Cameron's Birth Story

In many ways, giving birth a second time was kind of a "first" for me. With my first, I was induced and ended up with a C-section, so this time I was really hoping to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean). I chose to go to Intown Midwifery, a midwife clinic, and one of two providers here in Atlanta that will regularly do a trial of labor after a Cesarean.

On Friday, June 7, around 3:30 am, I woke up having contractions that felt real. I had been having lots of Braxton Hicks throughout my pregnancy, but these felt different. Lets just say I spent a good hour and a half on the toilet before Pete woke up at 5 am and noticed I was gone. I told him what was going on and he perked right up to help with some last minute things like packing a hospital bag, etc.

Around 6 or 7, I called the on-call midwife, Julie, and told her my contractions were happening every 2-5 minutes. She said it was pretty much up to me when I wanted to come in (I think she could tell by my voice on the phone that I wasn't in tons of pain yet). I was nervous about going to the hospital only to be sent home for not progressing, so I really wanted to make sure this thing was real before I went in.

We hung out at home for a bit, waiting to see what happened. Emery woke up and I went in her room to get her right as a contraction started so Pete ended up coming in behind me to get her instead. She had this confused look on her face and said, "Why my Mama taking deep breaths?" (Just a cute Emery memory to store away for the future) :)

After calling our good friend, Lindsey, and seeing if she could come over and get Emery, we decided to head to the hospital. Once Lindsey came over, she assured me that I was really in labor (she has two kiddos of her own) and told me if I wanted my epidural I should probably get to the hospital. That, combined with thoughts of morning traffic, was enough to finally get me out of the door to the car :)

Once at the hospital, we learned I was at 4 cm and the contractions were still coming strong, so I was pretty sure this baby was coming! I got all checked in and everything and then just spent a lot of time walking around my hospital room, breathing through contractions. Pete was great and helped a lot, but I found I mostly just needed to be in my own little world as I worked on them. For some reason, putting my forehead on the cold countertop in my room seemed to help me stay in control and just be in the "zone."

view  of Atlanta from our hospital room

When the midwife came in to see me, she said "Wow, you're in a lot more labor than you were on the phone, huh?" My contractions were coming every 2-3 minutes now, and I was hoping my epidural was in the not too distant future. I was waiting for a bag of fluid to go through my IV (to counteract the blood-pressure dropping effect an epidural can have) before I could get the epidural.

At this point, I basically came to realize why a midwife/doula/support person is pretty amazing to have during labor. Julie kept saying wonderful things like "Stephanie, you're doing awesome!" and "you're getting into the intense part of labor right now," and "you are not being a wimp." 100% truth? Probably not, haha, but it was 100% what I needed to hear! Then she got me into the shower, sitting on a ball, with Pete spraying hot water on my stomach through contractions and on my back in-between. Wow, can you say AMAZING! This seriously worked wonders in helping me get through the contractions and I felt really grateful to be at a facility and have an awesome midwife where they advocate for things like that (they also have birthing tubs, allow intermittent monitoring, etc.).

I probably could have stayed there in the shower a little longer and progressed more, but when I found I was only at 5 cm and got the green light for an epidural if I wanted it, well, I couldn't pass it up...even when the person who gave me the epidural was an Anesthesia Assistant student and required a lot of guidance/help from the anesthesiologist. The only thing that kept me okay with the whole situation was thinking back to nursing school and just remembering that you have to learn sometime on someone. I wasn't the only one that thought the whole thing might be botched. Later, my nurse said "Oh honey, we were praying for you!" Luckily, the epidural was awesome...took away the pain, but I could still feel pressure and move my legs really well. What sweet relief! Gotta love modern medicine.

Post epidural pic. Feeling good!

Shortly after the epidural, my water broke. Then it was only a couple hours before I was complete and baby was descending. Right before it was time to start pushing, a different midwife came on duty (Julie was pregnant herself and having some preterm labor signs, so I couldn't blame her for needing to go home!). Julie gave me a hug and said "You're SO going to have this baby! No C-section!" And then Margaret, the new midwife, came and introduced herself. Ironically, she was the only midwife from the practice that I hadn't met yet. She is also the oldest and founding midwife of the clinic and I had heard really good things about her. She was super nice and personable and straightforward and I liked her immediately. It was so cool to see how comfortable she was delivering babies. As she chatted with us while she did her thing, it just seemed like it was second nature to her to be delivering a baby.

Finally, it was time to push! I had been feeling pressure for a while and the baby was getting really low. After a half hour of pushing, out came our sweet, big baby Cameron at 3:57 pm right onto my lap where I held him and snuggled him for about an hour. He kept up the nuchal cord tradition started by Emery, and when my water broke, it had meconium in it, but the midwife was not overly concerned by these things...such a different experience with these little hiccups in comparison to similar things with Emery's birth!

The first thing I thought when I saw Cam (who actually didn't have a name for two days), was that he was HUGE! Compared to my little 5 lb 14 oz Emery, Cameron seemed so chubby and big at 8 lbs 7 oz and 20.5 in long. I also had the thought that he looked a lot different than I thought he would. Weird, but I guess I thought he'd look just like Emery. Instead, he has blonde-brown hair, blonde eyelashes and eyebrows, and I think looks a lot more like my side of the family than Emery did as a newborn.

All in all, Pete and I were so happy with how the birth experience went. At times during my pregnancy, I questioned whether I should really try for a VBAC or just do another C-section, but I'm so glad that after lots of pondering and praying, I went for the VBAC! I know it's not the case for everyone, but doing the VBAC was definitely right for me. Recovery for both was definitely painful, but recovery time for a vaginal birth has been SO much quicker. I am really happy that I chose Intown Midwifery, too. I just really like having female providers, and I loved how they understood and validated my feelings after having a C-section and were willing to try a VBAC.

Also, I feel so grateful to wonderful friends who completely saved us when it came to taking care of Emery, bringing dinners, etc. We ended up staying in the hospital longer than we had planned and then ended up needing to go to a few doctors appointments and another hospital visit. Things wouldn't have gone nearly as well without our awesome friends who offered to take Emery, stay overnight at our place while she slept, bring us meals, etc. We feel so blessed to have great friends while being so far away from family.

The things I want to remember most about Cameron's birth are the sweet blessing that Pete gave me when we first got to the hospital. I love how comforting priesthood blessings are in all situations. Also, after I got my epidural, I just remember being with Pete alone in the hospital room and I could almost tangibly feel how incredibly excited both of us were. We knew we were just hours away from meeting our little baby, and we felt so happy!

I know I've got some long days and nights ahead of me, but from the time we met Cameron to now, I just keep thinking "I could get addicted to this." Meaning, becoming a parent again; bringing little humans into the world and just instantly loving them. It's such a miraculous and beautiful thing!