I've always enjoyed reading birth stories. There's just something about hearing of God's creation being brought forth that has always fascinated me. It's amazing to me at how God has created us and that He has blessed us women with the ability to not only grown and nourish a new life inside of us for 40 weeks, but to give birth to that new life.
I had mentioned back when Dayson was born that I would write out his birth story and never got around to it. I did the same thing with Iyana (though I didn't have a blog back then). Today, I'm going to change that. I'll be starting off with Iyana. Hopefully I can remember enough of the details.
Back before BJ and I got married, we were both told by different doctors that having children was not a likely thing to happen for us. Even after knowing that, we decided to take precaution and made a plan to wait 5 years before even considering what our options might be. During that time, we wanted BJ to finish his schooling at BSU and then head to seminary over in Pennsylvania. God had other plans for us though. After being married not even 6 months, we found out we were expecting. What a shock. I remember being so happy and excited but at the same time, terrified. The expression on BJ's face was priceless. After telling him, he gave me the biggest bear hug and walked around with such a huge smile.
Fast forward a few months. After dealing with 18 weeks of morning sickness, the only other problem I really had with the pregnancy was some horrible backaches. Other than that, I really enjoyed being pregnant. I worked full time up until about a month before Iyana was born. My doctor was so sure that I would deliver early (my due date was 2/28/02), so we decided to prepare for having her in early February. Needless to say, that didn't happen. I cried on my due date. People kept calling and asking if we had had the baby yet. I honestly felt like a failure. When we went in to see the doctor for my next appointment, she talked to us about inducing labor in a few days. That didn't help the way I felt. Here I was, a first time mom, scared and not knowing what to expect. The thought itself of being induced was scary along with thinking my body wasn't going to work like God had made it for.
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| 40 Weeks |
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| Roughly 32 weeks |
(The pictures that I have of pregnancy and the birth aren't the best of quality but I'm so thankful to have these memories)
Sunday, March 3rd came along. I honestly don't remember if I made it to church that morning. I do remember feeling completely exhausted and cranky. BJ had to work that afternoon. He called shortly after getting there asking if I would run to the pharmacy to get his prescription and bring it to him. I agreed to do it but definitely wasn't happy about it. As what almost always happens when trying to pick up a prescription, there were lines and the process took longer than I had patience for. After dropping off his meds and making sure there was nothing else that I needed to do, I headed home and took a much needed nap. During that time, my phone rang several times which irritated me further. I kept wanting people to just leave me alone so that I could be miserable by myself. Finally getting to sleep, I awoke to the weirdest feeling...the one where it feels like you're wetting your pants. I jumped up as quickly as any pregnant woman could and waddled to the bathroom (this was about 5:30pm). After using the bathroom, I knew for sure that my water had broken. No longer was I the tired and cranky pregnant woman, I was now the excited, scared pregnant woman.
I called BJ at work and his boss answered the phone. Keeping things calm when I talked with him, I made sure he wasn't in trouble for me calling at work and then did some small talk with him. When he was about to hang up, I mentioned that maybe he should come home now. He had no idea what I was talking about so I finally said that my water had broken and that he needed to come home. That of course made perfect sense and he headed straight home. While I finished packing the last minute things needed, I called my parents so they could start the long, 9 hour drive to come see us. Mom assured me that everything was going to be fine and to calm down, they would be there the next day.
Because I had tested positive for group B strep, I was told that as soon as I went into labor or my water broke, I needed to get to the hospital ASAP for antibiotics. BJ came home and we quickly packed up the car and left. He was so tickled that he got to park in the "Expecting Father Parking" at the hospital. We grabbed our stuff and headed upstairs to labor and delivery. While checking in, my water decided to completely break (guess it had only been a trickle before). Let's just say there was a lot there and I was left drenched. Even after all that, the nurses still wanted to check to make sure it really was my water that had broken. I was like, "are you serious!?", do you not see this huge puddle under me? Once they were satisfied and we were all checked in, we were starting to walk back to where our room would be when we noticed BJ's mom standing there waiting for us. Now, the only people we had called were my parents so that they could start that long drive. I hate saying this but I was not happy to see her there. How in the world did she know to show up there when we hadn't let anyone else know? While I went back to the room, BJ went out and talked with her. Apparently, since I didn't answer my phone while I was trying to take a nap, she got concerned. When she didn't hear back from me for a while, she called BJ's work. They were the ones who told her that we were on our way to the hospital. Guess we should have said something to his co-workers about not saying anything. We got it all settled and everyone was happy again. BJ made calls to the rest of the family to let them know the big day was finally here.
An hour after my water broke, my contractions started. I really wanted a natural labor with no medications, but I was totally unprepared for what was about to hit. When my contractions started, it wasn't something that was every 10 to 15 minutes. Right off the bat, they started in at 3 to 5 minutes and stayed that way. I felt like I was dying. I wasn't breathing like I had been taught, nothing was comfortable and I was just plain scared. I still really didn't want the epidural, so I opted for some Stadol. It was supposed to take the edge off... I don't think it did anything. My doctor finally came in and in what I can remember, pretty much told me I wasn't going to make it through labor without the epidural. Those may not have been her exact words, but that's how they came across. With not knowing any better, I believed her and got the epidural. Now,
that brought relief. Once I got the epidural, I dilated rather quickly and we all thought that the baby would be there very shortly. Wrong! We sat there for another
9 hours before she finally made her appearance. It was a rather boring wait, I had to stay mostly on my left side since they kept losing her heartbeat. Eventually they put an internal monitor on her head so it would be easier to keep track of things.
Around 5am on March 4th, they said that they wanted us to rest for an hour and then we would start the pushing phase. I don't know about you, but being told that you were going to start the last phase before meeting your new little one kind of makes it hard to want to "rest". We did what we could and patiently waited for the nurses to come back in and get things started. I can't complain, I only pushed for 45 minutes. It was hard, especially since I couldn't feel anything and the doctor ended up using the vacuum to help get her out. But, at 6:30am, we finally had the blessing of seeing our new baby girl. Iyana Maelyn was born just as the sun was rising and filling our room with beautiful light. I was so exhausted at that point but so happy. BJ once again had that huge grin and maybe even a tear or two in his eyes.
Iyana Maelyn
7lbs. 8oz.
20.5 inches long
He was so excited to have a daughter.
Finally seeing who had been kicking me for so long.
Our new family of 3.
We've had a blessed 10+ years with Iyana. I'm so glad that God had other plans for us rather than us waiting the 5 years to meet her.
Stay tuned for birth stories - part 2. ☺
