Cary’s Birth Story {Part 2}

I’m picking up the birth story of our little girl today. You can read Part 1 here.

Knowing what we know now, what started around 36 weeks was prodromal labor. I had never heard of it before, but I can say it’s one of the most trying times of my entire life. Prodromal labor tested and stretched me spiritually in ways I had not been stretched in a long, long time. You can read more of my thoughts on prodromal labor here.

While the drama of wondering if our third baby was going to make an early appearance forcing us into a hospital birth, we were also juggling job interviews for my husband. While contractions monopolized my mind, I was praying with my husband for God’s wisdom for our family regarding jobs and callings in this season of life.

I will be completely honest. We were overwhelmed. God’s timing is always perfect, but it often felt like too much. We weren’t looking for a job, but this one literally fell into our laps. It fell into our laps about the time my contractions started and life just got busy with final preparations for our newest edition. It was overwhelming enough for us to be adding another baby with a five and two year old already entrusted to our care. Now we were going to be adding a baby and making a major life change for Daddy who had been working from home since 2014.

Eventually, Mark was offered the job and we decided we would take it, transitioning him back into corporate America so I could focus on being a stay at home mom again in this season of life. We knew this was God’s perfect plan and we experienced a lot of peace during this time, but now we were not only playing the game of waiting on baby but also when is Daddy going back to work? In addition, we needed to purchase a second car now because Mark’s work would take him too far each day for us to continue being a one car family.

So, on Tuesday I was put on bed rest and on Wednesday Mark needed to make a three hour trip one way to pick up the car he found that fit our needs and our budget. God truly provided each and every step of the way, but now we had to pray this baby stayed in long enough for Daddy to get there and back with his new car before this little one came into the world. Remember, I’m having contractions every 4-6 minutes for 11 days straight at this point.

There was so much testing of faith going on, and knowing what I know now this was only the start of a long line of faith testing that was to be done before we met our baby girl whom we still thought was a little boy at this point.

That night contractions got stronger and stronger. We called my mother-in-love to come over after several contractions took my breath away. We needed her to come stay with the boys so we could go to the hospital, but by the time she arrived the contractions had eased up and we all went to bed. She stayed though, sleeping on the couch just in case.

On Wednesday, I woke up a little nervous since Mark would be leaving that afternoon to get his car, but I continued to pray for God’s peace and to my amazement, the contractions stopped completely. This was my first bout of relief in 12 days! I had zero contractions on this day and I thought it was the kindness of God to allow Mark and I peaceful minds while he worked out his car situation.

I stayed on bed rest until Sunday just to be safe which brought me to “full term,” and we praised Jesus for helping us make it to 37 weeks! We could now give birth at home!

I want to interject here and say that we planned a home birth this time simply because the nearest hospital with labor and delivery was 45 minutes away (45 minutes if you catch all the lights just right!). My oldest was born a mere 4 hours after active labor began and my second was born just 2 hours after active labor began.

The thought of the majority of my active labor taking place in a car on a road with lots of starts and stops and no guarantee that there wouldn’t be a bridge closure just didn’t sound like a good and safe plan to us.

So we made it to 37 weeks and now the hospital wasn’t on our radar.

Now that I was free to go whenever baby decided to come, I stayed busy walking, working in my yard, and freezer cooking. I was so glad my mom was here, and we managed to get a lot done while we waited. We cut down trees (seriously!), thinned overgrown bushes, and weeded so many flower beds. I even push mowed the yard and deep cleaned the house the very next day. The nesting bug was in full swing and I just about wore my husband and mom out with the work. But we were all thankful for the diversion.

Contractions would start and stop, but never got regular again. They were sporadic and all over the board in power and strength. They would start, get strong, and then completely fizzle out just when I would begin to think, “This is it…this is finally … not it.” Sigh …

On Thursday, we had our weekly midwife appointment (I was 37 weeks 5 days at this point). We were all surprised that I wasn’t holding a baby yet, but everyone was still in pretty good spirits. I was growing a little weary of start and stop labor, but I felt strong and mentally I was still doing pretty well.

We found out during this appointment that our little one was head down, but not in a very good position. The midwife could feel the baby’s hand up by her (still thinking HIS of course) face and her body was shifted in such an odd way that she finally put in our chart “baby in a weird position.” We were given the instructions to not only continue with our walking but to try some various exercises to encourage better baby positioning. This website really helped a lot.

By this point, I was fine mentally, still able to convince myself that the longer baby stayed in the better, but I was getting stir crazy. Everyday was a battle to stay joyful and even patient. It had been two weeks since contractions started, and now I had no idea what was going on. It appeared as though we had changed my mom’s flight for nothing …

So … we stayed busy … and continued to enjoy as much family time as we could since we knew that Daddy would be starting work again soon after our third baby did decide to come. Plus we might as well enjoy Nonnie while she was here!

I made cinnamon rolls and the boys delivered them to friends.

I folded and organized baby clothes … again.

We ate a whole lot of watermelon, and continued walking and gardening.

But contractions came and went, never getting regular and not getting any stronger when they did come. I tried a few natural labor inducers, but to no avail. Instead they seemed pointless altogether until one day I woke up from a nap and couldn’t feel my baby move.

To continue reading Cary’s birth story click here for Part 3.

In the meantime, check out the birth stories of my other two kiddos:

• Cary’s Birth Story {Part 1}
• Samuel’s Birth Story {Part 1}
• Samuel’s Birth Story {Part 2}
• Timothy’s Home Birth Story
• All Pregnancy & Childbirth Posts from the Archives Here

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