Wells' Birth Story - Part 1

"Natural childbirth is good, but God always has a better way of doing everything. Supernatural always exceeds natural in any area. And when we decide to do it His way, the results are amazing!" 
- Jackie Mize Supernatural Childbirth


This birth experience was vastly different from the birth of my first baby. It was truly a Supernatural Childbirth. What do I mean by "Supernatural Childbirth"? I mean having "faith in God's Word to bring about what man has declared impossible." I'm talking about a pain free (drug free) natural labor and delivery. Sounds like I'm pretty delusional, right? I'm sure you're thinking that I am surely making this up. But I can assure you. I'm not.

This experience was insanely spiritual and so intensely intimate between God and myself, that for the first time ever in the history of the world I am choosing NOT TO SHARE THE WHOLE STORY. Shocking, I know!! As a chronic over-sharer this is definitely way out of character for me. But let me explain myself. It's not because I feel like I shouldn't share how God worked through this experience and spared me from the pain of childbirth but quite the opposite. This birth was such an intimate experience between God and myself that I think those specific details should be reserved for a private conversation. Trust me. I KNOW that God led me through this experience to spread His glory. It's something that NEEDS to be talked about, I WANT to talk about and LOVE talking about!! I'm supposed to talk about it. It's NOT for me to keep private. So please note that a lot of the spiritual aspects of this birth story have been omitted - but there were SO there - and had they not been I know (without any doubt) that my physical experience would not have been what it was. 

That being said: If you are AT ALL curious about how God quite literally picked up my burden of a painful childbirth and placed it on his own back, I want to encourage you to ask! Please reach out in any way that you feel comfortable and let's have a conversation. Let's meet for coffee, or exchange some emails. Because it's quite important that I DO share ALL of the details. I know that's why He led me through this experience. 

Okay, let's get started shall we?? 

2:45ish p.m. - It was the afternoon of March 30, 2016. My due date. (Throughout the day, I noticed that I had been losing a lot more of the mucous plug.) Heidi and I had both just settled in for our afternoon nap after a fabulous morning playdate with a friend and her daughter. While I was sleeping, Ryan texted me that he would be working a little bit late, but was working hard to get home as soon as he could.

4:51 p.m. - I had just started waking up and heard Heidi making some noise in her crib when Ryan called me to say that he was on his way home. I had been wanting to take a few belly pictures (mostly to compare to some pictures I had taken when I was 9 months pregnant with Heidi and to some other pictures I had taken earlier in my pregnancy with Wells). So I decided to go ahead and take these now before going to get Heidi out of her crib. I grabbed a swimsuit and headed to our bathroom.

5:05 p.m. - I took the last belly picture, put my clothes back on and went to get Heidi up from her nap.

5:05 p.m. - 40 weeks pregnant, 10 minutes before my water broke!!

5:15 p.m. - I went into the kitchen and pulled a package of chicken out of the freezer to thaw in the sink for dinner. While I was standing in the kitchen filling the sink with hot water I suddenly felt a small (large?) gush! (I had been wearing maxi pads through almost my entire pregnancy and while this gush FELT like enough to saturate the entire pad it actually was not.) I was worried that I wouldn't make it to the bathroom without leaking all over the floor so I just held myself and rushed as fast as I was physically able to the bathroom, where I put on an adult diaper. (Shout out to Always Discreet adult diapers - those things do a fabulous job!! I would recommend these to any pregnant [or freshly post-partum running] mama! You can also click HERE for a free sample!) The second my water broke I was SO happy and just couldn't stop smiling!!

Labor with first baby lasted approx. 18 hours from the moment my water broke to the time she came out, so this time around I was guessing it would take me somewhere between 6-9 hours from start to finish. (Honestly, I was just praying that we could knock this thing out before midnight!) At this point, I was only a little uncomfortable and slightly crampy so I just went about my business... And since Ryan was driving home in traffic, I decided not to call him and tell him. I didn't want him to be panicking in traffic and plus how much MORE fun would it be to tell him in person?!

5:24 p.m. - While I was napping, I had missed a FaceTime call from my sister, so I tried calling her back, but she didn't answer so I just decided to text my mom and sister that this thing was about to go down. I then put on some headphones and listened to Nelly's "Heart of a Champion" to get myself pumped up (hehe). I was so excited that it was time to do this!! I made a little list of things we needed to do before we left for the hospital (empty the trash, throw a few things in the refrigerator away, etc.) then decided that I needed to vacuum the downstairs. (And in case anyone is wondering what my first child was doing during all of this... she was watching "Christmas show" aka "Elf" - her favorite!)

5:26 p.m. -  Priorities

5:29 p.m. - Drive faster Ryan!!

5:50 p.m. - Ryan finally got home!! Heidi and I opened up the back door and I asked how it was going... and then asked "Are you ready to finish packing our bags??" He said "Really?!" Then we hugged and both started crying.

6:08 p.m. - I called our doula. I told her not to rush or anything because I was still feeling pretty "normal" and contractions were hardly even time-able.

6:15 p.m. - I decided to shower and start getting ready, so I got into the shower and took off my pants and diaper and just stood there with no water running. This is when I can recall first feeling a true "start and stop" contraction - periods of discomfort and pressure broken up by feeling relatively "normal". I just kept standing there letting "stuff" trickle out of me. I also felt my water break a lot more as another larger gush happened. Next up to call was our birth photographer. I told her this thing was goin down, but since I wasn't really that uncomfortable we just left it at "We'll keep you updated!"

At this point, my water had been broken for just over an hour and I was starting to estimate that contractions were coming roughly every 10 minutes. Contractions this time felt much different than with my first labor. Much more in the front and a lot more of a tight menstrual feeling (with my first baby, I felt contractions SO strongly in my rectum and butt). I definitely felt a lot of pressure too, and it was uncomfortable... but not painful. With each contraction, I was SO focused on releasing my pelvic floor, concentrating on letting my body open up and visualizing my baby moving down and out of me. I think the first time you give birth, it's so natural to respond to contractions by tightening up, clenching your pelvic floor and trying to keep yourself from peeing or pooping!! I tried so hard this time to just release and open up. If pee needed to come out then by gosh I let it come out. (At one point, while just standing in the shower I asked Ryan to bring some paper towels and a trash can and to just give me a few minutes of privacy. I felt like there was a small chance that I might just squat and poop right there in the middle of the shower and if that needed to happen I didn't want to try and stop it! I just wanted everything to open up!)

I was so excited and so happy that I was finally in labor, that if someone had been watching me from a distance, you would have thought that I was actually enjoying these contractions - and to be honest - I WAS enjoying it (as much as one can I suppose). I was not screaming, but just letting out low moans and smiling (yes, smiling!) through each contraction. Swaying side to side with my legs a few feet apart...focusing, praying. I turned on one of my faves "Oh How I Need You" by All Sons & Daughters and put it on repeat.

While standing in the shower (pantsless), I was debating on whether it was worth it or not to actually turn on the water and shower at this point. I felt kind of gross (just that feeling of wanting to wash your hair mostly) but I know how messy labor is so I wasn't quite sure if it was worth my time to bathe. It took me so long to decide, that by now I had crap all over my legs (not actual crap but you know - JUNK) so I knew that I would need to shower if I was going to get into the car. So shower I did. As with my first time, showering relaxes me a little too much so it was kind of hard to tell what contractions were doing... maybe still around 10 minutes or so but not really sure. I also realized I was starting to get hungry (at this point it was dinner time!) and told Ryan that we should stop and pick up some sandwiches on our way to eat in the car (even though last time I just ended up throwing my last meal up I still felt like I needed to put something in my stomach before I was "not allowed to" at the hospital...who knows how long it would be until I could get some real food again!?)

6:54 p.m. - Finished up with my shower, put on another diaper and was about to start drying my hair. Ryan's mom had also come over to pick up Heidi at this point. VERY quickly both Ryan and I started to realize that things were suddenly happening really fast. (I think even Ryan's mom noticed from the other room how fast this was going based on how frequently the periods of humming and moaning were happening!) I also realized right around this time that there wasn't really going to be time for hair or makeup, so I just dried my scalp and slapped on a minimal amount makeup during what little time I had between contractions while Ryan was running around getting a few last minute things ready.

I felt like contractions were coming every 1-2 minutes, but thought that CERTAINLY I was mistaken. ("There's no way!") Honestly, I thought that I must have been confusing discomfort between contractions for actual contractions and that they weren't actually that close... well I was wrong, which I quickly learned. We started really rushing!

6:58 p.m. - In our group text, my mom, sister and I often communicate via picture instead of words, which is why this picture exists in the first place. "What's going on?!" This. Adult diaper. Sexy nursing bra. Ryan rushing to clean things up after I got out of the shower. 

7:14 p.m. - Heidi left with Ryan's mom. I had kind of built up this "last hug" I would have with her as my only baby, but I think my crying was scaring her so it ended up not being quite so climactic - which is probably a good thing because I would have cried like a frickin baby if she had been hanging on to me! Regardless, we had our goodbye hugs and kisses and then it was go time.

7:25 p.m. - The car was finally loaded up and we were ready to go. I started to walk outside to the car but felt another contraction coming on and quickly turned back around, telling Ryan "I gotta get back inside, I gotta get back inside"... because I could hear our neighbors outside and didn't want them to hear me moaning loudly in our backyard (I'm sure that would have been... suspicious...haha). Once that contraction passed I quickly headed outside to the car, wanting to make it in there before the next contraction. A few minutes prior to this I knew that I was past the point of being able to ride sitting in the passenger seat, so I had told Ryan that I wanted to ride in the BACK of the car (meaning the trunk - we have a small SUV) but he took that to mean the back SEAT. So once we got outside he opened up the trunk to throw a few last minute things in and it was packed with bags and the car seats he had hurriedly ripped out from the back seat. NOOOO!! I didn't want to be confined... but oh well. At this point it was definitely too late to move things around, so into the back seat I climbed. I had my knees on the floor and was bent over the seat - with my elbows supporting my torso. (After I had maneuvered myself into the back seat, our neighbor poked his head over the fence and asked Ryan "When's that baby coming??" to which Ryan responded "Right this minute!!!") And off we went...!

Read Part 2 of Wells' Birth Story HERE!