It was August 4, 2021. I woke suddenly at midnight and had to use the bathroom. Upon standing up, I was shocked to find an adequate amount of blood dripping down my leg. So In full panic, I woke Grant up and ran to the bathroom and much to my dismay I was peeing out straight blood. We immediately called our midwife who helped us navigate that scary moment . It was terrifying. An instant pit-filled feeling filled my stomach as I wiped my sweaty, shaking hands on my shorts. Anxiety ridden thoughts took over my every being as I sat there and felt so incredibly scared for the health of my baby. But I reminded myself to slow down. And breathe. Just breathe. While on the phone, the bleeding shortly thereafter subsided and I felt the baby kick. So, with the guidance of my midwife, I decided to lay down and rest to see if my body kicked into labor.
I woke up out of a dead sleep at 2:48 A.M. and sure enough, my body kicked right into labor and we begun timing out the contractions. They were consistent at first- six minutes and my apart lasting for one minute, for one hour. Then five minutes apart, lasting for one minute, for one hour. But then they started to get sporadic, the same exact way that my contractions hit when I was in labor with Sadie. I was worried that this would happen this time around because with sporadic contractions, there is no clear sign of when we should head to the hospital. So, my plan was to bear with the pain until it was too painful and then head to the hospital at whatever point that may be.
7 A.M. rolled around, Sadie woke up and my mom arrived at our house. Sadie and my mom stood by my side and breathed through some of the contractions with me and I will cherish those sweet memories for the rest of my life. Then a quick two hours later, Grant and I hugged Sadie (and my mom) and headed to the hospital where we were eagerly awaiting the arrival of our little girl or boy. (The ride to the hospital was brutal. I was begging Grant to take it slowly over each bump in the road, because for every pot hole in the road that we hit, I had a contraction).
At 9:30 A.M. we arrived at the hospital, they put me in a wheelchair, and I contracted all the way up to the labor and delivery floor. I vaguely remember passing a son and his mother, and a sweet man congratulating Grant and I both, but I was in too much pain to even muster up a mere “thank you” to the sweet gentleman. When I am in pain, my eye stays on the prize, as I try to really “hone”into the pain and stay as relaxed as possible. The more relaxed you are, the more your cervix will open, so even mustering up a “thank you” , in that moment, felt like it would totally wreck my focus. Luckily, Grant was prepared to speak for both of us, in any and all situations.
Because of a helpful tip, we called our hospital on the way there and were able to request the large, spacious room that had a labor tub. So when we got to the labor and delivery floor, they wheeled us right down to the room. I was ready to get in the tub but my midwife had to check me first. I had not had any checks up to that point because I didn’t have any desire to see where I was because I was scared of getting false hope. Much to my surprise I was 9.5 cm dilated, 100% effaced and at station 0. I couldn’t really process what I was hearing, but from that point on, my midwife never left the room.
A couple of hours later, I felt my body go through transition (I get extremely cold and then extremely hot). My body naturally started pushing on its own and I pushed for 35 minutes, I remember thinking that I wanted to jump out of my skin and run away at one point. While pushing, I caught on to some subtle comments that my midwife and nurse were worried about the babies heartbeat. They were suspecting that their was a possibility of a cord around the neck or that the baby was posterior. So, as I was pushing, she said I had to push extremely slow, even though my body may wish to push as fast as possible. I heard her say to the other nurse that there was a possible chance of shoulder dystocia and and they decided to call in an additional nurse, in case they needed more help. Although I heard her say this, I wasn’t the least bit worried, because I really trusted my midwife. As the baby started to make an appearance, my midwife realized that the babies shoulders were in fact positioned incorrectly and she did an amazing maneuver to make sure the shoulders didn’t get caught. And I’m still Praising God for protection over Hudson and myself!
Hudson Samuel was born at 11:48 AM on August 5, 2021 weighing 8 lbs. and 14 ounces and measuring 20 inches long. We were so overjoyed with the arrival of our little boy and continue to be in awe in of the miracle he truly is.
Head to @thisoldbrickhouse on Instagram to watch a video compilation of Hudson’s arrival.
Thank you for visiting the blog today, it means so much to me!
Jenna