So after reading my dear friend Jenny's birth story, I realized that I never shared my own birth story. It's amazing how almost a year and a half later you can still remember things clearly but the emotions have faded to a point where it actually seems possible to go through it again. Crazy.
Here is my story...
To really tell my story we have to start at the beginning. I decided early on that I wanted to go the natural route. I also decided that instead of a hospital birth I wanted to have a midwife and deliver in a birth center. Orie and I did some research and picked our midwife, Cherie, and absolutely loved her!
Side story. We found out the beginning of October 2009 that we were expecting. About 2 weeks later I woke up in the middle of the night with my husband having a seizure next to me. It was terrifying. Being newly pregnant and hormonal it just made things worse. Over the next 8 months of our pregnancy we spent our time hopping between different doctors, neurologists and chiropractors trying to find out why Orie was having seizures. We also spent a lot of times on our knees in prayer and in the temple. Through a miracle we were led to an amazing chiropractor in Austin who found the source of the problem, helped correct it, and Orie had his last seizure about 3 weeks before Aiden was born. What a blessing! Although it was a very difficult experience and made for a stressful pregnancy, we are both grateful for the lessons we learned and for how much stronger our marriage is.
Okay back to the real story. So on June 10th I was running some errands (our due date was June 21st). I had absolutely zero signs of labor however at 2pm as I was walking out of Target I had my first contraction. At 3pm I texted Orie and told him to get home immediately. My contractions were already 5 minutes apart. By 4pm we were headed to the birth center and I was 4 minutes apart and they kept getting closer on the way. We got stuck in Dallas rush hour and so I went through transition in the car. I don't recommend that.
When we got to the birth center at 4:45 I was already 9 1/2 centimeters and at 5pm I started pushing (yes, just 3 hours after my very first contraction!). Things seemed to go well at first but after an hour we weren't making any progress. My labor had progressed so rapidly that my body hadn't had time to relax and prepare itself for delivery. So after a lot of intense pushing, an episiotomy, and vacuum extraction, we welcomed our little Aiden Matthew into the world at 6:30pm. He was perfect!
Because of the stress of the labor he was having some trouble breathing right. After an hour he still hadn't calmed down to normal levels so the midwife made the decision to call the hospital next door and have him transferred to the NICU. Although Orie and I wanted the best for Aiden, we just felt that this was not the right thing for him. Orie gave him a priesthood blessing and by the time the NICU team had arrived Aiden's breathing had returned to normal. We had been told though that once the NICU team was called they were required to take Aiden no matter what. The team examined Aiden and said he was completely fine but they had to take him. Orie and I prayed that Aiden could stay with us. After a few phone calls to the hospital the team gave us the okay to keep him! What a blessing! The midwife said that in her 17 years at the birth center they had never seen the NICU team leave a baby once they were called. We were so grateful and truly humbled that the Lord had answered our prayers, healed Aiden, and made it possible for him to stay with us.
So the following morning (very early) we packed up our new little miracle and took him home to start our life together! It has been such a joy to have Aiden in our family. We love him SO much!
