Lesson's Learned

Not always in life, do things go as planned. I learned this very quickly on December 13th, 2011.

December 12th, 2011 (EDD)
10pm- I started having contractions about 10 minutes apart but they were just the irrating kind, not anything strong. I alerted my photographer to keep her phone by her just incase it was time, but that she shouldnt hold her breath because I didnt figure anything would happen.
Decemeber 13th, 2011 (40 week appointment and we had decided to get the membranes stripped to maybe hurry the process so I wouldnt have to be induced)
Around 12am- I decided to go lay down, contractions were still coming but nothing I couldnt sleep through.
6am- Hubby came to bed (he had worked a 12 hour shift the night before) and I went on one my frequent bathroom breaks, only to find "the bloody show". I walked back in the bedroom and said "I think Im in labor..". I lay back down and then immediately the contractions came. This time I couldnt sleep and they were much stronger. I timed them for a good hour before I woke Chance up, and considering they were coming non-stop 4-5 minutes apart I figured it was really time.
7am- We called the base hospital and give them a heads up, making sure they had a room available, and telling them we'd see them shortly. I then proceed to call my sister, tried calling my dad (it was 12am state side), Chance tried calling his brother, and last but not least we gave the Doula and photographer the heads up. I then make me a bologna/mustard half sandwich for breakfast. I wanted to have a little something in my tummy incase things went speedy quick and I didnt have time to eat (good thing, huh?), but I didnt want to eat too much to where Id be getting sick during labor. I then had Chance pack the car with our hospital bags incase we had to jet out of here.
8am- The photographer showed up and I was still contracting every 4-5 minutes but they were definitely getting more intense.

They knew something was going on and something was about to drastically change

Loving on momma while contracting :)

If you notice, in a lot of these pictures I have that giraffe in my hands..Gracie would not let me put it down. Maybe it was her comfort measure for me?..

Daddy playing tea and timing contractions :)

9:30am- We contemplated going to our doctors appointment, just so they could check me and see how far I was, but we were afraid they'd strap me to a bed and I didnt want that so when we got the call from our Doula telling us she was on her way, we decided to miss it. Apparently it wouldnt have mattered if I did go in though because L&D had already contacted the Women's Health Clinic and canceled my appointment for me.

This was probably the best position to help me get through a contraction

She was so worried about momma

Between 10 & 11am- Our Doula arrived and she stated that she thought I was still in early labor, so we all just sat around and chit chatted while I quietly got through my contractions. They were still 4-5 mintues apart but once again getting stronger, and seemed to come alot more frequent if I was on my feet so to give myself breaks I would sit on the birthing ball. We told Chance to go take a nap, figuring it would be at least another few hours before we headed out to the hospital.

Ah, be still my heart!

Miss Attitude

My birthing partner while daddy was napping :)

11am-12:15pm- The base hospital called to see where we were at, and I explained to them how I didnt want to come too early and them strap me to the bed. They told me because it was my 3rd birth things could go rather quickly and just to keep an eye on the contractions and get to the hospital soon. Contractions were coming about 3-4 mintues apart and very strong to where I was having to "hum" through them. Our Doula helped by massaging my back during them (what a blessing). She figured I was probably going into active labor now. I decided I was hungry so I ate a spoon full of peanut butter, had a contraction and decided I didnt want peanut butter after that, but crackers sounded good. So I munched on some crackers, had 2 contractions back to back and decided I wanted to get Chance up because I figured we'd be heading to the hospital within the next hour.

12:15-1:04pm- I made it from the kitchen to the living room (about 15ft) and had another really strong contraction. Got upstairs very quickly (Lord knows I didnt want to have a contraction while moving), alerted Chance and decided to jump in the shower to ease the pain a little bit. Got in the shower, had 2 really bad contractions where I just wanted to shoot myself, and I got to the point of "I cant do this" also known as transition, but then had a nice 3 minute break to breathe (what a relief!). I then decided to get out of the shower and wanted to go lay down to see if that eased the pain. So Chance helped me out of the shower, I had a contraction and...yep, my water just broke. From here, its basically a blur. Chance tells our Doula my water broke and they decided it was time to head to the hospital except..the baby had other plans. By now, Im only standing with Chances help, Im in agonizing pain, screaming..and lets face it..scared crap less. Id never done this..natural or without doctors that is, and I knew we didnt have time to get to the hospital. I could picture exactly what our book (Birthing the Bradley Way) said..imagine the baby going through a turtle neck sweatshirt. The opening of the collar doesnt happen until the heads right there..thats where I felt the baby..right at my opening. I felt the pressure as if I had to use the bathroom and the moment I sat on the toilet my body started pushing. Yes, you read that right..my body, on its own, started pushing. I couldnt stop it. I then told Chance to put me in the floor that the baby was coming. He kept telling me were going to the hospital just to hang on. I told him theres no holding on, the baby was right there. Our Doula said she thinks we had 15-20 minutes before the baby came, and that we could hurry to the hospital. I told them again..THE BABY IS RIGHT THERE! WE CANT MAKE IT! She looks down and "yep, theres the head" came out of her mouth. Talk about freaking out. Im now screaming 'somebody help me!", because I had no clue what I was doing. And then this awful burning sensation came over me. My body pushed 2 times and the heads out, Ill never be able to explain the relief I felt here. My Doula told me not to push, that she had to check and make sure the cord wasnt wrapped around the neck but my body didnt listen and with 2 more final pushes, there laid a baby in our Doula's hands. Im standing on my knees, holding myself up with the wall and I glance between my legs and there laid our beautiful baby. Chance said "guess what?" sobbing lightly..we said together, "It's a boy!" Still in disbelief, my Doula says "do you wanna hold him?" I wrapped him in my arms and fell in love all over again. We had been tore between two names, Noah Chance and Gavin Chance, and figured..when we seen him we'd know his name. He was a Gavin. Born at 1:04pm, 7 pounds 13 ounces, 20 1/4 inches long! I notice he had Chances eye lashes, Chances ears, and Chances "butt chin" (the dimple chin).

I was having the "I wanna shoot myself" contraction here

Funny thing..we waited til our THIRD birth to do any type of reading on birthing

Yes, I was screaming/crying. Last picture before he came 2 mintues later

Big Sister waiting on the arrival :)

His exact words.."I about fainted and puked!"

& here he is!!

Reach for the stars! Haha, oh & Im a BOY!

Mommy meeting baby for the first time!

Suctioning him out

He loves mommy already :) & mommy loves him!

1:04-3pm- Our Doula called the ambulance then called L&D to give them the heads up. The doctor got on the phone and walked us through cutting the cord, which I got the honor of doing. And we just sat on the bathroom floor adoring our new bundle till the ambulance arrived. FYI, this is where it all goes down hill. I would rather give birth twice then go through what Im about to tell you, again. The amulance arrived and of course its an Italian one because the base ambulance cant pick you up from your residence..they can pick you up from the side of the road but not your house. They get upstairs and none of them speak english besides one with very little knowledge. Thankfully our Doula knew a little Italian and we were able to communicate with them fairly well. They asked what was going on, as if the blood covered towels and baby in my arms wasnt a dead give away..I finally had to say "LOOK! BABY!" It still didnt click with them. He said, "Now?" DUH! So they carried me to our bed and started working. I had no clue what they were doing. One was putting in a hep-lock (which is an IV needle but just capped off in case they need to give me anything and might I add it was the most comfortable IV Id ever had because it was in the crease of my arm and I could move my arm with no problems or pain), another was pressing on my stomach trying to help deliver the placenta, and the next thing I know they were putting me in an adult diaper! We ask them whether they were taking me to Pordenone (the Italian hospital) or to base..they say Pordenone. I go into fits, begging them to take me to base. They couldnt though because they were Italian and werent allowed on base. They then put me in this sling thing and carried me down stairs to the stretcher (the baby is with me this whole time by the way). We got in the ambulance (which might I add is my first time ever riding in one) and started to the hospital. I was still contracting because I hadnt deliver the placenta yet and the maniac driver wasnt helping with all the pot holes he was hitting. Oh and lets not mention, the two medics that were in the back with me, spoke NO english. Chance luckily got to ride with me. We got to the hospital and they took me to the operating/delivery room. We were once again surrounded by Italians that spoke no english, except one. They took the baby from me to check him out and started working on me again. They put me in the stirrups on my back, and if I do say so myself, I dont see how any woman gives birth, un-medicated on her back with her legs spread wide open. That was the worse pain Id ever been in. One was pressing on my stomach to help deliver the placenta, one was hooking me up to a bag a fluids, one was giving me a shot of pitocin to help with the bleeding (normal procedure), the doctor was trying to get me to push to deliver the placenta, and me..lets just say I wasnt cooperating. I was pulling my legs out of the stirrups and closing them, screaming, crying, pulling the womans hand who was pushing on my stomach away from me and all the while I just wanted them to leave me alone until I could gather myself and wait for the contraction I was having to go away. But no, they wouldnt. They werent easy, nor would they listen to me. They wanted to hurry like we were in some race. Chance was in there holding my hands doing his absolute best to coach me and calm me down, and I remember looking at him saying I wanted to die..thats how bad the pain was. The contraction finally eased a bit and I put my legs back in the stirrups and let the doctor deliver the placenta. Then I found out they needed to put one stitch in..not bad, right? Theyll numb me before they do it..WRONG! More agonizing pain then finally..it was over. They let the other nurses come in and clean me up and brought the baby back to me, then moved me to a recovery room. In the recovery room they finally sent a translator to us, and he helped with all the paper work and any questions or concerns we had.

After being in the recovery room for an hour or so they moved me to my room. We get in there and not only is there no internet to this building, theres no TV, and they dont have private/single rooms. There was another bed in there, but luckily they werent that full so we didnt have to share a room and Chance got his own bed. So we sit and drool over our precious newborn until around 9pm when they came in to do his vitals and realize he was breathing rapidly. So they took him to the NICU for observation until 1am. Everything came out fine. The next 2 days we just sat around waiting for them to discharge us. Their policies are different from the states policy where youre only kept 36 hours after birth unless necessary. We begged to go home the next day, but that didnt happen. So Thursday we got ready to go home and the NICU nurse came in and said "You go home tomorrow?" I think my blood pressure went through the roof at this point. I said "No, were going home today! If I have to sign me and the baby out, thats what Ill do. Weve been here too long!" So she went and got the translator and come to find out they wanted to do an EKG on the baby to make sure his heart was okay, taking extra precaution from where Jayden passed away. Which was fine, but like I told them, if everything was normal there was no reason for them to keep us another day. Everything came out fine with the EKG. That whole afternoon I stayed on them about getting my discharge papers wrote up and brought to me..and finally at around 5pm Thursday, we broke out of that place!!

You're probably wondering where and what Gracie was doing through this whole process. From the moment she got up on December 13th, she knew something was changing. During labor she definitely wasnt the happiest camper, she had such an attitude. But anytime she seen me in pain, she'd ask if I was okay and give me hugs and kisses. She became quite friendly with our photographer though after having a melt down over the photographer trying to build a "tent" for her to play in. Our photographer pretty much kept Gracie busy while also capturing this special day. Matter of fact, she was downstairs getting Gracie ready to go to the hospital when our Doula said "yep, theres the head!" and her and Gracie had to jet upstairs just to catch the baby coming. I remember hearing Gracie crying after I had the baby, saying "baby! baby!" Since Chance rode with me in the ambulance our Doula drove our car and brought Gracie to the hospital with her. Then after in the recovery room they let her come back with us and she didnt have any interest in her brother. I figured it was just a shock to her, but even the next day she wanted nothing to do with him. Not to mention, she got extremely sick while we were in the hospital..running a fever of at least 104, puking and not being able to keep anything down. After coming home, the first few days were awful. She still wanted nothing to do with her brother and she turned completely rebellious on us. She wouldnt listen, back talked, starting sticking her tongue out at us, and starting saying "my name's Gracie"..she wouldnt let us call her baby anymore. For the past few days though, shes doing alot better. Shes adjusting. She takes a little interest in her brother, more so when hes not in our arms, and doesnt act out as much. She'll give him kisses and talk to him, but still wont hold him for more than a second. Shes coming around though.

As for baby Gavin, hes adjusting very well. Were getting more sleep than we ever thought we would. He sleeps so well through the night, going to bed between 9 and 10pm getting up twice through the night until 9am the next morning. Hes different than Jayden or Gracie. He loves to lay on his back and he sleeps by himself. You can just lay him down and he puts himself to sleep. We havent had to rock him or sway with him. He doesnt take much interest in a paci, most the time he'd rather suck on his fingers. He can sleep through any noise. Like Jayden & Gracie, he rarely cries. He's had belly/bowel movement problems since he was born, so he doesnt go to the bathroom as often and he screams in pain. I take that back..hes had the problem since after he was born, because within the first 2 minutes of his life..the tar/meconium newborns poop for the first few days, he completely emptied out of his system not to mention he peed all over our Doula. Hes doing amazing with breastfeeding.

Ten tiny fingers & ten tiny toes :)

And cloth diapering? Ah, its amazing. Weve had a few leaks, but of course hes just so small right now, thats expected. But when he has explosions, the mess stays in..unlike disposies. Its so much easier to clean up a mess because most of it sticks to the cloth instead of to the baby, and the cloth wipes can clean a bigger mess using one than a disposable wipe can. Washing them is a breeze too. Our advantage is the wash sink in our laundry room has a powerful sprayer, so we just spray them off before we throw them in the wash and bada boom, bada bing..thats it! Just set the washer and it does all the work for you. Then I hang them to dry.

As for Chance, hes adjusting amazingly. He loves being a father, and it fits him well. Sometimes I think of him as super dad because he's just so great with our kids. He sits and drools over Gavin, still in disbelief he has another son. He loves cloth diapering just as much as I do, and that says alot because most dads think its nasty. He'll do anything as long as its the best for his kids. He gets up every feeding throughout the night..of course he doesnt feed the baby, but weve worked out a routine where he changes him, I feed and burp him, and he gets him back to sleep. So even though he cant feed him, hes still included and not being left out. During labor, he was an amazing coach..for the little time he was up. After I stepped out of the shower and started saying I cant do this, he was there just to calm me down and reassure me I could. In the beginning when the contractions first started he was there to remind me to breathe (yes, I know ironic that he has to tell me to breathe, but when Im in pain..I hold my breath). Like I had mentioned earlier, if it hadnt been for him being in that OR/delivery room with me at the hospital..I wouldve been at my wits end. He's simply the most amazing husband and father a woman could ever be blessed with!

Me, Im doing great! Never been better after a delivery. I definitely can tell the difference in being induced and going all natural. Although the hospital experience wasnt the greatest, the delivery was by far my best experience. After I had him, I didnt get sick like I did with Jayden & Gracie. I didnt bleed as much, matter of fact, you know how youre suppose to bleed for a few weeks after delivery? Try one week! For me, after having Jayden and Gracie I bled so much that with Gracie they talked about a blood transfusion and had my doctors here worried that I had a blood disorder, but nope..it was just the pitocin where I was induced. Amazing the difference in what having medication and not having medication can do! I was able to get up and walk 1 hour after giving birth, with Jayden & Gracie I was bed ridden for a few hours because of the epidural.

After looking back, I think our mistake was either taking the early labor for early labor, when really it was active labor then what we believed was active labor was transition..or I just skipped active labor all together and after my water broke went from early labor straight to transition. Who knows..I do know that Im glad things panned out the way they did because this could be our last child, and although it wasnt the exact way I wanted it, I sorta got the experience I wanted!

And so now, Gavin is 2 weeks old..I know 2 WEEKS! Time is flying by! He's still doing amazing breastfeeding, cloth diapering, and sleeping. Matter of fact, he's sleeping 6 hour stretches at night! We had a great first Christmas with him. Im sure he loved the ham, vegetables, fudge, and strawberry cheesecake just as much as I did. Were so excited to start 2012 off as a new family of five..7 if you include our fur babies.

A big thanks to our Doula for helping us through this amazing experience! Im so glad you could be part of it!

Welcome to the world, Bubba!