Casey Edward's Birth Story
As with both girls, I have to back up a little bit before the day Casey was born. On Thanksgiving night, I was 37weeks 5days pregnant, we had a little scare and I started to bleed quite a bit and started having contractions. We called my midwife, Pattie and told her what was going on, she wanted to come over and check me, so she showed up with her labor assistant (who happened to be our Doula for both girls, Robin), just in case it was "go time". She checked me and I was 5cm dilated with a very soft cervix and baby was at a +1 station. They hung around the area for a little bit but everything died down and we went to bed. I continued to have some bleeding the next day and we all decided it would ease our minds to get an ultrasound done just to make sure there was nothing going on with my placenta. So we did, everything looked great, I guess I just have a very irritable cervix. So by this point we were on high alert and so were our families. The girls happened to be at my parents house for the weekend and I was determined to have a kid free weekend, I was so NOT ready to have this baby! Haha On Sunday night baby watch officially began with Virlena coming to stay with us for a few days. I really felt like I needed her or my mom here with us to help with the girls whenever I did go into labor. We all assumed it would go quickly and I didn't want to have to worry about them. My feelings this week were all over the place. I was ready to meet this baby (still didn't know gender), on edge over every twinge and feeling, I felt like a ticking time bomb, wondering every where I went, about what would happen if my water broke in the bread aisle at HEB or while the girls were at gymnastics or while I was working out at the gym. It was nerve wracking. On Wednesday my mom and Virlena switched out and we all continued about our week as planned.
On Saturday morning, December 5th, Landon's gym had a special CrossFit workout/diaper shower for us and another lady at his gym who was due the day after me. I went to join in the celebration and say thank you, then we all went to the Christmas Tree Farm to cut down our tree. We brought the tree home, made the girls some lunch and the plan was to take them to get Santa pictures taken after we set the tree up, but Casey had different plans! At approximately 1:51pm I bent down to cut the netting off the tree and I felt the familiar pop of my water breaking. It felt just like it did with both the girls. I stood up and immediately began to leak. I told Landon my water broke and he said "are you serious??" Lol, I said Yep, 100% serious. I went to the bathroom and my mom helped Landon finish putting the tree up. He asked if we should call Pattie, but I said lets wait till my contractions start, I gave the girls a hug and said mommy was going to have the baby soon and I loved them and would see them after I was done. They seemed happy to meet the baby soon, but other than that weren't too interested or anything. Ainsley did ask if I was going to cry and I said probably not, but she might hear me yell a little and that it was ok, it's just what I need to do. But I was hoping they'd be gone the whole time, haha. Shortly after than my contractions began and they were already about 3 minutes apart so I decided I should call Pattie and let her know. She answered and I told her my water broke and I was having contractions and she replied "of course it did, haha" I said, "why are you busy?" she said "not for this, i'll call Robin and we will be over soon". After I hung up with her I remembered that day was her son's birthday and she was most likely mid party. Oops. Robin showed up first, probably about 15 minutes later. I was working through the contractions really well at this point, I was able to talk in between and then just lean over my bed and moan through them, it was all back labor which I had been really trying to avoid this time. Landon was running around doing things to keep busy as he was very anxious. He got the bed ready, vacuumed the bedroom, tidied up. I remember asking Robin at one point, if this was really it, if I was really in labor? lol She just looked at me like I was crazy and said yes. My contractions started to get closer and stronger and then my midwife showed up at about 2:45pm and I had a particularly hard contraction just then and asked if I could get in the tub. I remember thinking that it didn't really seem to offer that much relief. Not like all the stories I'd read or heard of women saying the water felt amazing for them. But I stayed in there for a while, I began to push a bit but never could get really comfortable and wasn't making any progress. We decided I should get out and move to the bed. That was incredibly difficult to do and I didn't make it there before I had another contraction hit, dropping me to the floor. Finally I made it to the bed and began pushing on my back. A position I definitely didn't expect to push in for this baby. I really had wanted to let my body take over and do the pushing for me but I also just really wanted to be done and that just didn't seem to be happening. So with the help of Pattie and Robin I began to really push hard, they were holding my legs and Landon was behind me propping me up a little and holding my hand. I felt like I pushed for a very long time but all in all I think it was about 20 minutes. I remember I kept asking why it was taking so long, is something wrong, is the baby posterior (sunny side up)? And Pattie kept assuring me that it wasn't taking long at all and asked me if knowing whether the baby was posterior would help anything and I said no. lol At one point while I was pushing my contractions started to really space out. I went from having what felt like only a minute or so of a break to what seemed like a good 3-5 minutes in between. This would seem like a good thing, but for me it really sucked, I was so hyper aware of everything going on in the room and very much in my head about things and just wanted to be done. It was definitely different than with both girls where my contractions were one on top of another from the time I was fully dilated till the birth. I remember hearing the girls outside of our room in the backyard playing on the play set. Ainsley got hurt doing something and started crying and I thought this was definitely not what I had wanted to hear while I was in labor, probably the only downfall to having a home birth. Finally, I gave one really hard long push and the head started to crown and I felt that awful "ring of fire". It was truly the worst feeling in the world and Pattie told me to stop pushing and let the baby stretch me. I think this is where I lost all my composure. I kept saying I just want it out, I need it out. And I should mention that my mom, my grandma and my sister were also in the room. My sister started saying "the baby is here, Michaela, it's here!" and I was arguing, that "NO, it most definitley was NOT here, if it was here I wouldn't be in this much pain!" lol I later found out that Landon was mouthing shut up to her because he could tell that was upsetting me! hahaha, the next contraction I had I pushed the rest of the head out and the body followed. I found out that Casey had a nuchal hand (one hand was up by his face as he came out). So a 15 inch head and a hand. He did not make it easy on me! He was born at 4:12pm. My fastest labor at 2hrs 21minutes, but not by much as Cora's birth was about 2.5hrs and Ainsley's was 3hrs and 7 minutes. Right after he was born my midwife laid him on my stomach and immediately covered him up so no one could see the gender. After a few munites or so I asked Landon if he wanted to look. He did and smiled and said "you're not going to believe it." In my mind I had always believed I was having a boy, so when he said that I immedicatly thought girl. So my response was "its a girl?" He said no, boy! Then I think everyone at the same time said, "are you sure?!" LOL It was an awesome surprise and I'm so glad we waited and did it this way! Pattie worked quickly to get my placenta out because I did start to bleed heavily, which we were prepared for because that happened with both girls. I got a shot of pitocin and some oral medication to help my uterus begin to contract. I delivered the placenta and had no tearing! We did delayed cord clamping, skin to skin and after about an hour of enjoying some bonding time with him we weighed and measured him all in our room on our bed. He weighed 8lbs 15oz, the exact same weight as Ainsley when she was born, however he was born 9 days before his due date of December 14ths, at 38weeks, 5 days, so I'm kind of glad he came early and he was 20 3/4 inches long. I can't tell you how awesome it was to never have to go anywhere. I went through transition in the car with Ainsley (the toughest part of labor besides pushing, for me) and to not have to do that this time was so great! The girls got to meet him after about an hour and it was the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! They were so thrilled.
I've thought about Casey and started to think, wow, I can't imagine life without him. But the truth is we had four years of just the girls so actually I can. We had a lot of time without him and had really started looking at our future with just the girls, we had literally just decided that we probably didn't want a third child and we'd be happy with just the girls, when a week or so later I found out I was pregnant. So I can imagine life without him, but I'm SO, SO happy I don't have to. He was a completely unexpected surprise and is such a blessing to our family. I'm truly thankful and without a doubt feel like our family is complete! He is by far the best thing to happen in 2020 and he is so loved and adored by his family, especially his big sisters!
