Two Births

Stephen at one week old

My son, Stephen, was born 26 years ago today in New Orleans.  What a difference these days in the whole birth experience from back then.  My doctor was very sought after and I was fortunate to get into his practice when I did. He was also old-fashioned and very cautious.  I found out I was pregnant the old-fashioned way...through a blood test at his office.  Over-the-counter pregnancy tests were not around.  He did a pelvic exam every single office visit because, as he told me, "I've lost too many babies due to incompetent cervix."  So he always made sure every month that all was well. My pregnancy went along well with no sickness.  I was very healthy except for one incident.  When I was 3 months pregnant, I fell down some steps at work and landed on my side.  Sprained my wrist, had a black eye, bruised up all over from the fall.  The doctor put me on paragoric (sort of a muscle relaxer/sedative/tranquilizer)and I slept for 3 days. That was to keep me from losing Stephen. Well, it worked but I don't know that they'd do that today.  When my due date approached my doctor talked to me about a c-section. He said, "You can go into labor but the end result will be the same...you will have to have a c-section".  I had cephalopelvic disproportion...in other words, the baby's head was too big to be born the normal way...I was too small.  Back then, I didn't do much reading about birth except for what the doc had given me in the way of materials. So,  I just said okydokey, let's plan the c-section.  On September 24, I went into the hospital, checked into my room, had a great dinner (the food was actually good) and went to sleep.  The c-section was scheduled for noon the next day.  About 7 am the nurses came in and did the "full-bucket enema" and complete shave! haha. None of them liked my doctor because of all his requirements.  The doc came in and said let's do it.  It was 10:00 a.m.  I just remember saying "wow, we're early" and they rolled me on the stretcher to the operating room.  Got my epidural, which was quite a painful procedure. They let my husband come in and things proceeded.  The doctor and his nurses were making bets on the baby's weight and sex.  (Back then ultrasounds were not common).  My doctor predicted 8 lbs. 1 oz.  When Stephen was born, he pee-peed on the doctor immediately.  His weight? 8 lbs even.  The doc said he lost the 1 oz in the pee.  Good job!

I stayed in the hospital learning to nurse and recovering from the c-section for 6 days! Isn't that amazing? These days c-section patients are released in about 3 days at most.  I took that boy home to our little apartment at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary where I was able to be a stay-at-home mom while my husband went to school and worked.  We lived very inexpensively and were very happy!  22 months later my daughter was born in the same way at the same hospital.

Landon at several days old

    

Now jump ahead 26 years later.  9 days ago my little grandson was born.  I have to say that my daughter is my hero! I've seen her birth 2 babies and it's an amazing thing to watch.  She was so strong and determined and focused during both births.  This time she was 3 days past her due date and so agreed to be induced.  We have always heard negative things about being induced. It many times leads to c-sections when the labor stalls out.  She knew she was taking this chance but this being the second child, the midwife was certain things would be fine.  First of all, she had to call the hospital and find out when she could come. Then wait on another call for the final admittance time, be admitted,  get hooked up to the pitocin that stimulates labor, and then see what happens.  I got to the hospital soon after she started the pitocin at 9:25 am.  Some hours later she was at 3 cm and finally around suppertime was at 5 cm. We were happy about that since progress was being made.  At the beginning of the day she was sitting on the "birthing ball" that supposedly helps manage pain, etc.  Unfortunately, she experienced back labor as she did with her first child.  Time for the epidural then.  The contractions seemed to be a good regular pattern and then late in the afternoon she began to have severe pain in one spot.  The anesthesiologist "topped off" the epidural twice but the pain did not go away. As Erin's mom, I was having a hard time with this. I hated to see her hurt so much and, truthfully, it did alarm me. I wondered if something else was wrong.  Besides this pain she had not made any more progress in dilation and the contractions were getting further apart and irregular.  I was beginning to think "c-section".  And I got nervous merely because she had such a successful birth experience with her first.  Contrary to what most people think, a c-section is not that hard to recover from, especially when you're young and healthy so I wasn't worried about that part of it.  I'm sure we were just all second-guessing the decision for inducing at this point.

Around 8:00, she was still a 5 and the talk began about putting in an internal monitor to check the strength of the contractions.  The midwife returned at 9:15 and checked Erin again.  I heard her say something like, "Whoa, you're ready to start pushing"! I don't remember the exact words but we were ecstatic to learn that Erin had dilated 5 cm in one hour.  The team started to gather together, getting the warmer ready, the instruments ready, etc.  The comical part was that the nurses had to try and figure out how to get the bed set up for the "birthin'"!  It was a new bed and they had not had training on it. They kept calling other nurses in and asking them. That took a full ten minutes and finally Erin began to push at 9:25 pm after 12 hours of labor.  Everyone had left the room except the midwife, Brad, me, and a couple of nurses.  It was quiet and dark and calm.  The nurse coaching Erin had a very quiet voice and urged her at each push and counted to 10 each time.  Then we would wait about 3-4 minutes for the next contraction and she would push again.  I was amazed at how strong she was considering she couldn't feel a thing and was so numb from the several "topping offs" of the epidural.  At 9:45, the baby was born....amazing sight.  He was covered with the white "vernix" coating all newborns have and he came out crying.  He was just so cute.  That was my first thought...cute and, oh my goodness, all that dark hair.  (In comparison to big sister who had very little red hair).  He weighed 8 lbs, 1 oz. which was a pound and a half more than his sister. He cried and cried and had to be suctioned quite a bit.  I spent a few minutes taking pictures and standing over by Erin to see how she was doing and then I left and got my parents and husband to come see the newest family member...great-grandson, grandson, son, nephew, little brother!  We are so happy.  Thanks to our Lord for His blessing and the joy He gives to us in this life through events like this!

So there you have it.  A story of two births, 26 years apart, mother-daughter experiences and how different they were. Two boys, one by C-section, one vaginal birth.  Both born in September at the end of a long hot summer.  Both very loved and anticipated creations from God.