North's Birth Story

The day we had North.
Betty, our Doula, Dr. Zaidan, and our Nurse.


Me after labor. I think I was in shock - and this captures how I felt pretty well.

This is the sacred birth story of our son, North.

My previous births were good. But I think Violet's could have been better if I had been more educated. Understanding that things can go wrong, and that serious medical intervention is sometimes necessary, I was open to whatever had to happen, but I wanted to prepare for the best-case scenario for me. A natural childbirth.

I practiced a little bit stepping out into the snow in bare feet. Tyler also helped me through a Bradley relaxation exercise once. But the real practice came at 38 weeks when I started listening to my hypnobirthing cd every other night, or every night. I gained 10 lb. more than the girls, and was in constant pain from my skin stretching. The CD's offered some relief, and gave me a mental break.

My doctor appointments continued without incident. There was a small hiccup at 36/37 weeks when the doctor thought he was breech because he was crammed in there so tightly. But he was head down, and everything was fine.

At 38 weeks I was dialated to a 2! No pain, some contractions (depending on my level of activity). Every time I had a contraction, even though they weren't painful, I would visualize myself opening up and relaxing. This was really easy.

The next doctor appointment, no change. I was disappointed, I'm not going to lie. But 2 cm is better than nothing. With the girls I never dialated before so I figured I would take what I would get.

My next doctor appointment was June 24. One day away from my due date and our anniversary. I was ready, although fearful of actually having the baby. Over the past week we had taken 4.5 mile walks, I had taken black and blue kohosh sparingly, experimented with evening primrose oil. I didn't get as far as castor oil, but was willing to try it if I got any more miserable. (I did with Ava ... and knew the effects) I felt some pinching, but that was all. No regular contractions.

As I went to the doctor I was really nervous. I always get overly emotional and stressed out on doctor days. Not to mention the doctor on call over the weekend (it was a Thursday), was the one that I would prefer not to have. She's the one who said she was busy doing c-sections all night at one of my appointments. So the doctor I liked checked me, and he said I was a 4, and could stretch me to a 5!!!! WOW! I was excited because other than the pinching, I wasn't having painful contractions at all. He also said my bag of waters was bulging.

Tyler and the doctor were talking, and I said casually that Tyler was ready to have the baby that night. The doctor said, "Why not?" and called the hospital with our approval. They were busy (it was a full moon), so we agreed to come in that evening at 8 p.m. We called my mom and told her to go pick up my suitcase, arranged for the girls to be picked up, and headed out for another walk and to eat some spicy food. We also called the doula and told her to come at 8:30 p.m. We had a really nice walk in downtown Rochester.

The doctor came in to break my water at 9:30 p.m. Prior to, I was having small contractions about 5 min apart. Once again, not painful, but I was surprised I was having contractions regularly. While the doctor broke my water Betty, our doula, distracted me with pictures of her two beautiful daughters. I was nervous, so this was a good distraction. I was hooked up to external monitors, but I was able to get a hep lock - so no IV! The external monitors weren't too annoying after my water was broken because my skin wasn't hurting and itching so badly from being stretched by the baby.

The rest of the story is pretty short. I used the restroom, then got on the birthing ball. Tyler massaged my back. I began with the hypnobirthing cd's, which helped, and after about 30 minutes I decided to stand up and use gravity to my advantage. Tyler held my arms and I kept listening to the cd. The contractions really started to pick up, and I remember Tyler and Betty talking to each other surprised that I wasn't complaining about pain. The nurse kept reinforcing if I felt like I had to push I had to get in bed. I was feeling like I had to push, but waited as long as possible before saying anything. At 10:50 I was checked again and was a 7, 80% effaced - this was my goal, and I knew transition was close. At 11:10 I was an 8, with just a little effacement left.

In a matter of minutes I felt like there was nothing stopping me from pushing. By 11:33 p.m. I was a 10 and ready to push. I got into bed, and Betty was coaching me through breathing and massaged my feet. Tyler got into the bed with me and held me from behind. It was very comforting. The rest is pretty much a blur, but the hardest part was breathing through contractions where I felt like I had to push. I had to roll from side to side a few times when North wasn't tolerating certain positions well.

Three pushes and he was out at 11:39 p.m. I had to push out his head, his shoulders, and his butt. Tyler said, "He just kept coming!" Then I got to hold him right away, all covered with amniotic fluid and everything. It smelled weird. My belly was hurting very badly. Tyler cut the cord and then they gave me pitocin to help shrink my uterus. This KILLED and I told them I didn't want it. The nurse at the beginning told me if I didn't want treatment of any kind I have the right to refuse it. So I told her no, and she unhooked it. They never asked if I wanted it, they just gave it to me, so this was probably the worst part.

Over the next 24 hours I was in a significant amount of pain. I am not sure if it was from after pains or gas bubbles, but it was terrible.

Overall the birth was awesome. I didn't even bring in my birth plan, but Tyler and I had both discussed it so we knew what we wanted. In the books I'd read it said to visualize the kind of birth I wanted to have. For some reason the only thing I could think of was hard and fast. That's exactly what my birth was. Definitely fast, and sort of hard.

North James

Our big cutie North James was born on June 24, 2010 at 11:39 pm. He weighed 9lb. 7oz. and was 21.6 inches long.

There's a birth story coming soon, so stay tuned.

From the Wiebe's. They made me cry because they couldn't be there.

Tomorrow: Due Date and Anniversary

This is what is on the agenda for tomorrow. I definitely know that we will have our sixth wedding anniversary. Don't ask if we're having a baby or how I am feeling. You don't ask a 9 month pregnant person that question without them getting a very strange look on their face. Of course I am huge and uncomfortable!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Violet!

We had a small birthday party for Violet today to celebrate the third anniversary of her coming into our family. She had five friends over and her Grandma and aunt and uncles. She has been talking about her pink birthday for at least six months, so we had to do something special!

Here are Audrey and Violet dancing.


Her very own princess cake. (I have better pictures but they are stuck in the camera's memory, not on my card)


More bubble dancing, with my almost 39 week pregnant self.

Family presents! She's also wearing her new Princess Tiana dress.

From Grandma Mclean.


Her card from Great Grandma Henrichsen.

And new Tinkerbell blanket from Grandma Paxton.


We love you so much Violet. You make each day better with your passion and sweetness. We are so excited to see you learn and grow this next year as you become a big sister. We know you're going to be great at it!

Toledo Zoo Review

Last Saturday we braved the heat and humidity and went to the Toledo Zoo. It was a nice change of pace from the Detroit Zoo, and they had a lot of fun activities for kids. The funniest moment was the goat that kept eating Violet's shirt. Well, really it tried to eat anything you put in front of it. But it was the cutest thing ever. Violet really likes animals.

Our Ava.



We also enjoyed different varieties of animals and the smaller paths that weaved throughout the zoo.

Look at the booty on this hippo!!


And the girls finally got to see elephants, which they were really excited about. They took out the elephants in Detroit because of the weather, the elephants age and space and sent them to CA.

Beautiful hydrangeas!

How we get the groceries from the car inside these days. Genius at work :)
Mom's getting better at french braiding.



Playing at the park.

Playgroup!

Ava has been in a playgroup for several months. Now that school is out it is on hiatus, so I had to capture the girls. She is really blessed to have so many little girls her age in her church Sunbeam class. There are even more, but due to schedules and the fact watching so many kids would be too much, we kept the group to five (plus Violet when we were hosting).

Here are the girls, going clockwise from Ava: Violet, Ashlynn, Esther, Estee and Anna.

Happy Birthday Tyler!

Tyler had a birthday! I made him breakfast and then his family took us out to dinner. He wanted coffee cake for his dessert, but not cream cheese or raspberry, cinnamon sugar. Sorry babe. Maybe next year.





The girls made slides out of chairs and then took some pictures.

Pregnancy Photos.

I have never had really nice pregnancy photos taken. So here we are, in all our glory. Thanks Am for taking out picture! There were so many to choose from but here are my favorites. 34 weeks - almost 3 weeks ago.