Happy Birthday, Breck!!

As you can see, he was a chunk!! This was about 2 1/2 months.

This year my sweet Breck shared his birthday with Easter. It's always hard to share your birthday with a holiday. It makes me feel really sorry for anyone whose birthday is on Christmas!! It's hard to get it all fit in during the day or even weekend! But since I started this year posting their birth stories on their birthdays, I'll do that with his today.

Breck's birth was so amazing because he was my first home birth! I had a midwife for my first, but he was born in a hospital in Chattanooga. After we moved to Naples, I found out that midwives were not allowed to attend births in the hospital here so I set out to find out more about alternative avenues. I had done lots of studying about home births and water births when I was going through infertility for all those years so I was pretty informed. I knew what I wanted. Convincing my husband was a little bit different!

After we adopted Liza-Hill, I found out that I was pregnant with Breck when she was almost 6 months old. What a shock!! So I called the free standing birth center in town and made an appointment as soon as possible because I had needed to take progesterone with my first pregnancy. I had really done a lot of natural stuff to balance out my hormones before I got pregnant this time (which is probably why I was able to get pregnant!) so I didn't need anything extra. I took Jon in with me, and he agreed to letting me have my baby at the birth center. What I really wanted, though, was a home birth. After talking with him for awhile and bringing him back to talk to my midwife, he agreed. I was thrilled! Plus, at the time we lived about 2 miles from the hospital so he felt better about that. These days, that's not even a thought in his mind!! :)

Because of high blood pressure, I was on bed rest for about the last 2 weeks of my pregnancy. My mama had come down to help with the other kids and Jon and help take care of the house. I remember vividly just lying around reading Francine Rivers novels--waiting and waiting..... He was due May 1.

So I was woken up around 2 am April 24 with pretty regular contractions. I did exactly what I tell my doula clients NOT to do. I got up and started timing contractions! :) If I knew then what I know now, I'd have tried to go back to sleep as well as I could and deny it as long as possible. But by 7 am, they were coming very regularly and stronger. I called Dawn (my midwife) around 8 am just to let her know that things were probably on their way. By 10 am, everything had stopped!! So I know the feeling, ladies. It stinks! I worked for hours trying to get things to start again--walking and walking all over the golf course!! I talked to my midwife again, but she decided to come by around 3 anyway just to check. She didn't have anymore appointments for the day, and she thought she'd see how I was doing before going home.

She checked me, and I was 5 cm. So my body had done some work. I can't remember exactly how much I was before I went into labor that morning, but I'm usually around 3 cm for a couple of weeks beforehand so I'm sure that's what I was then as well. Well, she figured she shouldn't leave to go home with me being 5 cm--especially because she lived about 35-40 minutes away. So she got me using the breast pump. I pumped and pumped, and things started getting going again. We did that for a long time. All the while, my blood pressure was going up. Although things were continuing, and I think I was about 6 cm at 6 pm, she really wanted to rupture my membranes because of my blood pressure. She wanted to get that baby out so as not to risk having to go to the hospital!! So I said, "Okay."

Well, of course as soon as she did that, we were off to the races. Up until that point, I didn't really consider myself in labor because nothing really hurt. I didn't have to work through any contractions--they were just there. That's always nice when you still feel that way at 6 cm!

So things started rockin' then. With my first, I had planned on going natural, but I ended up getting an epidural at 9 cm. That's how I KNOW how hard it is to have a baby in a hospital and resist the pain medication!! So this was going to be my first time with nothing. I did fine breathing through the contractions, and got into the bathtub around 7 pm. Up until that point I was in the bed on my left side because of my BP. By that time it had gotten low enough to get in the tub. It stayed down in the tub. That was heavenly and I really wanted to stay there and have the baby in there. As I went into transition, I started to do and say what most moms do and say at that point (at least the first time they labor without pain meds) and that was, "I can't do this!" I started to tense up, and I remember Dawn being so great at calming me down and bringing me back to where I needed to be. My mom told me later that she and Trand were in his room while I was in transition. His room shared the wall with my bathroom. She said she was trying to read him books to keep his mind off of hearing me so she kept reading louder and louder. When I yelled, "I can't do this!" he looked at her and said, "Well, I guess mom's never gonna have this baby." :)

All of a sudden I really needed to poop. She told me it was just that I needed to push, but I was convinced that I needed to poop. She let me get on the toilet but made me promise not to have the baby in there! :) After a few minutes, I figured she was right. But I was so afraid that I was going to poop (because I had been having diarrhea which is totally common during labor) that I didn't get back in the tub. I was so sorry for that later because I never did!

So around 9, I went and got on my bed. I remember being so uncomfortable with Jon sitting behind me to help me--but we were not in the best position. I couldn't figure out how to get in a good position at that point in labor though so I just stayed there. We called Trand and mama in to let them come and join us for the birth. I don't remember a lot about pushing with him except for when we got to the "ring of fire." I just remember saying, "THIS IS THE RING OF FIRE!! AND NOW I KNOW WHY!"

At 9:33 pm, I pushed out my big bundle of love. He was 9 lb. 2 oz. and I was immediately in love. It was so different from the first time around. My birth experience with Trand wasn't necessarily a bad one, but I certainly didn't have the same feelings surrounding the birth. I'm sure it was the pain meds and over medicalization of the birth. But Breck was wide awake and completely ready to nurse! I knew I didn't want this baby to leave my side, and he didn't for probably the first six months of his life!! I don't know if it was because he was my first home birth or just his personality or what, but he has always been like that with me. He is my sweet Mama's boy, and I love it! He loves his mama more than anything on earth, and he doesn't mind telling it to the world! :)

Trand was six years old and so excited to be at the birth. He was excited about every step of the pregnancy. We let him cut the cord, and he loved that. And this story about his was published in DONA International (a doula journal.) When the placenta came out, he asked what it was. I told him that's what fed the baby while he was in Mommy's tummy. Trand said, "Well, I wish he had eaten all of it because I don't want to look at it!" :) It was hilarious!! My midwife broke up, and she said she has shared that story so many times over the years! It's still something we laugh about.

So after a couple of hours, my midwife left and my sweet baby and I settled in to our own bed for the night. It was so wonderful not to have nurses coming to check my vitals all during the night or having to try to get comfortable in a hospital bed. I had my other two sweet little ones in their beds and my newest addition right next to me in mine. Life couldn't have gotten any better!

Breck continued to love to nurse, and at 12 weeks old, he weighed 21 lbs. That was ONLY breastmilk!! Crazy!

My three sweet little ones!!

Breck now--with no shirt, as usual!

Sweet Breck with his little brother. Now he's the big brother, and he loves that role!!