I've been wanting to write out a post about my pregnancy and birth but haven't really been able to find the time. Trajan is currently gaming with friends and baby is sleeping so, I figured now would be the perfect time! Now, this post isn't going to be all sunshine and daisies so, if you think I'm "complaining" you can move on with your day.
Originally Trajan and I had planned on waiting to add an extra player to our little family. even though I was insanely baby hungry (and have been since around the time my little brother was born). Then, 6 months in we both felt good about trying to start a family. That turned out to be quite simple for us, we got pregnant the first cycle we tried! So as of November 2016, little miss was starting to grow into our beautiful baby girl. The first few weeks were good, I was a bit moody but no sickness. It was kind of funny because the night before I took the pregnancy test, Trajan and I were laying in bed and he poked me in my belly button (something I HATE and he knows it) and I burst into tears. Like full on Kim Kardashian ugly cry. He looked at me and went, "yeah, you're pregnant".
I will always remember the first time I got morning sickness because it was Christmas day. Tiana and I were standing in my parent's kitchen and she was eating before church, I had already decided not to go because I wasn't feeling the best. I suddenly felt AWFUL and ran to the trash can and promptly vomited into it. That was the beginning of 19 weeks of wonderful puke fests. Trajan was such a champ through that, holding my hair and making sure I was okay.
The second trimester was a literal God send! No more puking and I could actually do things! I went down to my parents at that point and was helping around the house and such (even trimmed the hedges for them!) I thought I had pulled my groin, so it was a tad painful to do some stuff but I figured it would heal and just kept on. Turns out, no, not a pulled groin but SPD (Symphysis pubic dysfunction) which wasn't going to "just heal", in fact it was just going to get worse. Oh, and did it get worse. Putting pants on and getting out of the bed turned into some of the most painful moments of my life (I can say that now that I've given birth). Trajan had to help me get out of the bed almost every time. the last month. The nice thing was, after I gave birth, literally hours after, I felt like myself again! I could walk, and swing myself out of bed and put on pants!
Before I get to the birth story, let me tell you how well traveled Arya was while still in the womb. Not only does she live in Canada, we drove down to Virginia quite a lot for prenatal care. We also took a two week road trip with Trajan and my dad to Mount Rushmore, Utah, Grand Canyon/AZ (and got to hang with the AZ Browns which was so fun), Nauvoo and back to home. She also came with me to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN. We also went to my uncle's wedding in Jacksonville, FL! All of this was driving, a lot of it was me driving alone, the Florida trip was particularly brutal.
Now birth! Most of the people reading this will know I planned a home birth because, money. I had a midwife team ready to assist and all that jazz, I was actually kind of excited for it. The on the morning of August 10th, I was feeling what I thought were contractions. They weren't awful and our power actually had gone out that morning so I was like, "I'm just going to sleep through this!" That was around 8 and at noon I woke up (like 10 minutes before my alarm I set for my midwife appointment at 1) to what felt like me peeing the bed. Since I couldn't stop it, like you generally can when peeing, I was like,"...uhmmmm Trajan, I either just peed the bed or my water broke!" I have never seen that boy move that fast, ever, in the morning. I stood up from the bed and more fluid leaked down and I knew, yup, definitely my water breaking. Then I saw the colour....green. Which means little miss pooped and my home birth just became a hospital birth.
At this point I start freaking out, not because I'm going to be pushing a human out of me, but because that means I'm going to have to pay a ton out of pocket. I called the midwife to let her know what was going on and we planned on what time to meet at the hospital. She and my mom helped calm me down about the costs and reminded me that's not exactly the most pressing matter right now.
Once we get to the hospital I'm having contractions about 4 minutes apart and they were what I thought was painful, little did I know it was just going to get worse haha! I get in my room and my midwife checks me and I am at 4 cm and 80% effaced! Great way to start out! Then the pain started getting worse and my contractions were coming back to back and then nothing and then more back to back. My midwife then got me laughing gas and man, that was amazing, it took the edge right off. She was worried about my contractions though because the way they were coming, they weren't effective. Jill, the midwife, then had to leave and Janet, my other midwife took over. Once Janet came it was like all hell broke loose. The contractions started getting really bad and then baby decided she wanted to scare us. Her heart rate dropped and they had to call the on call OB in to come check. They spent a few minutes trying to locate the heartbeat and then decided they were going to go in and attach the monitor to baby's head.
In order to do that they got two nurses, and my midwife to hold me down and my legs in the air so the OB could violate me haha. That hurt so much and I was very glad when it was over, I swear getting checked for dilation and that hurt more than the contractions. But now we had a constant heart rate and that made it worth the pain. Arya's heart rate dropped one more time during labour but all I had to do was switch positions in the bed and it went back to normal.
At around midnight, around 12 hours from when my water broke, Janet checked me again and gave me some pretty crap news. I was still at a 5 cm. All those contractions and nothing to show for it, I was miserable and recovering from a panic attack from when her heart rate dropped. My midwife basically gave me two options at that point, C-Section or Epidural. I really didn't want a C-Section so I went ahead with the epidural. The epidural was not a fun time to say the least. The anesthesiologist had a really hard time getting it into my spine, so hard in fact it took him stabbing me 12 different times. Maybe if I wasn't so far in and so exhausted and having such bad contractions I could have handled it better but I really didn't cope well. Both my mom and Trajan were getting mad at the guy because he wasn't getting it in. My mom actually said something and Trajan had to leave the room to breathe. The doctor actually told the nurse to give me the laughing gas again so I could just use that while he tried some more to get the needle in correctly.
FINALLY the epidural was put in correctly and it started to kick in. Within two hours of that I was ready to push, which was crazy to me and made me wish I did the epidural sooner. The catheter they put in sucked and honestly at that point I envied my dad being paralyzed and not being able to feel his. But anyways, my body started pushing by itself around 1:40 am. It wasn't true pushing and honestly felt and probably looked more like I was convulsing but I had 0 control over my body and it felt so strange. Around 2 am, I was at a 10 and ready to push. From then I got her out quite fast, her head was just at the opening when a contraction stopped and boy did that burn. I didn't want to wait for another contraction so I just pushed on my own and out popped her head. According to my mom and Trajan, as soon as her head came out he arm flew out and the the rest of her slid right on out. She was born at 2:09 am, so roughly 9 minutes of pushing and I got her out.
Arya Sophia Tymczuk finally came on August 11, 2017, weighing 6lb 15oz and measuring 19.5 in long. She came out screaming and perfect and I fell in love immediately. One month later we still love her lots and still feel blessed to have her in our lives. We can't go anywhere with her without people (friends, family, and strangers) telling us how beautiful and perfect she is. She is already a very particular child and definitely knows what she wants, when she wants it and how she wants it. We are going to have a fun time with this girl and while I may have spent most of the last 24 hours crying with her because we were both so tired, (her because she hasn't felt good and refuses to sleep and me because she refuses to sleep which means I haven't slept) I still am happy to be her mommy.
If you read this whole thing, I'm impressed! Hope you found at least some of it interesting! It's my goal to write on this blog more often but, we'll see how that goes.
Originally Trajan and I had planned on waiting to add an extra player to our little family. even though I was insanely baby hungry (and have been since around the time my little brother was born). Then, 6 months in we both felt good about trying to start a family. That turned out to be quite simple for us, we got pregnant the first cycle we tried! So as of November 2016, little miss was starting to grow into our beautiful baby girl. The first few weeks were good, I was a bit moody but no sickness. It was kind of funny because the night before I took the pregnancy test, Trajan and I were laying in bed and he poked me in my belly button (something I HATE and he knows it) and I burst into tears. Like full on Kim Kardashian ugly cry. He looked at me and went, "yeah, you're pregnant".I will always remember the first time I got morning sickness because it was Christmas day. Tiana and I were standing in my parent's kitchen and she was eating before church, I had already decided not to go because I wasn't feeling the best. I suddenly felt AWFUL and ran to the trash can and promptly vomited into it. That was the beginning of 19 weeks of wonderful puke fests. Trajan was such a champ through that, holding my hair and making sure I was okay.
The second trimester was a literal God send! No more puking and I could actually do things! I went down to my parents at that point and was helping around the house and such (even trimmed the hedges for them!) I thought I had pulled my groin, so it was a tad painful to do some stuff but I figured it would heal and just kept on. Turns out, no, not a pulled groin but SPD (Symphysis pubic dysfunction) which wasn't going to "just heal", in fact it was just going to get worse. Oh, and did it get worse. Putting pants on and getting out of the bed turned into some of the most painful moments of my life (I can say that now that I've given birth). Trajan had to help me get out of the bed almost every time. the last month. The nice thing was, after I gave birth, literally hours after, I felt like myself again! I could walk, and swing myself out of bed and put on pants!Before I get to the birth story, let me tell you how well traveled Arya was while still in the womb. Not only does she live in Canada, we drove down to Virginia quite a lot for prenatal care. We also took a two week road trip with Trajan and my dad to Mount Rushmore, Utah, Grand Canyon/AZ (and got to hang with the AZ Browns which was so fun), Nauvoo and back to home. She also came with me to Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, TN. We also went to my uncle's wedding in Jacksonville, FL! All of this was driving, a lot of it was me driving alone, the Florida trip was particularly brutal.
Now birth! Most of the people reading this will know I planned a home birth because, money. I had a midwife team ready to assist and all that jazz, I was actually kind of excited for it. The on the morning of August 10th, I was feeling what I thought were contractions. They weren't awful and our power actually had gone out that morning so I was like, "I'm just going to sleep through this!" That was around 8 and at noon I woke up (like 10 minutes before my alarm I set for my midwife appointment at 1) to what felt like me peeing the bed. Since I couldn't stop it, like you generally can when peeing, I was like,"...uhmmmm Trajan, I either just peed the bed or my water broke!" I have never seen that boy move that fast, ever, in the morning. I stood up from the bed and more fluid leaked down and I knew, yup, definitely my water breaking. Then I saw the colour....green. Which means little miss pooped and my home birth just became a hospital birth.At this point I start freaking out, not because I'm going to be pushing a human out of me, but because that means I'm going to have to pay a ton out of pocket. I called the midwife to let her know what was going on and we planned on what time to meet at the hospital. She and my mom helped calm me down about the costs and reminded me that's not exactly the most pressing matter right now.
Once we get to the hospital I'm having contractions about 4 minutes apart and they were what I thought was painful, little did I know it was just going to get worse haha! I get in my room and my midwife checks me and I am at 4 cm and 80% effaced! Great way to start out! Then the pain started getting worse and my contractions were coming back to back and then nothing and then more back to back. My midwife then got me laughing gas and man, that was amazing, it took the edge right off. She was worried about my contractions though because the way they were coming, they weren't effective. Jill, the midwife, then had to leave and Janet, my other midwife took over. Once Janet came it was like all hell broke loose. The contractions started getting really bad and then baby decided she wanted to scare us. Her heart rate dropped and they had to call the on call OB in to come check. They spent a few minutes trying to locate the heartbeat and then decided they were going to go in and attach the monitor to baby's head.In order to do that they got two nurses, and my midwife to hold me down and my legs in the air so the OB could violate me haha. That hurt so much and I was very glad when it was over, I swear getting checked for dilation and that hurt more than the contractions. But now we had a constant heart rate and that made it worth the pain. Arya's heart rate dropped one more time during labour but all I had to do was switch positions in the bed and it went back to normal.
FINALLY the epidural was put in correctly and it started to kick in. Within two hours of that I was ready to push, which was crazy to me and made me wish I did the epidural sooner. The catheter they put in sucked and honestly at that point I envied my dad being paralyzed and not being able to feel his. But anyways, my body started pushing by itself around 1:40 am. It wasn't true pushing and honestly felt and probably looked more like I was convulsing but I had 0 control over my body and it felt so strange. Around 2 am, I was at a 10 and ready to push. From then I got her out quite fast, her head was just at the opening when a contraction stopped and boy did that burn. I didn't want to wait for another contraction so I just pushed on my own and out popped her head. According to my mom and Trajan, as soon as her head came out he arm flew out and the the rest of her slid right on out. She was born at 2:09 am, so roughly 9 minutes of pushing and I got her out.
Arya Sophia Tymczuk finally came on August 11, 2017, weighing 6lb 15oz and measuring 19.5 in long. She came out screaming and perfect and I fell in love immediately. One month later we still love her lots and still feel blessed to have her in our lives. We can't go anywhere with her without people (friends, family, and strangers) telling us how beautiful and perfect she is. She is already a very particular child and definitely knows what she wants, when she wants it and how she wants it. We are going to have a fun time with this girl and while I may have spent most of the last 24 hours crying with her because we were both so tired, (her because she hasn't felt good and refuses to sleep and me because she refuses to sleep which means I haven't slept) I still am happy to be her mommy.If you read this whole thing, I'm impressed! Hope you found at least some of it interesting! It's my goal to write on this blog more often but, we'll see how that goes.
Thanks for sharing! I love birth stories! I can relate to many of these things! My first also had a drop in heart rate and we had the internal monitor. I also go from 3 or 4 to 10 in an hour after I get an epidural. And she is amazing! I can't wait to see her in real life!
ReplyDeleteWe will have to come back and see you soon! We really enjoyed visiting y'all <3
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