First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage, Then Comes...A Birth Story

It all started with feeling dizzy.  All of a sudden I was so dizzy every time I would stand up.  I would start to stand up from the couch and then I would fall back onto the couch. Or I would stand up and have to just stand there for a minute. I thought that I might be pregnant, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up because I really did want to become a mother. I just kept saying that it was just dizziness, it was nothing.  One day, I had gotten up from our couch and started walking to the kitchen and the dizziness hit HARD, but I was already up and walking.  I started falling and Aaron quickly caught me, and as we are both kind of sitting/ squatting on the kitchen floor Aaron jokingly said, “Yea, that was just dizziness.”  

So I took a test. 

Negative. 

But it was too soon for me to take the test anyways. 

Mid-March we took a trip to Missouri and on the trip I was so moody!  I was just a treat to be locked in the car with for a 24 hour drive.  Poor Aaron. I could tell that I was just NOT being myself, so I wanted to take another pregnancy test even though it was still too early. March 14, 2014 really late at night at a random Wal-Mart in Missouri we bought a pregnancy test. I couldn’t wait until we got a hotel so we went to the back of the store in the family bathroom and took the test.  It said to wait 3 minutes to read the test. I waited maybe twenty seconds, but I was too anxious.  I looked at the test, and the second line that was supposed to appear only if you were pregnant was starting to show up. I kept saying, “I see a line. Do you see a line? It’s faint, but I really think I see a line there.” Apparently I talk a LOT when I am nervous or excited. After a minute of going back and forth and trying to decide if it was really a line (I think it was so faint because it was still too early to take the test), the line became darker and there was no denying it- I was pregnant! We just laughed, and I cried, and we hugged each other in the little family bathroom of Wal-Mart.  I knew the moment I took the test that it was a boy. It was just a gut feeling, but it was right.

Pregnancy was pretty easy.  I had nausea for about two weeks, but I would just eat/ snack on something 24/7 and I was perfectly fine. It was pretty uncomfortable to bend over and tie my shoes, or put on socks, so Aaron was so sweet and kind and helped me with that. In every ultrasound Peter was measuring bigger than normal for how far along I was. He always measured a few days up to a week bigger than he should be. BUT…my stomach always measured three weeks behind for how far along I was. I attribute it to me being tall, so Peter had extra space to stretch out length-wise! I gained 21 pounds. Everything was easy breezy until 32 weeks…and I started contracting. I was having Braxton-Hicks contractions frequently.  My midwife became concerned because as she put it, Braxton-Hicks contractions are still contractions and they are preparing your body for labor, and I shouldn’t be having as many as I was, and as early as I was.  She told me to go to the hospital any time I had 5 an hour so I could be checked.  I told her that if I did that I would be going in daily, multiple times a day! Then the contractions changed from Braxton-Hicks contractions to real contractions…Braxton-Hicks don’t hurt.  Real contractions do. We went to the hospital at 32 weeks. I started dilating. They told me to take it easy, avoid stress, etc. For the next 5 weeks my body would alternate between Braxton-Hicks contractions and real contractions.  I would contract every 5 minutes for hours and hours at a time…for 5 WEEKS! There were so many false alarms!

Then  Wednesday November 5, 2014 I was at work. I was just finishing up my 10 hour nursing shift caring for a sweet baby. I had an hour left of work, and the contractions started again.  When I would have Braxton-Hicks contractions it would just be my stomach tightening and there was no pain at all.  This was not Braxton-Hicks. When I would have the other preterm labor the contractions would come on suddenly and be very powerful and painful. These were not those types of contractions either. They were different. Somewhere in the middle. They were every five minutes.

That night at work was supposed to be my last night working before the baby came.  I drove home and slept for a couple hours (maybe 2-3). I always hate sleeping all day after I work at night. I wanted to get back onto my daytime schedule.  It was Aaron’s day off and we wanted to start getting the nursery ready.  We thought we still had 3 weeks to go!  We were pulling up base boards and crown molding. Then we went shopping for freezer meal ingredients…I was in nesting mode, can you tell?? Then after I went to sleep that night, I had contractions that kept waking me up.  So that is now my second night with hardly any sleep.

Thursday when we woke up Aaron really, really wanted to go to the cattle auction and get a bottle calf.  So we did. I told him that whatever cow he bought was his responsibility and his project.  Just a week before we bought a sick little calf and we tried so hard to save her, but she died anyways, and it was really hard on me emotionally, so I didn’t want to do it again.  At the auction the contractions were continuing and I was timing them.  Aaron bought two little calves.  

After the auction I went to an appointment with my midwife. She said I was at 2 centimeters and 80%.  The last time I was checked I was at 1.5 cm, so progress had been made with all of the contractions. She told me I needed to start practicing seriously my hypnobabies relaxation techniques because this might be the real thing. She said that with my body it was hard to tell if the baby was going to come early, or if the contractions would just subside like they always did.  She gave me her cell number just in case. 

I had been practicing hypnobabies since about 28 weeks.  But I was kind of sporadic.  I would do well for a few days, and then I would be too busy. I was working full-time and trying to juggle all of my responsibilities with work, church, family….so I dropped the ball on hypnobabies preparation.

Thursday night I started to get uncomfortable with the contractions.  I was practicing my finger drop technique from hypnobabies.  It seemed to work well. I kept asking Aaron between contractions, “Do you think this is really it? Or do you think it will just stop like all of the other times?”  He just kept saying, “I don’t know. I guess we will see.”  I was so excited, I just wanted him to say that it was really happening, but we had so many contractions for 5 weeks that we were scared to get our hopes up and really believe he was coming. 

I wanted to get in the bath to see if that helped my contractions.  It did.  In fact, it helped so much that I felt so great that I thought I could handle it, so I got out.  After about 5 minutes of being out of the tub I realized that I needed to go back in the tub for pain control.   It was at this point that we realized that this labor was probably the real deal. 

It was then that we decided to go to the hospital. It was about 12:30-1am on Friday. We hadn’t packed our hospital bags yet, so we are running through the house and gathering items that the hypnobabies list has that we might want.  We printed off copies of our birth plan, we packed changes of clothes, the camera, the car seat…everything!  We then got in our little, red 1990 Geo Prizm and headed off to the hospital! It was a freezing night, and the roads were icy.  

I was getting soooo frustrated with Aaron because he was driving slowly.  

He still says he wasn’t driving slowly, but he was driving at a speed appropriate for the conditions.  And he is probably right…

but I was in so much pain, I just wanted to get there as soon as possible.  The drive to the hospital is usually one hour in the daylight and in good weather, so it seemed like an eternity at night in the bad weather. At one point several deer ran across the road just in front of us, and it kept us going slow and safe…but I was NOT happy about that! Just ask Aaron who had to put up with me complaining and freaking out the whole way.  Let’s just say I am NOT a pleasant laboring woman.

We made it to the hospital and started to check in about 3am on November 7th.  The contractions were about every 3-4 minutes.  While we were checking in, a contraction would hit, and I would say, “Aaron” and he would step closer and stop signing in, and I would just hug/ hold onto him, and he would hold me and help me through it.  I don’t know exactly how he helped me through it at this point, but I needed him, and something about him being there was what I needed to keep going.  Checking in was taking a few minutes, and the nurse could see that I was pretty uncomfortable, so he said that he was going to take me right then to labor and delivery.  I was terrified to be leaving Aaron, but the nurse assured me he would come in just a couple of minutes. 

When I got to L&D I was the ONLY patient on the unit.  The nurse gave me a gown to wear and checked to see how much I had progressed first thing. I was at 3.5 with a “bulging bag of waters.”  Aaron came in just a few minutes later.  I told him how we had progressed, but we didn’t know what that would mean. When the nurse came back in I asked her when we would find out if we were going to be admitted or if we were going to be sent home.  She said, “Oh you are definitely being admitted with having a bulging water bag.  You will leave here with a baby.”  That was when it hit me for the first time that THIS was IT!  The moment we had been waiting for was here! 

I told the nurse that I had planned on going all natural, with no epidural or pain medications, but that the pain was so intense, I thought that I might want an epidural, but I wasn’t sure yet.  She started an IV on me with fluids just in case I did decide I wanted an epidural, because you have to have a liter or two of fluids before they will start an epidural.  They had me watch a video on epidurals that told me all of the risks, etc. They put the monitor on my belly to see how Peter was doing, and it was music to my ears to hear his little heart beating so strongly and evenly.  They had a birthing ball that I tried sitting on, but that was kind of uncomfortable. My favorite position was kneeling on the bed with my arms and head resting on the ball and rocking forward and backward. During contractions Aaron would push on my lower back for counter pressure. 

Tracy, the midwife came in around 4 or so.  She encouraged me to go walking in the halls.  They unhooked the monitor, but kept the IV going, and Aaron and I went out for our hall-walking.  I could walk just fine until a contraction hit, and when it did, I would just stop walking and put my arms around Aaron and he would hold me up.  At one point some people passed by us and asked if I was ok because we were just standing there. I couldn’t talk to anyone, but Aaron answered that I was fine, just taking a break. We walked to the front desk.  You see, Aaron and I don’t have cell phones, so we needed the internet password to email/ message our families that I was in labor. When we got to the front desk the lady that had checked us in asked if I was just dehydrated and getting fluids for that since I was walking with my IV pole. I told her no, but I was actually in labor.  I think that surprised her! 

I remember asking if Aaron had any scriptures memorized on our walk. Of course he did (thank you seminary!!)!  I asked him to recite them to me during a contraction.  The scripture that I asked him to repeat over and over and over was 1 Nephi 3:7.  “And it came to pass that I Nephi said unto my father, I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded. For I know that the Lord giveth no commandment unto the children of men save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.” This scripture gave me comfort because I knew that God wanted me to have children, so he was going to help me get through it. 

After we got back to our room the pain was getting to be too much to bear, and I was exhausted because this was now my third night without sleep. I had barely slept the night before since the contractions kept waking me up, and I had worked the night before that! At about 5 or 6 I asked for a dose of Stadol. It’s a medication that they give in your IV and it takes the edge off of the pain.  It helped me to sleep for about an hour. I am pretty sure that little bit of sleep was what saved me. That sleep gave me the strength and the recharge I needed to keep going.  Aaron got some much needed sleep during that time too. When the medicine started wearing off I woke up hurting again, and I called over to Aaron. I needed him to hold my hand during the contractions. 

Tracy, the midwife came back in. I told her I wanted an epidural. She tried to talk me out of it, but I wanted it and felt like I needed it at this point. I was about 6 or 7 cm.  She called the nurse anesthetist. He said that he had 3 surgeries to do, and he was in the middle of doing one, but that he would do it before his second surgery.  Awhile later Tracy came back in and said that the nurse anesthetist was now in his second surgery, and he would come later around 12 or 1pm to give me the epidural. I was so upset and irritated that he didn’t come when he said he would come, that I wanted to spite him and go through with having no epidural- because I didn’t want him to give it to me! (FYI, Peter was born at 11:08, so the nurse anesthetist would not have made it anyways! )

It was at this point that I fully committed to going naturally.  Tracy checked me right then, and I was at an 8.  I was at a 7 about 30 minutes before. I was progressing quickly, so that helped me to feel confident in going naturally too. Tracy kept telling me that I was doing such a good job, that it was not going to get any harder, and that I was doing it! I kept saying that I couldn’t do this, and she would remind me that I WAS doing it.  Her promising me that it wasn’t going to get any worse was the reassurance I needed that if I had done it this long that I could keep doing it. 

In the moment that I decided to go naturally, I felt better able to cope with the pain.  It seemed like it stopped hurting as bad. Granted, it still hurt a TON, more than anything else in my life, but it was a little more bearable. With each contraction I would do a low moaning sound, and for whatever reason that helped to cope with the pain too.  It’s funny because one fear I had about child birth was being loud in any way, but this low moaning sound was something that my body just kind of did on its own as a coping mechanism, and it worked! One thing I learned in hypnobabies is that women’s bodies are MADE FOR GIVING BIRTH! God designed us perfectly and we need to just give in to what our body naturally wants to do, and allow it to do it. 

At one point I needed to go to the bathroom and Aaron was helping me walk, and then a contraction hit and boom- my knees buckled, and I collapsed from the pain-but Aaron didn’t let me fall. He just held me.  I have never had pain so intense that it literally just knocks you down.

 I was so thirsty during labor, it was like a HUGE work out! Along with feeling thirsty though, I also had the feeling that I needed to puke, so I was so scared to drink my ice water. I would take a sip every little while though to wet my super dry mouth. Thankfully I never puked! 

I had always been told that when it is time to push, you will feel it. I had been checked a few minutes before and I was at a 9.  But suddenly during a contraction, I could tell it was time, there was an undeniable urge to push, and it’s like I couldn't stop my body from pushing, it just did it. Then one of the nurses commented about how I was acting like I was pushing. I said I was pushing. After the third contraction of me pushing, they checked me and said that I was at 10cm, so I could push (but I already knew that).  This whole time there were two things that had not yet happened: my water hadn't broken and the baby had not started to descend at all!  But, as I pushed, the water broke, and Peter finally started to descend.

Since I was still the ONLY person on the whole unit, we had ALL of the employees on the unit in our delivery room, including the Director for the unit!  It was a busy little room!

I kneeled on the bed, holding Aaron’s hand at the top of the bed and pushed.  That was hard! When he started crowning, that was when the pain was the most intense and the only way to describe it is like a fire and burning.  Peter’s heart rate kept dropping to the 80’s, and then his heart rate would not be picked up by the monitor at all as he started to descend. I could tell something was going wrong, but I couldn't tell what.  I didn't know at this time that his heart rate was dropping, but knew something was wrong because a nurse was using a Doppler on my belly while I was pushing.  Everyone did really well at being calm, and I just kept pushing.  

When his head started to come out, they asked Aaron if he wanted to see it.  He said no. Thank goodness, because if he would have wanted to see it, that means he would have had to let go of my hand, and honestly, I don’t think I would have let him.  

One of the nurses kept moving my hips from side to side during the contractions, and that helped Peter to descend, and it helped me cope with the pain too. After about 10 minutes with him still not coming out, Tracy suggested that I lay on my left side. Hmmm.. How in the world could I move??  It felt like I had a bowling ball between my legs, and I couldn’t move. My movements were extremely awkward. I said that I would move if they would help me.  I try to start laying on my side and a contraction hits.  I can’t resist the urge to push.  I am pushing/ flopping onto my side, when I felt Peter come out. He came out purple, crying, squirmy, little, and perfect.

He had the cord wrapped ALL around him.  It was twice around his neck, and then once around his body.  His arms were crossed in an “X” on his chest, and the cord had his arms tied down. So THAT was why his heart rate kept dropping was because that cord was EVERYWHERE!  

They handed him right to me and I just held him on my chest/ stomach.  It was INSTANT love.  It’s hard to describe the feeling of holding your baby in your arms for the first time. I was just filled with love and awe, and I just kept saying, “My baby. My baby.” I was teary-eyed, but no tears fell. I was so surprised that he had come out of me. I know I had almost 9 months to prepare for his arrival, but I guess it never really clicked or hit home that I was having a real, living, breathing, beautiful baby that was mine- or at least mine on loan from Heavenly Father. They waited until the cord stopped pulsating to cut it. That was something I thought I was going to want to do if Aaron didn’t want to do it, but I was so wrapped up in Peter that I could care less about the cord.  Everyone’s hands were in our faces. I just remember everyone touching him and drying him off, but I just wanted to hold him all by myself without all of the people.



 After a few minutes I asked Aaron if he wanted to hold him, and of course the answer was yes. Aaron held him while the midwife gave me stitches.  I remember Aaron holding him walking at the back of the room behind the midwife, and me saying to the midwife and the nurse, “Isn’t that the most beautiful sight you have ever seen?”  There was something so beautiful to me about seeing my husband hold our little baby boy.  It was seriously the most beautiful sight in the world.

Our first hour was spent taking turns holding him, and I fed him for a few minutes.  It was pure JOY In that hospital room.

Our little Peter Kent King was born November 7, 2014 at 11:08am.  He weighed 6lbs 3 oz, and was 19 inches long, with a 13.5 inch head circumference. He was a little on the small side, but he was 3 weeks early, so it was to be expected. Even though he was early, he had no problems that can be common in early babies like breathing or eating. He was ready to come out and meet us!