October of 2017 I found out I was pregnant with our little
one. On February 14, 2018 I had an ultrasound. Everything looked good. My due
date by my calculation was Sunday June 24, 2018. The ultrasound estimated my
due date as June 27, 2018.
The pregnancy went well and not many hiccups. On June 18th
early in the morning I called my midwife to tell him I was in labor. I didn’t
wait for the normal signs such as bloody show because he had already missed 2 or
5 births. I was having regular contractions however once he got here and set up
they petered out. We had set up the birth tub and filled it, but nothing
progressed. I was not dilated or effaced at all. So the midwife went home and we
continued to wait. Every night we walked with the kids about a mile. We did
this almost every night until I finally had her. The walks were nice and the
kids enjoyed them, the littlest ones asked each night if we were going to go
for a walk. The horse flies weren’t fun to deal with though. On July 4th
I went for a walk and actually ended up getting a blister on my heal. That was weird
because I had walked in the same shoes every night for 2 ½ weeks and did get a
blister until that day.
My due date of June 24th came and went. I was
pretty sure she was a girl and with Talitha and Tabitha being about 5 days
late, I figure she would come by June 29th. That date also came and
went. My body was doing some stuff but I wasn’t having contractions at night
like I would with some of my other pregnancies. Her head was above my public
bone and so she wasn’t engaged at all. I tried things to help her engage but
nothing seemed to work. With homebirths you technically only have until 42 to
deliver at home. On July 3rd I went to my midwife appointment. We
discussed doing a biophysical profile on the baby on Thursday or the following Tuesday
if I hadn’t had her. I didn’t want to spend the money so was praying to have
her before that. My midwife recommended different things to help with labor.
Three orgasms in 24 hours, walking, castor oil, etc. I was determined to go
into labor that week. So we tried for orgasms which had worked with some of my
other pregnancies. It didn’t work with this one, though I did have bloody show
the morning on July 4th. I called my midwife and let him know. I
knew my body was really ready, but because the head wasn’t engaged I wasn’t
going into labor. With Talitha and Tabitha they too were high, but I think
being 8 years younger my body was better able to go into labor anyways. My midwife
had said that if I tried Castor Oil to do it early in the morning because you
don’t want to have to be up all night going to the bathroom.
On July 5th I woke up and took castor oil around
5:45 AM. I put it in some juice and plugged my nose and drank it. The problem
was that though I know that 2 Tablespoons is 1 oz and I needed to take 2 oz at
5:45 in the morning I only put in 1 oz of Castor Oil. I figured this out about
7:00 AM when I started thinking about how much I had taken. The Castor Oil did clean
me out. I had some cramping and at one point I was nauseas for a bit. However,
because I only took 1 oz the Castor Oil didn’t put me into labor. I called Bill
and talked to him about 7:30 AM to tell him I took Castor Oil and ask if I
should take another ounce since I took the wrong amount. He let me know that
him and his wife had actually come down the day before and stayed in a hotel
knowing that when I went into labor he wouldn’t have much time to get here from
Montrose which is 1.5 hours away. He then said I could take more Castor Oil or
I could do Homeopathic stuff but he didn’t want me to do both. Though the
Castor Oil wasn’t horrendous I opted to try the homeopathics because it was
hard for me to think about going through more cramps and nausea. He arrived at
11:00 AM with the Homeopathics. I took two pills of three different one every
15 minutes for one hour. I started taking them at 11:30. At 12:30 I was having some
contractions but not real strong. I called Bill and he recommended I take two
more doses and then wait a couple of hours. At 12:45 I took a dose and then
went for a short walk. My contractions were 2 minutes apart but not real
strong. At 1:05 PM I took a last dose of the Homeopathics and then laid down
for a nap. Bill had said that in Russia the women were either walking or laying
down resting but not sitting . I went to sleep and slept for one hour. I woke
up at 2:10 PM and when I got up I could feel that the baby had shifted. Her
head was more engaged. I did the dishes and walked around the house.
Contractions started at about 2:30 PM, I called Bill and asked if I should take
more Homeopathics. It was decided to just wait a bit to see if contractions continued.
They did continue and I didn’t have to take anymore. I walked around and around
our table after I finished cleaning the kitchen. At about 3:00 PM Gil started a
war movie that we filtered through VidAngel. I was keeping track of my
contractions on my phone using a stop watch that has a lap feature. We had
filled up the pool that morning and so it was ready to go though I asked Gil to
put more water in it. I wasn’t sure how warm I wanted it because of it being
summer. It ended up being about 95 degrees. We also filled it ¾ fulls.
At 3:30 PM I called Bill and asked him to be at our house at
4:00 PM. He arrived at 4:00 PM and set everything up. That was done by 4:30 and
at 4:34 when he was getting ready to check heart tones on the baby, my water
broke. At that point I got into the pool. I could still see the movie. The
birth tub was in the kids room and so I could look out and see the TV. It was
really interesting because I have read and heard that labor is mental, and women
can have blocks that keep labor from progressing. Well, I have to say most of
my labors I have put on Fernando Ortega and I labor listening to his music
which is calming. The movie we were watching was not so calming and it got over
at 4:55 or so and it wasn’t until that was over that my body started going
through transition. I had Gil put on Fernando Ortega and add some hot water to
the tub as 95 degrees wasn’t hot enough to help with the pain as much as I
wanted it to. I could also feel a change mentally after the movie was over. It
was like my mind told my body it was now time to get to work and get the baby
out. I wonder if I would have had her earlier if we hadn’t been watching the
movie. I do know that things changed for me mentally after it was over. Transition
started at about 4:55. At about 5:03 I told Bill and Gil that the baby was
coming. I feel the birth tub was too full. I would have preferred a little less
water in it. I started pushing at about 5:04 and she was delivered at 5:07 PM.
She came out face down as she was supposed to, but her chin wasn’t flexed and
so instead of birthing the smaller part of her head, I birthed the hole circumference
of her head. I had pain from hip to hip as I pushed her out. When she came out
she was blue and her heart beat was 30, but she had good muscle tone. She umbilical
cord also was not pulsing. We stimulated her and she color improved along with
her heart beat and she started crying. The cord went up around the back of her
neck and then back down. Though it wasn’t wrapped clear around her neck we
think that the cord may have gotten pinched for up to a minute which is why she
was blue and had a low heart rate. However, she wasn’t in distress and she was not
limp. Bill said her eyes were open when she came out.
I would
say this was my second hardest labor because of how she came out. Though Azariah
and Zeb both came out posterior I don’t remember them being as painful. Uriah
who had the cord wrapped around his neck three times and the placenta detached
as I pushed so he could come out was the most painful, but I believe Taaviah was
second to him in pain.
The
birth was beautiful, and I am so glad that everything went well. After 9 births
I am still amazed and awed at the process. Though it is painful, the Word of
God is very true when it says in John 16:21 "Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her
hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers
the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.”
Taaviah
(TAH-vee-uh) Pearl Joy Lawton. Taaviah means beloved or adored by God. Pearl is
after her Great-great Grandmother (she shares the same birthday, this is
Taneil's Grandpa's mom.) and Joy because she is a joy to our family. She was born at 5:07 pm on July 5, 2018. She
weighed 8# 8oz, and was 20 inches long.
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