Birth Story of Anna Faith

Since I haven't updated the dusty ol' blog in months, I'll begin with my pregnancy! The pregnancy went very well. Morning sickness was manageable and it lasted until about 21 weeks. Once I was past that, the pregnancy flew by! I felt great up until the last couple of weeks where I felt the general fatigue and heaviness of being very pregnant! Overall, for experiencing my first pregnancy in my 40s, I felt great.

This photo was taken at 27 weeks.

About five days before the birth, I had my 39 week appointment.  At this appointment, we discussed our desired plan.  Since I dilate early, have issues with postpartum hemorrhage, and I feel strongly about having my own doctor deliver my babies, we decided to schedule an induction. For me, this means breaking my water.  The plan was for me to come in at 5:30am on Monday, April 20th. Though I loved the idea of getting as close to the due date as possible, I was a little nervous about not making it another five days, and missing my doctor.

Three days later, on Saturday, contractions began in the evening.  They didn't hurt at all, but were coming regularly.  I decided to get into the bath to see if they would slow down.  They did, so I pretty much stayed in bed and rested.

The next day, Sunday, the very same thing happened.  Except this time, the contractions were more consistent and a few were uncomfortable.  I again, got into the bath and then went to bed.  But they kept coming.  I prayed that God would allow me to make it just a few more hours so that I could get to the hospital when my doctor would be on duty.  There are a few doctors in the practice who may not be as open to some of my birth wishes. In addition to that, if I were to have an emergency situation arise, I prefer to have my own doctor make critical decisions on my behalf.  In the end, however, I knew that I would have to trust God with whatever direction the birth would go.

After several hours of debating whether or not to go to the hospital, contractions finally slowed down. We went to bed, and then got up at before dawn to arrive at the hospital at 5:30.

After we checked in, we were told I would be delayed because a string of women came in during the night with ruptured water bags, so the rooms filled up.  We decided to walk a bit to try and get things going again.  Contractions started up at about 9am. Around that same time, the staff decided to put me in a pre-op room to at least get things going until a room opened up.  I tested GBS positive, so I would need antibiotics before delivery.  They put me on the monitors, got my IV going, and started antibiotics. The contractions kept coming and they were getting more consistent and stronger.  Each time I had one, I could feel my bag of water bulging.  I was concerned that my water would break on its own before getting into a room.  Normally, I would gladly want my water to break on its own, but for this birth I had decided to have an epidural.  As with Grace's birth, and the concern of postpartum hemorrhage, I opted for the epidural so that I could avoid general anesthesia if an emergency arose.  And since I had made that decision to have an epidural, I was not the least bit interested in feeling the pains of labor AFTER my water breaks.  lol I wanted to get to my room, have the epidural, and then have my water broken!  It's funny how once that decision has been made, all my mental toughness just disappears.  Ha!

It was now nearing 11am and still no room.  At this point, a sweet friend of mine who was with us went to tell a nurse that I was no longer an "induction", that I was IN labor!  Shortly after that, a room was ready and things got moving quickly.  Within the next half hour, I was settled in my room, received my epidural, and had my water broken at 12:15.  I was already 5 centimeters dilated at that point.

Whew!  We made it!

Immediately after my water was broken, I had several good contractions.  But after a while, they started to lessen in intensity and get farther apart.  Darn epidural!  It has a way of slowing things down sometimes.  We were diligent to try different positions to get baby into a good position.  A couple hours later, I was 7 centimeters.  I was encouraged that progress had been made despite contractions slowing down.  At that point, I told the nurse that I have very fast transitions, and that all I need is one or two good contractions and I will be complete.  We had a lull in contractions, so we just waited.  And sure enough, I had one really good contraction and suddenly felt "that" pressure.  I asked my husband to get a nurse to check me.  I was complete!  Hooray!

I ended up pushing for a half hour, which is very unusual for me.  But the doctor said the baby's head still needed to turn a bit.  I remember laughing at how hard I had to work compared to previous births where pushing lasted only minutes.

Our beautiful Anna Faith was born at 3:29p, April 20, 2015.  She weighed 8 lbs 4 oz and was 20 3/4 inches long.  Praise God from whom all blessings flow!

The delivery went smoothly and I had no immediate bleeding issues.  Since I have a history of postpartum hemorrhage, I have to have pitocin immediately following the birth.  This aids my uterus in contracting properly to avoid excess bleeding.  All was well for the next eight hours.

Greg and I were just settling in for the night, and suddenly the bleeding started up in earnest.  Greg went to get the nurse, and there began the well-versed rounds of uterine massage, manual sweeps for clots, injections, and more pitocin.  It was very painful.  I remember thinking how glad I was that I had had the epidural during labor, because all of this after "stuff" is like a second labor. Ouch!

The nurses were amazing!  They ended up calling the L & D nurses who are more experienced with hemorrhages, and they worked diligently to get things under control.  A short while later, I was back on track and extremely thankful for the skill and wisdom of these nurses.

Amazingly, my blood pressure never dropped, and all my blood work came back normal.  What a praise!

After a two-day stay, it was time to go home!  This photo was taken as we were waiting to be discharged.

Here is our little darling at one week old!

Our oldest baby girl (22) with our youngest baby girl!  :)

We are so grateful for Anna, our 11th child.  Never in a million years would I have thought we'd have eight daughters!  Our three boys handle all this "girl madness" quite well.  They are sweet brothers!  :)

I hope this birth story wasn't too scattered and poorly written.  My goal was to get it up quickly, or I probably would never get it done due to.....life!  I was going through my drafts, and seeing that I have tons of them waiting to be finished.  Maybe someday I can get back to blogging, but for now, life is bursting at the seams and I don't want to miss it!

Blessings!

Grace's Birth-Part 2

Read Part 1 here.

I couldn't believe it.  We had gone from the joys and celebration of giving birth, to now facing a potential CPS situation.  And all over refusing Vit K and eye goop!

When we initially refused the treatments, the nurse was caught off guard.  She wasn't sure even what to do.  She said she would need to discuss it with the nursery staff and go from there.  When she returned, she handed me a refusal form and informed me that we would most likely be reported to child protective services.

Let me see if I understand this.  I can smoke cigarettes throughout my entire pregnancy if I wish to, and I can even choose to kill my baby in utero if I want to, but I can't decline a Vitamin K shot, or eye ointment that protects against exposure to STDs I know I don't have, without being reported to CPS?  Are you kidding me? 

Needless to say, our joy quickly turned to frustration.  The nurse left the room and we all discussed the situation.  Do we stand firm on our decision?  Or do we submit and give the shot. 

Because we have no moral objection to Vit K, we decided to go ahead and let them administer the shot.  Somewhere in all of this, I thought all the fuss was over the shot alone.  Even though I knew it was my right to refuse it (which we had in several previous births), it wasn't worth CPS getting involved.  We've been there before, and it isn't pretty! (Someday,  I will write about it.)

The nurse administered the shot.  A few minutes later, she came back with the eye ointment.  I was confused. I immediately said we were not allowing the ointment and told her we had only agreed to the Vit K.

Here we go again!

At this point, something inside me changed.  This was now a matter of principle!  No one was going to tell me what I could and couldn't do with MY child!  I told the nurse we would not be taking the ointment and that they could do whatever they needed to do about it. 

Once she left the room, I asked one my friends present to read the refusal form that we had been given earlier.  She pointed out several issues on the form, the most important one being that we would essentially be admitting to harming our child by refusing the treatments. 

We could not sign this form!

We explained the issues with the form to the nurse and she told us we would need to sign something or she would be held responsible.  I told her I would write a statement taking full responsibility for my decision and would not hold the hospital or the staff responsible, but that I would not sign a form that incriminates me as a parent. 

In the meantime, all we kept hearing was that this was the law.  In the state of Texas, the law requires the hospital staff to administer the eye ointment.  The law is a little tricky here because it does not prevent parents from refusing.  If the hospital has not checked their ointment box, they can be fined or even serve jail time.  No wonder they bully their patients.

Conversely, the Vitamin K shot is not required by law, however, you are required to sign the same incriminating "I'm-a-bad-parent" form if you refuse it.

By now, it's approaching midnight.  Greg and I are exhausted.  The nurse informs us that we will need to speak with Risk Management.  We weren't sure what to expect, but we said we would.  A short while later, a woman from RM calls me on the phone to discuss the matter.  She was very pleasant.  She asked me what was going on, and I informed her of every detail, even down to how our parental rights were being stripped away from us.  I also read her some of the ambiguous statements on the Refusal Form, and told her we could not sign a form in which we are admitting to harming our child.

She agreed with every word I said!

In fact, she wasn't even familiar with the form and agreed that parents should not be threatened with CPS for refusing these things.  I told her that I would gladly write my own statement taking full responsibility for my decision.  She said that would be fine!  She also said she would further investigate the whole CPS threat.

Shortly after speaking with RM, the nurse came back with a blank sheet of paper on which to write my statement.  I wrote my statement and then signed it.  When I gave it back to the nurse, she apologized for the situation.  Once she realized that we were informed parents, exercising our right to make decisions on behalf of our child, she was in our corner.  She continued to apologize throughout the evening.  We really appreciated her kindness and sensitivity toward us, and felt badly for her, that she would dare be held accountable for our decisions.

To make a potentially longer story short, all turned out well.  We were never reported to CPS, and everyone left us alone once we signed our statement.  The staff treated us with care and respect, and we were back to baby bliss!

The next morning however, when we refused the Hep B shot (to which we do have a moral objection), we were handed the famous form.  Again!  And again we were not going to sign it.  I found it quite interesting that they use the same form for "treatments" that are both required and not required by law.  Intimidated moms don't stand a chance against these types of bully tactics.

Funny enough, no one ever came back for our refusal form, so we averted another statement signing session.  And at exactly the 24 hour mark, at 10:00 PM, we were discharged and on our way HOME SWEET HOME!

Now, on a personal note: I struggled with all of this for a couple of days.  Since we had no moral objections to the Vit K or the eye ointment, I wondered if refusing them was the right thing to do.  After all, even Scripture tells us to submit to the governing authorities unless it's something contrary to the word of God.  (Keep in mind, we had refused these in the past without incident).  Was this something worth fighting for, or should we just quietly go along?

But as my husband and I thought and talked more about it, we were sure we did the right thing.  Our parental rights are being stripped away more and more every day!  By submitting to even these small scenarios, we are slowly giving the government more control and power over decisions regarding our children.  God has given us charge over our children, not the government.  We've read too many stories recently in the news where children are being removed from their homes because their parents made an informed decision about homeschooling, or a vaccine, or a medical treatment. 

**Please note that I am not saying you should do or think the same.  Every parent must weigh the situation, pray, and proceed as God directs.  This is simply how we feel/felt.**

Because we are growing increasingly concerned about our parental rights, we are investing more time and effort into keeping them.  You can too by going to parentalrights.org and signing the Proposed Parental Rights Amendment to the U.S Constitution petition.  You can also watch Overruled and share it with your friends and family.

Despite those few hairy hours, nothing could overshadow the joy of bringing a precious new life into the world.  We are so thankful for our beautiful Grace, and thankful for God's grace, abundantly poured out upon us!

Have you had a similar experience?  Do you decline Vitamin K or Eye Ointment?  What would you have done if you found yourself in a similar situation? 

Grace's Birth-Part 1

This birth story is much different than my previous stories.  As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I knew I would need to deliver back in the hospital.  After my last home birth, and my second significant hemorrhage, the hospital would be the safest place for me.

It is really difficult to return back to the hospital after home birthing.  Even though I'd had seven wonderful hospital births, something changes psychologically after you've home birthed.  At least, for me it did.

About a month before my due date, my husband and I asked my doctor when he would be on call.  One very important aspect of the impending birth was that I delivered with my beloved and trusted OB doctor.  If I had to be in the hospital, I had to have my own doctor.   I realized that it was not so much the birth itself that I needed him, it was the potential post-partum issues I needed him for.  If I would require any type of emergency intervention at all, I must have the doctor with whom I've known for 12 years, and whom I would trust to make a quick decision on my behalf. 

The day we would shoot for was November 8th.  We knew that day my doctor would be on call for 24 hours.  We also knew that having baby number 10 would pretty much squelch any questions about my being in labor if I wandered in a week before my due date.  :)

So, it was time.  November 8th was here and we had to decide if we really wanted to proceed with that day.  I struggled off and on about going into the hospital before it was "time".  I am all about waiting for things to happen on their own.  So the thought of going in before made me a nervous wreck.  But after more discussion about facing a possible emergency situation and having my own doctor, we knew this was the best decision. 

The ride to the hospital was very quiet.  My husband I both were secretly wondering how everything would play out.  We were very excited about meeting this precious baby, but we were both nervous about what would unfold after the birth.  No matter how much we prayed, how much Scripture we read and recited, or how many people told us to "give it to God", we were just plain nervous!  It's just something you can't understand unless you've been there.  We trusted God with all our hearts and minds, but it didn't take away the fears of what His plan might be after the birth.  I don't mean to sound ominous here.  We new my life was not in danger, it's just that hemorrhaging is a scary thing, and it feels terrible.  I didn't want to face what I had in the past, and was praying I wouldn't have to.

We arrived at the hospital about noon.  And as I predicted, the nurses didn't hesitate to get me right into a room upon hearing I was in early labor.  Thankfully, I had been having enough contractions to genuinely say that I was in early labor.

Once I was settled, I was started on antibiotics for GBS.  Shortly after that, we discussed the possibility of an epidural.  Leading up to the birth, this was another decision we tossed around, again,  because of my post-partum issues.  If I would need quick attention, an epidural would prepare me for whatever needed to be done.  If I didn't have an epidural, it could mean possible general anesthesia. 

So many decisions.  I felt lost.  This birth challenged me in every possible way.  Everything pointed toward intervention and I didn't like it.  After one more discussion about an epidural, we decided it would be best to go ahead and do it. 

Just before my second round of antibiotics, I received the epidural.  It was a challenge getting it in, and it took quite a while for it to kick in.  I had second thoughts about having received it, but it was too late.

It was now time to get the show on the road.  The doctor came in and broke my water.  This is something I opted for to avoid pitocin.  We were officially on our way to meeting our baby.  My two older daughters and friends had arrived and we all had a great time talking and laughing.

The labor was a bit slow going (for me), but after about five hours of labor, it was time to push!  Thankfully, despite the epidural, I was still very much in control of my pushing and I could feel our baby move down.  And at 9:55pm, she was here!  We were all surprised she was a girl since the whole family had guessed a boy.  But we were thrilled and completely in love with our seventh daughter!  She was perfect! 

My doctor laid her on my abdomen, skin-to-skin, and waited while allowing the cord to stop pulsing.  As soon as Grace was born, the nurse turned up the pitocin to get my uterus contracting to minimize the bleeding.  I held my sweet baby and took in all that I could, trying not to worry about whether or not I was bleeding too much.

My doctor massaged my abdomen steadily for quite a while and then said everything looked good!  I was speechless!  No hemorrhaging?  I couldn't believe it!  God had allowed everything to go as smoothly as possible, and I was absolutely fine!  Praise God!

After about an hour of wonderful bonding time with our baby girl, the nurse came over to administer the vitamin K shot and the prophylactic eye ointment. 

But we kindly refused them both. 

At that moment, things changed and before we knew it, we were being told that we would be reported to CPS.

To be continued......