Marshall's Birth Story: My beautiful unmedicated natural birth in Huntsville, Alabama

Two days postpartum and I am in tiny little baby heaven! My birthing experience with Marshall was a night and day difference from my birthing experience with Jackson.

A little back story on my pregnancy:

Back in September when I was about 3 or 4 months pregnant, we found out about the job opportunity with SAIC in Huntsville. I had every intention of practicing Hypnobabies with this pregnancy like I did with Jackson. I was very diligent with my Hypnobabies practice with my first pregnancy. With the stress of months of waiting on a potential new job and watching after a toddler on top of being pregnant, I only got around to listening to my Hypnobabies tracks a few times.

In Florida, I was receiving prenatal care at a birthing center with midwives and planned to have a beautiful pain medication-free water birth. When I found out that we may be moving to Alabama, I began doing research on my options for prenatal care and very quickly found out, much to my disappointment, that not only are birthing centers non-existent, having a midwife attend your birth anywhere other than a hospital is illegal. And although there was ONE certified nurse midwife (CNM) that delivers in the area, she is retiring soon and will not be replaced. So, after exhausting options like crossing the border into Tennessee to birth in a double wide trailer or spending an arm and a leg renting a house to have a "home birth" in, I began looking into the hospitals and obstetricians in the Huntsville area. I also knew that if I were going to give birth in a hospital setting and if I were going to achieve an unmedicated birth, I would HAVE to get a doula.

I looked for recommendations wherever I could find someone to ask. After talking to tons and tons of people, I found that the most recommended OBs for being the most natural-birth friendly were Dr. Conrad and Dr. Aguayo. People also highly recommended Crestwood hospital for being the most natural-birth friendly. I decided to see Dr. Aguayo.

My due date was February 20th, and I have to admit that I was a little bit sad when I actually reached my due date. After having a pre-term labor scare at 33 weeks and having Jackson 9 days early, I thought for sure baby #2 would come early as well.

On the night of the 20th, I was SO hungry, which was unlike me at that point in the pregnancy. I ate more dinner than usual and even had a late night snack of Spam before going to bed at 11. I couldn't fall asleep because I was feeling kind of crampy, but I was determined to get some sleep so I popped a couple of extra strength tylenol. I woke up a few times to go to the bathroom, but didn't lose any chunks of sleep like I had been for the previous two or three weeks. I woke up at 6:15 and went to the bathroom to find bloody show. Shortly after that the contractions began. I yelled from the bathroom to David, "UM DAVID, I'M PRETTY SURE TODAY'S THE DAY!" We decided that since the contractions were not very painful or regular yet that he would go ahead and go to work until I felt that things were picking up in pace. He went for a few hours and then I had him come home. My doula came over and we walked curbs outside to try and move things along. The contractions started out being short, about 30-45 seconds long and anywhere from 3-5 minutes apart. Then they spaced out to 6 minutes apart and lasted closer to a minute long. I held off from going to the hospital until about 9pm when the contractions started to increase more in intensity. My awesome doula, Bethany Ring, met us at the hospital. I immediately felt awesome about my hospital choice when the first thing the nurses asked me was if I had a birth plan. I had actually forgotten it at home, but the fact that they wanted to know my preferences made me feel like they really cared about helping me have my ideal birthing experience. I told them all my preferences and they assured me that everything that I wanted was their standard of care anyways! They hooked me up to monitors for 30 minutes, which they apologized for having to do at all, and got me free as soon as they could. They checked my cervix and found it to be 4cm dilated, 90% effaced. After getting poked for an IV five times before a successful poke, I was able to get in the shower with the birthing ball. I sat on the ball with my face against the cold shower wall while the hot water pounded on my back until I used up the hot water. I dried off and David, Bethany and I started to walk laps around the L&D hallways. This was around midnight I think. After several laps, we decided to get back to the room and let them check me again. I was 5cm. 15 minutes later, I asked them to check me again. I was 6cm, but could be stretched to 7cm. At this point, I started shaking uncontrollably. The pain was getting so bad that all I could think to say when I felt another contraction come was "Nooo.... I can't do this! It hurts too bad!" My doula was so great though, she knew all the things to do and say to help me relax and to help me tap into my Hypnobabies training, even though I hadn't practiced it in a couple of years. Even though it'd been a while, I totally attribute my level of composure and calmness to Hypnobabies. My doula said she would have never guessed that I was going through transition by how I was acting. The next time they checked me, I was at a 9. I have no clue what time that was. It must have been sometime around 2:15 or 2:30 because I know it wasn't long after that that I was at a 10 and begging to push. My body made me push a few times before they gave me the green light to actively push. It was kind of like when you throw up how your stomach just does it all on its own and it's out of your control. The on-call doctor showed up just in time for me to push little Marshall out! They had me hold my own legs up and push. I pushed for maybe 10 minutes. It was by far the most painful thing I've ever experienced, but it's crazy because even 12 hours after the experience, so much of the memory of the pain was gone that all I could say to describe it was that it hurt really really bad. At this point, only two days later, it's even less clear of a memory. Mother nature is pretty smart that way. Don't worry, I don't have any desire to be doing that again anytime soon.

They put Marshall right on my chest immediately, and I got to hold him for a solid 30 minutes before I chose to give him to someone else to hold (David) so I could get up and try to empty my bladder. After several failed attempts of trying to pee, they finally did a straight catheter so that my uterus could properly shrink without having to fight for space with my full bladder. We got to hold our little baby for TWO HOURS before the nursery nurses came to weight and measure and bathe him. It was so awesome!! They also delayed cord clamping and didn't give me an episiotomy! I tore on my own, but at least they respected my wishes!

All in all, my birthing experience was JUST what I was hoping for! I got to go into labor on my own, I had a beautifully painful unmedicated vaginal birth and got to experience the whole thing from beginning to end, and I got to bond with my baby right away!

A HUGE shoutout to my awesome doula who encouraged me the whole way and kept me focused on my goal of an unmedicated birth, and to my awesome husband who was there by my side the whole time, doing everything for me that I asked. I love that man so much more having been through something so hard with him right there, loving me through it.

Jackson's nursing antics

This morning as Jackson was picking at a mole on my neck while he nursed, I began to think about all the funny things he likes to do while he nurses. So I thought this would be a good place to make a list.

When he was a newborn, he squeaked when he nursed.

Now, he does any and all of the following:

Picks at my neck mole
Picks at zits on my chin, if I have any
Plays with my necklace, if I'm wearing one
Tugs at my shirt
Pinches my boob
Rubs the boob he's not latched onto
Pinches the nipple he's not latched onto
Pinches my arm
Plays with my hair
Pulls my hair
Moans and groans
Laughs (while still sucking-- it takes talent)
Plays with his feet
Puts his fingers in my mouth
Pulls on my lips (ouch!)
Touches my teeth
Sticks his fingers up my nose
Digs his toes into my arm (I have bruises from this)
Grabs (or knocks) my glasses off my face
Plays with my ears


Nursing your baby is a wild adventure!

So, we moved to Florida.

We left 6 inches of snow for Florida. How awesome is that?!

Now that we've been here for more than a month, I tend to forget that it's even winter until I get on Facebook and see everyone's posts about cold weather and pictures of snow. I'm right at home in the warm winter weather :) The area that we live in is quite comparable to my hometown, so I feel very comfortable here. There is lots of shopping not too far away, and some of my favorite stores are close by. I've got my hubby and my baby that I get to see every day. In general, life is pretty awesome these days.

Until I start thinking that I should drive 10 minutes and go visit my parents. Or some of my friends and their kids. And then I remember that they are much farther away than a 10 minute drive. So even though Orlando feels like Dallas a lot of the time, it isn't. And I miss my friends and family in Dallas. But hey, we've got a job and we're back to supporting ourselves, which feels amazing. Take the good with the bad, eh?

Speaking of the job. David likes his job, although he isn't crazy about the fact that it isn't exactly in the gaming industry. It's the best thing for us right now, so we're here for now, but ultimately he hopes to be making video games again down the line. At the entry level, you rarely get to do your dream job, after all, right?

It is totally awesome to have an earned income again, but it is going to take a while to get to the point where the money part of life is comfortable. After 13 months of unemployment, you better believe that it is going to take a while to recover financially. Not to mention the costs of setting up house again and residency in a new state. All those things like registering your car, getting new auto insurance, and new drivers licenses is pretty expensive! I'm so happy to have those problems again :)

It has been SO refreshing to have our own place again. It was so funny the first time I got to do dishes in my own kitchen again, I felt so HAPPY! And laundry? AMAZING! The second time? Not so exciting. Funny how that happiness and excitement goes away so quickly with such mundane (and never ending) tasks, huh? Despite my dislike for the dishes and laundry, I am still TOTALLY GRATEFUL for the fact that we have our own place for those responsibilities to be my own again.

Christmas, Packing, and the Flu

I am so excited for Christmas! This year, I was actually able to get people some decent gifts, which felt amazing, because last year we only had pennies to spend on gifts! I am excited and I hope everyone likes what I got them. :-)

There are many other emotions that I am feeling during this holiday season, though. I am missing my family immensely. I miss hanging out in the kitchen with my mom while she makes all of her candies and cookies, and I miss joking around with my brothers, and talking philosophy, and I miss photo shoots with my sisters, and laughing until we cry. I just miss their company, really. This will be my first Christmas away from my parents and my siblings. Even when I lived all over the world, I always came home for Christmas. At least I have some awesome in-laws to hang out with and spend this special holiday with. They are family too, after all. They make me feel loved too, and we have tons of fun. But I still miss my family. There's no avoiding that :)

Jackson has been fighting a cold for the last 3 weeks. The last week, he has had a high fever. At times it go up to 103-104+. Luckily, Tylenol and ibuprofen helped to keep it lower, like 100-101. He still has a low-grade fever when he isn't doped up, but when he is, his fever goes away! And he has been MUCH happier today. Thank goodness he was sick with the fever nastiness before we started our road trip to Florida. Can you imagine how miserable it would have been to be on a road trip with a fever-stricken-screaming-clingy-monster of a baby? Awful. I can only imagine that it would have been totally AWFUL.

Housing... CHECK!

So the last couple of weeks, I have spent nearly all my free time in search of the right place to live. At first it was so exciting to be looking for housing, but after about a week, I was so totally DONE with it, but I hadn't found the right place yet. There were a few places that looked good on paper, but I just didn't have the warm, fuzzy, happy feelings that you get when it's JUST RIGHT. Ya know?

I felt like I'd looked everywhere.

We were on the verge of applying to one apartment complex, but nothing seemed to be going right, and then I discovered that the crime rate was quite high in that area. And then I discovered that the utilities and washer/dryer were not included in the rent. The rent was already close to our max budget anyways, and those extra expenses for utilities and renting a washer and dryer would put us significantly over our max for housing expenses.

 So I kept looking.

 I found a townhome that seemed to have all the right things, but I just couldn't bring myself to make such a big commitment long-distance. At this point, I was at the peak of frustration. So I decided to go back to my list of apartment complexes and see if there wasn't another one that fit the bill a bit better. I went back to my first pick that I had rejected because they didn't have playground, and because it had 100 less square feet.

 Going back and taking a second look, I discovered that those reasons were foolish to reject it for! It had everything else we wanted! Washer and dryer are included in rent, as well as utilities! The crime rate is low, not to mention that it is less than 2 miles from David's work, which will make sharing one car a lot easier. It is first floor, without any extra cost, which is AWESOME. Rent is also significantly less. That is my FAVORITE part!

 Now I can check that one off my list and focus on all the other things that moving entails!

 (I really hope not to have to move again ANY TIME SOON.)

 :-)

Orlando or Bust!!

So last time I wrote, David had phone interviewed with a company that seemed fairly promising. Over the last year, we've learned not to get our hopes up after such an event because we had endured so many rejections. It felt like 3 a month on average. Sometimes it was a rejection after two interviews and a design test. Sometimes they would take more than a month just to get around to sending a rejection email-- a month of high hopes only to be crushed with those painful words "We regret to inform you..." or whatever clever way they had of telling us that David wasn't the right man for the job. This was especially hard each time the interviews went so well and it was a position David really wanted.

The same day I wrote last, they called and emailed to ask David to come to Orlando for an on-site interview. This was the first time anyone wanted to meet him in person! What an exciting feeling!! They had to set the interview ten days out because of Thanksgiving. That was the LONGEST ten days ever, having to just pass the time until the much anticipated trip. I helped David pull all of his travel documents together, and even helped him pack. He was so nervous that he hardly wanted to think about the logistics of getting down there, so I did all that I could so that he could just focus on impressing them.

Thanksgiving came and went with much gratitude in our hearts for the opportunity that God had given us. All we could do was pray that they liked him and wanted him to be a part of their team! Finally the day came for him to leave, and he went to interview. I was amazed at how calm David was the day before his interview. It was so unlike him for him to feel so peaceful before such a huge event. Usually he is so totally nervous and beside himself that it makes him sick. Even the morning of the interview he was calm. It was truly amazing. He went and interviewed and they kept him from 9am to 2:30pm. He met just about everyone that was in the office that day. What a crazy day for him! He called me as soon as he left the interview and he was so nervous! He told me he wasn't sure how it went and he was nervous about the impression he had made on them. If he had told me all the things they had talked about that day, I would have told him that were going to hire him! I am still discovering more things that they talked about that he never mentioned. They talked to him insurance options, cities that are nice to live in, what time their workday begins and ends, and a lot of other details about working there that they would never share with someone that they didn't intend to hire.

They didn't even let 3 hours go by after he left the interview before letting him know that they wanted to hire him! What a blessing for David's nerves (and mine!) for them to be so speedy about letting us know! I literally squealed and jumped up and down when David told me the news! It took days for the good news to sink in. We finally got a job!!! Oh my goodness, I could hardly believe it! I kept asking myself, "Am I dreaming? Is this for real?" I can't even tell you what a huge relief it is to think about having our independence again and being able to pay our own bills and to be able to put food on our own table. And to have our own place. And to be able to start paying off our student loans and get out of debt! What an amazing thought it is!

It is overwhelming to think about all the things that have to happen in such a short time in order to get us and all of our stuff moved down to Orlando, but I am not about to complain about it! We have waited for SO LONG for this change! It really is a miracle. He is so talented, we've just been waiting for the right company to come along and recognize the amazing talent that he has been blessed with. I know that this job will be just right for him and the location and the timing will be perfect for our family. My heart is so full of gratitude!!

And an update on Jackson--


Jackson got his second tooth on his 8 month birthday! He also slept through the night for the THIRD TIME!

He has started army crawling, but only when he REALLY wants something. He'll usually book it for my cup so he can knock it over, or when he spots the cord to the lamp, or his sippy cup. He really likes paper too. It's so fun to see the things that excite him!

He is REALLY good at walking around the kitchen in his walker. He likes to follow people around in the kitchen, and it really hurts when he runs into your toes or your heel!

Generally, he is a very happy baby. I feel like I am FINALLY beginning to figure him out a little bit. I can tell when he is tired enough for a nap, and when he isn't. I have finally figured out how to help him sleep better at night. Or maybe he is just maturing more in that department. Either way, I am glad for the longer stretches of sleep!

Summary of July-November...

Wow, mid-November already! Aye!

Please forgive my lack of blogging the last few months. Not only have I been busy being a mommy to the cutest little boy on the planet, I have been without my beloved computer for a couple of months now. I have our iPad that I can use to check my email and facebook on, but I don't really like typing a lot on the touch screen. So, things like blogging don't happen.

So since I haven't written since July, I have a lot to catch up on!

At the beginning of August, David and I went on a lovely vacation with David's family. We flew into Salt Lake City and toured Utah a bit. I got to see some good friends that I hadn't seen in a while and I got to visit with some family that I don't get to see as often as I'd like.

We got to see my friend Rita and her husband Mathoni. Rita was about to pop with their first baby, baby Jimmy. While we were in Provo, we visited with my siblings, Adam, Camille, and Heidi. There was some drama with rental cars, but once we got that straightened out, we were off to lunch with my aunt Gayela and cousin Angela!

My uncle Tom and aunt Karen were totally awesome and let us stay at their place for a couple of nights so I could go to my best friend Alex's wedding. It was a beautiful sealing ceremony in the Logan temple. I'm so glad I was able to go!

After our escapades in Utah, we met up with David's family and headed up to Yellowstone. We spent a couple of days touring the park and then drove back down to Salt Lake City to fly back home. All in all, it was awesome to get out and see some new things.

After we arrived back to Texas, David decided to look into going back to school since he had still been unable to find a job. We talked it over and decided to move to Ohio and go to school there. Through his job-searching, we had seen too many job openings that he would qualify for, except that he does not have a bachelor's in computer science. So, by the end of September, we were all moved to Ohio!

We feel that Ohio is where God wants us right now, and we have peace with where we are and what we're doing. David has continued to apply for jobs, but still no luck. In two more weeks, we will have hit our year mark (Nov 29) of unemployment. We are hoping that he will get a job before he goes back to school in January. We can hope, right?

On another note, Jackson is growing up so fast! Once we moved here, I feel like he has hit milestone after milestone! We moved here just before his 6 month birthday. Two weeks later, he slept through the night for the first (and second) time! He has yet to do it again, but that's okay. Two weeks after that, he finally mastered rolling over! And two weeks after that, he cut his first tooth! Slow down! He is also scooting like crazy, and he is trying to figure out how to stand up to furniture. Not to mention zooming around in his walker and grabbing everything within reach. He will lunge himself towards something interesting! He makes the cutest little noises, goo-ing and gah-ing and dada-ing, and mah-ing. I love it! Right now he has a pair of shoes and he is playing with the shoelaces. I sure love that kid!

It's amazing how much joy motherhood brings me. Even though I honestly don't know how in the world I am surviving, I am happier than ever. I've got a loving husband who is trying so hard, and a beautiful goofy little boy to keep me laughing.