I wanted to kick off the New Year by sharing the birth story of my first baby, Canaan.
Canaan Lion King [pronounced kay-nen] was born on December 14, 2015 at 10:31am. As many of you know, I was due November 29th…yes, that means he was 15 days overdue.
I had all of these grand plans for a natural birth, laboring at home and giving birth in the hospital. Well, my plans almost never come to fruition.
I had a lot of anxiety and sadness over needing to be induced, but in the end it was the best for us (who knows how much longer we would have had to wait!) and it was the safest for our baby boy. However, that being said, I tried to stay as intervention-free as possible. I brought my soothing music, insisted on dimmed lights, and gave dirty looks to the staff that insisted I stay in my bed.
I went into the hospital on December 13th at 8pm, and that was truly the most exciting and nerve-racking drive to a destination ever. I was induced with Cytotec which is a cervical ripener (sorry if TMI), not Pitocin (which is given via IV). I was given 2 doses, about 5 hours apart, which amped my contractions to every 2-3 minutes for 11 hours. To say I was exhausted was the understatement of the century! My contractions were also clustered, coming 3 at a time without a break in between, then just a 2-3 minute break (just enough time to run to the bathroom and get back to my post).
I won’t go into the gory details, but I did not have an easy labor (is there such a thing?). My water was broken for me in the early morning and my contractions were unbearable. I was in excruciating pain. My husband was my rock and helped me breathe and stay strong (yes, I was screaming in pain, but I needed him there telling me I was a champion to get through it).
Fast forward.
By the time I started begging for my life and for pain relief, asking them to call the anesthesiologist to give me options, my body rushed from 5cm dilated to 9cm, in just 30 minutes. This was an extreme relief to here, since I then wouldn’t need an epidural and could just push out my baby. My mother was there, icing my head and letting me crush her fingers during my final contractions. I pushed maybe 4 times and watched as my amazing little boy was delivered and handed to me. I even cut his cord.
I won’t forget that rush of emotion as I looked at him then looked over at my husband, thinking “that’s our baby!!”
Canaan nursed within the first hour, all on his own. The nurses let me hold him a long time before taking him to be bathed.
I’m so glad I didn’t need to resort to interventions I didn’t need, because I was walking around almost immediately after birth. We were transferred to a room to spend the rest of the day and the night in, and I was able to walk down the hall with my mom to watch Canaan’s first bath. We checked out the next morning and were sent home to start our new lives together, just 26 hours after I gave birth.
My life is truly nothing like the life I had before I went into the hospital to give birth. I can hardly leave my room before 10am, I’m completely dependant on a blue notebook that we write all of his feedings and diaper changes in, and I can’t stop staring at the beautiful face of this little boy that is always within arms reach of me. Each day I make goals (cut my nails, photograph a recipe, fold laundry) and more often than not, those goals get pushed to the next day…but I don’t even care! Thank goodness I have the best husband, who goes to the grocery store for everything we need and does all of the laundry and cleaning. I try to take a walk each day with Canaan, but sometimes it just doesn’t happen (it is getting very cold and gray here). Just getting my mommy tasks done each day and getting plenty of baby-love time in is really all I need now. Someday I’ll make it over to Target to complete some returns I have been meaning to do…but who knows when that will be!
^^multitasking like a boss: champagne, phone, babe^^
I’ll be sharing occasional updates on life as a mom here under the Sprinkles of Real Life tab, including products we’re loving and how I’m spending my days, but the rest of the time I’ll try to keep it to the healthy treats and eats. I can’t wait to see the amazing things 2016 has in store for all of us.
Note: you can follow me on Snapchat, username mking3000, for lots of baby pics, and Instagram too.
Congratulations, mama. He certainly doesn’t look “overdue” – he looks absolutely perfect. I’ll let you in on a secret the doctors never seem to want moms to know – babies don’t follow schedules. 🙂 Of my six children, every single one went way past the estimated due date. I eventually realized that I take a little bit longer to make my babies and I stopped fretting. Babies were happier and so was I.
There definitely are easy labours and perhaps your next will be one. I’ve had difficult births with serious complications (in which I passed in and out of consciousness!) but I have also had three picture perfect home births that were a lot of *work* but very little I could honestly describe as pain. (Except crowning. No matter how good everything else is, crowing hurts!)
Again, he’s a beautiful little guy. Your life will never be the same again. 😀
Just Plain Marie recently posted…Quick And Dirty Guide To Natural Family Planning
Thank you for such a kind comment. I was definitely shocked by how truly painful my labor became when I’d spend months studying the Bradley method and being mentally prepared to make it “pain free”. So its good to hear from someone like you who has had both experiences. Yes, babies don’t follow a schedule, which is why its so upsetting that doctors do. But I at least gave him every moment I could to come on his own before my doctor waved the white flag (15 days is a lot to just be waiting!), and I now know for the next one that I can just mentally add a couple more weeks to that due date 😉 Thank you again!
LOVE LOVE LOVE! xoxo
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Thank you my love!
You are a ROCK STAR for not getting an epidural! All of those kagels in yoga must have done the trick! 🙂 He is such a beautiful baby!
Thank you Jackie!! I could’ve swore I was going to die though (I think shouting “I’m going to die!” freaked my husband out! haha). But whew, it’s over!