Birth Story Part 2 – Baby #3 and Bedrest

Early on in this pregnancy, I had planned on having my good friend Aubrey be my doula. She had a homebirth with her second baby and was in training to be a doula. It was perfect for our financial situation as Johnny’s work had just sold his department and his place with the company was uncertain. Aubrey would be able to gain experience as a doula and I would be able to have a doula. I visited Aubrey and her brand new little guy early on in my pregnancy and we talked for several hours about natural birth. She let me borrow Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth.

I loved the book and learned so much from it. It became clearer to me that my body knew how to give birth to my baby … I just had to let it. My body had grown this perfect little one all on its own, I could certainly trust it to deliver it as well.

In July, Aubrey found out that she would be moving to Arizona, but it just happened that I had an maternity massage appointment with Rebecca Overson soon after. I talked to her about their services as labor massueses and explained my doula situation. I was thrilled when she agreed to come down to Utah County as my doula. Johnny’s work situation had stabilized so we were able to put more money side for doula services and I am so glad that we did.

A week after talking to Rebecca, at 35 weeks, my blood pressure began to rise and it seemed like that we were headed down the same road with preeclampsia that I experienced with Lily and Cortland. The fact that it was happening earlier in the pregnancy added new concerns. My doctor immediately placed me on strict bed rest and started me on NST tests and appointments twice a week to make sure that the baby was still growing and doing okay.

My first goal was to make it to 36 weeks and then it was to have a September baby. At each appointment, my doctor said that it was almost time to “pull the plug.” My blood pressure remained borderline and, thankfully, the baby did great at each appointment. At the time, my dream of having a natural birth seemed to be unlikely. A magnesium drip and an induction were highly likely. Not to mention the worry of having a 35 week baby in the NICU.

I remember calling Rebecca telling her the news and feeling incredibly disappointed that I would not be able to have the birth that I had planned and slightly scared about what the next few weeks would entail. Rebecca assured me that she had experience with inductions as well as with mamas diagnosed with pre-eclampsia. After she told me that she had just attended an induction for pree-clampsia where the mother had gone without an epidural, I felt a surge of hope and possibilities.

When you change the way you view birth, the way you birth will change.”

~Marie Mongan, Hypnobirthing

I went online and began to look for natural birth stories to buoy my hopes. As luck would have it, I actually ran across one of Rebecca’s. Reading her words helped me to face my fears and be better prepared for whatever was to come. Here is an excerpt from one of her birth stories that touched me:

“If the very jaws of hell shall gape open after thee, it shall be for thy good and shall give thee experience.”

I am willing …

When Christ went through his ordeal, he knew there was “no other way.” He trusted God and knew God’s plan must be fulfilled.

Tears streamed down my face as I realized I have lived my whole life in fear of so-called bad things happening to me, that could in fact, be the very things that I need to experience in this life to attain glory in the next. If that is the case, why would I shrink back from anything? In my attempt to avoid the fear and pain and discomfort that comes with mortality, I couldn’t help but see how I drew it nearer to me and caused more pain. In this new awareness I found myself saying, “Yes, I AM willing. I Am. So be it.” My heart burst wide open and all those fears just slipped away as I said YES to all of life.”

I decide from that moment on that “I AM WILLING.” I would do whatever was necessary to bring my sweet baby safely into this world. I continued listening to my hypnobirthing tracks and reassured myself that all would be okay. Interestingly enough, my next doctor’s appointment showed lower (but still borderline) blood pressure readings. I went to each appointment ready to have the baby if need be.

My mother took much of her sick leave to take care of me, Lily, and Cortland. My sister, Ada, came many days as well as my brother Conner and his fiance’ Ashley. My children loved having family over every day and I enjoyed being able to spend so much time with my mom and sister. I felt that I grew closer to my family and it was nice having them in our home.

My mom with my kiddos on Lily’s first day of preschool

Rebecca was extremely helpful and sent me several articles with ideas of how to naturally reduce blood pressure. I made sure that I was fully hydrated, I ate lots of protein, used essential oils, and meditated every day. I will be doing another blog post on all the things that I think helped reduce my blood pressure and how I am going to incorporate them into my next pregnancy.

Nothing is Impossible.

The word itself says, “I’m Possible”

Audrey Hepburn

As I grew closer to 39 weeks, my doctor asked to set an induction date, but I told him that I would like to wait as long as my numbers remained borderline and the baby was doing well. The doctor had previously scheduled me for an induction on the 19th, but agreed to do a NST and blood pressure monitoring instead.

When I arrived at the hospital, I discovered that he had not cancelled it and they were expecting to induce me rather than do the NST and blood pressure checks. The nurses were shocked when I requested the NST and blood pressure check before the induction. They were even more shocked when I decided not to be induced when there was no change in my blood pressure or the baby’s activity. I had done the 24 hour urine collection and blood tests for pre-eclampsia just a few days prior so I didn’t feel the need to push the induction since my results were okay.

Up to this point, I had been having contractions on and off since 32 weeks. Starting at 37 weeks, I had many false alarms where I contracted for several hours at 5-8 minutes apart. In fact, after several of my NSTs, the nurses expressed that they would be seeing me soon based on the frequency of contractions I had during the tests.