Ezekiah's Birth Video!

Birth Pictures

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. :-)

Urijah's Birth Story!!

Short Version: Urijah Andrew was born at 3:35am on Halloween by VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesearean)!! He was 6lbs,5oz, and 20" long.

Long Version: I had had pretty intense pre-labor since Monday night with contractions no more than 20 minutes apart. Thursday I was going crazy and decided I HAD to go with Zarik to pick up my mom from the airport - I just needed to get out!! We picked her up and went to Chili's for a late lunch. I must have looked pretty funny as I had to stand up every 10 minutes or so and lean through a contraction! We got home about 5 and my contractions immediately picked up to about 8 minutes apart. They were also getting pretty intense. My mom and sister went to the store, and while they were gone I realized this was probably it. The shower I took even made them more intense! Zarik was going to work out when my mom and sis got home, but I told him it was a bad idea - I think this is it. After the last 3 days he was sceptical, but after an hour and a half he was convinced and we were off! I have to add here that he was awesome at stalling me during this time. We have taken Bradley Birth Classes, and he knew I wanted to stay home as long as possible. He kept puttering around getting us ready, doing little chores, making me a protien shake, etc. Then on the way down(it's a 45 min drive down a mountain pass and through the city to the hospital) he casually says "I'm going to swing through the Starbucks drive-through if that's ok." I was remembering during Mika's labor when he left me to go get a cup of coffee, so I replied "Fine. Just make it fast." His response? "YOU FAILED! We'are going back home!" It was another "test" to see if I was truly ready to go down, lol! At the time he got growled at, but now it's pretty funny.

We got to the hospital at about 9:45pm, walked up to triage (in between contractions), got the "ok, you're in labor!" and got escorted to the same room we had with Mika! Zarik got our stuff from the car, I got settled in, and our midwife, Sharon, showed up. Contractions were every 2 minutes at this point and I was 6 cm dilated. They needed to do a hep-lock (the arm part of the IV - but not a full IV) since I was a VBAC patient, and it took them FOUR tries!! They'd just about get it in and the vein would blow. UGG!

As labor got more intense, I found my favorite position was standing hanging over Zarik's right arm with Sharon pushing on my low back. I figured since Zarik can bench press 385 lbs, he could hold me up, lol! I went from having no back labor when we arrived, to almost complete back labor by the end. After a couple hours I was still at a 6, so Sharon asked if we wanted the water broken. We said we'd wait a while longer - I was scared at how intense that might make it. An hour or so later (I lost all track of time so these are guestimates) we gave our ok since we were still at a 6. I decided I just wanted him OUT and I better just get it over with. OMG contractions immediately got SO much more intense! I pretty much immediately went into transition (the part right before you're ready to push) and was at a 9! It took another li'l bit of me baring down to get from there to complete (10 centameters), and during that time they put up the squatting bar because that position felt best. After that Zarik joked I looked like a weird pole dancer - I was up, down, twisting, sqatting, biting the bar, swaying. I was "shaking the baby down!" I had hardly any breaks at all now and next thing I knew I was pushing! Sharon quickly saw sqatting wasn't going to be good for me tearing wise, so they got me in a side laying position and got a mirror. It was SO amazing seeing his head crown! I reached down to touch it and decided I was just going to leave my hand there. About 3 contractions later he was born and I was helping pull him onto my chest!! I did have a 1st degree tear 'cause I wasn't a good girl and didn't listen when Sharon was telling to slow down and let the skin stretch. I just wanted him out!!

I cuddled my boy for about 5 minutes before they insisted on taking him for a minute because he really needed his throat suctioned out. They gave him back as my stitches were being finished and he immediately went to the breast and stayed there for an hour and a half!!

The rest of our stay was just too many nurses and blood draws, lol. We're home now and adjusting to life with a newborn who LOVES to eat ALL the time, a toddler with a bad diaper rash, and all our assorted animals (we have 5) and helpers (my mom, her dog, my sister).

Mika's Birth Story!

Short: Mika Christine was born at 7:05 am on Tuesday, August 7th, 2007 by emergency c/s after emergency induction. She was 6lbs 12oz, 19 3/4" long.

Long: Mika's birth story starts at our weekly Dr. appointment on Monday, August 6, 2007. I was 41 weeks pregnant therefore had to have a BPP (Bio Physical Profile). It was fun seeing her on the ultrasound again, and I totally ruined the NonStress Test part of it by laughing through it (thanx Zarik and mom!). Well, when we saw our midwife after all that, she told us that we had less than 1% of amniotic fluid left* and had to have the baby now. We were definitely in shock. She said she'd start us with Cytotec and we'd go from there. I said we'd head straight to the hospital, after we grabbed a bite to eat, and she said no no no no, you can eat at the hospital. You're going straight there. So straight there we went. We had 2/3 of our hospital stuff, and sent my dad to our house (45 min away) to get the rest of it.

*After getting my hospital records, I found out the reason for all this was that there was an infection in the placenta and it had come half-way down the umbilical cord. Most likely this was why I didn't go into labor, too - my body wasn't getting the correct signals/hormones from the placenta.

We get there and head straight to our room about 3pm. I take a bath, eat, get all hooked up to all the different wires and tubes, and get my first dose of cytotec at 5pm. My dad was back with my stuff by then along with my sis and 2 bro's (Mom and Zarik were with me the whole time). We hung out until my second dose at 9 when dad and the siblings all left. Contractions started in really intense after that. Baby really didn't like that and they immediately hooked me up to fluids and started in on the "turn on your right, now on your left, sit up, lay down more" to get her heart rate stable. The contractions were right on top of each other so I asked for Demerol. That took the very edge off for 15 minutes and ended with a 12 peak contraction. An hour or so after that, after almost no break from the contractions, about 3am I finally asked for the epidural. About 4 am the funniest looking, shortest little anesthesiologist came in. I was sitting on the edge of my raised bed as he came in and remember thinking I would laugh if it didn't hurt so much. He looked at me, looked at the nurse and said "Can we lower the bed? I'm not as tall as some of my colleagues", ROFL. He did a FANTASTIC job! First time, totally numb. RIGHT after he walked out, my midwife walks in. The nurse was so cute. She looked like a deer in the headlights and said in a nervous voice "she just got an epidural". My midwife was fine with it, but it was cool seeing how much the nurses respect her and what she does. Well, after looking at baby's heart rate she decides I need an internal monitor to better get an idea of how she's doing. She "broke my water" and said "Look! I got a palm-full of water. Isn't that great?" Yeah, wonderful. I would have rather had a gush!! After watching baby for a few contractions she decides to do pitocin for a couple contractions since I was still at a 4. It was on for 1 contraction, she turned it off and said "I'm calling Dr. Baer to get his opinion. We may be looking at a c-section here." He got there, took one look at all the data, looked at us and said "You're going to have a baby in 30 minutes. How do you feel about that?" We were ready to have here here safely, and I think we'd been preparing ourselves since the original appointment for this.

In the OR they cranked up my epidural, but it wasn't fully numbing me. They threatened general anesthesia, so the anesthesiologist said "let me know if you feel any PAIN when they start cutting." Great. It was still the funny looking guy, and I still kinda wanted to laugh, but at this point I was having trouble breathing. Suddenly I turn to Zarik and ask "did they just pull her out?" He was surprised and said yes. I could feel everything, just no pain, thank God. After baby was pulled out, Zarik was looking at me, then baby, then me until I could finally say "GO!" and he went to her. They took my O2 off (I'd been on the whole time), we got a couple of pics, then I got Zarik's attention 'cause I couldn't breathe w/out the O2 and they put it on again. I had to stay in the OR an extra 10 min because the epi almost went into my lungs while Zarik carried Mika to the nursery.

I got to really meet our 6lb12oz, 19 3/4" long girl an hour later. I was still pretty numb but with Zarik and a nurse's help I was able to hold her even though I was JUST getting feeling back in my arms. It was definitely love at first sight and we didn't put her down at all (practically, lol) for about 2 weeks. We couldn't believe we were finally parents!! God is good!!