Welcome To The World Beckett!

Beckett William Pratt joined our family on November 24, 2015 just two days before Thanksgiving! His labor and delivery were very different from my other two experiences.  I started having false labor contractions on Saturday the 21st.  This is not unusual for me, with both Reid and Hayden I had false labor and then a few days later went into actual labor.  So on Saturday I was pretty excited thinking this was my false labor, and then in a few days I'd have real labor start.  My mom was flying in Tuesday, so I thought the timing was working out pretty well.  Well each day after, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I had labor off and on all day and night, but it never went anywhere.  I was so confused and didn't know what to make of it all since I had never experienced this.  On Tuesday morning I woke up and went on a long walk with Reid. I was having contractions, but again it was going all over the place.  By noon, I didn't feel good enough to drive to the airport to pick up my mom with the contractions and vomiting, so Paul went.  It was around noon that my contractions were starting to get more consistently spaced out, about every 2-5 minutes but they were not lasting very long each time.  I got really emotional at this point because I had been in "false" labor for so long and didn't know what was going on.

Paul called The Midwives Place around 3pm and explained what was happening and they said that I could come in and they would examine me. Amie Houser had locked her keys in her car and couldn't pick up the kids from school so Paul ran to pick them up and then raced home to take me to the Midwives Place.  I was not too convinced that we should go, I thought they'd say, "nope, you're not in labor, go back home."  We started driving there (about a 25 min. drive) and we realized we left our camera.  We had brought our bags "just in case." So I said to Paul, "you might as well go back and get it, I'm not even really in labor..." and then right as we turned around I had a hard contraction that lasted over a minute!  So the whole way there I had really steady contractions lasting over a minute long every few minutes.  Of course we hit every light and I swear there is nothing more painful than contracting in a car!  We got there and they checked to see if I had dilated and I was at a 6!  They later explained that I had all those contractions because he was facing the wrong way and the back of his head was hitting a nerve that was causing contractions.

Soon after arriving around 4:30 pm I got in the tub which helped SO MUCH!  My midwife Latrice and nurse were both AMAZING.  They would put pressure on my hips with each contraction which helped take some of the edge off of the pain.  They guided me by telling me what positions to get in.  They were helpful and supportive 100% of the labor, they were just amazing, I cannot emphasize that enough.  Paul was also amazing like he was for my last labor.  He stayed right by my side and did whatever needed to be done.  I definitely couldn't do natural birth without a supportive "coach" (Bradley Method).  I labored for about 3 hours, mostly in the tub, or sitting backwards on the toilet.  They were trying to get my hips open to give Beckett room to turn around.  Around 7:30 pm I started feeling the urge to push, but my cervical lip was still in the way, so they had me get out of the tub and I went to the bed and labored the rest of the time on my side. The only problem with this position was that my top hip kept cramping up on me!

It's funny because once I hit transition in my labor with Reid I was in a lot of pain and that seemed to be the worst part.  I only pushed for 15 minutes and then he was born.  With Beckett I didn't even entirely realize I was in transition and then when I was getting the urge to push I thought, "I'm in the home stretch, 15 more minutes and I'll be done!" Well about an hour later Beckett was born!  I seriously did not think a woman giving natural birth would have to push that long. The pain and urge to push are so intense, I just thought I pushed harder than I did with the epidural.  Well that is not the case, I pushed just as hard as I did with Reid and it was horrible for every single second.  Seriously the most painful, challenging thing I have ever done.  At the end it took 1 contraction to push his head, and 1 contraction for each shoulder!  He was born at 8:41 pm and weighed 9 lbs 12 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long.  After he was born one of the midwives said, "how big was your other son?" We responded, "9 lbs 5 oz" and she said, "I think you have a new heavy weight champ!"

Post delivery was amazing!  They let me hold him skin to skin for a long time.  He did cry a lot though!  Way more than our other babies.  I seriously got a little bit worried that he was going to be a hard baby he cried so much.  But once I nursed him he quieted down and slept.  The midwives brought us homemade bread, I drank my yummy orange juice that we had brought.  Paul went and picked up breakfast from IHOP because it was the only open place.  We took an herbal bath together, got all cleaned up, and after all the medical tests they sent us home around 1:30 am.  Crazy!  But it was actually really nice to sleep in our own bed and not be bugged by nurses all night long.  We also got his footprints and put them up on the wall with all the other babies born there.

It's pretty crazy how perfect the timing worked.  My mom got to our house around 1pm, we left the house around 4, Beckett was born at 8:41 pm and we were home by 2 am!  I was nice having my mom there so we didn't have to worry about the kids.  She was shocked when we walked in the door at 2 am!  She got to meet Beckett and introduce herself.

Paul and I are so grateful that despite the crazy start to labor everything went smoothly and we were able to have such a good experience at The Midwives Place.  They were amazing and I wish I had delivered all my babies in their very capable hands!

I wish I had better photography skills!  But here was my attempt at a few newborn pictures:

This is the one we used for his birth announcement: