Graham makes a grand entrance!

Graham Taylor Lund | 5lb 11oz | 18in long

                                              Right before we left for the hospital.

I had a lot of thoughts during this pregnancy. Each pregnancy has left me with different strengths, but also a few different scars too. I have had a lot of anxiety and partly some desperation toward this third delivery. I knew I could do it, I knew my body was capable, but I just didn’t want to repeat the amount of hours of pushing, forceps delivery, or placental abruption. After I had Alice, my first thought was that I never wanted to do an unmedicated birth again 😂 the last two hours of pushing and the midwife having to literally help pull Alice out was painful, hard, and not at all what I expected. My recovery after Peter’s birth was probably one of the loneliest and most painful times of my life. But now that I am where I am now, Heavenly Father has sent me ample rewards for getting through it. I am also SO grateful to some dear friends that held space for me. As much as I needed during that time even if they didn’t need to hear quite so much. Someone listening was so healing for me.

 

Isn’t it funny when your body goes into labor? At least for me, It always happens on a day I am not expecting anything to happen. Same for Graham. I was having braxton hicks before bed, and didn’t think too much about it. I drank some water and then fell asleep. I started waking up throughout the night with cramps. I hoped by ignoring them they might just stop because I am 36 weeks. 😂 by 6am I was wide awake and couldn’t sleep from the cramps so I headed to the tub.

I love the tub! After an hour of timing contractions I realized they were not stopping, and they were also pretty close together. So I was in labor! I spent most of my labor just trying to do my breathing exercises well.

I remember telling myself to toughen up and that I need to start practicing my breathing a lot better next pregnancy. What I didn’t realize was that I was in full active labor this whole time. After a while, my contractions slowed to be every 7 minutes. That stayed that way for a few hours. I kept thinking maybe this was fake labor, but it still was hard to get through them. I wasn’t sure I could keep doing this all day. Taylor and I laid in bed and turned on the new star wars. I breathed through the contractions and listened to my tracks to help me get through them. I tried to rest as much as I could in between them, and every time a contraction started picking up, I was kind of wishing it was over. I had to keep telling myself to accept the contraction, breathe correctly, and that this is what brings my baby to me. By around 2pm my contractions started picking up again. Every three minutes. I did feel some radiating pain during my contractions that made it a little harder. I still couldn’t tell how close I was to having this baby, and decided we better get ready to go to the hospital.

We packed up, and headed toward AF hospital. Stopped at my favorite tropical smoothie cafe for a smoothie! Had a few hard contractions in the drive thru haha. Then we stopped at good earth, and Taylor ran in to get me some arnica! I don’t typically take anything at the hospital because I have high anxiety of symptoms I have happen, and the arnica helps with pain and swelling after delivery.

We arrived at the hospital at 5! Just praying so hard I was dilating. We went into the triage room, they asked lots of questions, and monitored baby. I was still breathing through them, trying to accept the contractions. So far I had been able to remain pretty peaceful.

They checked my cervix, and I was dilated to a 5 and 80% effaced at about 5:20. I was so glad I was definitely in labor!

We headed to the delivery room. We were the only ones there so they gave us the best and biggest birthing room. It was so sweet of them!

I headed in, went to the bathroom one more time because I had been drinking lots of liquids. I had been feeling like my contractions would almost radiate at the end. Like I was trying to allow my body to open up. I had a contraction on the toilet, and then again next to a chair on the way back to the bed.

For ONE contraction Taylor tried doing pressure points to help me with the contractions, but I was laying on my side and it did not feel good at all. I told him to wait until I went into a better position.

They put my hep lock in, and I asked if I would be able to take a bath in the tub. They turned it on for me because it takes a while to fill up, but told me my midwife was almost there and would check me before I go in.

I then asked the nurses if I could go to the bathroom while we were waiting. I told them I think I needed to poop just a tiny bit. She said she would definitely need to check me before I went to the bathroom. I was a little annoyed they wanted to check me, but wanted to go to the toilet so I had her check me. She said I was at a 10! Right after she said that, I had a contraction. I decided to try pushing during it, and out burst my water! Like Niagara falls burst all over the nurses, it was so much water! And then right after my water broke, one nurse yelled for respiratory and support while I pushed again, and out came his head, and then the rest of his body. I was in shock! And disbelief? I just birthed my baby in one contraction. I was in heaven & already so grateful for what just happened. Taylor exclaimed it’s a boy! It’s a boy! The nurses were so kind, and told me I didn’t even make a peep during any of it. Nobody in the room including myself was expecting Graham to come out when he did. I was just trying to stay calm haha! It helps me the most. I was planning to document some of my labor and be ready for pictures when he came out. Oops! Luckily Taylor grabbed his phone fast so we did get some pictures pretty shortly after.

 

They laid him on me but only to my belly button because his cord was so short. Once they cut the cord, they brought him to me. Taylor usually helps me for hours doing pressure points and supporting me. It was so surreal that we didn’t have any of that this time. My midwife showed up 10 minutes after I had him. She was wonderful, and helped deliver the placenta and stitch me up. She was so great in honoring my request of no pitocin if I didn’t need it. Both previous labors I have had tingling and numb feeling from my head down to my throat. I was trying to avoid repeating anything if I didn’t have to. Luckily no pitocin this time! And no tingling! Yay!

I could not have asked for a better delivery, the nurses gave us ample time to bond and breastfeed. I will leave the rest of our hospital stay for another day. It was the most frustrating, & tiring stay I have ever had. I am just so grateful and happy we have Graham in our family.