Davis' Birth Story

Davis Gray Rowan was born on April 17th at 10:12pm. He weighed 7lbs 2oz and was 20in long.

Here is the story of his AMAZING birth (those of you know Lily's story will understand why Davis' birth was amazing. From the beginning:

Thursday April 16th Lily and I left the house promptly at 7:45 to avoid being at our house while a crew of roofers were supposed to show up and install a new roof on our house. I didn't want to deal with all the banging and ruckus so Lily and I went to Elizabeth's house (Elizabeth is a friend of mine from my "mommy" group that has a daughter about the same age as Lily). Anyway, we spent the morning over there and then went to Grammy and Grampy's house for a nap. At this point I was not having any signs of impending labor. While Lily was napping I decided to rest and watch some TV. So I was on the couch when I started to notice some twinges. I should mention that I have been having a ton of false contractions for a few weeks now that were very consistent but not painful. The twinges were the first real signs of painful contractions. After Lily's nap we got all our stuff and went home to see the new roof on our house and to see Josh come home from work. To my surprise/dismay/frustration, I came home to the old roof with 2 pallates of shingles and a dumpster in my driveway UNTOUCHED. Well let me just say that this is not a good time to mess with a pregnant woman days away from her due date. This is when I started to notice that I was definitely having some sort of contractions that were a not just braxton hicks. They were not consistent at this point and not terribly painful either so I just went about business as usual.

Josh was tutoring a high school student at our house that evening and normally I do some work while he is tutoring. Well I knew that I would not be doing much work with the contractions that I was having so I just sat on an exercise ball in the living room and played on the computer for that time. After Josh was done tutoring I finally told him that I had been having contractions that were definitely more real than I had experienced up until that point. He of course was surprised about it. At this point I was contracting about every 6 minutes. By 11pm that night they were about every 4-5 mins apart. The intensity of the contractions though were not really strong or painful so I was not sure what was going on.

By midnight I had called my parents to come up to stay at the house and watch Lily in case I needed to go to the hospital. They showed up at about 1am and by this point my contractions were about 3 mins apart but they still were not getting stronger so I was very unsure of what to do. So I called the Dr. and they said definitely go in to Labor and Delivery to be checked. I was not surprised to find out that I was only dialated to 2cm when I showed up at the hospital at about 2am. I pretty much told them that I wanted to go home. They said that they wanted to monitor me for an hour before I would be allowed to possibly leave. Josh and I walked the halls for an hour+ and at 3:30 I was still only 2cm so I got to go home, YAY! (I did not want to labor at the hospital at all).

Josh and I got home and were able to sleep for about 3 hours before Lily got up for the day. My parents basically watched and dealt with Lily while Josh helped/coached me and got things together for the impending birth. By 8am my contractions were still very consistent and were a little more painful but still not strong enough I knew. I called my OB and she wanted me to come in again to get checked but I only went to the Dr office not to Labor and Delivery. She checked me at 10:30am and I was only 3cm dialated. At this point I was kind of frustrated as to why I wasn't really progressing. The Dr. offered to admit me to the hospital, break my water and get the ball rolling but I declined and told her that I wanted to labor at home. She sent me walking for an hour or so to see if I would progress or not before she would send me home. Josh and I went shopping and had lunch at this point. This whole time I was having contractions that were painful enough that potentially people around noticed that something was going on. At noon I went back to the office and got checked and was still only 3cm. The dr. said she would let me go home as long as I came back as soon as things definitely started to progress.

Josh and I got home about 1pm and I tried to go take a nap which I must say was not effective at all. I couldn't sleep through these contractions at all and I was definitely dealing with more pain but the contractions had slowed down again. I stayed in bed for about 2 hours before I got up and decided that I needed to do something to help my labor. Josh and I took a childbirth class back in January and it was taught by a doula (birthing coach). I knew that this doula would have some suggestions so I called her. She thought that my labor was stalling and not progressing because Davis was not positioned correctly. She gave me a few different things to do to help my reposition Davis and hopefully kickstart labor. I followed her directions very specifically and no joke my labor started booming. I told Josh that we needed to go very soon. I called the Dr. to tell her I was coming and we didn't even wait for her to call back before we left. I knew it was getting close. We left our house at about 6:30pm.

When we arrived at the hospital the Labor and Delivery unit was packed. There were people everywhere. They told me that they didn't have a room and I was going to need to wait. Hearing this kind of made me a little panicy and the control I had over the contractions up until this point was diminishing. Josh and I walked away to wait and within 2 minutes they called me to go back to a room. They must have realized that I had been in the night before at 2cm and had been gone for the whole day and visibly I was having pretty rough contractions. We got back into the room and they checked me right away and I was 7cm. Honestly, hearing that made me want to cry because I thought for sure they were going to tell me I was only 4cm since my progression had been slow the whole day. There was a lot of relief in hearing that I didn't have much longer. I did know that I was starting to lose control of my focus and concentration through my contractions and I was experiencing some incredible back labor. So I had asked the nurse to go ahead and get the anesthesiologist for an epidural. It was still over an hour before I actually got the epidural.

8:30pm I finally had the epidural and was dialated past 7cm and was able to relax for a little bit. Josh and I started to call family and friends to let them know Davis would be coming soon. I thought for sure that it would be after midnight before I would actually have Davis and I made a bet with the nurse that he wouldn't be born until the 18th. She was so confident that he would be here on the 17th that she had already labeled all our bracelets with the 17th. At 10pm the doctor finally came in and checked me and I was 9cm. She broke my water and said she would check me in just a little bit. I thought that meant 30-40 minutes so Josh and I shut off the light and were going to try to take a nap. Literally within 3 minutes she came back in the room and I was fully dialated and ready to push.

I could not believe how fast everything was going. She asked me to do a practice push and about half way through the push when she told me to stop because she had to get dressed to catch Davis. I thought she was kidding. With Lily I had to push for 2 hours and even then the last few minutes were difficult to get Lily out. So, my doctor gets dressed. I started pushing at about 10:08 and 2 sets of pushes later Davis was in the world. He was born at 10:12pm. I could not believe how fast he came out.

This whole labor experience was incredible for me. It was such a different experience from Lily's birth and it was everything that I hoped it would be. I really wanted to labor at home for as long as I could before going to a hospital setting where I would be confined and hooked up to everything. I am so thankful for this wonderful birth experience. Josh and I were amazed at the difference between our 2 children already and I can't wait to see how Lily and Davis are alike and different as they grow up.

By the way, if you read this far I am impressed. I am writing this birth story for me to document how things happened.

I feel so blessed to have had the birth that I really wanted and I am glad that Davis is here and we can start to adapt to our family of 4!