I realized I had never written out my experience with Rowan through pregnancy and the birth, so I should probably do that before I forget. do here goes!
Taylor and I tried for over a year to get pregnant. We were actually thinking about just taking a break if I didn't get pregnant soon. And lo and behold a little before Liam's 2nd birthday, on valentine's day I got a positive pregnancy test. I wanted to have a home birth again, like Liam, so we (by we I mean I) went and found a cool lady in gresham named Kristina who practiced through Vibrant Family Medicine. A naturopathic Dr who did home births. A funny older lady who used to be a mime in New York. Everything was going great until about month 4 of my pregnancy. I'd gotten a really bad sickness and woke up around 2 am with a lot of bleeding. Thankfully the boys were at my mom's while i was sick, so I got taylor up and we went to the er. 5 hours and lots of worry and fatigue and an ultrasound later I found out I'd had a small placental abruption. The placenta was tearing away from the uterus. The dr said there was nothing to be done but wait, but my midwife sent me home later that day with several things to help the internal wound to make sure it got better and to help my flu. In the end Roro was fine and I got better. About 2 months later I got gestational diabetes to which I had to completely switch up my pregnancy diet from just stuffing my face to whatever came in sight to 40 carbs every meal and 20 carb snacks in between. As horrible as it was I ended losing pounds vs gaining more, so win! After a few months of carb counting and me pricking my finger 3X a day it was getting close to my due date. Around the time me and my midwife would start discussing what I needed for the birth, I went in and got my blood pressure tested, a normal process that happens with every checkup. My blood pressure was pretty high. My midwife had me come in a couple days later to check it again and it was still high. The problem with high blood pressure is it stresses the baby and could cause premature birth with the chance of the placenta tearing away too soon leaving me most likely hemorrhaging internally. Worse case me and the baby could die...so it's a pretty scary thing. So my midwife set me up with an appointment with Providence to do a stress test and then determine if I needed to get induced. I was about 2 weeks away from Rowans due date...I think. So I went in, did the test and met some midwives. They were all really nice and caught me up on Providence Birthing. The thing I liked about Providence is they were actually sad I couldn't do a home birth like I wanted. They assured me they'd keep it as 'home like' as possible within the bounds of keeping me and Rowan safe. They even had a Doula who just went from mom to mom seeing of they needed anything. So a few days later I went in for another stress test. I was told they could induce me at any moment, and yes that day was the day I'd have her. My blood pressure was still high so they jabbed a lovely IV in my arm and got me all set up in a nice quiet room. The room I was in had a nice bathroom with a tub I could labor in, but not birth in. They offered a birthing tub option but that just makes me want to throw up. There was also this weird looking thing that looked like a Bowflex workout machine, but it was for birthing. The Doula wandered in and showed me all the things I could do with it, it helps you squat out your baby or birth standing up or squating haha. There was this thing I could pull down to help me 'sway' around. In all it was really weird. Well...the day was pretty smooth. They didn't want to give me Pitocin, a med that starts contractions. I was really glad, the contractions tend to be more intense with Pitocin. They broke my water, I can't remember what time and quickly after that my contractions started coming rather quickly. The midwife kept coming in to check on everything but it seemed to be going slowly. Taylor and I were rushing to let people know it was happening...yet again...early. After about an hour the contractions started to hurt. I asked to soak in the tub, because why not? Warm water. It'd be only me and Taylor. I had never seen midwives, a Doula and a random nurse fly into action so fast. Within minutes I had a warm bath, soft music and L.E.D. candles! They were so nice! I got in the bath and it felt so good! But within minutes the contractions came with a vicious pain. Every few minutes I had to squirm to endure them. I was in the bath for maybe 15 minutes, when I started to get hot and sweaty and wanted to get out. So Taylor got me a towel and I got back in my nightgown. When I came out, my family had gone to get food and the two midwives and the Doula were standing by my bed talking. The main midwife (because the other one was training) started talking to me about how I wanted to have the birth. She was pointing out the weird machine, a birthing ball, the bed, or I could use the bed to just hold onto. I was in the middle of telling her how I just like to lay down (lol) when a sharp contraction hit me out of nowhere and I felt rowan drop past my pelvic bone, a solid 2 inches at least! The weirdest feeling I'd ever felt. Then the all to wonderful feeling of having to pass the biggest poop ever! I gritted my teeth, grabbed the bed and said "ok. She's coming!" Yet again, all these women were a blur. The Doula ran and grabbed random things, the trainee got medical supplies and the midwife helped me get on the bed so she could look at my vagina (ha). I heard her yell "here's the head! It's happening!" I went through a contraction, and the the midwife said I could push whenever and I was like...oh oops, I thought we were waiting for something. So within 15 minutes, and one more contraction she was out! They handed her right to me, a sticky semi pale blue baby with dark hair and a soft cry. What a sweety. They toweled her off a little while she was on me, but for the most part they just let us cuddle. A few minutes later my family wandered back and we're told outside that Rowan Grace was already here! Surprise! They finally took Rowan away to get a bath and the Vitamin K on her eyes and what not, while they did the fun tummy massages (not so fun) I had already birthed out the placenta. The trainee came over to press my stomach, to make sure all parts of the placenta had come out. After a minute we both look down to see a blood clot the size of a softball plop out. I'd never seen a blood clot so big! GAG! When they get so big they have to weigh them. I can't remember how much it weighed but it was really gross.
So Rowan Grace was the quickest, easiest birth. Followed closely by Liam, by mere minutes. The Providence experience was way better than Keiser, but not quite as nice as a home birth. But whatever keeps me and the baby safe!
Sleeping at Providence was way better than Keiser. I got a lot of sleep. And in all Rowan was a super cute baby!
