Ryden Ash Sanford was born on August 25th, 2009 at 5:21pm immediately into the arms of his mama at a very healthy 8 lbs. and 8 ozs. His daddy was right there by his side, and my side, every step of the way.
It all started on the night of monday the 24th. That was actually my due date. I was outside with Eric after a really big dinner, when I made a joke with him saying, "who says you're going to work tomorrow." Well, who knew how true this would ring. After I said that, I came inside and sat down on the couch. I think I might have heard something after I sat and immediately started to feel something very warm underneath me. At that moment I definitely knew what was happening, but I think I was still in denial. I kind of held myself and scurried into the bathroom. At that point, I had started to gush. My water had broken. and no, it wasn't a trickle.... it was like Niagra Falls. Even with that being said, when I heard Eric walk in the back door, I called him to the bathroom and proceeded to tell him, "I think my water broke!", mind you I am still gushing. Also for whatever reason, I am hysterically laughing. He helps me over to the toilet where the gushing continues. I'm also still laughing, thinking what in the world am I going to do.... this is such a mess. At this point, Eric gets into prep mode and the only thing he can think to do is to start making the sandwiches we were planning to take to the birth center. I think he needed something mindless to do. After about 10 minutes and once I could get the leak to let up enough to let me move around a little, I decided to call our midwife to let her know. She asked me if I was having any contractions and if the water was clear (free of meconium staining). I told her no contractions yet, and that the water was clear. She then told me that the best thing to do would be to get some rest and try to relax and to call her when things started up regularly or in the morning which ever came first. She also asked me if I could still feel the baby moving, which I could. I knew she was going to tell me to try and relax which was way easier said than done... haha. So, I made a little place on the couch to lay down, but after about thirty minutes decided to get into bed.
Sometime after midnight, I had a pretty decent contraction that woke me up. Nothing to write home about, but definitely enough to get my attention. After a couple of them, I started to time them with my handy contraction timer on my iphone. I fell asleep in between a few of them, but they were averaging probably about 10 to 15 minutes apart. Nothing major but at least there was some type of pattern. I guess I fell asleep again and some time around 2 or so I woke up with ones a little stronger. After timing these ones for about an hour, they started averaging about 7-10 minutes apart. Sometime around 3, I went and sat on the couch, where Eric was, and woke him up. I knew it was no where near time yet, but I just wanted him to know what was going on. He hung out with me through some contractions for about an hour and asked me what I wanted to do. I told him that I guess they were still too far apart to call our midwife and that I guess he should try to get more sleep. He told me the same thing, but at that point, it was impossible. For the next several hours, I tried to rest, walked around, timed contractions, took a shower and just kept myself busy. Probably at about 6 am Eric woke back up and we kind of accessed everything. I was still having fairly strong contractions, but still not close enough to call my midwife. Eric made me an egg sandwich because I definitely needed something to help keep up my energy. This would be the last thing I would eat for the day until right after Ryden was born. I think finally around 7ish I had Eric call and let our midwife know how I was doing. My contractions were now closer together, but still not as consistent as they should be... or lasting quite as long as they should. They were anywhere from 3-7 minutes apart and lasting anywhere from 40 seconds to just over a minute. BJ (our midwife) said that we could come in if I really wanted to, but she thought it sounded like I wasn't quite there yet. A little later, I decided that I did want to go in and get checked to see where I was. I was thinking that if I was 2 cms. yesterday then I would have to be at least a 4 at this point with all the contractions I had been having. So, we set off for our trip to the birth center, in rush hour traffic none the less. Thank goodness for the carpool lane, because it only took us about 20-25 minutes to get there. Not the best ride of my life, but definitely not as bad as I thought it was going to be.
Once there, BJ did check me. The first thing she says is, "well, the baby has brown hair." We were like what?!?! That made me think, great, I must be quite a bit further along. That is when she the informs us that I am at 3 cms. (bummer) and probably about 80% or so effaced. I will admit I was a little disappointed, but I didn't want to let it get me down. So, I asked BJ what should we do and she said, we could go walk around and come back in an hour or two, hang out or even go back home. I figured if we hung out, it might just delay everything even more, and I figured if I needed to do some walking, I would feel more comfortable doing it at home. So, believe it or not, we chose to drive back home and to continue my early stage of labor in our own privacy. Now, I can see why people choose home births.... it's your space and much more convenient.
After we got home, Eric decided to try to get a little more sleep in and recommended me to do the same... yeah, right. Even if it might tire my out, walking is what needs to be done to get this baby to drop some more and to help open me up. So, for the next hour and a half I did circles around the house in between contractions that were becoming even more regular. It was cute, because no matter how many laps I did, Ilsa was right behind me. She knew since the night before that something was going on. BJ had told us that when I got past that first part of early stage labor I would become much more focused and a lot less talkative. After waking Eric up around 11:45, I told him that I think we should call BJ and go back in a little bit. I think around 12:30 or so, we headed back to the birth center... for the second time.
When we arrived, BJ checked me again to see if I had progressed. My contractions were closer together and a lot more attention grabbing, but I didn't want to get my hopes up. Luckily, I was in for some good news. The walking did the trick. In a couple of hours, I had gone from 3 cms. to 5-6 cms. I was now in active first stage labor and was going to be staying at the birth center. I think it was around 1:15 at this point. Over the next few hours, I labored on the birthing ball, leaning on Eric, leaning over the bed and finally in the big fabulous tub. The only problem was.... I was having REALLY bad back labor. Even thought the baby wasn't posterior, something about his position or my back, was making all the contractions go right to the small of my back, and there was nothing I could do to mellow the pain. It really made it hard to relax during the contractions and to just sink into them, because it felt like my back was going to break. Even the water didn't help much. Either way, I knew relaxing was the best and only thing I could to bring on the contractions and progress my labor... so, that is what I did. There were several times I tried to pull away from the pain, but there was always someone there to remind me to sink into them, whether I liked it or not. I have never really meditated in my life, but during my labor I swear I went somewhere else in between contractions. Then when I would get one, I would quietly moan through them. Sometime after 3pm, BJ had checked me and I was at 7-8 cms. Then probably about an hour or so after that, while I was in the tub, my moans got a little bit deeper and I had a contraction that almost blew my mind away. I also mentioned how I felt a lot of pressure with that one. I think this is what signaled BJ to think I was getting really colse. At that point, I got out of the tub and had a few more contractions on the bed. I guess I was going through transition and didn't really even know it... other than the fact that I was about ready to give up and that is a typical sign of transition. BJ checked me and said that maybe with the next couple of contractions I could just try some pushing and see what that would do. So, I did.
Apparently, a couple of contractions was doing something and they started to get things set up. This, to me, was very encouraging. Through all the pain for over the past twelve hours, I had been telling myself this was just one day out of my entire life and I could do it. I have to say the first couple of pushes actually felt pretty good. I think it was because they felt productive and they distracted from the pain of the contractions. However once the baby started to move down and closer to our side of the world, it didn't feel "pretty good" anymore. I remember even saying to everyone, "this really is not comfortable!" haha. Well, minus the haha. After what was about only 40 minutes of pushing Ryden entered the world at 5:21pm. I never felt the ring of fire that people talk about, but I did feel amazing pressure of a baby coming out of me. When his head came out, I couldn't believe it was already happening and before I even knew it, the rest of him slid right out. I didn't even have to push his shoulders out and that surprised me. He even came out with his hand up by his face, which can sometimes make pushing a little longer and harder. I never made anything more then a few grunts... noise wise. I think Eric mentioned, after the fact, that I had said ouch a couple of times and that was it. The most amazing thing was as he was coming out, I was able to reach down and pull him right up onto me. I can't even explain how special that was. I also didn't even think to ask what sex the baby was... I was just so beside myself that he was even here to begin with. Thankfully, Eric had the peace of mind to check.
Our baby was out and boy, did he let us know. Even though the room was very dim, serene and filled with a lot of calm energy he came out whaling... haha. As he rested on me, all the pain that I had just gone through was so in the past. After a couple of minutes the cord stopped pulsing and Eric cut it. BJ finished everything else with me, and I got a shot of pitocin for the tiny bit of extra bleeding I was doing. For the next hour and a half to two hours, Ryden just laid on my chest and looked around and then nursed for probably almost an hour... and I was eating the best peanut butter and jelly sandwich ever and drinking some juice. From the very start, he was so alert and came out such a wonderful pink color. Things really could not have gone any better. Over the next hour, the ladies there got me all cleaned up and BJ did such an amazing newborn exam on Ryden while Eric did a little bit of videotaping and made all of the phone calls. Eric also held him skin to skin for a little while. Just after 8pm, we were now ready to venture home. We got packed up and I cant even put into words how surreal it was driving home with our brand new baby. Life would never be the same and I just couldn't shake the amazingness of what had just happened. After we got home, I settled into bed with Ryden and Eric ran and got In & Out. Probably the best burger I had ever eaten... in bed, none the less.
I will never be able to express the amount of gratitude I have for everyone that helped me through one of the most amazing moments in my life. Especially Eric and BJ. This was by far, the best moment of my life.
.... and as the new chapter in our life begins, the rest is history.....!
Eric did have a chance to do a little bit of filming before and after the birth, and this is the compilation that we came up with...... enjoy! btw... there is some very loud crying at one point, so be careful at how high you have the volume.
here are some pics of the newest addition..........
with much love,
michele, eric and ryden
