ASPEN'S BIRTH STORY

As I sit here writing this I have two babies sound asleep on each shoulder. I have kids now. KIDS! Being a mother is one of the biggest parts of who I am. Though motherhood doesn't define me, it is one of the greatest blessings to love and nurture two perfectly imperfect little ones. I want to document these moments so that they will never be forgotten!

I'm planning on starting to write Averee's birth story tonight in depth with all the details that I can remember, but I need to share a few details about it on here to have something to compare to Aspens delivery.

Averee's labor was a whopping 24 hours long, and she came two weeks late. My doctor was totally surprised that after 12+ hours of contractions coming every 1-2 minutes, lasting 1-2 minutes long, that I could not progress past 6cm dilated. Her being sunny side up didn't help the situation, but my body would not relax enough between contractions for her to progress down like she was supposed to. After tiring out every method we could to help me relax, I was given the options of a c-section or to try an epidural to see if that would get us somewhere. Ave's heart rate kept dropping after each contraction so it wasn't safe to stay where we were. I chose to get the epidural, and within two hours I was ready to push. 

With this pregnancy, my midwife and I had talked several times about me staying active up until delivery so that I would have more hope of having control over my muscles. I was really excited because I was already in good shape and was working out consistently. At around 25 weeks though, I developed large painful varicose veins down both legs and a lump at the top of my thigh that was about the size of a golf ball. It was very painful and uncomfortable. My midwife ordered an ultrasound on my uterus and legs to check for blood clots. The ultrasound tech told me that she had never seen so many varicosities at my age, from my uterus all the way down to my ankles in all directions because of how low Aspens head was sitting. It was causing the pressure to cut off circulation to my legs. From then on, my midwife told me that working out 5-6 days a week was not only causing more pressure, but could potentially result in blood clots, or more swelling and give us a lot of problems. 

As it came closer to my due date, we talked more about my birth plan and what I had wanted as far as going natural or getting the epidural again. I told her that I wanted to do it all natural and was not wanting the epidural, but also wasn't ready to labor again for as long as I did with Averee, or have the scare that we had with her once she was here. We decided that during labor, if I didn't see any progression during a 3-4 hour time period, that it would be best for me and baby to get the epidural since it was the only thing that kept me from a c-section last time. 

My due date, January 7th came and went. I saw my midwife the day before. She had checked me and I was only 2 cm dilated and 80%. She stripped my membranes, and encouraged me to schedule an induction. The longer I waited, the larger the lump was getting, and they worried about it hemmorhaging during labor. There was a slot available for the following day, but I decided to wait it out through the weekend and schedule for the following monday instead. I did everything I could over that next weekend to get her to come, but nothing seemed to work. I have stubborn babies! Sunday night I hardly slept. I knew that I didn't want pitocin, and was worried that the natural drug they were going to give me instead wouldn't work, and I would have to get the pitocin anyways.  I was having contractions, but nothing consistent or strong. We dropped Averee with my mother in law and headed to the hospital.

We got settled into our room right away at 7:30 on Monday morning. I was relieved when my nurse told me that Gretchen was the on call midwife. She had delivered Averee and was so SO amazing! She kept me very calm the entire time through Ave's labor, even with all of the complications. By 8:00 Gretchen came into the room and checked me. I was still only dilated to a 3 and 90%. She started me on the cytotec, and told me that she would be back at noon if she wasn't called up before then to break my water. Cytotec is the most natural form of induction, and is a small tablet that is inserted into your cervix. Within about 30 minutes, my contractions were becoming more consistent and strong. I walked the hospital for the next 3 hours. The contractions were around 7 minutes apart and about a minute long. When I got back into bed, they put the monitors on me, and checked me again. I was still only 3 cm. 

A few minutes before 12, Gretchen came back in. I knew that when she broke my water, that the contractions would come faster and stronger. Within only a minute, they were coming every 15-30 seconds and lasting for 1-2 minutes. Um, what? This was not part of my birth plan. Jordan and I were both completely caught off guard. They were coming so close together that after awhile I didn't have enough time in between them to catch my breath and get ready for the next one. I was in SO much pain. I was laying on my side, gripping onto the bed and was starting to hyperventilate trying to breath through each contraction. Jordan and my nurse were breathing aloud with me, trying to get me on a pattern. Every time another contraction would come I would try and hold my breath until it was over, and Aspens heart rate would drop. 

After an hour and a half of this, I figured I had to be getting close. They couldn't get much closer together, and I couldn't imagine the pain being worse than it was. She checked and I was only 5cm. 5CM?! I immediately felt defeated and worried that it would be another 24 hour labor. I asked Gretchen how much longer it could be with the contractions being that close together and she told me that it would probably be hours, and that I would most likely need to get the epidural again to get things moving or Aspen could start to get under distress. I went through about 5 more hard contractions, and told Jordan that I was ready for the epidural. I felt that it was the right thing for Aspen and I, especially because I was almost guaranteed to get it anyways in another few hours. Luckily, the doctor was already on the floor and was able to come right in. There was another delivery happening on the floor, so Gretchen left and told me that she would be back in a bit to check in on me. The doctor administering the epidural kept asking my nurse if she was sure that I wasn't too far along for the procedure since the contractions were so close together and were 85-90%. She assured him that I wasn't and he got me started. What a relief! I was finally able to get m breathing under control. Aspens heart rate was back to normal in minutes, and I was able to relax and know I had made the right decision.

After an hour, around 2:45, I let my nurse know I was feeling a ton of pressure. She sent for Gretchen who came in and checked me and told me it was go time. WHAT! Less than one hour ago I was only a 5? I pushed for 2.5 hours with Averee, so it couldn't be longer than that, right? I pushed twice, and Jordan told me that he could see her already. Praise God! Two more times, and her head was out. I looked up at Gretchen and saw how paniced she was. She didn't let me continue to push. Instead, she grabbed aspen by the neck and pulled her out. I will never forget that moment. My heart sank right out of my chest. Aspen was black, and I mean black. Her body was limp, and she wasn't making a sound. I couldn't even see the umbilical cord that was tied twice around her neck because it was so tightly wrapped. Gretchen quickly unwrapped it, and patted her back for a second and layed her on my chest. I was in such a daze. I told her to take her away now and take care of her like they had with Averee. She reassured me that she was okay, to give her a second. I looked over at Jordan and he was leaning back against his mom trying to keep from passing out. Finally, she let out a small cry and started to move. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU GOD! 

Her color didn't come back for a few hours, but she was still so beautiful. They let her lay on my chest while they delivered the placenta, and gave me more cytotec because I was bleeding much more than normal, which I was completely unaware of at the time. I was too busy focusing on the most perfect little girl I had in my arms. Jordan cut the umbilical cord after it was done pulsating, and I nursed Aspen and then I handed her off to meet her dad. The nurse and Gretchen went to work on massaging my stomach. I remembered how awful that part was with Averee, and it lived up to it yet again. Gretchen brought the placenta over for me to see. I never got to see Averee's because of all the panic. She showed me how the umbilical cord inserted far off to the side instead of in the middle. If they would have known this earlier in the pregnancy the would have monitored me much closer in case of complications, and will have to next time if we choose to have another child. 

Jordan's dad brought Averee over right away since he only lives about a mile away from the hospital. She came in and climbed up next to me on my bed and gave me the biggest hug and kiss and asked "is that my sister out of your belly?" I was really worried about how Ave would feel with someone new in our lives, but they instantly bonded. We let her hold her for as long as she wanted before they took her away to be cleaned and checked out. Jordan Averee down with him to watch Aspen through the nursery window until they brought her back to me. They have been inseparable ever since.

After family came and left, Jordan went to get cuckoos for dinner. I was still feeling a ton of pain and my cramps were insane. I remembered reading that they get worse with every child, so I thought that it was just normal. I was soaking through two thick hospital pads and all 3-4 layers of bedding every 30 minutes, and I kept asking my nurse if I could have anything for the pain so I could try and get some rest while aspen was sleeping. She told me nothing other than the ibuprofen they had given me a couple hours before. The nurses did a shift change, and the new nurse came in to check in with me around 7:45. I was having a hard time breathing through the cramps as if they were contractions, and was feeling super dizzy. Jordan kept telling me how pale I looked and was trying to get me to eat something. She asked me to get up and try walking around a bit and saw that I had soaked through my bedding and checked my laundry and asked if it had been that way since delivery. I answered her yes, and told her that the other nurse had acted as if it were normal. She changed out my bedding, and had me lay back down while she went and talked with the doctor on the floor. After about 10 minutes, she came in with a bag of pitocin and told me that she was going to have to put me on it to see if they could contract my uterus down to slow the bleeding.

After only a few minutes in, I was begging her to stop. How could I be in more pain then I had been earlier during labor? I thought that was the worst pain I had ever felt, but this was so much worse. Instead of it being a contraction that let up every 30 seconds, it was one constant contraction. They gave me oxy to try and help with the pain, but it didn't help at all. I was bracing the bed in one hand and Jordan's hand in the other (poor guy) for the next four hours, balling and trying to breath. Around 12 that night, they stopped the pitocin and gave me a break to rinse off quickly with help, change out my gown and bedding, eat a little something, nurse Aspen, and started me on it again a few minutes before 1. They gave me more oxy this time, and turned down the pitocin a bit, so it wasn't quite as horrible as the last four hours, but it still was really painful. That round stopped around 4 because Aspen was hungry, and I had completely soaked through the bedding that they had tripled under me. They started the last round at 4:30 and finished it off a little before 8. I nursed Aspen again, and they took her to the nursery and told me that I needed to get some sleep. They took my blood and my hemoglobin levels were extremely low, and were going to check again in a few hours and decide if I was going to need a blood transfusion or not. 

A new nurse came in at 10:30 and took some blood again, and brought a smoothie with tons of spinach, and some iron supplements that she had me take. Thankfully, they didn't need to give me the transfusion, but needed us to stay another day and night to keep an eye on the bleeding. I was needing to change every 2 hours now, so that was an improvement from the night before. I finally got a few hours of sleep that day while Aspen slept, and my mom brought Averee back up to visit us again. The next morning, they took my blood one last time, and sent us home with strict rules and dietary restrictions to raise my hemoglobin levels again. I was very anemic, and needed to take the iron they had given me, the iron from my prenatals, and to eat a very high iron diet. No cleaning, grocery shopping, or doing anything strenuous (like lifting up my two year old, yeah right!) 

Its been three weeks now since Aspens arrival and me writing this (because hello, newborn), and I am feeling much better! I have started to get some of my energy back, and the bleeding has finally slowed within the last few days. We've adjusted really well as a family of 4. We are all over the moon in love with our little Aspen. Averee has been the biggest helper, and is surprisingly really protective over her new sister. She likes to show her off to all of the visitors we've had, and decide who she thinks gets to hold her and who doesn't. Blessed, we are so, so blessed. 

Aspen Blake Wegher

3:27 pm 1/11/16 

8 pounds 2 ounces, 19 inches