Ezekiah Mitchell's Birth Story

Ezekiah's birth story begins with desparation. Monday, August 16th, I was 13 days past my due date. I was in pain, I was anxious, Zarik was looking at rescheduling his checkride for a second time, my mom had just extended her trip out here for the second time and I'd had a bunch of "false starts" aka prodromal labor. I kept telling Zarik that this game was NOT fun anymore. So that night I decided to take castor oil. 2oz in a glass of OJ. An hour later I was so sick to my stomach and tired and just plain sore that I was bawling on Zarik's shoulder about how I just couldn't do this anymore and the only reason I wasn't begging for a c-section was I knew if I did that I would never bond with this baby because I was so upset with him over how much pain I was in. I finally calmed down and went to bed. Sure enough I was up and in the bathroom several times that night.

Tuesday, August 17th, I woke up with decently hard contractions that were 4-5 minutes apart. The castor oil had worked! I was still depressed from the night before and I really didn't want to be around the kids so I stayed hidden in my room for a while. And then I took a shower. Which spaced the contracts out to 10 minutes. I was frustrated. About noon Zarik convinced me to go to the hardware store and Starbucks with him. Then when we got home my mom and the kids packed up and went to my sisters house. I'd updated my doula and midwife throughout the day and finally about 8pm I called my doula in. She watched me for a bit then suggested we try to sleep. The contractions spaced to about 15 minutes during the night but required help through them.

Wednesday, August 18th found my doula going home, and me STILL in "just" early labor. I had a midwife appointment at 1, and decided to get into the chiropractor as well. The chiro spent a LOT of time with me making sure I was well adjusted and going over some emotional points in the body. Then we saw the midwife who checked me and found me at a very stretch 6cm!! You should have seen the look on her face, lol! The combination of the adjustment and finding I was 6cm relaxed me enough that I was hungry (I hadn't been hungry or eaten anything big for a couple days. I had made myself eat things like cheese and turkey). So Zarik and I went to Panera for lunch. It's always interesting going out to eat in labor because I'm trying not to scare everyone in the restaurant, haha! (I did in labor with Urijah, too) After that we had to get his tux for a wedding that weekend. By the time we left Men's Warehouse I told him we'd better get home as quick as we could - 45 minutes up our mountain pass. I definitely felt myself shift into active labor during the drive home. We're probably the only people who had to rush HOME to give birth, lol!

Once home, I wanted to get into my birth tub right away so I changed clothes while Zarik finished getting it ready. This only took 5 minutes and Zarik made me call the midwife and doula while I waited. They both said they'd be right there. This was about 3:20. I jumped into the tub and contractions immediately picked up. The water felt AMAZING. It gave me a few longer breaks which were nice. I would just float in the water, looking out our open sliding glass door at Pikes Peak, amazed that I was doing this in our home! Despite the water, the contractions made me feel like I would split apart. I looked at Zarik and said "Screw active labor, I'm in transition!" It took the doula and midwife about and hour to get there. The doula got there first and as she put her purse down she stopped, looked at Zarik who was in the tub with me as I was having a contraction and said "Is she pushing?!" He just nodded. The midwife got there 3 minutes later and they quickely and quietly got everything they needed ready. The next 30 minutes were spent with me in such constant pain that I couldn't tell when contractions started or stopped. Zarik described me as a defiant 2 year old because I kept yelling at them that baby wasn't coming fast enough and it hurt SOOOOOO bad. During the last few minutes of pushing I was just focused on getting him out when the midwife had to ask me if my contraction had stopped and if so to stop pushing. I honestly hadn't realized it had because I was in so much pain in my pelvis. I waited for the next one, my water broke on the first push, I have 2 more pushes and he was OUT!! PRAISE GOD!! It was 5pm. Zarik almost got to catch him, but I twisted around at the last minute and caught him myself!

Now the only complication happened - his cord was so short it snapped as he popped out, spewing blood out. My awesome midwife grabbed the cord and pinched it calmly but urgently telling her assistant to grab the umbilical clamp. They clamped Ezekiah's side, while my side just went back up! It took about 10 minutes before I delivered the placenta, which wasn't bad and it looked great. I just sat in the tub during that time and tried to nurse. Ezekiah was telling us off though, which made it difficult, haha! Also, because the sac had popped so late in the game he had a little "skull cap" of amniotic sac on his head. I thought that was pretty neat! After that I got out and moved to a blow up bed we had set up for after, and I successfully got him latched on. After about 30 minutes or so the midwife did the assesment and he was 7lbs 2oz, 20.5 inches long, and a 14" head! Our biggest baby, haha! And no wonder my pelvis kept feeling like it would split with that head!! They also "dated" him at acting and looking like a 40 week 5 day baby - over a week younger than when he was born. I guess he just needed the extra time. I don't remember the apgars, but I'm sure they were high.

Now I'm just on a baby high while I snuggle with our newest li'l miracle. :-)