Our Journey to Heaven Continued: Xavier's birth story

It was five weeks ago today on May 31st at 12 AM when I felt the first real contraction and I knew it was baby time. I was due to go in to the hospital for a stress test that day and then a midwife check-up with a membrane sweep to try and get things started. I was only a week overdue but so ready to have the baby. It is so hard to wait for a baby, not knowing when he's going to show up. I have decided that I really don't like due dates. Even though I know they are approximate, it is still so hard waiting and being past your "due date" is no fun at all. This was my longest pregnancy to date. Anyhow, back to the labor story. So I had gone to bed at 10PM and gotten in a good solid two hours of sleep before being awakened by the first birthing pains. I tried to get some rest in between contractions over the next few hours but didn't get more than 15 minutes at a time between contractions. I would get out of bed off and on and wander around the house, which would increase the intensity and spacing of the contractions. However, I always ended back up in bed because I was just so tired and all I wanted to do was sleep. I had been waiting and waiting to go into labor for the past couple weeks and when it finally arrived, all I wanted was for the pain to stop so I could go back to sleep. I remember thinking to myself "I don't want to do this now. Can I just go back to sleep? I'm not ready to "do" labor. I need more time to prepare." I finally woke up Gabe around 2:30 for moral support. I don't think he had been getting much sleep anyway with me in and out of bed. After another hour or so we decided to get our room ready and my Mom woke up and helped. We re-arranged the furniture in my room (which involved moving our huge dresser and mirror into the guest room, pushing the bed against the wall, and moving the nightstands), put away the nice bedding, spread out shower curtains on the bed, re-made it twice, and put out the necessary birthing supplies. I wandered around the house again as the contractions got more intense. Gabe called the midwives at 5AM and they arrived between 5:30 and 6. It's funny because with the past few births and this birth I never knew when I should actually call the midwives. They tell you to call them when you are at 5-1-1. Contractions five minutes apart, for an hour, lasting a minute. Well, that isn't what it's like when I'm mid-labor. I usually get spurts of contractions, three in a row. A short one, a long one and another short one. But the thought of being in hot water in the birthing pool sounded fantastic so I had Gabe give the midwives a call. Shortly after they arrived, they did a cervical check and I was 7-8 cms dilated. That's when it hit me, that this was finally it! (That and when I had thrown up an hour before). The pool finally got set up and the hot water felt so great on my back. The midwife checked me again after I got in the tub and I was 8-9 cms dilated. I labored on my knees leaning onto the side of the pool and rocked forward and backward in between contractions. During contractions I was able to gaze up at the crucifix and the icon of St. Joseph and the child Jesus above our bed and it really helped me to stay grounded and focused. The children had been up for awhile at this point. Elias had been up off and on throughout the night because he heard my moans and said he didn't like it. He and Connor both got up around 5 when Gabe called the midwives. The rest of them woke up around six from all the hub-bub around the house. They peeked in to say good-morning and to see what was going on before my Mom whisked them away for breakfast. We had originally talked about calling them to come in right before I was about to push. I get pretty vocal when I'm pushing though and was worried that might scare them. My sister slipped into the room with the camera just as I went in to transition and there was really no time to call them. I had Gabe hold my hands so I could pull on him and squeeze his hands when the contractions got really intense. I got up to use the restroom and then relaxed back in the pool in a sitting position through one contraction. I was so ready to be done with labor and just be holding my baby. The midwives were sitting quietly on the bed waiting for me to start pushing. (FYI, I am a "get your hands off me, stop touching me, stop breathing on me kind of woman when I'm in labor. I don't like to be touched when I'm in pain hence the midwives sitting around waiting for something to happen) I looked up at them and Gabe and said "should I get back up on my knees so we can get this over with?" As soon as I did that the baby dropped lower and I started pushing and my water broke. The midwives all jumped up and got gloved and ready to catch him. I did two big pushes to get his head out. After two more pushes, he was born and it was 7:40AM on May 31st! I sat back in the water and the midwife plopped him onto my chest. They told me that one of his hands was up next to his head when he came out. I had been wondering why his head didn't pop out as easily as I thought it would. It was so wonderful to finally have my baby in my arms. I just kept kissing his sweet little cheeks and saying hello. Gabe ran out to get the children and they all came in to meet their little brother. Juliette was so excited. When Xavier let out a cry she rushed over with her hands out and said "I think he wants me." It was so cute. Elias was the brave one and cut the cord. After birthing the placenta I got out of the pool, dried off, and onto my bed. Xavier immediately latched on and started nursing. The children all climbed up to get a better peek at their little brother. My sister Mary was holding him before he got weighed and he did the biggest first poop I've ever seen a newborn do. It was cuh-ray-zeee! So of course there was a little discrepancy with his birth weight. First of all the scale was off so the midwives estimated 9lbs, 13 ounces. The next day when they came to check up on us they weighed him with a different scale and he was 9lbs, 8 ounces. The third day we took him to the doctor and he weighed 10lbs even. He must have weighed at least 10lbs at birth with the poop and all. And usually babies lose weight the first few days after birth and if he was 10lbs even on day three, he had to have been over 10lbs at birth, don't ya think? I guess we'll never know. Anyway, yes I did birth a BIG boy! My babies get bigger successively. I'm scared to think how much the next one will weigh. Lol.

So there you have it. The birth story for little Xavier. Below are some pictures from his birthday.