The Awakening of the Sleeping Giant Heart

Ok. So this is waaaaay overdue.
It's proof that I've been in the joyous / maddening throws of 4 children, and TWO under two. So, in case your math is not that good... our four fish feet have become twelve!

How fruitful we've been, and look, we're multiplying!!

This is the birth story of my precious son Lucas James Hertzog.
Born 2.16.14 at 2:14 am.

All stories start at the beginning, and it was certainly a surprise when those two little pink lines showed themselves once again right before summer, 2013. I knew something strange was happening since I had lost all of my pregnancy weight (save a few pounds) and then seemed to be rapidly gaining again. I shrugged off the puffiness and lethargy to spring allergies, but deep down, I knew.

Phil and I embraced, scared but happy. Ready (*update* SO not ready) to take this on again so soon. But, we swooned when we thought of our children being so close in age... "It will be hard for a few years" they said. "But they will always have each other",  they said.  (*update* haha, it will be FUN, they said!) I get all warm and fuzzy inside thinking about the affinity between my boys and my girls.  I didn't come from a large family, so these deep sibling relationships is something I missed growing up. I want our Sunday dinners to look like this.

As the pregnancy progressed, I got sicker. It soon became apparent it wasn't *just* the pregnancy I was contending with. Soon I had good friends like anxiety, depression, and the Queen of the Feast Hashimoto.... thyroid dsyfunction and autoimmune disorder.

As the winter progressed, (the worst winter of my life) I believe that God was preparing me. Being pregnant, with an infant son, a 5 year old and a 10 year old, still settling into our new home, me still adjusting to being at home with 3 children all in different stages of life...
At one point we were in the middle of a Nor'easter, I was hella pregnant - like past my due date pregnant - and the sole keys to the family vehicle were lost (or thrown away in the trash, Isaac?). Thankfully, my Mother lent us her van until we could get keys made.  I wont lie, I felt at times like I was losing my ever loving mind. It was a bad, bad, bad, winter. Bad, winter. Go home.

By February 2. (my expected due date) the sun rose and the sun set with no baby. Feb 3rd it was the same story. By Feb 14  I was an animal in a cage. I actually had written out 5 valentines, but tore the extra one up in my angst. (my midwife advised me to have a tall glass of red and breathe).

I did just  that. And then woke up for the last time to no baby. Drove myself to Sonic, bought a black and white milkshake and added this here fellow.

I followed that delicious shake with a pedicure and a brisk walk at the Willow Grove mall, in which I used the restroom by the food court, and saw the oh-so-gloriuos Bloody Show. Yes, I squealed when I saw it.  Madness shows itself in many ways.

To my surprise I began having contractions on the drive home, which was about 5PM, February 15th. They were faint, and not too painful. I had been having Braxton - Hicks contractions for weeks, so I didn't read too much into it, and tried not to get my hopes up.

At home, I made dinner for the kids, and tried to clean up. By 8pm, I was bouncing on the yoga ball just staring at the clock and waiting to put the kids to bed. The contractions hadn't gone away, and were getting stronger. In fact, they were coming a consistent 2 minutes apart for a while now, but I still thought them too bleak to take serious. My Husband asked if we want to call my Mother-in-Law (she was our person) and I reminded him how long we waited with Isaac. (There is a storm" he said. "It'll be fine" I said.)

At 8:15 all the kids were asleep, and I went upstairs to get in the bath. The contractions were coming on much stronger and more consistent, at a progression much more rapid then in my past births. By 8:30 I was listening to Drive All Night, rendition by Glen Hansard on repeat - a song I had enjoyed throughout the last few weeks of my pregnancy as I breathed through (this aint what my mama told me type) contractions. Sheesh... I thought it got easier each labor. This was starting to get INTENSE.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCojE2kJuGw

At 9:00 PM, my husband came upstairs to check on me, and at that particular moment I was on all four hands and knees in the tub breathing through a contraction. "Uhhhhhh" he says. "I don't care what you say. I am calling my Mother NOW!" He said.

He called his Mother, and I called the Birth Center, who advised me to make my way in. Ann the Midwife on call reminded me that many women who are "seasoned laborers" (is that what they are calling it these days?) never get to the famous 4-1-1 (4 minutes apart for 1 minute long for 1 hour) but the body uses really intense but short contractions to widen the birth canal quickly. "uhhhh, OK, we'll head in" I said meekly. "Believe me, this is good." Ann reassured.

It took an hour for my Mother-In-Law to arrive in the storm.

We left swiftly, me in the throes of labor.

On the drive there, I started feeling the intense desire to push. I kept this to myself, since I thought "the only thing worse then giving birth in this truck right now, is getting in an accident as my husband speeds in the ice and snow, and then giving birth". I think I ran song lyrics and foreign languages through my head, crossed my legs, and just tried to breath.

When we got to the birth center it was about 11:30PM. I remember walking through the door, and undressing as I walked. I still felt the strongest urge to push, and needed to get the party started. My midwives chuckled and escorted me back into the private birthing suite. They checked my cervix, and it was indeed 10 cms. They set me up for pushing, and unfortunately while I was pushing, nothing seemed to be happening. A baby wasn't moving down the canal, so to speak. The Midwives suggested I walk around a little or get in the bath. For the next 2 hours, this is what I did, all the while feeling like I had to push, and unfortunately the contractions at this point subsided, getting further apart.

The endorphins were kicking in strongly at this point, and I begun napping peacefully between contractions. Another telltale sign of an unmedicated labor... when the woman is not moaning and pacing, she might actually be smiling, laughing, or peacefully sleeping.

"I'm not sure what's happening" I asked quietly and a bit desperately. I KNOW what pushing feels like and this is it, but I do not know why the baby isn't coming. So the midwife laid me on the bed, and noticed that I was being kicked still at this point in a way that would indicate the baby was turned "sunny side up". She asked if I minded if she did an internal. I said no, and didn't expect the "internal" to be the entire length of her forearm up to her elbow. But, so it was, and while in there she explained the baby's head was positioned in such a way that prevented him from sliding through the canal. She asked if I minded if she tried turning him ever so slightly, which she believed would do the trick. At this point she had already made herself at home in my Vagina, so I was all game for anything that would bring this baby home. She turned the baby slightly, which I'll admit was THE WORST PAIN I have ever felt in my entire life. This coming from a woman who had previously birthed naturally, almost died on an operating table, and ran a few half marathons. It was literally gut wrenching and my belly from the outside looked like a scene from The Exorcist.

After the painful half turn of the baby, Ann looked very calmly at her assistant, and my husband and said "well, OK, everybody get your gloves on, this baby will be here in 10 seconds" and with that, without even a contraction, or a push, Lucas James Hertzog slid out into the world.

The time was 2:16am, and while Lucas had some bruising on his face from from being pressed up against my cervix in a precarious way, he was healthy and beautiful. They waited 10 minutes for the cord to stop pulsing and Dad once again severed his second son from his Mother. We rested and enjoyed him skin to skin, before having to deal with the weight and cleaning. Finally around 4:30 am, they weighed him to be an even 8 lbs. And 21" long.

Dad and son finally passed out from all the hard work, and Mom was just elated in the afterglow.

We awoke the next morning around 8am, and prepared to head home. They debriefed us on how to check for breaths, pulse, and watch for jaundice and scheduled our aftercare visit where a CNM would come and visit us in our home in the days to follow.

I am so grateful to The Birth Center and particularly Ann, for her expertise in delivering my son. I truly believe if I had been in a hospital, his position would have been cause for an emergency C-section. I cannot speak highly enough about the care and medical professionalism my family received in February 16, 2014, in the delivery of my son.