Easton
This is our first born, Easton. My labor and delivery with him was long, scary, and everything I didn't want. I was induced unexpectedly 2 days before his due date. My goal was an unmedicated birth with no interventions, but God clearly had a different plan. I wasn't progressing very quickly which led to intervention after intervention. I labored for 30 hours in the hospital. At hour 28 I got an epidural and that's when things went from bad to worse. My epidural was one sided and made me nauseous. They tried to move me into other positions to help with the nausea but if I was in any position other than sitting up-right, Easton's heart rate would decelerate and was taking too long to return to normal. Eventually the doctor ordered my Pitocin to be shut off and my body essentially came out of labor; contractions 10 minutes apart and becoming weaker. We had no choice but to have a very unplanned cesarean. It wasn't anything like we planned, but we are so thankful for the ability to get him out safely and that we got to hold our amazing little boy after all that time.
Stella
This is our second born, Stella. My labor and delivery story with her couldn't be more different than my previous. My goal, again, was an unmedicated delivery; except this time I was chasing a VBAC which made things a little more complicated. I had been experiencing contractions the whole week leading up to her birth. There were multiple false alarms and frustration was setting in as her due date came and went. 2 days after her due date I woke up around 8am and noticed contractions. I didn't think much of it due to the false alarms earlier that week. Around noon I noticed they were getting progressively stronger and closer together. At 2:30 we called the hospital 35 minutes away and talked to traige, ultimately making the decision to stay home for while longer. Contractions continued to get closer and closer together until we decided to head to the hospital around 4pm. We checked in around 5pm and began the whole process of paperwork and monitoring baby. I labored fairly comfortably for a few hours until around 9pm when things really started to pick up in intensity. I began shaking and was having a really tough time breathing through contractions. I used every coping technique I could think of. My husband and nurses were amazing at keeping me calm and focused on the goal. About 45 minutes later I felt the intense need to push. I pushed for roughly 20-30 minutes before we were holding our beautiful baby girl!
