reach that far (it was only a few feet), or couldn't they wheel the bed a little closer? After a bit, Jordan and Sea came to the agreement that if Serena came out purple, they would take her; but if she came out crying, they would give her to me. (Obviously, we didn't want to stand in the way of them helping Serena if she really was in danger...we just didn't want our first moments after the birth to be ruined if it wasn't really necessary just because the hospital protocol called for certain procedures under these kinds of circumstances.)

A few moment later, I heard Sea say, "Are you starting to feel pushy, Jenn?" Pushy? PUSHY?! ALREADY?! No, not pushy...not yet, anyway. I felt a little scared of what 'pushy' might feel like, since right then I didn't think I could do this 'labor' thing any longer. I felt like my body was about to self-destruct. But during the next contraction, I had a new sensation. Wait! Was that 'pushy'? I felt it again on the next contraction a moment later. Yeah. Definitely pushy. I told Sea I was ready to push. I had been laboring on my side, and she wanted me to get on my back so they could break down the bed and get me in a semi-upright position. She told me that Serena was 'right there' and that I didn't have to push her far to get her out. That was around 10 o'clock. We'd been in the hospital room for all of 30 minutes. Things were feeling pretty surreal at this point. I never dreamed that it would go this fast! Pushing was really hard work, just like everyone says. However, it was infinitely better than the contractions that had preceded it. I was so glad to have Jordan by my side. Sea and the nurses were very encouraging, but for some reason I mentally dismissed their words as 'only being nice;' but when Jordan told me that I was doing well...that I could do it...that was a great push...etc..., I believed him. Jordan wouldn't lie to me. He's so logical and honest, I felt like he was telling me what he really thought and not just what he thought I needed to hear. At some point, everyone started exclaiming over seeing the baby's head and, oh! she has lots of dark hair! Sea twisted a bit of Serena's hair and guided my hand so I could feel it! That was the best moment! My baby was about to be born! I still had quite a bit of pushing to do, it turned out. I started to feel really tired, and the self-doubt began to creep back in. I felt like asking for a break. Or better yet, a nap. Could we just get back to this whole pushing-thing again in about 20 minutes or so? I remember thinking that I really needed to concentrate and get this job done because I seriously felt like the number of pushes I had the physical strength to do was numbered. The next contraction came, and I worked hard. Her head came out. I pushed again, and it was like blup, blup, blup...and I thought I had successfully pushed not only my baby out, but also all of my innards with her! Great. Now they're going to have to rush me out to surgery to put everything back inside! It was 10:42am. Serena was crying. There was a lot of activity, but all I could see was my baby as she was laid on top of me. She was squawking like a little trooper, and covered in POOP!!! One of the nurses who had come in later, reached around to clamp the umbilical cord, but Jordan stopped her just in the nick of time. Then, they let the cord stop pulsating before clamping it, like we had requested.

It wasn't long after that the room emptied except for Sea, Megan, and one other nurse. Sea took care of me (I had torn just a little and she needed to stitch me up), while Megan filled out paperwork and the other nurse helped me nurse my poopy baby (she nursed like an old pro!). I was amazed at how instantaneously the pain of labor was gone and I felt like a million bucks! I was on cloud nine as Jordan and I looked our poopy baby over. We soon discovered the adorable dimple in her right cheek! Her color came in so quickly and as she looked back at us with her big bright eyes, I thought she was by far the prettiest little newborn that I'd ever seen...even covered in poop! ;) About an hour after birth, Serena had stopped nursing, and the nurse took her to clean her off a little and to take her measurements. She was 7 pounds and 3 ounces, 19 1/2 inches long.

Getting weighed

Finally my poopy baby (now significantly less poopy) was given back to me, and she nursed a little more. Jordan was making phone calls, and Megan was asking me questions to help her fill out all the paperwork that normally would have been filled out when we arrived...if we hadn't arrived practically already giving birth, haha!

When they finally left us, it seemed strange for it to only be a little after noon...not even 12 hours since I had woken up with those puny little Braxton-Hicks contractions. Just the day before I had been telling my mom how discouraged I was because I thought I would have a baby in my arms by now. And I had talked to Jordan's mom about how hard it was to believe that I could be feeling normal all day and go into labor that night. How ironic that I did go into labor about twelve hours after that conversation!

Happy Mommy and content baby

We entertained many special visitors there in the hospital over the next couple days. Mom & Dad Horak with Grant and Anna; Joel & Kate; Pa & Grandma; Mrs. Carpenter with Ben, Nate, and Josh; my entire family; and Pastor Deatrick. We went home on Sunday, August 2nd.

Going home!

Luke & Anna came to visit that afternoon. Daniel & Andria came for a bit yesterday afternoon, so now Serena has met all her uncles and aunts. :) My grandma is coming on Wednesday, and then hopefully some day soon we will be able to make the trip to Guttenberg so Serena can meet her great great grandma!

Looks like I've gotten pretty long-winded on this story! The whole experience was just so amazing to me, that I don't think I will ever get over it! I am so thankful for how it all went and that I was able to have her without any medical interventions! It was wonderful to have such a bright-eyed and alert (though poopy, heehee!) baby right from the start, and for me to be able to feel so good as well! Except for the loss of sleep, and a little tenderness you-know-where, I felt like my normal old self with a significantly smaller tummy than before! ;) Jordan was absolutely wonderful as he helped me through everything. He was the best birthing partner I could have hoped for! His loving support was always just what I needed! Serena left the hospital weighing 6 pounds, 12 ounces and without a hint of jaundice. Our first week went so well, and she weighed 7 pounds, .5 ounces on Friday at her one-week weight-check. Serena is our beautiful treasure, and we are enthralled with her every expression! She gave Daddy a smile as we were getting ready to go to bed her first night, and we've gotten to see that adorable smile (always accompanied by a flash of dimple!!) every day since! She makes all sorts of cute baby squeaks and grunts. She's very squirmy, and even managed to roll herself from her tummy to her back during her first week (she was in her pack-n-play, which has a really firm mattress). Right now, her arms and legs seem so long and skinny; but since both Mommy & Daddy were chubby babies, I'm sure she's going to chunk up soon! :) She seems absolutely perfect to us, and we feel so blessed to finally have her here!

Our pretty pink baby

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!

...Thank the LORD for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man! (Psalm 107:1, 8)