Derek's Birth Story

Friday morning at around 12:00am I started to have really uncomfortable back pain while I was laying in bed. I also noticed that I was having regular contractions but they didn't hurt. After a while I decide to get up and watch a movie since I wasn't getting any sleep. This continued all night. At around 6:30am I finally fell asleep for about 45 min. When I woke up I decided I should call Dixie my midwife to see if she thought I should go into the hospital. I had been to see her the day before and I was dilated to a 5+. She suggested the I head into the hospital. At 8:30am we headed over to the Waters house to drop off the kids. At 9:00am we were at the hospital. I was feeling a little like I may have over reacted and was just wanting to have this baby because the contractions were dying down a little. After we were admitted Dixie came into check me. I had dilated to a 7+. Wow, I was so glad that something was happening and that I wasn't going crazy. The hooked me up to and IV to get the strep B antibiotic. About 4 hours later she came back into see how I was doing. I had a grin on my face Brent said and couldn't believe that the labor was going so well. It was actually boring. She checked me again and I was at a 9+. I was so excited and nervous. We really only had to wait and see if my water would break on its own or not. Dixie didn't want to do it right away because she had another girl across the hall that was having a hard time. She had been pushing for over 4 hours and still had not had the baby. I felt bad for her and was glad that I was not in any pain so that she could go over and help her out. At lunch time they brought we a salad and Brent left to go and pick of the kids to take them home to be with my Mom and Janet. After getting the kids feed and Jackson down for a nap he came back. While we waited and waited we played trivia on Brent's phone. I won the little contest we were having. Brent would do football trivia and I did Disney movie trivia. We liked to see who could get the most questions right before getting a wrong answer. After doing that for a while we went for a walk though the hospital. Dixie also had a ball for me to sit on and bounce to help try and break my water. Well I was at a 9+ for over 4 hours before Dixie came back in. The girl across the hall had finally delivered and they had been taking care of her and the baby for a while. At around 8:45pm she broke my water. The contractions had started to pick up and get harder about 20 mins before she came back. They were still manageable though. A little while after she broke my water the contractions started to come hard. Brent was so good to me. He stayed right by my side and held my hand, and when I would have a contractions Dixie showed him how to push on my knees to help with the pain. After a while I started to feel the need to push. It was the most horrible pain that I have ever been in. My cervix had on completely effaced. Dixie described it as being a little turtle neck that I had to push Derek though. After pushing though about 5 contractions could have been more or less I'm not sure because it seem like eternity to me, he finally came though. Then came the really pain. I was thinking in my head all I have to do is get his head though and then he will just slide out. Wrong! His shoulders got stuck and I had to continue pushing though one more contraction a least. After he came out I was so out of it Brent thought that I was going into shock. All I could hear was Derek screaming. You have no Idea how good that sounded after poor little Jackson and all that he went though. After about 30 to 45 mins of being in the worst pain ever I could not believe what had just happened and that it was finally over. They placed Derek on me and He was perfect. I could do nothing by look at his cute face and dark brown hair. I had been waiting for 8 1/2 months to see if he was a red head or not. They took him from to clean him up and weigh him. Brent and I had a little guessing game on the weight. I thought he would be 7lbs 4oz. Brent guessed 7lbs 10 oz. He weighed 7lbs 11oz and was 21 1/2 inches long.

It took me until the next afternoon to really process my delivery and going natural. If you would have asked me right after I delivered if I would do it again I would have said HECK NO!!! But now looking back on it it was a really good experience and I'm so glad that I did it. Now knowing what to expect I think that if we have anymore children I could do it again. We will see how I'm feeling when it gets to the point.

Brent't Experience:

November 19, 2010

I woke up and began to get ready for work just like any other weekday morning. As I got ready, Carol and I talked about the labor pains that she was having. Was today going to be the big day? She called her midwife (Dixie Rasmussen) and was given the go ahead to come into the hospital and get checked. Rather than going to work I helped get the kids ready. We took Jackson and Erica over to Kaden and Amanda Waters’ house and then headed to the hospital. I called Heather Rickenbach at work and let her know that I would not be coming in today as we drove to the hospital. Once at Sevier Valley Medical Center, Carol was checked in and got settled into her room. Dixie showed up moments later. She checked Carol and found her dilated to 7cm. That was good enough to let us know that we were going to have a baby today.

I went back out to the car to grab Carol’s bags and also to call parents. I called Teri and let her know that she needed to get packing and head up to Richfield. She was going to come up and help out with Erica and Jackson. After making the calls, I headed back in the front door of the hospital and down the hall to Carol’s room. The next few hours were pretty uneventful. I played games on my phone and talked with carol while she watched TV. A nurse would come in hourly to check the baby’s heart beat. At about 12pm, I headed out to pick up Erica and Jackson from the Waters’ home. Teri was about to Richfield and was going to meet me at our house. I dropped the kids off at home and straightened up the house a bit. We had an appraiser coming by at 1pm to look at our home. Amongst have a baby, we were selling our home and moving back to Cedar City.

After getting the house picked up and helping Teri settle in, I headed back to the hospital. The rest of the day would be pretty uneventful until the baby was born. Carol and I talked and did more of the same loafing around for the next several hours. At about 1pm she was dilated to 9cm. Since she was so dilated I thought that the baby would be coming any second. That would not be the case. Dixie had another mother next door that was having difficulty pushing her baby out. Carol would have to wait until that baby was born. Carol continued to manage her pain with no help from medicinal anesthetic. The nurses that came in the room referred to her as ‘Super Woman’. I occasionally pushed on her back which offered some pain relief but that was the extent of my helping. There was not much that I could do. Carol managed her pain extremely well. Dixie came in for a few seconds at a time to see how Carol was doing. On one of her visits she turned some weird hippy earth music on to help create a “soothing” atmosphere. I don’t know how Carol felt, but it drove me nuts. I turned it down rather than turning it off so Dixie would not be offended that I hated her music. At about 8pm we heard cries from the other room which meant that it was getting close to our turn. Sure enough, Dixie came in shortly thereafter and was able to focus all her time on Carol. Dixie did better with the music the second time. She picked some church hymns played on a piano. It was much more relaxing. Not that the music was for me, but I hope that Carol was able to relax to it better because things were about to get intense. Dixie broke Carol’s water. I was amazed at how much fluid came out. It was now pushing time. I helped by holding Carol’s legs as she pushed through contractions. Carol was not talking much at this point. It must have been the pain. One of the nurses showed me how to tell that Carol was having a contraction by watching squiggly lines on a monitor. It was a little helpful. Carol’s face actually gave me the best cues as to when she was having a contraction. Her eyes would start to get really wide and then I would know that she needed me to start pushing against her legs. This went on for about 45 minutes and then the real action started. When the contractions intensified to certain point, I stepped aside and only help up one of Carol’s legs. Dixie stepped in to deliver the baby. I was proud of Carol as she pushed. She was in obvious pain. She was working really hard. Her face was a purplish red and she had a vein that would poke out on her forehead. After a few hard contractions Derek’s little head was barely visible. I knew that this was the hardest thing that Carol had ever done. She was doing so great, but I could see in her eyes that she wanted to quit and be done with it. Dixie yelled out words of encouragement. I only spoke words of encouragement. I am not much of a yeller. Dixie’s loud voice seemed to motivate Carol through the really tough points because Carol just kept pushing. It was amazing. I was so proud of her. Derek’s entire head came out first. Dixie and I both excitedly pronounced, “He is here!” Carol relaxed at that point for a brief second. I think that she may have assumed that it was all over. We needed the rest of his body so Dixie raised her voice again and encouraged Carol to keep pushing. Seconds later, Derek was really here. He had dark hair and appeared completely healthy. I was so excited. I looked back at Carol and wanted her to have the same excitement that I had, but she only lay on the bed completely exhausted. Dixie handed me some scissors to cut the umbilical cord. The afterbirth follow shortly…I think it happened in that order. I just wanted to see Derek. I wasn’t really worried about much else going on. Derek was breathing perfectly which was such a relief after the ordeal that Jackson went through. Dixie handed Derek to me and I put him on a scale to weigh him. He weighed in at a solid 7 pounds 11 ounces. He went to Carol right after that. By this point she was able to eke out a few small smiles but in large was still terribly exhausted and showed little emotion. The Hospital Cafeteria made Carol a sandwich. I fed it to her while she held Derek. After all the work and pain that Carol went through, feeding her a sandwich was the least I could do. She was my hero after enduring such amazing pain. I would have done anything for her.

Mark was in town now and was able to stay with the kids so Teri could come out to see Carol and our new baby. She picked up some food for me at Arby’s. That was very nice of her. Carol moved to another room with Derek about an hour and a half after the birth. She was doing much better by the time she got to her new room. I stayed and talked with her until about 11pm. I was so excited for her. She did a wonderful job. I am proud that she chose to deliver the baby naturally and that she fought through all the pain. It was incredible to see how strong she was. Equally as cool was how healthy Derek was at birth. It was a wonderful day.