Today we took Carter's one month photo and I realized that I hadn't written out his birth story. So here goes. It's a long one. Happy reading!
April 22, 2015 was looking to be just another day in this pregnancy even though it was my "due date". Here I am that morning. It was the last week of classes at Clemson and I had finished teaching for the week. So we were just waiting for Carter's arrival. My mom was in town so we were ready to go whenever he decided it was time. I had an appointment with my midwife, Kim, in the morning. She checked my progress and said that I was barely dilated to a 1 and not effaced at all. I hadn't been having any contractions in the days/weeks leading up to d-day, not even any Braxton Hicks, so it seemed that Carter was pretty content to stay where he was. We talked about what the process would be if he decided to take his sweet ole' time. Unfortunately, everything led down the road to being induced. Luckily, the midwives are awesome here in Greenville and didn't want to go down that road with me either. I had told them about my birth experience with Brooke (which wasn't horrible, just not how I envisioned it) and we all decided that we would do everything we could to avoid Pitocin again. So we had Kim strip my membranes, just like we did with Brooke. This is considered a more natural way to help bring on labor (as opposed to drugs) and has about a 50/50 chance of working. With Brooke, I went into labor 2 days later when my water broke unexpectedly.
Since we were already in Greenville, we decided to take Brooke to the children's museum to burn off energy and have some fun. I figured walking around the museum might help bring on labor too. We stopped at Mellow Mushroom to have lunch before heading back home. While we were eating lunch I had a few sharp "pains" in my lower abdomen but nothing that registered to me as contractions. I decided to time them to see if there was any pattern or anything to them. They were sporadic, didn't really hurt, and only lasted a few seconds. So again, nothing catching my attention as the start of labor. I had a few more while we were driving home, but nothing serious. I felt ridiculous timing them.
It was about 2 pm when we got home from our morning in Greenville. Jeff had plans to go golfing with a neighbor so I decided to head up to school to get a few last minute things tied up for my final exams the following week. I figured if stripping my membranes worked, I wasn't going to be back on campus for a little while. So off to school I went. It's about a 20 minute drive and along the way I had another one of those sharp "pains". I kept timing. They were only about 10 seconds long, and around 20-30 minutes apart. If I was in labor, I figured it was just starting and I had a while to go. After all, it took about 13 hours for Brooke to arrive after my water broke. While I was walking from my car to my office, I had another one, but it didn't stop me in my tracks. All the while I was thinking, "Maybe these are contractions?" I wasn't sure, though, since I had a back labor with Brooke, and I never felt anything in front. And after they put me on Pitocin everything was SUPER intense and I didn't have 20-30 minute breaks in between them. It was more like 10 second breaks. So I was pretty confused about what was going on.
When I got to my office I made a quick to-do list and got started. Over the next 1.5 hours, I had quite a few of these sharp "pains" in my lower abdomen/baby bump. At one point, they did start getting a little bit more intense and I thought, "Ok, maybe I should start doing my Hypnobabies so I'm ready if this is really it." At this point, these "pains" were coming every 10-15 minutes or so, and lasting about 45 seconds. I still figured that if this was labor I had a while to go. My midwife told me to call when my contractions were 5 minutes apart for an hour. I thought it was still pretty far off. I had a quick phone call with my colleague Steve, who was going to be giving my final exam for me. I told him I thought I was in labor but that I really needed to get him this information for the exam and then I was going to take off. I had a few "contractions" while we were talking but I told him it was no big deal. They weren't that bad and they were like 10 minutes apart. He said "Jasmine, I think you should go home. You don't sound like they aren't a big deal." I thought that since I was talking through them, that meant they weren't that bad.
After I got off the phone, I let my other colleague, Marieke, know that I thought I was in labor and was going to head home. (I have GREAT colleagues who were covering all my stuff for the end of the semester, so they were the first to get to know what was going on, especially since I was at school). She said she would drive me home. I didn't think that was necessary but she INSISTED. It turns out it was a good thing she did, because the "pains" got pretty intense while we were packing up, and then while we were walking to my car, I had to stop and lean against the wall every time I had one and I had to focus intensely to endure it. There was much less talking through them. They continued while we drove home and were coming every 3-4 minutes and lasting about a minute. As I look back on it, I kind of skipped the slow and steady progression of labor that I thought would happen and went from 10-15 minutes apart to 3-4 minutes apart what seemed like instantly. I texted Jeff and said he should probably come home from golfing. He said he'd meet me at the house.
When we got home, I called my midwife and told her that I was pretty sure I was having contractions and that they were 3-4 minutes apart and about a minute long, but I could still talk through them a little bit. She listened to me have a few contractions on the phone and then told me to come in. We live 20 minutes from the hospital and it was about 5 pm and she didn't want us getting stuck in traffic on the freeway. She said she would meet us there. So Jeff and I loaded ourselves up and headed to the hospital while my mom and Brooke drove Marieke back to Clemson. I continued to have the contractions while I was in the car, kneeling on my knees in the front seat, facing backwards, gripping the head rest. Jeff was driving like a race car driver. But in between the contractions, things were pretty sweet. We talked about how his golfing went that day and what I got done at school. All along, we were listening to Hypnobabies in the car so I felt like I was pretty relaxed as the contractions got more and more intense. And they were definitely intense.
We got to the hospital and started to head up to OB Triage, as was the protocol. I had about 5 contractions on the way that were really intense. I had to stop and hang on to Jeff through each one. We were offered a wheelchair numerous times along the way but I could not imagine sitting down and enduring those contractions. I wanted to walk my way up to the nurses and be able to move around when needed with the contractions. At this point, I was doing my hypnosis pretty seriously through each contraction. When we got to OB Triage, Jeff told them I was in labor and how close my contractions were (2-3 minutes, 45-60 seconds long). They got me a room and told me to put on a gown and that my midwife was on the way. It was about 5:20. Jeff had to run back down to the car to get my phone charger. Since I had been listening to Hypnobabies for so long, my battery was about to die, but I wanted to continue listening to it to keep me focused throughout the rest of labor (however long that would be). I had 3 more contractions while he was gone, and they were super intense and felt very different. Much lower in my abdomen. At one point I even felt the need to push. That was the first time that I recognized the same feelings that I had had during Brooke's labor. But I still figured I had a little while to go. I pushed for almost an hour with Brooke. Jeff got back about 5 minutes later, right when Kim, my widwife, arrived. I was on my hands and knees on the bed and she asked me to turn over so she could check my progress. She said, "You're at a 9." And then she promptly ran to the door of my room and yelled out, "I need a nurse in here right now!"
It was incredibly uncomfortable to be on my back, so I yelled out (kind of forcefully) "I AM NOT DOING THIS ON MY BACK!" So Jeff and Kim helped me flip back onto my hands and knees. Kim and the nurses draped a sheet over me to keep me discreet (THANKS) and started moving my bed into the hall to take me down to the Labor and Delivery room. I had wanted to do a water birth so I was excited and hoping that I would get to deliver in the nice warm tub. As they pushed my bed into the hall, I felt the biggest contraction yet. So big in fact that Carter crowned and then he just popped out. I reached down and lifted up my gown and saw him lying on the bed between my knees. I said the first thing that came to my mind "He's out!" Kim and the nurses said WHAT?! and stopped pushing the bed. Kim looked under the sheet and said, "Yup. Reach down and pull your baby up to you." So I reached down, pulled Carter up to my chest and continued to kneel on the bed while they quickly wheeled me down to Labor and Delivery.
Apparently there were about 8 nurses in the room waiting to help me deliver Carter. Jeff said they were all a little confused when I came into the room with a baby in my arms. And Kim just said, "He came out in the hall." They helped me transfer over to a new clean bed and then we got to really check out Carter. Here we are about 10 minutes after he was born.
He wasn't so happy with all the activity going on around us. I was glad a nurse grabbed my phone and started taking pictures. Everything happened so fast that we didn't have time to think about that at all.
Here's Jeff cutting the cord while Carter and I had a mommy/son moment.
Carter Jeffrey Townsend arrived at 5:46 pm on April 22, 2015. He weighed 6 lbs. 2 oz. and was 19.5 inches long. We were completely blown away by his size, since Brooke was almost 9 pounds. But I won't complain because it certainly made his birth a lot easier on me. In total we figure I was in active labor for about 3 hours. Carter was born 20 minutes after we got to the hospital and caught everyone by surprise. At all of the nurse shift changes for the 2 days we were at the hospital, everyone responded with "Oh, you're the lady who had the baby in the hall?! We couldn't believe it when we heard about it!" Carter was quite the talk of the hospital for a few days.
Jeff and I were in shock for a few days afterward. We just couldn't believe how fast it went and felt like we had so much time to process the impending arrival of Brooke because her labor was so much longer. That obviously wasn't the case with Carter but ultimately we didn't mind. My recovery has been lightening fast this time around, and again, we have the short labor and hypnobabies to thank for that. I really was relaxed the whole time I thought I might have been in labor, and at no point did I feel like I couldn't handle his birth. I didn't feel the need for any pain medications at all. Good thing, because I didn't want it and there wasn't time for it anyways! I am a little bummed that I didn't get to try the water birth. I was really looking forward to that. Everything I'd read about it said it's pretty amazing for labor and delivery.
Daddy and son
Captain Townsend getting his hearing checked. Passed with flying colors. The hospital where I delivered is a designated baby-friendly hospital, so Carter got to room in with us, rather than go to a nursery. I really enjoyed this and felt like it helped facilitate our bonding with him.
My mom brought Brooke to the hospital about 2 hours after Carter was born. She had just dropped Marieke off back in Clemson when Jeff texted her "We have a healthy baby boy!" Needless to say, she was surprised that it went that quickly, as she was also thinking we had a while to go based off our experience with Brooke. So she turned right around and made her way to the hospital. The picture above is Brooke holding Carter for the first time the next day. But when she came into my room to see Carter for the first time, she climbed up on the bed with me and pointed to him and said "It's Carter!" She's been infatuated with him ever since. She constantly says "He's so tiny!" And she has started calling him Cartie. It's adorable.
Brooke hasn't spent a lot of time around babies in her short 2 years of life, so we have been a bit surprised at how quickly her mothering instincts have kicked in. She loves him so much, and kisses his head, and knows to be "soft and gentle" whenever she touches him. She is a great big sister and an awesome helper. I envision them being the best of friends as they grow up.
Carter had a little bit of the grumpy old man look for the first few weeks. He has gained all his birth weight back, plus more.
He has blondish hair, and we think his eyes are going to be blue.
He is quite the snuggly bug. He likes to have his hands free in the swaddle, just like Brooke. He has a tiny little bird-like cry, but over the last few weeks he has strengthened up his lungs and really has a good loud cry when he wants to. His hands and fingers are massive and look like catchers mitts on the ends of his arms. We see some type of ball handling athletics in his future, and probably some piano playing. He is eating and sleeping like a champ, which is great. He takes after his big sister.
As I read back through this, it seems ridiculous that I didn't recognize the start of his labor. But really, all I knew was what I went through with Brooke, and Carter's labor was completely different in every way. Thanks to all the friends and family who helped me through it.
